by Cindi Myers
“Well, of course we don’t want just anyone bothering him,” Merry said. “But I’m a little different, don’t you think? I mean, Parker and I are practically engaged.”
“But since you aren’t engaged yet, we’re limiting visitation to immediate family.”
Who was this “we”? And who was this witch to say who her son—a grown man—could see or not see? “Parker was with me last night,” she said. “I think he’d want to see me.”
Donna didn’t say anything, merely looked right through her. Merry glared at her. “Parker hates you,” she said. “Did you know that? He’s a grown man, but you treat him like he’s a fourteen-year-old. He’d do a great job of managing this business, but you’d rather leave a loony old man in charge than trust your own son.”
Two spots of bright pink bloomed on Donna’s cheeks, against her otherwise paper-white skin. “You have no right to talk to me that way,” she said. “You need to leave now.”
“I’ll leave,” Merry said. “But you won’t get rid of me that easily. When Parker and I are married, just remember—I’m the one who’ll be picking out your nursing home.”
She felt Donna’s stare like daggers in her back as she headed across the parking lot. That woman had better watch her step. Merry could make a lot more trouble for her than she could begin to imagine.
* * *
“HOW IS A man supposed to get some rest if people keep interrupting me?” Parker Stroud raged from his hospital bed. “I told the nurse no visitors!”
“We need to talk to you now,” Ana said.
Rogers followed and shut the door behind them. “What is this about?” Jace asked.
“We know about the blackmail.” Ana kept her voice low. Conversational.
Parker visibly flinched. “What did you say?”
“We know about the money you paid out to your blackmailer—$100,000 so far.” She shifted on the bed to face him more directly. “Of course, that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to the balance in your Steven Parker account, but at this pace, it won’t be long before you’re all but bankrupt.”
“I... I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But all color had drained from his face and his heart monitor beat a rapid tattoo. As good as a lie detector, Ana thought.
“You do,” Rogers said. “Someone is extorting money from you. Why is that? Is it because you put that poison in the Stomach Soothers?”
Parker swallowed and regained some of his composure. “You’re just making wild accusations,” he said. “You can’t prove anything.”
“But we will,” Ana said. “We’ll find out who those payments were to, and we’ll trace the poison, too.”
“Get out of here,” he ordered. “This is harassment.”
Ana stood. “We’ll leave. But we’re going to be watching you closely. Don’t do anything foolish.”
* * *
BACK AT THE TRAILER, Jace made a fresh pot of coffee while Laura tore off a big piece of parchment paper from the roll in the pantry and pinned it to the pantry door, across from the kitchen table. She unearthed a couple of markers. She welcomed the opportunity to focus on the case, to prove, if only to herself, that she and Jace could still work well together even after they had become intimate. She had always been very disciplined about keeping her personal and business lives separate. The line was fuzzier with Jace, but she intended to try to keep it clear. “Sit down and let’s review what we know about this case,” she said.
Chuckling, Jace pulled out a chair and dropped into it. He sipped his coffee, a half smile teasing his lips.
“What’s so amusing?” Laura asked.
“Like I said, you’re a future Special Agent in Charge.”
He probably meant that as an insult, but she refused to take it that way. “Do you want to stand up here and write?” she asked. “Because you can.”
“Oh, no. You’re much better at this than I am.” He sipped his coffee. “It’s a good idea,” he added. “Let’s get to it.”
She uncapped the marker and turned to the paper. “Let’s start with the timeline.” She wrote “May 1. First victims of poisoned Stomach Soothers.”
“Go back further,” Jace said. “To April 29. That’s when that particular lot of medication was manufactured. It was shipped the next day.”
“That’s good to know.” She added in this information, then listed the other known deaths. “Gini Elgin died May 2,” she said. “As far as we know, that’s what brings Leo into the case.”
“As far as we know,” Jace said.
She wrote “May 6—first bombing at Stroud Pharmaceuticals,” then added in the dates of the other bombings, along with the fatalities from each.
“All the bombs were in the executive offices,” Jace said. “All places Donna Stroud was most likely to have been—the door she used when she arrived early at the office, the door to her office, and the door to her husband’s office.”
“She said she didn’t use her husband’s office,” Laura said.
“But I’ll bet she went in there sometimes. She was more likely to do so than anyone else.”
“Donna Stroud was the most likely target,” Laura said. “Why?”
“With her husband incapacitated, she’s in charge of the business,” Jace said.
“Who stands to gain with her out of the picture?” Laura asked. “A rival?”
“Her son would take over the business if she died or couldn’t continue to manage it,” Jace said.
“Anyone else?”
“We’ll have to find out if anyone else inherits,” Jace said.
“Merry would benefit if she married Parker,” Laura said.
“I don’t think Parker has any intention of marrying her,” Jace said. “And unless she’s a lot dimmer than she looks, she knows it.”
Laura studied the paper a moment. “Let’s talk about the poisoning for a minute. That’s the first tragedy, and maybe it triggered everything else. Could it have been an accident? Something gone wrong in the manufacturing process? All the ingredients in the product are natural, right? Ricin is natural, too. It’s from the castor bean plant. Maybe someone mistook it for something else.”
“Ricin is deadly,” Jace said. “It’s not something people have just lying around. It certainly isn’t used in anything Stroud makes. And only a few bottles of Stomach Soothers were found to be contaminated—less than a dozen. If the ricin was mistakenly used in a whole batch of product, we would have found hundreds of bottles that were contaminated.”
“Which brings us back to who had the opportunity to insert the poison in those bottles, and why?”
“There were eight people on the manufacturing line the day those packages were processed.” Jace ticked the names off on his fingers. “All of them are long-time employees who are still with the company. We’ve checked them and nothing stands out or suggests a motive for sabotage.”
“Parker Stroud runs the plant and would have easy access to all parts of the manufacturing process,” Laura said.
“So would his mother,” Jace said. “And his father, too.”
Laura frowned. “Would Steve Stroud have put ricin in those bottles of pills? Why?”
“Let’s find out where he was, just to be sure,” Jace said. “I looked up the report on the security footage for that day. It doesn’t cover the whole line, but it does show that Donna and Parker Stroud were both on the production floor, along with Gini Elgin and Merry Winger.”
“Merry was there? And Gini?”
“Merry brought lunch to Parker. Gini came down to talk to him.”
Laura added this information to the paper, then backed up to stand beside Jace. “Parker still has the best motive and opportunity for all the crimes,” she said. “Maybe he had set the bomb for his mother and his father getting there first was an accident. Trying to save his father, Parker was hu
rt, which tends to direct our suspicions away from him.”
“I want to talk to Merry again,” Jace said. “I think she knows something she isn’t telling us.”
“Something about Parker?” Laura asked.
“She’s hiding something. I just haven’t figured out what yet.”
* * *
“PARKER IS HURT? Mr. Stroud dead?” Leo clutched his head and moaned. “That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“What was supposed to happen, Leo?” Rogers slapped both palms on the table and leaned over the younger man. “We know you made those bombs. Another person is dead and one badly injured because of you. If you want this to stop, you have to tell us who has the other explosives, so we can stop them.”
Leo moaned and rocked in his chair. Ana sat beside him. “I know you didn’t mean for this to happen,” she said, her voice soft.
He shook his head. “No.”
“Maybe you just thought the bombs would frighten people,” Ana said. “You wanted to make them listen.”
His answering groan could have been a yes.
Ana put a hand on his arm. “How many bombs did you make?” she asked.
“Six.” Another long moan.
Ana locked eyes with Rogers, her alarm evident. Three people had died in the first three explosions. How many more would die if three more bombs were let loose?
“Who did you give the bombs to?” Ana asked.
He shook his head. “I can’t tell you.”
Rogers leaned forward again, but Ana waved him away. “Why can’t you tell us?” she asked.
“Because I promised.” He raised his head, his face a mask of anguish. “I swore on my mother’s grave.”
“I think your mother would want you to help us and stop the killing,” Ana said.
“Is Parker going to be all right?”
“He had to have surgery to remove some shrapnel,” Rogers said. “He should recover, though he’ll probably have scars the rest of his life.”
Leo’s lips trembled, and he struggled for control. “Parker tried to make things right after my mother died,” he said. “I didn’t want to listen to him, but he never stopped reaching out. We were friends in school. He never shut me out the way some people did. The way his mother did.”
“How did Donna Stroud shut you out?” Ana asked.
Anger hardened his features, making him look older. “I went to see her and she refused to talk to me. She shut the door in my face.”
“I’ll bet that made you angry,” Rogers said. “If I were in your position, I might have wanted to do something to hurt her.”
Leo didn’t confirm or deny this.
“You made the bombs,” Rogers continued. “Six of them. Why six?”
“I only made one to begin with. It wasn’t supposed to kill anyone. Just frighten them.”
“So you put the first bomb at Stroud Pharmaceuticals,” Rogers said. “The one that killed Lydia Green?”
“No! I wouldn’t do that. I told you, I liked Lydia.”
“So you made the first bomb,” Rogers said. “Then you made more?”
“Leo, you didn’t put those bombs at the Stroud offices, did you?” Ana asked.
“No! I didn’t. I didn’t have anything to do with that.”
“But you know who did put them there,” Ana said. “We need to know who that person is so that we can stop them before they hurt someone else.”
Leo shook his head.
Rogers leaned over Leo, his face very close, his eyes fierce. “Three bombs have exploded, Leo. Three people have died. How many more bombs are going to kill how many more people before you tell us the truth?”
“I can’t tell you.” He shoved back his chair and stood, Rogers and Ana rising to their feet also. “I don’t want to talk anymore,” Leo said. “I want to see my lawyer.”
Ana and Rogers’s eyes locked again. “We’ll call your lawyer,” Rogers said. “She’ll tell you it’s in your best interest to talk to us.”
He led the way out of the room, as two officers entered to escort Leo back to his cell. “He’s going to break,” Rogers said.
“Yes,” Ana agreed. “But will he tell us in time to prevent more people dying?”
* * *
MERRY LIVED IN a pale gray cottage in a neighborhood of older homes, many in the process of being renovated. Flowers crowded the beds alongside the front fence and either side of the walkway leading to the front door—ruffled hollyhocks in every shade of pink, orange daylilies like upturned bells, red and yellow and white zinnias and snapdragons filling every gap like dropped candies. “What do you two want?” Merry asked when she answered the door.
“We wanted to make sure you’re okay,” Laura said.
“Why wouldn’t I be okay?”
“Your fiancé is in the hospital,” Laura said. “Did you get to see him?”
“No.” Merry stepped onto the porch and pulled the door shut behind her. “We can talk out here.” She led the way into the garden. “I tried to see him and this sour-faced nurse told me only family was allowed to visit. Then I asked Donna to talk to her and she had the nerve to tell me that until Parker and I are officially engaged, I’m not family.” She snapped a fading flower from one of the hollyhocks and crushed it in her hand.
“That was harsh,” Jace said.
“Oh, I wasn’t surprised.” Merry snatched another wilting flower head and flung it into the grass. “She’s as cold as they come. She’s made Parker’s life miserable. He’s an intelligent man with lots of great ideas for the business, yet she treats him like a stupid boy.”
“Merry, you’re probably closer to Parker than anyone,” Jace said. “Do you have any idea who might want to hurt him or his family?”
Merry stopped and looked him in the eye. “Why are you so interested?” she demanded.
“With the factory closed, we don’t have jobs,” Laura said. “The police and FBI aren’t getting anywhere finding the person who planted those bombs, so we figure we might as well try to solve the case ourselves.”
“We haven’t got anything better to do,” Jace said. “Maybe, being amateurs, we’ll get lucky.” He winked at Laura, who quickly looked away, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing.
Merry returned to dead-heading spent flowers. “If you ask me, the cops ought to be taking a closer look at Donna.”
“Donna Stroud?” Laura asked.
Merry nodded. “I already told you she’s cold. She probably set those bombs herself to get rid of her loony husband. She had to be paying out a fortune to have people watch him while she’s working.”
“But what about Angela Dupree and Lydia Green?” Laura asked. “Why would she want to kill them?”
“I don’t know. Maybe Angela was too needy. Maybe the cleaner found something incriminating in the trash can and was blackmailing her?”
“Do you think Parker could have set those bombs?” Laura asked. “Maybe because he resented the way his mother treated him? He wants to be in charge of the business.”
“Parker?” Merry laughed. “Parker could never kill anyone. He doesn’t have the nerve.” She brushed her hands on the thighs of her denim shorts. “Parker likes to complain, but he doesn’t have the guts to do something like that.”
“Who would you say does have the guts?” Jace asked.
Merry smiled. “His mother, but you already know that. I can’t think of anyone else.” She faced them, hands on her hips. “Now let me ask you a question—what are you really up to?”
Laura kept her expression bland. “What do you mean? We’re trying to solve this crime so we can get our jobs back.”
“I mean, what are you doing in Mayville? You don’t have relatives here. You didn’t know anyone here before you showed up out of the blue. This isn’t some garden spot everyone wants to come to. Y
ou must have had a reason.”
Laura searched for a plausible answer. She was usually good at thinking on her feet but right now she was struggling.
“My family is in Hatcher, just across the border in Tennessee,” Jace said. “We wanted to be close to them, but not too close. Anyway, there aren’t any jobs in Hatcher. There are here.”
Merry looked disappointed. “That’s the truth?”
“What were you expecting, Merry?” Laura asked. “We came for the jobs. As you pointed out, there’s no other reason to be here.”
“You get on so well with Donna Stroud, I thought maybe you had some connection to the family.”
Jace laughed. “That’s rich. So, what are we, the poor relations thrilled about living in a crappy trailer and working in their factory?”
Merry smiled. “I guess it is a little silly.” The smile faded. “And I guess it shows how much Donna hates me. She’d rather hire a stranger to be her son’s admin than give me the job.”
“Some women are very protective of their sons,” Laura said. Though she felt a pinch of sympathy for Merry. She had painted a not very attractive picture of Donna Stroud.
“Let us know if you hear anything interesting and we’ll do the same,” Jace said. He took Laura’s arm. “We’ll get out of your hair now.”
Arm in arm, they left the yard. When Merry and her cottage were no longer visible, Laura relaxed a little. “Do you still think she’s hiding something?”
“I don’t know. But we’d better let Ramirez and Rogers know they should take a closer look at Donna Stroud.”
“Yeah.” They hadn’t considered Donna as a suspect before now because she seemed to be the person with the most to lose in all these crimes. But what if she had even more to gain?
“For what it’s worth, my mom would be thrilled to know I’d taken up with you,” Jace said.
The statement, or rather, the idea that he had been thinking of her in relation to his family, startled her. “Would she really? Why?”
“You’re smart. Beautiful. Not afraid to get in my face when you think I screw up. My mom would appreciate all of that.”