The Bitter With The Sweet

by J A Whiting

  Who was Maura? Was Perry still dating her or had they broken up? Maura was studying anesthesiology. She would have access to drugs. Did she try to help Perry’s migraine by injecting him with melathiocaine? Was Perry’s death an accident? Or could Maura have given him an intentional overdose? Had he broken up with her? Was she so angry about it that she killed the man?

  Thinking everything over, Angie’s hand shook with apprehension when she reached for her cup.

  Time to find Maura.

  6

  “I’m doing much better.” Maribeth’s hand shook as she brushed at her cheek. “I have my routine and that distracts me some.” The woman glanced out at the hallway from her small office where she, Angie, and Courtney sat in comfortable chairs near the window. The room had rich wood paneling and a wall covered with shelves filled from top to bottom with books. “I wish the police would figure out what happened to poor Perry. I can’t get it out of my mind.” Leaning forward, Maribeth lowered her voice. “What if someone deliberately hurt Perry? Have I met the person who did it? Do I still run into him?” She let out a long, sad breath. “The idea makes my skin crawl.”

  “The police will get to the bottom of it.” Courtney gave the woman a reassuring smile. “Then you won’t have to think about it anymore.”

  “That will be a blessing.” Maribeth shook her head. “I know I’ll rally. I just need more time to process the whole thing, then I’ll be able to handle it better. All my life, I’ve been able to pick myself up after setbacks … and I’ve had plenty of them. You have to take the bitter with the sweet. That’s what life is like. You can’t let the bad things pull you under. You have to push through and keep going. You can’t give up.”

  “You have a very good attitude,” Angie told her. “But you need to give yourself time. It’s normal to feel strongly about such a terrible thing, to be upset by it, to feel loss.”

  “To be suspicious about people?” Maribeth asked.

  “Yes. To feel suspicious, to wonder what happened to Perry, to ask why.”

  “I just want it be over so things can go back to normal.” Maribeth pressed two fingers against her temple. “The investigators come around, they ask questions. The residents get worried, concerned. I don’t want them to move out. I need the income that the leases bring in. What if everyone moves away and no one will rent from me again? And besides, I’d miss everyone if they left me and moved somewhere else.”

  “I don’t think you need to worry about that. You have people here who plan to stay for the long term,” Angie said. “Some of the people consider this their home.”

  “I hope you’re right.” Maribeth slowly shook her head and looked out the window to the backyard gardens.

  Angie asked gently. “Did you see Perry the day he passed away?”

  Maribeth blinked a few times. “He had breakfast early like he usually does. He ate in the kitchen while I was working. Perry left for the hospital for a meeting and a lecture and I didn’t see him until later. He was working in his room, sitting at his desk. I know because he had his door open and I went past a couple of times.”

  “Did he have dinner here?” Courtney questioned.

  “We only have dinner as a household on Wednesdays,” Maribeth said. “Every other evening, the residents fend for themselves. Sometimes, a resident will make a big lasagna or a pot of stew or chili and he or she shares the meal with whoever is around.”

  “Did you see Perry in the house when it was dinnertime?” Courtney restated her question. “Did he cook something for himself? Did he go out maybe?”

  “Perry ordered takeout food. I went to the door when it rang. It was the delivery person. Perry came out and paid the young man and took his food into the kitchen.”

  “Were you in the kitchen when Perry was eating?” Angie asked.

  “I was in and out. I made a cup of tea and we chatted while I was waiting for the water to boil,” Maribeth said.

  “How was Perry’s mood?” Courtney asked.

  Maribeth leaned against the chair back. “He was his usual pleasant self. It was general chit chat.”

  “So it didn’t seem like anything was bothering him?”

  “No. At least I didn’t notice. I wasn’t in the kitchen for any length of time.”

  “What was Perry eating?” Angie asked.

  “Eating? I don’t really remember. Why do you ask?”

  “I wondered where he’d ordered the food from.”

  “Let’s see.” Maribeth rubbed the bottom of her chin as she thought. “I didn’t recognize the delivery man. I didn’t notice what he was driving so I didn’t see a business name on the vehicle. I can’t say what Perry bought for dinner. I don’t recall what he was eating that night.”

  “What did Perry do after he finished his dinner?” Courtney asked.

  “He cleaned up the dishes and returned to his room,” Maribeth said.

  “Did you see him again that evening?” Angie questioned.

  “No, I didn’t. At least not to speak with. I passed him as he was going to the kitchen.”

  “Did he have a guest or a visitor after dinner?” Courtney rested her elbow on the arm of her chair.

  “I remembered hearing voices in his room,” Maribeth said. “A man, I believe, but I didn’t see him.”

  “Did you recognize the voice?” Angie asked.

  “I just don’t know,” Maribeth said. “The police asked the same question of me, but I can’t answer it. Maybe it was Andy, the nursing student who lives here, but I can’t be certain. It was a young man’s voice though, that I’m sure of.”

  “Was Megan around that evening?” Courtney asked.

  “Yes, she read in the den for a while with Roger Winthrop and Mary Bishop. The three of them are bookworms. They always have their noses in a story.”

  “Did Megan, Mary, or Roger seem bothered by anything?” Angie asked. “Did either of them seem out of sorts, angry about anything?”

  Maribeth said, “Roger can be cantankerous, but he’s a kind man. It’s just how he is. He means well. Someone else might interact with Roger and claim he was out of sorts, but you have to know him. As far as I could see, the three of them were their normal selves.”

  “What were you doing that evening?” Courtney asked.

  Maribeth gave an account of her night. “I worked here in my office for some time, and then I went to the den and made a fire for the bookworms. I sat in there reading with them for about an hour, then I returned to the kitchen to make some batter for the morning waffles. Mary Bishop left the den with me and said she wanted to turn in early so we wished each other goodnight and went our separate ways.”

  Courtney asked another question. “Did you hear anything unusual during the evening or the night? An argument? A complaint? The sounds of a person who was annoyed with someone else?”

  “I didn’t hear anything like that.”

  “When did you go to bed?” Angie asked.

  “I went up to my rooms sometime after 11pm,” Maribeth said.

  “Your rooms are on the second floor?”

  “Yes, they are. There are a total of seven bedroom suites in the house, the residents occupy four bedrooms upstairs and two downstairs. I occupy the fifth bedroom suite on the second floor.”

  “Who had rooms on the first floor?” Courtney questioned.

  “Perry had one and Megan had the other. The older residents living in the house right now prefer the second floor because they think it’s quieter up there away from the common rooms and the kitchen. There’s a small elevator near the backdoor of the house so the stairs aren’t of concern to them.”

  “Have you talked to Megan about the night Perry died?”

  Maribeth seemed to shrink in her chair. “A little.”

  “Did Megan hear anything unusual that night?” Angie asked.

  “No.” Maribeth looked at Angie. “She only heard us in the morning when I brought you and Mr. Finch inside. Megan was sleeping later than usual. She heard the co
mmotion and came to see what was going on.”

  “Were Megan and Perry friends?” Courtney asked.

  “I would say so. They had busy schedules, but sometimes they’d cook dinner together or study together in each other’s room,” Maribeth told the young women.

  Angie asked, “Did Perry have any health problems?”

  “Health problems?” Maribeth’s forehead scrunched up. “No, but he did have bad headaches.”

  “Frequently?”

  “Often. He told me they ran in his family. He suffered when they came on.”

  “Did medication help him?”

  “He said he’d never really found any medication that helped. He did yoga, ran, saw a chiropractor, was careful about what he ate, hardly drank any alcohol at all.” Maribeth shook her head. “He’d close his door, put in ear plugs to block out any noise, and pull the shades to keep the light out. The headaches would last hours … sometimes they went on for nearly two days.” The woman lowered her voice and leaned slightly forward. “Megan mentioned to me that Perry’s father once attempted suicide because of his own terrible headaches.”

  “Oh, gosh.” Courtney’s face took on an expression of horror. “The poor man.”

  “Most people have difficult things to bear,” Maribeth said. “My husband died when he was only fifty. A sudden heart attack.” She sighed. “And my son, my only child, died in a car accident when he was seventeen. I had a hard time coping with those two losses. I couldn’t sleep, I could hardy eat. My work suffered. When my uncle passed away and left this house to me, it was the chance for a new start. I quit my job and turned this place into a boarding house. I like having people around. I enjoy providing a safe, cozy, comfortable home for people. Things have been going so well … until Perry….” She let her voice trail off. “I hope the police find out soon what happened to him. My mind runs away with ideas sometimes. I worry that someone might have killed him.”

  “The Sweet Cove police have an excellent record for solving serious crimes,” Courtney said. “They have one of the best records on the entire east coast.”

  “That’s encouraging,” Maribeth said.

  Angie wanted to talk about something less distressing to Maribeth so she asked, “What did you do for work before you starting running the boarding house?”

  “I was a registered nurse. I studied nursing and got my bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The job was very stressful. It was the right time for me to leave. I’m forever thankful to my uncle for leaving me this house. Good things do happen. We all have to focus on our blessings.”

  Yes, Angie thought. I’m grateful for my family every day.

  But sometimes, one’s focus has to be placed on other things.

  7

  Courtney and Angie left the boarding house and were heading to their car when a woman’s voice called to them. Megan Milton was getting out of her parked car when she spotted the sisters on the walkway.

  Angie introduced Courtney to the young pharmacy student.

  “How are you doing?” Megan asked Angie.

  “Okay. We made a delivery to the house and brought some flowers for Maribeth to let her know we’re thinking of her.”

  “That was nice of you,” Megan said with a nod of her head. “Have you heard anything from the police? Do they know what happened to Perry?”

  “I think they’re still investigating,” Angie said not wanting to reveal that Police Chief Martin had shared some information with them.

  Megan gestured to two benches under a shade tree. “Can you sit for a few minutes?”

  Angie and Courtney exchanged a look of agreement.

  “Sure. We have some time before we need to get back to work,” Angie told her.

  The early morning air was warming quickly promising an unusually hot day, but it was pleasantly cool under the tall, leafy tree.

  When they were sitting on the benches, Megan said, “It can be hard living in the house. I had the room across from Perry’s. I know he most likely died of an accidental overdose, but late at night, I start to worry. I’m afraid someone might have killed him. I can’t turn my mind off and I have a hard time sleeping.”

  “It’s understandable,” Courtney said. “It’s a traumatic event. You were friendly with Perry.”

  “How could someone get into the house?” Megan asked. “Maribeth keeps everything in good working order. The locks are up-to-date. You have to use a key to get inside. There wasn’t any sign of a break-in. The police told me that. Then how did someone get in?”

  “Maybe no one did get in,” Angie said. “Like you said, Perry probably died of an accidental overdose.”

  “Do you think he did?” Megan looked straight at Angie.

  “It’s a possibility,” Angie replied.

  “Perry was only twenty-five. Most people his age don’t pass away.”

  “It happens though,” Courtney said. “He may have had a health issue that he was unaware of.”

  Megan rubbed at the back of her neck. “I don’t know. He had those headaches, but otherwise, he seemed healthy and fit. Wouldn’t a health issue have shown up in some way by his age?”

  “I don’t really know,” Courtney told her, “but the medical examiner will be able to figure out what the cause of death was.”

  “Do you think he might have had a stroke?” Megan asked. “Could his migraines have caused a stroke?”

  “Did Perry have a migraine that day?” Angie asked.

  “When I saw him in the afternoon, he complained to me that he felt off. Sometimes when a headache was coming on, he would say he felt off in the head. Other times he felt sick to his stomach right before a headache hit.”

  “You saw him in the afternoon?” Courtney questioned.

  “Yeah. He came home a little earlier than usual. I asked him if he wanted to study together later in the evening. He told me he wasn’t sure because he wasn’t feeling great. He said he’d see how things went.”

  “Did you end up getting together to study?” Angie asked.

  Megan said, “He and I had some pasta and bread for dinner in the kitchen. Perry had ordered it from a take-out place. After we ate, he told me he was going to sleep for a while and if he felt better, he’d come by my room. I read in the den for an hour, and then I decided to go out for a while so I texted him that I wouldn’t be around. He didn’t answer, but my text didn’t need an answer.”

  “Did you study together a lot?” Courtney asked.

  “A couple of times a week.”

  “Did Andy Hobbs study with the two of you?”

  “No. I asked him, but he never joined us. I think Andy liked to study on his own and anyway….” Megan gave a shrug.

  Angie heard something in the young woman’s voice. “What were you going to say?” she asked.

  “Andy didn’t seem to like Perry all that much. I kind of thought Andy had a chip on his shoulder when he was around Perry.”

  “Why would he?” Courtney turned a little on the bench to better see Megan’s face.

  “I don’t know. I think Andy resented that Perry was in medical school and he wasn’t.”

  “He could have applied to med school,” Courtney said.

  “He did apply. He didn’t get in.”

  “Did Perry and Andy avoid each other?” Angie asked.

  “Perry was friendly, but Andy didn’t reciprocate. He stayed to himself a lot. Maybe it was the age difference between Andy and us.”

  “Is Andy that much older?”

  “Not really. He’s ten years older, but it seems to make a difference to him. He’s been married and divorced and is changing careers so I think he feels a lot more mature than he thinks we are.” Megan shrugged. “I’m just guessing. Andy never said anything. It’s just different personalities and people in different places in their lives.”

  Angie wondered if there was more to Andy disliking Perry than what Megan described.

  “You said you went out after having dinner with Perry the night he died,”
Angie said. “Where did you go?”

  “I met a friend for a couple of drinks.”

  “Where did you go?”

  “The Sweet Cove resort.”

  “Did you hear anything during the night?” Courtney asked. “Did anything wake you up?”

  “I woke up a couple of times, but I don’t think it was because of a noise or a disturbance. Whenever I drink, I often have a restless sleep,” Megan said.

  “So you don’t think you woke up because of a noise?”

  “I don’t think so. When I was awake and falling back to sleep, I didn’t notice any sounds in the house.”

  “Did you stay awake for very long each time you woke up?”

  “No, I fell right back to sleep. I don’t usually toss and turn. I just sleep lightly whenever I drink.”

  “Did you hear Perry talking to anyone?”

  Something passed over Megan’s face and her forehead lined in thought. “I don’t think so. I don’t remember hearing his voice.”

  “Did Perry have a girlfriend?” Angie asked.

  “He was too busy. He told me it wasn’t the time to make a commitment to someone.”

  “He had a girlfriend recently though?” Angie asked.

  “When he first started school he did. He broke it off.”

  “Who was the girlfriend?” Courtney asked.

  Megan said, “Her name is Maura Norris. She’s doing her residency now. She was in her last year of school when Perry started.”

  “Where is she now?”

  “She’s doing her residency in Boston.”

  “Do you know Maura?” Angie asked.

  “I met her a couple of times. She came here to the house right before they broke up.”

  “How was the break-up? Was it friendly?”

  “Perry didn’t talk about it much. He said Maura wasn’t happy about it, but he just wasn’t ready for a permanent relationship and that’s what Maura wanted,” Megan said.