Death Drops (13 page)

I thought about what Janice had said, that the first person on the scene was the prime suspect. Now, thanks to my inheritance, I had a motive. Means was the only thing left. It wouldn’t be much of a leap for Koren to assume that I’d been able to obtain the cyanide. I dealt with natural remedies on a daily basis. I knew plants.

The cops had a search warrant to accompany the tox screen and used it to spend the next hour and a half going through the store and the rooms upstairs looking for the poison. Natasha had immediately left; so much for a show of sisterly solidarity. Merrily was there, though, cleaning up after the lunch rush, and so were Allie, Hector, and Qigong. We all waited together at one of the tables in the café, drinking Suntheanine green tea to keep us calm. L-theanine is an amino acid found naturally in green tea that helps relieve stress and anxiety. I often recommend it to my clients as a natural relaxant because it doesn’t make one drowsy. As a bonus, L-theanine also helps to improve mental clarity.

Still, I had trouble thinking straight now. I kept worrying that they would find something to implicate me. After all, the store had been broken into before; it wouldn’t be a stretch for
someone to plant evidence, too. I patted Qigong on the head as I considered the possibilities.

Allie reached for my hand and held it tightly. “They can’t possibly think you had anything to do with this.”

“The first person on the scene is always suspect,” I said. “At least, that’s what they tell me.”

“I know from my friend at the NYPD that they must prove motive, means, opportunity, and malice when it comes to a violent crime,” Hector said. “How can they prove that you had malice toward your dear aunt? Clearly you loved her very much.”

“I’ll tell you how. Janice,” I said. “She’s out to get me.”

“Why is this?” Hector asked. “Did she not used to work here?”

I explained to Allie and Hector the many sordid details of my dealings with Janice.

“She’s putting out some very bad energy,” Hector said.

I sighed. “Tell me about it.” I heard footsteps on the stairs. “Speaking of bad energy,” I said as Detectives Koren and Coyle and their crew came downstairs and went in to search the office. I got up and went over to the door, but one of the patrolmen asked me to step back. Inside, the team ransacked my office. “Hey! Take it easy in there, will you? I have to be able to work,” I said.

Suddenly, Detective Koren focused on the bookshelf. He reached between
Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires
and
Money, and the Law of Attraction,
both by Esther and Jerry Hicks, and plucked something out. He turned to show it to me. “Now this is interesting. What is it?” He opened a small amber bottle and smelled the contents. “Cyanide,” he said, waving to the patrolman to let me enter the office. When I did, he shoved the bottle in my face. “Now, what is this doing here?”

First of all, I wanted to know how he could be so positive it was cyanide, but perhaps he’d dealt with it before. “I-I don’t know. Someone must have put it there.”

“That sounds like a very convenient excuse.” He put his finger in my face. “Let me tell you what I think. I think you had motive, your aunt’s inheritance; means, since you know all about natural stuff like this; and opportunity, since you were the last person to see the victim alive. The one thing I’m not sure about is if you have malicious intent. I’m getting conflicting stories there. On one hand, I hear that you and your aunt got along as right as rain; on the other, I hear you and she went at it pretty good when it came to your mother and sister.”

I figured Merrily or Nick had given me a thumbs-up, and Janice a thumbs-down. “I loved my aunt. I did not kill her.”

He sat down in my office chair, in effect taking over. “Now, we’re going to go over everything again. From the beginning. Start with when you got up Friday morning.”

Coyle also sat down and flipped his pad open, while the patrolman pushed the door shut and stood guard. This wasn’t going to be fun.

An hour and a half
later, after being questioned repeatedly about every minute detail regarding the morning Aunt Claire was murdered, my relationship with her, and what he thought could be my motive for killing her, Detective Koren left. But I had a bad feeling that he’d return with an arrest warrant.

I opened the door to the store and found Allie, Hector, and Merrily waiting at the counter for the lowdown. As they entered the office, I sat down at the desk, almost collapsing into my chair. I quickly told them about Koren’s questions and suspicions as they listened in rapt silence. When I finished, I said, “I’m afraid the next time I see him he’ll have an arrest warrant in his hand.”

“He can’t actually think you did this,” Allie said, her face scrunched into a frown. Yellow paint flecks dotted her forehead and cheeks.

“Obviously he does. He was coming at me pretty hard.” And it had resulted in me feeling very anxious, so I swiveled in my chair to turn on the desktop fountain on the table behind me. As the water gurgled out of the top of the fountain and trickled down the metal leaves to the bottom, I felt myself relax just a bit.

“They were asking us some tough questions, too,” Merrily said. “Mainly they wanted to know about your relationship with Claire. But I told them that you two were very close and that I didn’t think you killed her.”

“That’s good, right?” Allie said, looking on the bright side, as usual.

“Not if he’s got Janice in his other ear, but thanks, Merrily,” I said.

Allie came around the desk and started to massage my shoulders. “You are really tight. Your muscles feel like granite. Take a deep breath.”

I tried to, but the breath got caught in my throat. “God, I feel guilty. I should have done something to prevent this.”

“But how could you have known what someone was planning?” Allie asked me.

I shook my head, frustrated. “I should have asked her why she was taking that remedy, period. Instead, I just left for my walk. If I’d asked her about it, maybe convinced her to try something else, she might still be alive. Instead she took that remedy and it killed her.”

“It’s not your fault,” Allie said, and turned to Hector. “Tell her, Hector.”

“She’s right, Willow. You need to try to let it go. Just for now.”

“I can’t. Not when they want to put me in jail.” Suddenly I spotted Jackson Spade in the supplement aisle. “And I think I know someone who can help me.”

As Allie and Hector headed
upstairs to clean up and Merrily went to serve a few customers who had drifted in before closing time, I zeroed in on Jackson Spade. He still walked like a hunchback, so I had to conclude that the devil’s claw hadn’t done the trick. I did, however, like his royal-blue T-shirt, which made his eyes look gorgeous and had a great quote by Albert Schweitzer in white on the front: “Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.”

“I like your T-shirt,” I said. “As an animal lover, I can relate.”

“I figured you could,” he said.

Had he worn the shirt for my benefit?

“So,” I said, changing the subject, “are you feeling better today?”

He shrugged. “I’m out of bed and out of the house, but beyond that, no, not really. Do you have anything else in that bag of tricks of yours, doctor?” He gave me a dazzling white smile that almost knocked me off my feet.

Focus, Dr. McQuade
. In my mind I ran through my list of back-pain remedies. What might do the trick for Mr. Jackson Spade? “Did the devil’s claw give you any relief at all?”

He put his hand on his lower back and looked at me. “It seemed to, but yesterday I went shopping and overdid it hauling groceries into the house. Now I feel like I’m back where I started. Like I said, frustrating. It’s been a bad day.”

I knew what he meant, as my life had been a series of bad days lately. Not the least of which was from losing Claire. But I had the feeling he could help me, if I offered the right incentive. I knew I was desperate, clutching at straws, but I had nowhere else to turn, and Jackson Spade was my only hope. At the very least, he might be able to give me advice as to what steps I should take to protect myself from what I saw as my imminent arrest.

Jackson reached for a bottle of an herbal supplement designed to help back pain and turned it around to read the label. “That’s good,” I said. “I know the doctor who created it. You know what else would help you? Massage and acupuncture. And I happen to have two new practitioners who’ve just joined the business. They’re setting up shop upstairs on the third floor as we speak.”

He put the pills back on the shelf. “I’m sure it would, but I’m a little cash-strapped right now, since I had to hire a gardener and a house cleaner to do things I can’t.”

“What if I told you that you could have treatments for free?”

He turned to me and gave me a bemused grin. “I’d say nothing is free, Dr. McQuade. What do you want in return?”

“Can we talk in there?” I gestured toward the office. “And please call me Willow.”

He looked me up and down, this time definitely checking me out. “I think I’ll call you McQuade. It suits you.”

“That’s a new one,” I said, and went into the office. “But I think I like it just fine.”

“Good,” he said as he followed me in and gingerly lowered himself into the guest chair. “I’m glad.” Qigong immediately jumped on his lap. He smiled and started scratching him behind the ears. “I love dogs.”

“Do you have one of your own?” I asked.

“Been waiting until I feel better. I want to get a rescue. I had a dachshund when I was a kid. Thought I’d get two or three. You know, fill the house up. There’s a great organization called All American Dachshund Rescue that does good work saving the dogs from kill shelters and breeders in the South.”

“That sounds great,” I said, distracted by a new e-mail message Aunt Claire had received from someone named Sue Polumbo. But now wasn’t the time to read it.

Instead, I turned to Jackson and laid out the facts of the case and everything that had happened, including the news of my inheritance, Janice’s threats, the break-in and fire, and the fact that Aunt Claire’s formula had been stolen. I also told him about Gavin Milton, my new neighbor across the street, the nasty organic-produce lady, and Aunt Claire’s latest cause, preventing the opening of the new pet store. The news of the pet store definitely struck a chord with Jackson. He knew what dogs went through at puppy mills. Finally, I told him about the tox screen results, Detective Koren’s questioning, and my feeling that I was definitely a suspect.

He listened without interrupting and, when I’d finished, said, “What exactly do you think I can do?”

I pointed to the computer screen. “I’ve been going through the e-mails she sent and received regarding Fresh Face, but so far I haven’t found anything. It’s essential that I find that formula; it was her life’s work after all, not to mention the fact that the store and café desperately need the money to operate. Then there’s the tiny problem of the murderer. What if he or she comes back again? I’ve already had two break-ins. If we work together, we can investigate her murder and find the killer and the formula.”

He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t tell me to forget about it, either. Encouraged, I continued. “Free massages and acupuncture. We’ll have you feeling like your old self in no time flat.”

“Don’t.” He held up a hand and winced for good measure. “If you knew how many doctors, both conventional and alternative, I’ve been to see and how many products I’ve tried, you wouldn’t make that assertion lightly.”

“I’m not. I believe in what we’re doing here, and I’m sure I can help you. Now, will you help me?”

Dear Dr. McQuade,

I’ve been feeling tired, so my doctor ordered blood tests, which showed that I’m mildly anemic. But the iron the doctor told me to take is really hard on my stomach. Is there something natural and gentler that I could take instead?

Signed,

Less Than Peppy

Dear Less Than Peppy,

Anemia is a common problem (it affects up to 80 percent of the world’s population, according to the World Health Organization) and often runs in families. Women need 18 milligrams of iron but often get only 6 milligrams. So supplementing makes sense. For someone who is severely anemic, it’s a good idea to eat red meat (choose beef that has been raised humanely) two times a week and take an iron supplement combined with vitamin C for better absorption. In your case, since you are only mildly anemic, you may want to try a liquid extract herbal remedy supplement called Floradix Iron & Herbs. It’s a combination of herbs such as African mallow blossom and nettle wort that provide iron naturally and is easy to digest. It’s good for vegetarians and vegans, too. You’ll need to take it twice a day with meals.

Signed,

Dr. Willow McQuade

Jackson said he needed time to think about whether he would help me. But in the meantime, I knew there was something I could do to keep the ball rolling. After Jackson left, I plucked from the top desk drawer the piece of orange cloth that Qigong had found when he chased the intruder out of the store, and examined it again. Tomorrow morning, I’d head to the organic clothing store to see if I could find a customer who’d bought a T-shirt like it.

The next day, after I did my yoga and meditation routine in Aunt Claire’s room, Qigong and I headed downstairs to grab breakfast before the store opened. I found Allie already there, sitting at one of the café tables nursing a cup of herbal tea. Her face brightened when she saw me. “How are you doing this morning?”

I sat down next to her. “I feel calmer, less anxious, thanks to yoga and meditation.”

Allie nodded. “No better time to keep up your practice. If you’re relaxed, you’ll be able to handle everything better.”

“I also feel incredibly sad. I can’t believe she is really gone.” I felt tears well up at the edge of my eyes. I brushed them away.

Allie put her hand on mine. “It will get better,” she said. She took a sip of her tea and bit into a muffin. We sat together in silence for a few moments before she said, “What are you planning on doing today?”