Fruit of the Poisoned Tree (18 page)

“It’s all right.” Beth smiled at her. “Peggy and I need to talk.”

Peggy waited until Foxx and Reddman were out of the room. She didn’t mean to burst in and begin a tirade, but the words just came out when she saw her friend’s placid face. “Beth, if the police find out . . .
when
the police find out, it’s going to be very bad for you.”

“I didn’t know what to say,” she confessed, hands twisted in her lap. “Park told me we should keep quiet on the insurance. That’s why I pretended not to know about it. Then all these other things came up. I just blanked.”

“This makes you look incredibly guilty of something.” Peggy continued to pace the old hardwood floor. “I
know
you didn’t do anything to hurt Park or Isabelle. But the police won’t. They’ll come after you about this. You have to tell Hunter so she knows what she’s up against.”

“I will,” Beth agreed. “It’s so scary, Peggy. I-I don’t know what to say or do. They’re accusing me of terrible things. I could lose the boys.”

Peggy wanted to hug her. She really did. But she was angry, too. So she stayed where she was, arms folded across her chest to keep from reaching out to her friend. “Just tell the truth from now on. Don’t let them catch you in any more lies. This is bad enough without that.”

“I agree.” Beth looked up at her with tears on her face. “I won’t let it happen again.”

“Did you talk to Alice about working for Isabelle?”

“I don’t see what difference it makes now.” She shrugged. “Isabelle probably sent her here years ago to spy on me. It’s not surprising. She liked to know what was going on.”

Peggy tended to agree with her. With Isabelle dead, those small intrigues would be over. Still, it disturbed her. Did Isabelle know about the insurance policy
and
Park’s affair with Cindy, courtesy of Alice? Is that what made her think Beth was responsible for Park’s death?

Alice called Beth to let her know the boys were ready for their stories. Peggy said good night to her but waited for Alice to come downstairs.

When the housekeeper saw her, she drew her arms up combatively and her dark eyes narrowed. “What do you want now, Miz Peggy? Can’t you leave good enough alone?”

“I suppose not. Not with everything that’s going on.” Peggy focused on the other woman, who was easily twice her size. “What kind of things did you report to Isabelle?”

“Nothing! I worked for both of them. Don’t mean I spied on
either
of them, if that’s what you’re thinking!”

“So you didn’t tell Isabelle when Park had the affair with Cindy or about the insurance policy Beth took out on him?”

Alice’s lip curled. “I didn’t have to tell
her
about the insurance policy. Mr. Lamonte’s doctor told her when he went in for a physical to qualify. And I
know
you don’t think I had to tell Miz Isabelle about Miz Cindy!
That
woman was bursting to tell her!”

“But you
did
tell her things, didn’t you?”

“Things about the boys.” Alice shrugged. “Nothing important. Nothing that would hurt Miz Beth. She didn’t offer to
pay
me for anything, you know. It was like my duty to her. With her it was always like I should be grateful for her letting me work there. When she got me this job, I was supposed to be double grateful. But don’t take a leftover potato or a decent Christmas bonus home. No, ma’am!”

Alice’s voice was bitter. Peggy looked at the surly housekeeper but decided to leave it. Alice worked for both households, had access to both dead family members. But it was hard to imagine where Park’s or Isabelle’s death would benefit her.

Peggy called for a taxi and waited outside for it. There was nothing else she could do, and she was tired. She wanted to go home. She left a message on Al’s cell phone about Alice and Cindy while she was waiting. Maybe the information would be helpful.

The cold air cleared her head. It was dark at six p.m. The streets were starting to freeze over for the night. All that melting left a lot of water on the pavement that quickly became a glossy sheen under the streetlights’ gleam.

She heard some rustling in the bushes close to the house. Thinking it was probably a cat caught in a frozen holly, she went to help. She took a step back when Cindy Walker emerged from the cover of blackness where the lights couldn’t penetrate the shadows.

“Peggy! It’s nice to see you again.” Cindy’s pale green ski-bunny outfit was perfect for her. Her blond hair was pushed up under a matching green knit cap with a white tassel on the top. “Cold out here, huh?”

“What are you doing out here, Cindy?”

“Not spying, if that’s what you think. I was about to go in and offer my condolences. Not that she’d come and offer any to
me
! And not that
I’m
not entitled to a few. He was my husband
first
! And he still loved me.”

“You can sashay around the truth as much as you like,” Peggy said, “but when it comes right down to it, Park was with Beth. Not
you
!”

“Not because he wanted to be,” Cindy declared passionately. “He wanted to leave her.
She
wouldn’t let him go. He didn’t want to lose everything. That’s the God’s honest truth! Ask
her
!”

Peggy knew the only thing that kept this woman in Isabelle’s good graces was that her father was a state senator and she had a pedigree that went back before the Civil War. Cindy had to make the Dragon Queen grind her teeth just to talk to her!

Unfortunately, she could hurt Beth’s case with her last declaration. The police would listen to her once they knew the whole story. Especially since Beth had lied to them. “I’m sure you were devastated as well,” she finally said to Cindy. “It’s been hard for everyone. I’m sorry for your loss.”

Cindy’s shoulders sagged dramatically. “He was my life. She never loved him like I did. And he loved me. Now she’s killed Isabelle, too. I have no one. What am I going to do?”

Peggy sympathized with her for a few minutes, patting her shoulder until the taxi came to take her home. But she thought about her for a long time after she left Myers Park. Cindy could be the prosecution’s best witness against Beth. She was also a good suspect. But while she definitely had motive to kill Park, Peggy couldn’t imagine her hurting Isabelle, her staunch supporter.
Park,
she sighed,
what a mess you left us in!

 

PEGGY WAS GLAD TO be home safely after a five-minute drive became a twenty-minute obstacle course. A car was turned sideways on Providence Road, blocking all traffic. Her driver, David, knew some side streets to take and skidded down them to reach her house. She gave him a large tip and some advice on what to do for the cramps he was having in his legs. “Eat plenty of bananas. That should help. You might need to see a nutritionist.”

“Thanks, Peggy. Those eyebright drops you recommended did good for my wife.”

“That’s wonderful, David! Eyebright will do the trick! Say hello to Agnes for me, and drive safely.”

Shakespeare was barking loudly when she opened the door. He ran and slid across the wood floor, taking a rug and a table with him, crashing into the wall. He looked up from his upside down, feet-in-the-air position and wagged his tail.

“You’re a mess,” she told him as she extricated him from his tangle. “If we don’t get over to get those lessons soon, there won’t be anything left of the house or the shop.”

She made herself a light supper of cheese and crackers while she looked through her mail and watched the news on TV. She was headed upstairs to change clothes and check on her plants when Hunter called. Beth had called her, as she promised.

“This is bad, Peggy,” Hunter began. “When the police find out Beth and Park were having problems, then a big insurance policy surfaces after he dies, it will be very bad.”

Peggy sighed. “I know. There’s nothing we can do about it now. Let’s hope they don’t find anything suspicious about Park’s accident. No matter how guilty Beth looks, if there’s no crime, it doesn’t matter.”

Hunter agreed. “I hope she’s not hiding anything else from me. I can’t help her if I don’t know the truth.”

“I know. I’m sorry this happened. But I really think it was a mistake and nothing calculated on her part.” She told her about her words with Alice and Cindy.

“I hope so,” Hunter said. “On a lighter note, Sam took me out to a nice pizza and spaghetti place for dinner. There was no one there, so we got great service. They closed the place down as we were leaving.”

“That’s great,” Peggy enthused. “But Sam is going to be with his new friends a lot. You need a boyfriend to take you out to dinner.”

“Easier said than done. The last date I had was two years ago when a junior partner at a law firm took me out for lunch.”

“What happened to him?”

“He was interviewing me for a job.” Hunter laughed. “Pathetic, isn’t it? But it’s the best I can do. It’s not easy meeting men when you work twenty hours every day.”

“I’ll have to see what I can do. You’re gorgeous! There’s no reason why any man shouldn’t be proud to be with you!”

“Thanks but no thanks, Peggy. I don’t need to be matched up like Paul and Mai. They knew each other first anyway. I’m going online now to order some clothes. Maybe I’ll order up a boyfriend, too! Talk to you later.”

Peggy went upstairs to change her clothes. The house was cold. She put on a purple sweatsuit and thick socks. She wouldn’t put her hands in the pond and get soaked tonight! That cantankerous old furnace was acting up again. She was going to have to give it a good kick when she got downstairs.

But before she reached the basement, she heard knocking at the door. Shakespeare ran for the front foyer like a tan, furry rocket. He didn’t let up until he slammed headfirst into the heavy door. Even
that
impact only stunned him for a moment. But it was long enough for her to answer the door. “Mai! Come in! How are you?”

“I’m fine, Peggy. I can’t believe the roads are freezing so fast.” She glanced at Shakespeare as he shook his head. “Is something wrong with your dog?”

“Not really.” Peggy patted his head. “He’s a little wild right now. Thankfully, he’s hardheaded, too.” She took Mai’s coat and hat and hung them on a rack in the foyer. “Would you like some tea?”

“That would be wonderful, thanks.” Mai rubbed her cold hands together. “I brought
you
a plant for a change.” She handed Peggy a wilted begonia. “My mother gave it to me. Do you think you can help it?”

“I’m not sure.” Peggy examined the nearly dead plant. “I’ll do what I can. I think you may have overwatered. But you didn’t come here just to bring me a dead begonia.”

“Not exactly. I hope you don’t mind me coming over without calling first. I really need to talk to you.”

Peggy frowned. “Is it about Park or Isabelle?”

“No. We aren’t finished with that yet. It’s about me and Paul.”

“Oh!” Peggy led the way to the kitchen. “I’m sorry. I get so caught up in other people’s problems. Paul told me you two are house hunting.”

“See, that’s the thing.” Mai sat down at the old oak table. She glanced around the room at the fragrant bunches of drying herbs on the wall and the shelf of seedlings in the window. “Paul wants us to move in together. I don’t think I’m ready. But he’s insistent.
Very
insistent. I don’t know what to do.”

Peggy put some water in the copper kettle and set it on the stove to heat. This was exactly what she was afraid of. “Have you told him you aren’t ready?”

“Dozens of times. He’s as hardheaded as Shakespeare. I don’t want to lose him. But I need some time. We’ve only been dating a few months. I’m not ready to give up my own place yet. Not to mention that he wants to buy a house to prove himself to me. I’m
really
not ready for that.”

“I understand. When he told me about the house and the extra job, I was concerned he was pushing a little too hard. He was always like that as a child. He’d make a new friend and want to spend every waking moment with him. I guess he gets
very
attached very quickly.”

Mai drew invisible patterns on the tabletop. “And I really like him. He’s fun to be with. We have a good time together. But I’m only getting started in my career. I don’t know if I want something so serious right now. Neither one of us makes much money either. I know I don’t want a house if Paul has to work all those hours to pay for it. It’s all we can do to find time together now with both of our schedules.”

Peggy nodded as she brought the hot mugs of cranberry tea to the table and sat opposite Mai. “What can I do?”

“I guess I was hoping you’d talk to him.” Mai sipped her tea, warming her hands on the mug. “I don’t want to break up with him over this. I want us to stay the way we are for a while.”

“I’ll be glad to try to set him straight,” Peggy promised. “His father was the same way. John and I were married within a month after meeting. He followed me around until I thought I’d have to slap him to get him to go away. I told him I never wanted to see him again. He sent me magnolia flowers in the dead of winter. I still have no idea where he got them.”

Mai grinned. “So what did you do?”

“I guess I succumbed and married him. I wasn’t so sure about it, but he seemed sure enough for both of us. I never regretted the decision. It wasn’t that I didn’t love him, you see. It was just that it was too fast for me. John was always one step ahead.”

“Then Paul
does
take after his father,” Mai agreed. “But I can’t do this right now, Peggy. Please see if you can get him to understand. I don’t want to hurt him.”

Peggy agreed, and they talked about other things. They went downstairs to look at Peggy’s plants, and Mai tried to catch the bullfrog who laughed at her from the edge of the pond. She never even got close.

Mai left an hour later after more tea and ginger cookies. They hugged quickly, then she disappeared into the night outside. After discussing her problem with Paul, they talked about everything else
but
her son. Peggy wasn’t sure if she could convince him to back down from getting the house. If Mai’s arguments weren’t enough, what good would her words be?