“The police have all the results of the rum balls, and they’re coming over here in about an hour. Can you be here?” he asked.
“Does Julia know you’re calling me?” I asked.
“Yes, she’s calling LB and asking him to come over as well,” he said.
“Did the police ask for LB to be there?” I asked.
“I don’t think so,” Frank said. “The Queen is screaming for me. Can you come?” he asked.
“Yes, I’ll be there,” I said, and then he hung up. Ah, the Dante school of phone etiquette.
Driving to Julia’s, all I could think about was everything seemed to hinge on two weeks. Julia met LB two weeks ago. Larry married Donna Twilight, aka Cherie Sassone, two weeks ago. Larry and Julia found out about their inheritance two weeks ago, the day after their father died. The Houma branch where Larry worked said he came in about two weeks ago to name his beneficiary, and it was Julia, not his new wife.
Hanky and Taylor’s unmarked car was parked in the front, and they were already inside. I pulled into the driveway and parked. I got out of my BMW and walked up the side of the guesthouse facing Janice and Ned’s house. One, two, three windows back from the front, I noticed a solitary bush with all the leaves fallen off and on the ground. All that was left were long, slender branches the size of a fat toothpick in diameter. Many of the smaller branches had been recently cut. There were dried leaves on the mound at the base of the plant.
I entered the guesthouse through the back door and found Detectives Hanky and Taylor in the double parlor with Julia and Frank. They waved me in and Detective Taylor began with what forensics found on the rum ball boxes, or rather what they didn’t find.
“The rum balls themselves did not contain poison,” Detective Taylor said. “There were, however, other added ingredients in the unnumbered box to suggest that foul play was intended, but not murder.”
Julia and I looked at each other.
“What do you mean, foul play intended but not murder?” Julia asked.
Detective Taylor was very matter-of-fact when he said, “In the unmarked, unnumbered box left in your mailbox, there was saltpeter in the rum balls. Inconvenient to your male guests but not lethal.”
“Saltpeter?” I said. “I’m betting on Bicky or Sheila.”
Detective Hanky continued, “Sheila. Her prints were on that box. She’s a school teacher so her prints are in the system.”
“As far as the other marked boxes, there was a high percentage of laxatives in two boxes, and since that might be a secret ingredient in the recipe, we had to let those go,” Taylor said. “Since we don’t know which two Larry took to the French Quarter, by process of elimination we feel that it was two of the numbered boxes unaccounted for.”
Hanky added, “But in the two boxes your brother ate from here, forensics identified oleander twigs as being used to spear the food, like a toothpick. There were also crushed oleander leaves found in one box the rum balls appeared to be rolled in. It was a numbered box, but we think the leaves were added, like the twig toothpicks, after they were delivered here. According to the president of your cooking club, one of the boxes with the toothpicks was hers, and she claims not to have put anything in the box except rum balls. She also said she personally checked all the boxes that were delivered here and nothing other than a dozen rum balls were in each box, no twigs, no leaves. They were delivered here by the ninety-year-old president’s grandson on his bike. We questioned her and we don’t believe she added oleander leaves or twigs. No motive.”
“Oleander?” Julia asked. “Oleander is poisonous.”
“Right. It seems whoever put oleander twigs in the boxes or rolled the rum balls in the crushed leaves knew that,” Hanky said, looking at Julia. “Forensics concluded your brother ate a lot of rum balls with oleander from the results of his stomach contents.”
“You need to talk to my brother’s wife. She was the one spearing them with the twigs. I had no idea it was oleander she was using,” Julia said.
“Larry even asked Julia if she put the twigs in the box he was eating from,” I said. “We were standing right there. I saw him eat the twig with the rum ball. Julia told him that it wasn’t her box of rum balls he was eating from with twigs.”
“If any of us had known it was oleander, we would have stopped him. We know its poisonous. Heck, you can poison yourself just by handling it or burning the leaves,” Julia said.
Hanky, Taylor, Julia, and I looked back and forth at each other. It dawned on all of us at the same time that Donna Twilight had been touching the twigs and feeding Larry. If she was involved with giving Larry the oleander, she might not have known handling it could poison her.
“I saw Donna go fetch the twigs from the box Larry polished off to use them in the next box he started eating,” I said. “They were sitting in the dining room at the table. Jiff and I walked past the sideboard checking out the desserts and cheeses. Jiff and I watched Larry practically force feed Donna a rum ball, but then I saw her spit it out into a napkin when he wasn’t looking. When the carolers started singing, we went outside to ask them to leave early since we were about to sit down for dinner.”
“Ms. Richard, we have to ask. Did you cut any oleander and put it in those boxes of rum balls your brother consumed or ask any of your staff to cut oleander for you?” Detective Taylor asked.
“Me? Look, my brother and I had our differences, but no, I didn’t want to see him dead. I didn’t ask Frank or anyone to cut oleander or anything outside. I had flowers for my party delivered,” Julia said. She looked thoughtful like she remembered something. She added, “As far as my staff, that’s only Frank, and I’m not even sure Frank knows an oleander bush from a rose bush.”
Frank was uncommonly quiet. I gave Hanky the eye movement that means “meet me in the hall” and she left Taylor to continue asking Julia questions.
In the hall I told Hanky, “I just remembered that Janice told me she saw LB, Julia’s boyfriend, cutting on a bush the day of Julia’s party. She told me that at the feed and seed store dog party. She thought Julia had him pruning her landscape. Janice said she thought it odd that he was only pruning one bush and it was under the third window from the street. On the way in here, I went to the third window and the bush she saw him pruning is an oleander bush.”
“Show me the bush,” Hanky said.
We went out the back door in the kitchen so that the others wouldn’t see us leave. As we made our way around the back and up the side, Hanky asked me what each bush or shrub was Julia had planted along the house. “I don’t know the names of them, but I know they are not oleander,” I said. “Most of these along the back and side are azaleas.”
“What’s this one?” Hanky asked.
“Not oleander,” I said as Hanky stopped at every bush and asked what it was. I didn’t want to give her a horticultural lesson on every shrub in the garden.
“What’s this?” she asked of the fifth or six plant.
“Really? You can’t tell that flower is a rose? That would make it a rose bush?” I said. “Even with the dead blooms you can see they are roses.”
“What’s this? It’s red, so it’s that Christmas plant…point something,” Hanky said very proud of herself.
“That’s a poinsettia. If you eat it, it might make you sick, but I don’t think it’s considered poisonous.” The plant was a good eight-to-ten-feet tall covered in blooms. It was beautiful and one of the few, if not the only flowering plant outside.
“Here. Here is the oleander bush, almost a tree now. See, it’s under the third window from the front, and look across the street,” I said, turning to face Janice and Ned’s house. I did a low wave back at the house so my arm wasn’t flailing all over drawing attention to us. “I see Janice at her window watching us.”
“I bet she knows more of what goes on here than the ones living here do,” Hanky said. “She won’t miss much from that viewpoint. That’s better than most stakeouts.”
We were right
under the window of the double parlor and could hear Detective Taylor still questioning Julia while Frank looked on, pulling at the hair on the back of his head. I’m sure they could see the top of my head if they looked out. I stooped over to keep my head out of view.
Hanky was short, so she looked at me and asked, “Why are you standing like that?”
“I don’t want them to see me out here. You’d need a ladder if you want them to see you,” I said. I tried not to move around much so we didn’t draw attention to ourselves.
“Check this out,” Hanky said after scrutinizing the oleander bush we were standing next to. She pointed to a couple of the slender, spiny branches with clean cuts across them.
“That’s what Janice said. She told me this LB, boyfriend-guy was out here cutting on this bush.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t prove he was the only one cutting it,” she said. “How many of these trees or bushes are all over this neighborhood?” Hanky started looking around.
We stood there a minute trying to see if there were others in our line of sight. I thought Janice had one in her yard, but we needed to take a closer look.
“Didn’t you speak with Agnes, the president of the gourmet cooking club?” I asked Hanky. “I gave you her number. She told me she checked every box. That means those boxes—all those boxes, even the unnumbered one left in the mailbox—came to this house without those toothpicks in them Larry was so gung ho over.”
Finally, Hanky said, “We need to question boyfriend LB again.”
Hanky had been referring to Julia’s male friends as boyfriend LB or boyfriend married man.
“Look, I have a strange feeling about him. I can’t say why yet. I didn’t speak to him past the introduction at the front door the night of the party. I haven’t seen him here since, and that’s odd, don’t you think?” I asked her. “It was his idea to take Donna Twilight to the ER and not wait for the ambulance.”
“He’s not staying here is he?” Hanky asked.
“No, but you knew that,” I said, giving her a sideways look.
“Just checking to see if there was a status change,” Hanky said.
“No. According to Frank he’s still at the Fairmont Hotel near the hospital where Donna Twilight is. Julia says LB goes to the hospital every day, and she’s happy with the fact that she doesn’t have to go see her,” I said.
“As if Julia would take time to visit the sick,” Hanky muttered.
“I know it’s Julia, but it’s strange and weird if you think about it. If LB is Julia’s boyfriend, why isn’t he here to support Julia? Why is he spending so much time with Donna Twilight?” I asked.
“Well, you are good at seeing things other people miss,” Hanky said. “What do you think? LB’s hot for Donna? That would track because even if she’s a stripper…”
“Exotic dancer,” I said cutting Hanky off.
“Whatever. Even if she’s… an exotic dancer, she has to be infinitely nicer than Julia,” Hanky said.
“LB told Julia he’s some sort of trust fund baby who manages his family’s investment interests. If that’s true, why is he hovering over Donna Twilight? Why isn’t he hovering over Julia who stands to inherit a boatload of money her dad left her and the brother,” I said.
I saw Hanky’s attention skyrocket when I said inheritance. “I know, I know it looks suspicious that the brother who is supposed to inherit along with Julia is offed, and now Julia is left to receive it all. But does Donna Twilight know that? And, why is a guy who supposedly has big bucks, I’m talking about LB now, speed dating? Women, all women, should be lined up trying to persuade him into calling them,” I said.
Hanky was thinking for a few moments then asked me, “Do you think LB and Donna know each other from somewhere else?”
“I do. I also don’t think LB is from Colorado which is why I asked Dante to run their names while he’s in Houston,” I said. “I asked him when he called me yesterday to tell me—again—he will miss Christmas with our families this year.”
“Boo-Hoo for you,” Hanky said. “You have a hot guy on standby. I don’t think you’ll be alone or have a Blue, Blue, Blue, Blue Christmas,” she said singing the last part. Then she added, “But Dante will.”
I did my best to hide my aggravation at Hanky’s unrequited devotion to Dante. “The reason I’m telling you this is because I asked Dante to run an 800 phone number that Julia said LB uses and a couple of names Donna Twilight might be known as while he’s in Houston and ask around if Houston PD knows them. Julia’s brother said he met Donna in Houston when he was there on business. Larry said it was at a club with speed dating on one of his business trips,” I said. “I think LB has more of a Texas accent than a Colorado one, if there is such an accent. Also, Larry mentioned he knew or thought LB was from Colorado at the party as soon as they met. Maybe Donna Twilight told Larry that LB was from Colorado, because I’m not sure Julia even knew.”
“I think you told me LB said he met Julia speed dating, didn’t you?” Hanky asked.
“Right. They went somewhere here in New Orleans to speed date, met in the bar before it started, and left. That was about two weeks ago. The two-week timeframe keeps gnawing at me.
“I think that’s too much of a coincidence. Dante said he’d give you and Taylor the info if he found out anything,” I said. “Why would he go to a speed dating place here if he lives somewhere else?”
Hanky said, “I think Taylor and I need to go question LB and the strip…,” Hanky caught herself and finished, “wife again.”
Chapter Sixteen
I woke up, early—very early—worrying about everything. Today was Wednesday. That left Thursday and half a day on Friday to finish all things work related, shopping, wrapping up my Christmas gifts to Jiff and his family, and make my signature rum balls to hand out to friends and work associates. I made a mental note to stop and get Kringles for anyone associated with the recent debacle at Julia’s. I thought rum balls might be too ‘in your face.’
Julia’s distractions since her party last Friday had me woefully behind. I had several files open on my desk, and I’d be there late or should be there late tonight to make sure the customers were protected and the information was sent to the proper authorities to investigate. My office party was Thursday after work and Jiff’s party was Friday afternoon. Christmas Eve was Saturday night. I closed my eyes and did a silent scream to myself, so if Suzanne was home I wouldn’t wake her. Sometimes a silent scream helped with the stress of work. It didn’t always help when I had to deal with Julia, like now. When I opened my eyes, Meaux was looking at me with his head cocked to one side. I guess he was wondering why he couldn’t figure out what I was saying.
I still had rum balls to make, and they had to be made soon so the rum could sit and smooth out. They needed at least a day. Two days were better so they didn’t taste like a straight shot of booze. My rum balls needed to mature or people would choke on them. I decided to make them this morning before I left for work, otherwise another day would go by and I’d be that much further behind.
The other big thing breathing down my neck was I did not have a gift for Jiff yet. I thought about buying him a Mont Blanc pen but then I saw he had one. So did Detective Taylor for that matter, not that I planned on getting him a gift. I had rum balls for him and Hanky.
I had bought Isabella the gift of a pet bed for when she came to visit us. It was from Meaux. He also had some toys for her, but he was in the habit of tearing the wrapping off of them. I had rewrapped them so many times, I finally moved them from under the tree to a higher place where he could not get to them. Then he started to lay in Isabella’s pet bed even though it was wrapped.
“Dude,” I said to Meaux, “what are we gonna get Jiff for Christmas? The man has everything, and if he doesn’t already have it, he can buy a lot nicer one than we could ever afford to buy for him.” Meaux just looked at me, and I could tell he was pondering the question. He was standing in Isabella’s bed on top of the gift wrap
. When he moved, the sound of paper rustling gave him away. “You know you’re wrinkling the gift wrap and poking tiny holes in it when you walk on it, right?” He barked once as if in agreement. Gift wrap was not important to Meaux, and his idea of a gift for Jiff was probably something chicken or beef flavored.
I called and left messages for my staff on what to do this morning in order to get me ready to review the files I was working on. That would save some time, and I said I’d be in by ten thirty.
Rolling rum balls allowed me time to think. It was therapeutic. I couldn’t run from place to place trying to get more done than I had time to do it in.
I thought about having promised Woozie to stop and see my dad on Christmas Eve. It was the first Christmas I wasn’t living at home and next door to Dante’s family. I was ready for a change. Stopping there might put me in a nostalgic mood before I went to Jiff’s house, and I didn’t want anything spoiling that. In the short time I had known his parents and siblings, they made me feel included. Dante’s parents made me feel included even when Dante wasn’t there. I was tired of trying to get Dante to include me in his life.
I packed a tin with rum balls and wrote on the gift tag—To: Dante’s Family, From Brandy. When I finished putting all the rum balls in gift tins, I put the tins in a big Macy’s shopping bag to transport them. Then, when I made my rounds on Christmas Eve to the vet, hairdresser, landlord, and the office to give one to each of the staff, they were ready to go. I signed my name with Meaux’s paw print on the gift tags to the vet, my friends, and the landlord. The one to Isabella was signed “Love and Licks from Meaux.”
I asked him, “Meaux, did I forget any of your friends?”
He barked.
“Oh right. Isabella’s dad, that would be Jiff, should get his own tin of rum balls after all I put him through with this fiasco,” I said.
Everyone would want to leave early Friday, and by the afternoon most would have skedaddled out of there to start their holiday early by either cooking or getting travel plans underway to visit family.
Death By Rum Balls Page 14