Dosed to Death

by P. D. Workman

  Zachary, often so grim, drowning in his depression lately and still suffering from the previous evening’s flashback, laughed as he tickled and wrestled with the two children. Kenzie’s heart filled with affection at the sight of him happy and enjoying himself with his niece and nephew. Her eyes filled too, and she swiped at them, not wanting Zachary to see her tearing up.

  Eventually, the three of them collapsed on the bed, all exhausted by the game and breathing heavily. Tyrrell stuck his head in the door.

  “Is anyone listening to me?”

  Zachary shook his head. “No. No one.”

  “It’s time for breakfast. Come on. I made you food. I am your provider; you need to eat the food I bring home to you.”

  “You didn’t bring any food,” Alisha declared. “Kenzie did.”

  “Still, I’m the one who assembled it into some semblance of a meal. You’re supposed to show me your immense gratitude.”

  “Thank you, Daddy,” Mason said sweetly, not moving. “Can you bring it here?”

  “This is not breakfast in bed! You need to come to the kitchen and eat there. What would Kenzie say if you got crumbs in the bed?”

  “She’d say, ‘you got crumbs in the bed,’” Mason informed him.

  Kenzie couldn’t help laughing at his deadpan response.

  “Don’t encourage him!” Tyrrell protested. “Come on, everyone out of bed.”

  “But I don’t want to get out of bed!” Kenzie protested.

  “If you guys are going to encourage them to be wild, you have to get up too.”

  “But I didn’t. That was Zachary.”

  Tyrrell brandished a wooden spoon at Zachary. “Zachary, is this true?”

  Zachary chuckled again. Kenzie shut her eyes and basked in the sound. That was why she had arranged for their vacation. That was why she had planned for Loren and Pat to be there. Why she had invited Tyrrell to join them. To surround Zachary with family and hope that it helped to turn him around. Even if it only helped to lift the depression for a day or two, he needed the break so desperately. The antiviral regimen had taken away everything extra he had in him. He needed to regain some of the ground he had lost.

  “Everyone up,” Tyrrell repeated. “Kenzie, Zachary...”

  Kenzie opened her eyes and sat up. She held the blankets against her body. “I need some privacy to get dressed.”

  “Come on, kids,” Tyrrell ordered. “You heard her.”

  Neither one moved. Zachary sat up and started to log-roll them, until he’d pushed them both off the bed. Alisha and Mason giggled and, tickling each other, eventually crawled out of the room.

  “You’ve got five minutes,” Tyrrell told Kenzie, and shut the bedroom door. “If you’re lucky!”

  47

  It took Kenzie longer than five minutes to dress and make herself presentable, but Tyrrell managed to keep the kids away from the bedroom until she was finished. She and Zachary wandered out, stretching and yawning without covering their mouths, to join Tyrrell and the children at the table.

  Tyrrell had managed to toast a few slices of bread on the camp stove. Kenzie helped herself to one and put it on her plate. The marmalade and jams were out, and she helped herself to her usual morning marmalade.

  “I don’t like that kind with peel in it,” Mason observed. “It’s gross.”

  “A lot of kids don’t like marmalade,” Kenzie told him. “They are more sensitive to bitter flavors, so they sometimes don’t like things that taste good to adults.”

  “It is bitter,” Alisha agreed, wrinkling her nose.

  Zachary stood near the kitchen sink and downed several pills, the morning meds that they had kept back from the stash that was locked away. Kenzie looked toward the front window of the cabin. She couldn’t see the car from where she sat. Zachary’s quick eyes caught her glance, and he stepped forward. “What is it?”

  “Nothing. Just wanted to make sure that the car is still there, safe and sound.”

  Mason looked at the window. “Where else would it be? It’s stuck in the snow.”

  “Yes, it is,” Kenzie agreed.

  Zachary went over to the window to look out. He rubbed at condensation and frost on the inside of the window and peered through the small patch he had cleared. “Yep. Still there.” He leaned closer to the window, and Kenzie saw his body language transform from relaxed and happy to anxious.

  “What?” she asked.

  Zachary walked to the door. He pulled his coat off the peg and slid into it as he put his feet into his boots.

  “Zachary?”

  “I can’t see very well through the window.”

  But Kenzie knew it was more than that. There was no reason for him to be so concerned that he just couldn’t see the car well. She tried to decide whether to get up and see what was wrong or to pretend that everything was okay and just eat her breakfast. Her concern won out, and she went to the window as Zachary darted through the door and slammed it shut behind him.

  He went to the driver’s side door. Kenzie pressed her nose against the window glass and saw, as he had, a dark place on the car’s window, where all the others were white with frost and snow. As she watched, Zachary opened the car door. The door that was supposed to be locked with the key Raven had kept, shut away safe in her cabin. And Kenzie could see that the dark spot wasn’t a place where the glass had been cleared of frost and snow for someone to look inside, but a hole where the glass had been broken.

  Zachary reached into the car to hit a button below the dash. The trunk popped up a couple of inches. It didn’t go all the way up like usual because of the weight of the snow holding it down. Zachary went around to the back of the car and brushed the snow off the trunk with his arm. The hatch opened the rest of the way. Kenzie held her breath. And the safe?

  Zachary reached down with both hands and retrieved it. Using his elbow to shut the trunk, he retraced his steps, kicked the car door shut, and hurried to the front door of the cabin. Kenzie left her place at the window to open the door for him. Zachary hurried in, snowflakes flying from his coat. He put the safe down on the floor with a thud.

  “What’s that?” Mason demanded.

  “Is it okay?” Kenzie asked, looking down at it. “It’s still locked?”

  Zachary stared down at the heavy metal box. He shook his head grimly.

  “What?” Kenzie looked at it, trying to process what she was seeing. Vance Stiller was the only one with a key. But they had tried to ensure he couldn’t open it either, putting it in the locked car, with the car key in Raven’s locked cabin.

  But the place where there used to be a keyhole, there was now a large, round hole. Kenzie looked at Zachary for an explanation, feeling her eyes go wide, unable to believe what she was seeing.

  “They drilled it,” Zachary said. He looked back toward the door and the car. “Someone broke into the car and drilled the lock while we were sleeping.”

  Kenzie bent down and swung the door open, her stomach queasy. It was empty. The items that Stiller had insisted had to remain locked in the safe were gone, as well as all of the medications and other items that Kenzie and Zachary had gathered in their search of the cabins the night before. Kenzie sat on the floor, unable to believe it. She looked back at Zachary.

  “But no one knew. The only people who knew how we had secured everything were you and me, Raven, and Vance.” Which one of them had broken into the car? Raven? Would Vance have drilled his own safe? That didn’t make any sense.

  “Anyone could have been watching us out their windows. We put a safe in the trunk of the car. They knew we wanted to protect something. It had to be something valuable or something dangerous. Or both.”

  Who had the contents now? Burknall had access to all the tools he would need. Not that he needed anything other than a rock to smash the door and a drill for the lock of the safe. Presumably everything in the barn wasn’t locked down, and any guest could have walked over there and taken what they needed, then returned it or thrown it into a
snowbank.

  “I can’t believe it,” Kenzie moaned. “After all that work last night.” She held her arms over her stomach, feeling sick.

  “But why?” Zachary mused. “Why would anyone take the contents? They can’t be out to poison everyone again. They know that there are enough canned goods in the pantry to keep everyone safely fed until the police get here.”

  “No...” Kenzie agreed. “You’re right. It would have to be...” She rubbed her forehead, thinking. The headache of the night before was returning. Everything from the night before was returning, as if they had gone back in time. All they had done had turned out to be a waste of time. The searches, Zachary’s flashback, Kenzie’s headache and exhaustion. “I suppose... because the police will be able to identify the toxin once they get here. That would have to be it, wouldn’t it? Whatever it is, it doesn’t metabolize fast enough, and it might still be in their systems when the police get here. In Brooke’s system, at least. Then they’ll know what the poison was, and they’ll know whose prescription or... recreational aid it was.”

  “But you know what came from each cabin. If they tell you what the toxin was, you can tell them whose it was.”

  “Well, more or less. Sometimes more than one person had the same thing. You and Raven had a lot of similar medications. More than one person had the same sleeping pills or tranquilizers.”

  “But the culprit doesn’t know that. The only person who knows what you know is... you.”

  “Oh, this is crazy.” Kenzie ran her fingers through her hair, tugging at it, trying to get her brain to engage. She couldn’t sort it out quickly enough for her satisfaction. “Maybe it was just someone after Stiller’s valuables. He had documents and written records in there. We don’t know what was in the zip-up deposit case in there. Silver or gold or currency. Bearer bonds. Do they even make bearer bonds anymore?”

  Zachary shook his head. “We have to protect you. Your knowledge of pharmaceuticals could solve this case. Either now, when you figure out which drug was used, or when the police run their tests and tell you what it was.”

  48

  Kenzie was too stressed and nauseated to eat her breakfast. She could empathize with Zachary. She couldn’t imagine even being able to stomach one of the granola bars. There were some applesauce cups in with the other snack foods that she had brought, and she thought she might be able to tolerate one later, but not right away.

  “What are we going to do?” she asked as they sat down at the table again, though Kenzie knew she would not touch her toast.

  “We have to be careful,” Zachary said slowly, thinking things through. “I think we’d better stay here as much as we can. I don’t want something to happen to you if whoever broke into the safe realizes that you know what was in there and can still implicate them. Any time we leave the cabin, it puts you at risk, so we can’t do that.”

  Kenzie hadn’t been too worried about being stranded until then. Yes, they were snowed in, but they had a warm, safe place to stay and, sooner or later, the snow would stop, and the authorities would get there.

  But knowing that she couldn’t leave the cabin made her feel claustrophobic. She hadn’t wanted to leave. She’d just wanted to stay there and relax and have a good visit with Tyrrell and Zachary. Cocoon and play with the kids and make some camp meals. An adventure that would be over in a few days. Something that they would look back on with fond memories in the future.

  That vision had already been eroding away as people died and she had to consider the fact that there was a killer in their midst. But she’d still been able to hold on to it.

  But if she had to stay inside, that was different.

  Being afraid and being forced to barricade herself against the rest of the guests was different. And she didn’t like it.

  “We have to keep you safe,” Zachary said, watching her face, reading her expression.

  “I get it... but I feel like you’re overreacting. I don’t like the idea of being forced to stay inside.”

  “You didn’t want to go out in the freezing cold, did you? It isn’t like we were going to be out there making snowmen.”

  “No. I’m tired of the cold. I had to go outside and inside so many times last night, going from cold to warm to cold again, I don’t want to have to go out. But I want to be able to.”

  Zachary nodded sympathetically.

  “Can we go outside and make a snowman?” Mason demanded.

  Tyrrell looked at Zachary, who shook his head slowly. “I don’t think it’s a good idea. I think the kids are safe, but... I wouldn’t want anything to happen.”

  “We want to make a snowman,” Mason insisted. “Daddy, you come outside with us.”

  “Zachary doesn’t think it’s a good idea, Mason.”

  “He doesn’t know,” Mason said scornfully. “He just doesn’t want to make a snowman.”

  “No, he wants to keep everyone safe. You don’t know what things might be dangerous outside.”

  “Yes, I do! I’ll wear a hat and everything. Even the one with the mask!”

  Kenzie had gathered from previous conversations that Mason was very sensitive about having something touch his face and was resistant to having to wear a ski mask even with the weather being so cold. They had been lucky that up until that point the children had been happy to stay inside and play games there. The weather outside had been so inhospitable, they hadn’t even asked to go out. But now that Zachary had mentioned snowmen...

  Zachary rolled his eyes, realizing that he’d made a mistake they would all regret for the next few days.

  “Sorry.”

  Tyrrell shrugged. He looked at his watch. “Maybe if it warms up a bit later, we can take a few minutes and build a snowman in the back. But we can’t be out for long, and if Uncle Zachary or I say that you can’t go out, then you can’t. We’re the grownups, and we have to make the decisions about when it is safe or not.”

  “It’s safe,” Mason insisted. “We’ll wear gloves and hats.”

  “I know you will. Because you know how to take care of yourself in cold weather, don’t you? But there are other things going on too. Zachary and I have to make sure that there isn’t anyone around who might bother you. You have to listen to us.”

  Mason clearly didn’t approve of this course of action. “We can go out later, right? In the afternoon. When it’s warmer.”

  “Maybe. It will depend.”

  Mason rolled his eyes, oozing attitude. Kenzie had to grin despite herself. She was worried about the missing medications and the possible danger, if Zachary was right. But Mason’s attitude was so classic, so over-the-top dramatic, she couldn’t help being amused.

  “Why don’t you guys find something to play with now,” Tyrrell told them. “And I’m going to have some jobs for you to do later on. We all need to help in keeping the cabin clean and tidy, right?”

  “We didn’t make a mess,” Alisha said, looking around the kitchen and what she could see of the living room.

  “There’s a lot of stuff out right now. The grownups don’t want to be stepping on spinners or playing pieces.”

  “Then you should watch where you’re going,” Mason advised.

  “And you can help me to make the beds and put the clothes away,” Tyrrell said, ignoring the smart comment. “And we need to think about what we want for lunch. Do you want to help to cook something on the camp stove?”

  Mason looked at the camp stove set up on the counter. “Yeah, I want to cook something!”

  “Good. Think about what you want to cook. Remember, we can’t go to the store, so we have to make do with what we have. It’s like a cooking challenge.”

  “What do we have?”

  “You can look in the cupboards. And we still have some leftovers from when Lorne and Pat were here. Turkey, potatoes, stuff like that. We just have to thaw it out.”

  Mason got down from the table and went to work, looking through the cupboards and whispering to Alisha about the possibilities. Apparentl
y, their special lunch was to be a secret from the adults.

  “How much can you remember about what you found in each cabin?” Zachary asked Kenzie.

  “Well... I was getting pretty tired. I don’t remember all the specifics.”

  “Maybe you can write down what you remember and fill in more as you can.”

  “Do you think that will help us to figure out who took the contents of the safe?”

  “I hope so. We need to compile all of the information we can, see whether we can figure it out.” He nibbled at his granola bar. “And if you have to testify in court, it’s better if you have something written down the day after, rather than relying on your memory months later, when you might have been influenced by the questions and revelations in between.”

  Kenzie nodded. All of that made sense. She and Dr. Wiltshire always wrote everything down and dictated notes as they worked for exactly that reason. Notes written at the time were far more reliable than memories which could change and fade over time.

  “Okay... I guess I’ll do that now. There’s paper in the writing desk?”

  Mason looked up from his discussion with Alisha. “There’s paper in the desk,” he confirmed. “Alisha and me were using it to write down scores and rules.”

  “Thanks, Mason.” Hopefully, they hadn’t used it all. There was sure to be more writing paper in the other cabins, but she didn’t relish going to one of the others to say that she needed paper to write down the notes about who might be guilty of what. Zachary was already making her feel a bit creeped out over the idea that someone might want to silence her to make sure that she couldn’t tell what she knew. Was that the reason Zachary wanted her to write down everything she knew? So that if something happened to her, they would still have a record of what she had discovered?