Dosed to Death

by P. D. Workman

  Kenzie stood up from the table and looked through the writing desk. There was, thankfully, a good supply of stationery and pens. She grabbed a sheaf of paper and sat down on the couch, where she could wrap a blanket around herself and get comfortable while she racked her brain, trying to remember all the details of what she had discovered the night before.

  49

  The morning was quiet. Kenzie had expected Raven and others to come knocking on the door to ask about the contents of the safe and the fact that there was a hole in their driver’s side window. Someone was bound to be wondering if they had figured out who the poisoner was. And the staff would know that their quarters had not been searched and had to be wondering if she were coming to do them next or if she had found something that made it unnecessary.

  Everyone would have questions, and Kenzie anticipated trying to turn them all away at the door to keep herself safe from any potential attack.

  But it was all quiet. If anyone was wondering what had happened to their car or the safe, they didn’t let on. Even Vance Stiller didn’t come over, and he would have been concerned about what happened to his valuable papers and articles if he realized that the safe had been compromised.

  For the first little while, Kenzie worked on her lists, keeping a separate sheet of paper for each cabin and adding to each one as she remembered more details. She talked it through with Zachary, and he contributed what he remembered and any little things that he thought might help her to remember what pills she had found in each cabin. In the end, Kenzie had a pretty good list. She thought it was generally representative of what had been found in each cabin, though she didn’t remember all of what had been in Raven’s pharmacy, or the exact details, brands, or dosages of most of the medications.

  How valuable would the list be if she ever had to testify in court about the various pills and substances they had found? Kenzie wasn’t sure. She supposed it all depended on what the authorities decided Brooke and Mr. Dewey had died from. If Kenzie could point the finger at who had been in possession of that substance... it wouldn’t quite be a lock, but it might help.

  She was drowsy after spending a couple of hours concentrating on the lists, with all of the activity that was going on inside the cabin. While they hadn’t been disturbed by a bunch of questions from the other guests, the children were bored and restless, alternately whining about having nothing to do and getting too wild doing it. Kenzie rubbed her temples. She still had some over-the-counter painkillers. Maybe if she took a couple of pills and had a short nap, she would feel better. She would catch up on her sleep from the night before and feel more like herself.

  “Stay there; what can I get you?” Zachary offered, seeing her prepare to stand up.

  “Just a Tylenol.”

  “Sure. One or two?” He got up and stepped toward the bathroom.

  “Two,” Kenzie decided.

  As Zachary disappeared into the bathroom, Kenzie made a sudden realization. Her heart sank into her stomach, filling her with a feeling of dread and causing bile to rise in her throat.

  She tried to keep her face impassive so that Zachary wouldn’t read anything in it when he returned with the pills.

  They had taken all of Zachary’s and Raven’s pills and put them into the safe so that they couldn’t be used to cause further harm. Psychoactive medications that could not be stopped cold turkey.

  She didn’t know how Raven would react to the sudden withdrawal of her medications, but Zachary would destabilize within a day or two, and they might not be able to get him back on track even if they restarted the regimen as soon as they were able. The chemicals had to remain at a consistent level in his system if they were going to do their job. Disrupt that, and there was going to be trouble.

  Both Raven and Zachary might respond as the others had to a new toxin being introduced into their bodies—with hallucinations, mood swings, and irritable, unpredictable behavior.

  And then there were the guests who were taking medications for blood pressure, cholesterol, and other ailments. They wouldn’t go into immediate withdrawal. Probably, they would be okay until they could get back onto the medications that had been seized. But it was also possible that they wouldn’t. That the process had already begun and without their daily meds, they could be looking at heart attacks, strokes, seizures, and all kinds of other issues.

  Zachary returned from the bathroom and handed Kenzie a couple of white Tylenol capsules and a glass of water. Kenzie swallowed them down without comment.

  “Do you want to go lie down?” Zachary asked. “You probably didn’t get enough sleep last night.”

  “You’re probably right. But... I hate to bow out on the two of you.”

  Zachary looked over at his brother, who looked quite relaxed, sitting with a glass of Tang in one hand, watching the children play. “I think everyone is fine. Things have been quiet. Why don’t both of us go stretch out for a while...?”

  Nothing could possibly sound better than lying down in a warm, soft bed and cuddling with Zachary until she fell asleep. “That sounds like heaven.”

  Zachary’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “Come on, then. Let’s get you into bed.”

  “Lock your door,” Tyrrell warned, “if you want any privacy.”

  It wasn’t the kids who woke Kenzie and Zachary up an hour or two later, it was Tyrrell. He pounded hard on the door to wake them up, and Zachary was on his feet and to the door before Kenzie could even wake up enough to know what was going on. Zachary quickly unlocked the door and pulled it open.

  “T? What is it? What’s wrong?”

  Tyrrell’s face was white as a sheet. “Mason. He went outside. Just for a minute. He’s not there. I don’t know where he went. I called him, but he didn’t answer me—”

  “Is Alisha with him?” Zachary shouldered his way past Tyrrell into the hallway. Rubbing her eyes, Kenzie forced herself out of the bed to follow.

  “Alisha is here. She said she doesn’t know where he would go. She was going to go out with him, make a snowman in the back where no one could see that they were out, but when she got out there, he wasn’t there.”

  Kenzie followed the two men out to the living room. Alisha was there, tears running down her red face.

  “I don’t know where he is!” she wailed.

  Kenzie hugged her around the shoulders. “It’s okay. No one is blaming you. Do you know where he might have gone? Was there something he said he wanted to do?”

  “Just building a snowman. He wanted to build a really big snowman. And then he wanted to make lunch. We planned it all out.”

  “What did he want to make for lunch? Was there something he was missing?” Zachary suggested.

  “I don’t know. We were going to make it with just what we have here. Like Daddy said.” Alisha sniffled. “Just like Daddy said to do.”

  “It’s okay, Alisha,” Tyrrell assured her, though it was clear he was struggling to stay calm. “We just need to find him. You know how your brother is. He gets distracted. He wandered off to do something and forgot to let anyone know first. That’s all. It’s happened a million times before.”

  Alisha nodded. She sniffled again and hiccupped. “I know, but this time, it was dangerous. You said it was dangerous and he’s gone, and what if something happens to him like that lady?”

  Kenzie hadn’t realized that the kids had heard about Brooke’s death. She had thought that they had refrained from talking about it in front of them. But one of them had said too much, or the kids had been hanging around with their ears open when the adults thought they were out of the way.

  “Alisha, it’s okay. We want to protect you guys, but no one is out to hurt you. Nothing is going to happen to Mason. He’ll be okay.”

  It wasn’t like it had been with Brooke. People had been hallucinating. They had been fighting. It was just an accident, someone overreacting to an argument or a vision. Striking out at a nightmare. But it wasn’t like that now. It had been more than twenty-four hours since they
had been exposed to the toxin, whatever it was, and no one posed a danger to the children. The biggest danger was Mason himself. That he would wander off and end up too far from the Lodge or fall into a pond and catch hypothermia. It was the environment they had to worry about, not the other guests.

  But Kenzie didn’t immediately suggest that they raise a search party to go looking for him.

  “We need to think clearly,” she said. “Not to rush into this. Think about Mason. What he was interested in. What he might do if he wandered away. He was distracted or he remembered something that he wanted to do and didn’t think it would take that long. He just did something without thinking. What was it?”

  Zachary already had his coat on. He looked at Kenzie, then around at the others. If there was anyone who could put himself into Mason’s shoes, it was Zachary. He had been a kid like Mason. Always in trouble because of the way his brain was wired. Too distracted, too quick to make the wrong choice. Hyperactive. He could get himself into trouble much faster than it would take them to figure out what he had done.

  “Check the back,” he told Tyrrell. “That’s where he was supposed to be, so that’s where you should start.”

  “I already checked the back—”

  “Look for footprints. Check the perimeter, his footprints have to lead off somewhere, unless he was snatched. And then someone else’s footprints will give them away.”

  “Where are you going?” Kenzie demanded as Zachary reached for the doorknob of the front door.

  “I’ve got a few places to check out. You guys be methodical,” he told her and Tyrrell firmly. “I’ll be impulsive.”

  Kenzie nearly laughed. Zachary was out the door and slammed it shut behind him. Tyrrell went to the back door as instructed. He put his boots back on.

  “You stay here with Kenzie, Alisha. I don’t want you wandering around too. We need someone to be here in case Mason comes back, and I need you to look after Kenzie. She can’t be out here searching, understand?”

  Alisha looked at Kenzie, baffled. “What?”

  “Just do what I say. You stay here with Kenzie. The two of you need to stay inside. Don’t let anyone else in. Keep the doors locked.”

  He left out the back. Alisha and Kenzie looked at each other. It was clear that Alisha didn’t understand why her father had told her to take care of Kenzie and not let anyone into the cabin. But Kenzie did. Zachary had said that the poisoner might target her. He or she would see Kenzie as a threat because of her knowledge and might try to remove her from the equation.

  Now Kenzie was stuck in the cabin by herself, except for Alisha. Someone could have taken Mason just to get the men away from the cabin. It might all be a ruse to get Kenzie alone or to persuade her to leave the cabin to join in the search.

  “Okay,” Kenzie said calmly. “Let’s lock the doors.”

  Alisha nodded solemnly. She reached out to the back door and locked the handle and then the bolt. She looked out the window of the kitchen, watching her father as he walked around the yard, looking down at the markings in the snow. Kenzie and Alisha couldn’t see much from inside. Kenzie hoped he would be able to find Mason’s trail and find him quickly. Kenzie went to the front door and did the same there. She looked out the living room window, but couldn’t see Zachary. He was already out of sight. She wondered where he had gone. Where would she have gone to look for Mason?

  One of them would find him. She was counting on it.

  50

  I don’t know what else to do,” Alisha told Kenzie.

  And what could they do? If they weren’t allowed to leave the cabin, there wasn’t much they could do. Even if they had an idea, even if Alisha suddenly realized where her brother had taken off to, they wouldn’t be able to call Zachary or Tyrrell and let them know. They had no bars. The storm was still blocking out any cell signal.

  “Well... why don’t we sit down and play a game?” Kenzie suggested. “I know it won’t help them find him any faster, but it will help us to distract ourselves so that we don’t worry as much.”

  Alisha put her hands on her hips. “I don’t want to not worry!”

  “Well... okay. What do you want to do about it, then?”

  Alisha looked around, trying to find an answer. “We’ll clean up,” she said finally. “Daddy told us that we needed to clean up. So we’ll do that, and when we get done... he’ll be back. And he’ll have Mason with him.”

  “Okay,” Kenzie agreed. She was willing to buy into Alisha’s magical thinking. They would clean. And when they were done, Mason would be back.

  They picked up game pieces and matched them to the appropriate boxes, then stacked the boxes back in the closet where they had been stored. They picked up various wadded-up and torn papers and threw them out. There were dishes from breakfast that had not been cleaned, so they washed them and put them away. Kenzie looked around again. There had to be some way for them to occupy themselves. There was always more work to do.

  There was a knock at the door. Her heart in her throat, Kenzie looked out the front window. She had known that it wasn’t Zachary’s knock, but she’d been hoping that it might be Tyrrell’s. Burknall stood there, looking back at her through the window, waiting for her to let him in.

  What if he were the culprit? He had tools, he’d lived at the lodge for a long time, he was clearly smart and able to think things through. What if he’d been the one who had decided they didn’t need any more guests at the Lodge? Or that if he got rid of his boss that he’d be able to get some sort of benefit. Did the Lodge go to Dewey’s next of kin? Did it get divided among the staff? Did he leave something to his loyal workers to make their lives more comfortable? Kenzie stood there, not opening the door.

  Burknall knocked again, insistently. “Kenzie!” he shouted through the door.

  Kenzie finally went to the door and unlocked it. She opened it a couple of inches.

  “What is it?”

  “You need to come out to the barn.”

  Kenzie shook her head. “I’m supposed to stay here.”

  Burknall was looking down. He could see the safe on the floor by her feet. He probably knew that it was empty. Maybe he was the one who had emptied it.

  “Come on. You want the kid, don’t you?”

  Kenzie frowned. “Mason? Of course. Is he in the barn?”

  Burknall rolled his eyes. “Where else would he be?”

  He sounded so genuinely irritated, Kenzie didn’t doubt him. She reached for her boots and her coat. Alisha grabbed at Kenzie’s coat as she tried to put it on.

  “Kenzie, no!”

  “I’ll just be a minute. I’ll go get Mason, and I’ll be right back.”

  “Daddy said no. He said to stay here.”

  “Well, he didn’t know that anyone else would find Mason while they were gone. You want me to bring Mason home, don’t you? You want him to be home safe.”

  “Yes...” Alisha drew her answer out, looking unconvinced.

  “You can lock the door behind me, right? And only open it for one of us?”

  “Yes. But I don’t want to be here by myself.”

  “It will only be a few minutes. I’ll be right back.”

  Kenzie finished pulling her winter gear on. She promised once more to be right back, then left the cabin.

  “Come on,” Burknall told her, and strode toward the barn.

  His stride was much longer than Kenzie’s, and he broke through the snow that wasn’t yet trampled down much more easily than Kenzie did. She wasn’t used to getting around the grounds, especially with all of the drifted snow, and she kept taking the wrong paths, tripping and stepping into holes and off the sidewalk into the gutter, neither of which she could see in the snow. She wanted to ask Burknall to slow down and wait for her, but she didn’t want to look like a helpless woman either. She was as competent as the next man.

  By the time Burknall reached the barn, Kenzie was well behind. She could see her destination, but she was no longer within calling distance.r />
  “Come on,” she muttered to herself. “City slicker here. Give me a bit of a break.”

  But he didn’t. He was into the barn and out of Kenzie’s sight.

  The last couple of minutes it took Kenzie to struggle through the uneven snow into the barn were worse. She could no longer see Burknall and reassure herself that she was doing the right thing. All that she could think of was that she had done the wrong thing. The opposite to what Zachary and Tyrrell would have told her to do.

  What if Burknall were the poisoner? What if he were just trying to lure her to where he could dispose of her out of sight of all the other cabins? No one would know what had happened to her. Alisha was the only one who even knew that Burknall had come to the door and that Kenzie had gone with him. She was the only one who knew that Kenzie had gone to the structure. After dealing with Kenzie, Burknall could go back and take care of the last witness.

  But Kenzie couldn’t think of a reason he would go through all of that. She couldn’t think of any motive he had to poison them all or to kill Brooke. It just didn’t line up.

  She entered through the big doors of the barn and looked around. It was warmer in the barn than it was outside, despite the big doors being open. There was some sort of furnace or heater running to keep it warm. That, and the warm animals helping to heat it with their body heat. The big horses that Mason had been so proud of making friends with and of driving during the hayride.

  “Mason? Are you in here?” Looking around, Kenzie couldn’t see Burknall, which made her even more anxious. Why wasn’t he standing there waiting for her? He had said that he would take her to Mason. Why the disappearing act?

  “Kenzie?” A small voice called back.

  “Hey. Where are you?” Kenzie looked around, trying to pinpoint the sound.

  “I’m up here.”

  Kenzie looked up and kept raising her gaze higher until they reached the top of the hay loft, where she could see Mason looking tentatively down at her over the edge.