Dosed to Death

by P. D. Workman

  Kenzie tried not to think about the long night before them. Even if they only took fifteen to twenty minutes on each cabin and building, it would be hours before they were finished. It was already dark. People were hungry and grumpy, afraid to eat anything that had been prepared, no matter how much Mrs. Hubbard tried to convince them all that it was safe. How could she possibly know that, when she didn’t know how the food or drinks had been tainted the day before?

  “You must have canned food in the pantry,” Zachary suggested to Mrs. Hubbard.

  “Yes. Of course. All kinds.”

  “How about everybody gets a can of something that doesn’t have to be prepared, and everyone opens their own can and eats it without anyone else touching it?”

  “Yes!” Raven said with relief. “I’m starving, but as good as this smells, I can’t eat it. Not now. There is no way someone could get poison into a sealed can, right?”

  Kenzie couldn’t think of a way, unless they had a canning machine of their own, and that would be rather elaborate. No one else offered any objections to this plan, and Mrs. Hubbard took everyone’s orders for what food they wanted brought from the pantry.

  “Kenzie and I have already eaten,” Zachary said, “so I think we should get started on the search while the rest of you have your dinner. The sooner we get done, the sooner you can be back in your own cabins.”

  Raven was given a can of peaches and after opening it, dipped her spoon in. She drank off some of the juice so it wouldn’t spill, and was ready to go with Kenzie and Zachary to supervise their search.

  37

  Who do you want to start with?” Kenzie asked.

  Zachary didn’t need to stop and think about it. “Redd,” he said immediately. “Big old Redd Flagg.”

  Kenzie laughed. “What do you suppose made him pick that as his pen name? And what do you think his real name is? Is it something that we would recognize, or that no one has ever heard of?”

  “Probably five syllables and Polish or Russian.”

  Kenzie nodded. “That would make sense.”

  The three of them hurried to Redd’s cabin as quickly as they could. It took Kenzie a few minutes to find the right key on Mr. Dewey’s key chain. Zachary was watching her, trying not to look impatient. He could probably have picked the lock in half the time it took her to find the right key. But maybe not with thick winter gloves on.

  The cabin was much warmer than the weather outside, but the fire that had been burning in the fireplace had died down to embers. Zachary looked at it, swallowed, and looked around the cabin to analyze the space that they would have to search.

  Raven took off her gloves, but didn’t remove the rest of her gear. She just stood on the welcome mat slurping her canned peaches.

  Kenzie looked at her. “When I was little, I used to try to swallow sliced peaches whole, pretending that I was in one of those goldfish swallowing contests. Is that weird, or what?”

  Raven laughed. “Doesn’t that take all the enjoyment out of it? You would hardly even taste them.”

  “I guess not. But little-kid me thought that it was pretty fun.”

  Raven shook her head. “That’s hilarious.”

  “Let’s start in the bedroom and bathroom and work our way outward,” Zachary said. “If he has anything, it’s most likely to be close at hand.”

  Kenzie agreed and, armed with flashlights from the farmhouse, they started with Redd’s bedroom, searching through his suitcase and night table first, then quickly checking the rest of the bedroom and the bathroom. He had a number of over-the-counter medications in the bathroom, nothing too surprising. Mostly headache or stomach ailment remedies. He had some alcohol in his bedroom. Not surprising for a writer, Kenzie supposed. If one were to believe all of the TV tropes about struggling writers. “Write drunk, edit sober,” Hemingway had said.

  Zachary returned to the bedroom after the bathroom search and looked around, frowning.

  “I thought we were going to work our way out,” Kenzie reminded him. “Shouldn’t we check the living room and kitchen now?”

  “Yes,” Zachary agreed. He looked around the bedroom once more as if he had lost something. Then he followed Kenzie out to the living room. It didn’t seem like Redd had touched anything there. It was all the furnishings that the Deweys or their decorators had picked out. Zachary pulled a few books off of the shelf and looked behind the rows of books, but there was nothing hidden there. Likewise, the kitchen didn’t appear to have been touched. Redd was taking all of his meals at the farmhouse. There weren’t even dirty dishes in the sink.

  Kenzie figured they were finished with Redd Flagg’s cabin. Zachary, however, went back to the bedroom. Kenzie followed him.

  “What are you looking for? We should get on to the next cabin or we’re going to be all night.”

  “Something isn’t right.”

  Zachary took a quick look at the night table that they had already searched. He moved things around in the suitcase and pointed out a tear in the lining to Kenzie.

  “Okay. Why does that matter? Is there something in there?”

  He shook his head. “No. But I think there was. What was he trying to hide?”

  “Maybe it was just torn. Something snagged on it.”

  “No. It’s one of those things... people think they’re being clever, not realizing that it’s what everyone else is doing and that customs or the police or whoever he is trying to hide things from are going to see it immediately.”

  “Drugs, you think? He’s smuggling something?”

  “It’s not very big. So whatever it is, he’s not muling for someone else. It’s just for personal use. Unless it is something really high-priced, like diamonds.”

  “Somehow, I don’t see Redd smuggling diamonds.”

  “No. Me neither.”

  Raven stood in the door of the bedroom, watching them but not offering any comment. Zachary started to go through the room more carefully, checking under the mattress, inside the lamp shade, and feeling the backs of the drawers. He pulled a small screwdriver from his pocket and unscrewed the plates over the light switch and the electrical outlets.

  “Ah-ha.”

  Kenzie watched him pull a small baggie out of one of the electrical outlet holes.

  “What is it?”

  Zachary held the baggie close to his eyes, examining it. Then he took it over to Kenzie and offered it to her for her opinion. Kenzie looked at the gray-brown dust. It was difficult to tell what organic substance had been crushed into powder, but she had an idea. She opened the top of the bag and passed it under her nose. She didn’t inhale, but just let the scent waft up into her nose. It had a musty, earthy smell. She zipped the bag closed again.

  “I would guess mushrooms.”

  “Ah.” Zachary nodded. “So, we found our first hallucinogen. You think this is what was used?”

  Kenzie hesitated, looking at the baggie. “I’m not familiar with the dosing. If I had internet access, I could look it up to be sure, but I don’t think this is enough to affect everyone like they were last night. This is a pretty small amount, so unless he has a larger stash somewhere else... I think this is just enough for personal use. One dose or several microdoses.”

  They looked around the room. Zachary went back to the electrical outlets and unscrewed the rest of the cover plates. There were no more baggies.

  “Looks like that’s it.”

  “Okay.” Kenzie put the baggie into her pocket.

  “You’re going to take it?” Raven asked. “Even though it isn’t enough to poison everyone?”

  “We said that we would take anything that could be used to poison everyone. This could be combined with something else. And we want to treat everyone the same way, not to show any special consideration.”

  Raven didn’t argue the point. They got their outdoor clothing back on and exited Redd’s cabin.

  He was waiting outside the door, pacing back and forth. The snow was all trampled down; he had been there for a
while. He looked at Kenzie and Zachary, shoulders tense and hunched up inside his coat.

  “All done?” he asked, attempting to mask his anxiety and look casual.

  “All done,” Kenzie agreed.

  He looked relieved and moved toward his door.

  “We did find your mushrooms,” Kenzie advised. “They’ll be locked up with everything else.”

  “What?”

  “Your mushrooms.”

  He shook his head, a crease appearing between his eyebrows. “I didn’t have any mushrooms. Where were they?”

  “No one would leave them there and forget about them,” Zachary said. “Don’t assume we’re stupid.”

  Redd considered this and changed his approach. “Okay. Yes. But they were just for... they help me to open my mind, make it easier to write. I have friends who have had a lot of success with—”

  “You can save it,” Kenzie said. “I know all of the arguments. When you take something like this,” she patted her pocket, “you have no idea how much of the active ingredient you are getting from one dose to the next, you could end up on a really bad trip when you think you’re taking a safe dose. You can’t tell.”

  “If you’re experienced or have someone who is experienced to help you—”

  “You still can’t control it,” Kenzie asserted.

  Redd’s eyes flicked to the side, over Kenzie’s shoulder to the dark woods behind her. She automatically looked behind her to see what he was looking at, then looked back at Redd’s face. His pupils were widely dilated.

  “You’re hallucinating right now!” she accused.

  “I didn’t take anything,” Redd insisted. “I haven’t had anything in two days. I swear it.”

  “Right.” Kenzie shook her head in disbelief. “After all that went on last night, I can’t believe you would still want to take hallucinogens.”

  “I didn’t. You’re right, after last night... I wouldn’t take anything. And I didn’t. Is it possible that whatever I got is still affecting me...?”

  Kenzie didn’t believe a word he had said. He’d probably been high ever since they had arrived. His talkativeness... who knew what he was like when he wasn’t on something?

  “We’re doing you a favor by taking this away, then. You wouldn’t want a repeat of last night.”

  He looked for an argument to this, but gave up, shrugging and shaking his head at the same time. “Can I go back in my cabin?”

  “Yes. And if I were you... I’d stay put for the night. Sleep this off.”

  He didn’t say anything to that, just opened his door and disappeared into his cabin.

  38

  Collins’s cabin next,” Zachary suggested.

  They walked past their own cabin. Kenzie suspected that Raven would want to search their cabin as well, but that hadn’t been discussed, so they would just leave it and see whether she pressed the matter later.

  Somehow, Zachary had ended up with Dewey’s key ring in his hand, and he was faster at figuring out which was the proper key for the cabin. He pushed the door open, and they all went in.

  It looked pretty much as it had that morning. It didn’t look like Redd or Andy Collins had made any attempt at cleaning it up. Raven looked around at the disorder with wide eyes.

  “Wow. They really did have a knock-down blow-out fight, didn’t they?”

  Kenzie nodded. She was relieved, once again, that there were no blood spatters. Brooke had, at least, not been attacked there. Kenzie had not been to many crime scenes. Most of her exposure to dead bodies had been confined to the morgue. Dr. Wiltshire had only taken her out to crime scenes a couple of times, and they had not been horrific bloody scenes. He was pretty good about preparing her for each new procedure and experience, and Kenzie knew they would work their way up through the least disturbing scenes first, until she was gradually prepared for the worse ones.

  “Okay. I guess we’ll need to go through all of this,” Kenzie said, looking at the litter of objects on the floor.

  Zachary shrugged. “I doubt there’s anything there. Let’s check the most likely places first.”

  So they again started with the bathroom and bedroom. Unlike Redd, Mr. and Mrs. Collins had not bothered to hide their stash. There were small packets of white powder on the nightstand beside the bed.

  “I would guess that’s not sugar,” Kenzie said.

  “I would guess not,” Zachary agreed.

  “I don’t have a field test kit. And despite what you see on TV, I’m not going to taste the stuff. We’ll just confiscate and let the police sort that out later. I assume it’s coke.”

  “More than likely,” Zachary agreed.

  Kenzie shook her head. “Why do people have to do things like this? They’re newlyweds, they’re supposed to be on this wonderful natural high just from being with each other. Why would they feel the need to... add chemical enhancements?”

  Raven, standing in the bedroom doorway, tilted her head slightly. “I take it you haven’t ever tried it?”

  “Well...” Kenzie couldn’t help feeling a little embarrassed. But she had never been tempted in college or society life to try a little coke to see what all of the fuss was about. She had never felt the need for it. “No, I haven’t.”

  “If you haven’t tried it, then you can’t really knock it, can you? What does a coffee drinker say to someone who’s never tried it? You drink coffee?”

  “Sure. Yes.”

  “How do you explain to someone how that first cup of coffee in the morning makes you feel? The smell of it percolating? Wrapping your hands around a warm mug and taking your first sip. And the clarity and energy boost that you get when it kicks in? You can describe it all you like, but if it’s not an experience they have shared, then they really aren’t going to understand it like a fellow coffee drinker does.”

  “No. I guess not.”

  “Well... the same with coke or other drugs. If you’ve never tried it, you can’t understand the feeling you get. The way it can enhance other experiences.”

  Kenzie put the packets into her pocket, considering. “But on the other hand, it could lead to what happened last night. Instead of the high you’re looking for, you could react violently to the coke or whatever else it is adulterated with. You could end up having a psychotic break or hurting someone you love.” Kenzie looked at the bed, where Andy and Brooke had slept in wedded bliss and to which Brooke would never again return. Two had become one, and not by merging with each other.

  “You can’t predict,” Raven said. “But that’s life. You never know what effect your actions are going to have.”

  “You can have a pretty good idea.”

  “Maybe. Maybe more for some people than for others. But you could also... get hit by a bus. Be poisoned by someone. Die in a snowstorm.” Raven gazed out the window into the blackness outside. “You can make all of the right, sensible choices, and die just like the person who took all of the risks.”

  She was right, of course, but Kenzie had to believe that most people who lived safely did not die violently, and those who took risks were more likely to lose their lives. It didn’t hold true for every person, that was true, but overall.

  “Let’s see what else we have here,” Kenzie sighed. She looked through the pill bottles beside the bed and in the bathroom, trying to identify each one and how dangerous it would be if used as a weapon. “This is really tough,” she told Zachary. “I’m so used to being able to look medications up. Remembering what everything is for and what all of the side effects are... I don’t have as much of the information stored in my head as I would like to think.”

  “Just do your best. If you’re not sure, assume it’s dangerous. A lot of them say stuff like ‘keep away from children’ or ‘contains enough to seriously harm a child.’ Or the maximum dose is really low.”

  “Right,” Kenzie agreed.

  There was a noise outside, and Kenzie and Zachary both turned toward the window at the same time. Kenzie rolled her eyes at her own re
action, but nonetheless... how could she not be concerned about the possibility of someone lurking outside the cabins? It could be an animal or someone going about their own business. But they had to consider the threat real. Two people were already dead, and one of them by violence.

  “There are three of us,” Zachary said in a low voice. “That makes us less vulnerable than one person off on their own. We should be fine.”

  “Should be,” Kenzie agreed. “But that doesn’t mean that we will be.”

  Raven’s words echoed in her head. You can make all the right, sensible choices, and die just like the person who took all the risks.

  Just because they were trying to keep themselves and everyone else safe, it didn’t mean that they would succeed. And someone out there might be ready to take a big risk to prevent Kenzie and Zachary from uncovering his—or her—secret.

  Zachary walked closer to the window and looked out at an angle, pressed close to the wall.

  “You see anyone?” Kenzie asked.

  “No. Might just have been an animal. Or the wind. Everyone should be staying up at the house until their cabins are cleared.”

  They should be. But Redd had been hanging around outside his waiting for them to finish, and Collins was probably out there now, waiting for them to be done with his cabin. And he had a lot more to lose, if he had killed Brooke. No one else really had a motive to kill her, so unless someone had been so off their head that they thought she was a threat, it didn’t make sense that it had been anyone else.

  “Is it Collins?”

  “I don’t know,” Zachary asserted, his voice taking on an edge. “Can’t see anything clearly through the frost on the window, the dark, the glare of our flashlights, the snow outside... You might as well ask me to use my x-ray vision to see through the solid wall.”

  “Okay.” Kenzie was a little hurt by his sharp retort. He hadn’t said all of that the first time; how was she to know?

  Zachary let his breath out slowly. “Let’s keep going. I want to be out of here. I don’t like this cabin.”