The Diva Digs up the Dirt (27 page)

“Is that the calico cat?” He peered in the trap. “Hi, Cupcake.” He poked a finger into the cage. “Where are you taking her?”

“To my house tonight, then the shelter,” said Nina. “Is she your cat?”

“Not really. She comes and rubs against my legs when I putter around the garden. She’s my little Cupcake. Why are you taking her away?”

Violet hovered just behind him. “Because she’s killing my birds.”

I leaned toward him and whispered. “Violet was going to poison her.”

“Violet! You wouldn’t do that to a sweet kitty like this!” He wedged open the trap and pulled out the cat. She snuggled against his chest. Holding up one of her paws and waving it, he spoke in a little kid’s voice. “Hi, Violet. I’m sorry I disturbed your birdies. I promise I won’t ever do it again.”

I couldn’t help thinking Audie’s behavior was slightly odd, but it worked.

Violet giggled. “Audie, you rascal!”

The austere, gloomy woman giggled!
She clearly had a very special relationship with Audie. He brought out a completely hidden side of her.

He stroked Cupcake’s luxurious fur. “Can I have her?” he asked Nina.

“Absolutely. She needs shots.” She glanced at Violet. “It’s probably unwise to leave her out here.”

“Hey, Cupcake! How do you feel about being a bridesmaid?” He whispered, “We thought we better speed up the wedding, given Dad’s health issues.” Audie lifted Cupcake into the air and looked up at her. “We’ll get you your shots first thing tom… tom…

Nina ditched the trap and grabbed Cupcake as Audie clutched his stomach.

Olive hurried toward us. “Audie?”

“I’m okay, Mom. Just wedding jitters.”

“You haven’t eaten anything here, have you?” she asked.

“Don’t worry so much. Cricket brought food from my house.” He smiled at Nina and me. “I’m so sorry, ladies. Nina, why don’t you put Cupcake in the guest house? She can stay there during the ceremony. Excuse me while I get a drink of water.”

Olive took a deep breath. “This poisoning that’s going on is very scary. Would you like to stay for the wedding? The cake came from my favorite Old Town bakery, so it’s safe!”

I accepted for both of us, while Nina carried Cupcake to the guest house.

“How’s Mindy?” I asked.

Olive’s mouth twitched to the side. “I understand she’s better now, but they’re keeping her overnight to watch her heart.”

“Oh?”

“Digitalis is powerful medicine. It slows the heart. Too much of it can kill you.” Olive spoke unemotionally, as if she were a scientist merely relaying medical facts.

Nina returned as everyone gathered near the sprawling bed of daisies.

A woman played the wedding march on a violin, and Roscoe walked Cricket toward us on his arm. She wore a strapless wedding gown with a voluminous ball gown skirt and smiled like it was the happiest day of her life. Her stunning copper hair was pulled back off her face and cascaded down her back in loose curls.

Audie, on the other hand, had gone white as a ghost. He weaved, and instead of watching his gorgeous bride, he stared at the ground. I thought he might heave right then and there. He doubled over.

Olive gasped, but Audie waved everyone off and struggled to stand upright. “Continue, please.”

The minister watched Audie as he recited, “Dearly beloved—”

“Gah!” Audie fell to the ground and writhed.

“Water! He needs water!” shrieked Olive.

I ran to the guesthouse. Using the phone on the wall in the kitchen, I called 911 and told them what had happened while I filled two glasses with tap water. It spilled over my hands when I ran to Audie with them.

Olive seized the glasses and propped his head up. “Drink.” She looked up at me. “More water.”

I wasn’t sure about the wisdom of giving Audie water, but Olive seemed to know what she was doing, so I fetched more water.

When I returned, Cricket leaned over Audie, screaming his name. “No! No! Not Audie!”

“Cricket, what did you bring for dinner?” I asked.

She looked at me like I had lost my mind.

“It could be important. What did he eat?”

“He hasn’t been feeling well and didn’t want anything heavy, so I brought some salad.”

“With Italian dressing?”

She blinked at me. “Yes.”

I grabbed her shoulders. “Where is it? Did anyone else eat any?”

“It’s in the kitchen at the main house.”

Audie didn’t look good. He moaned and curled into a fetal position. I feared the person doing the poisoning might have gotten it right this time. I hoped not. Running as fast as I could, I headed for the house, through the family room to the kitchen. A siren grew louder in the distance.

Most of a salad had been tossed into a tall trash can. A fly landed on it right in front of me. The buzzing stopped immediately and the fly fell over.
Not a good sign.
I tied the flaps of the trash bag and looked for the dressing. It was in the fridge. Afraid to handle it, I used an oven mitt to stick it inside a plastic bag.

The EMTs had arrived when I dashed back outside. They fussed with Olive, but she stood her ground. “He has to keep drinking huge quantities of water.”

“Ma’am, we don’t know what’s wrong with him.”

“Two other people have been poisoned here over the last couple of days. What do you think is wrong with him? Drink, Audie, keep drinking!”

I handed an EMT the two bags. “I think the poison is in here.”

“What is this?” he asked.

“A salad and dressing. I wouldn’t touch either with bare hands if I were you.”

He turned his attention to Olive, who coaxed Audie to drink. “Ma’am, we don’t know what the poison is. Drinking water might be contraindicated.”

“Well I do know—Audie, drink more—and I’m telling you that he needs to drink as much as he possibly can. Vast quantities of water.”

Roscoe reached for his son’s hand. “You’ll be all right, Audie. Do as your mother says.”

I didn’t think Audie would drink much more, since he seemed to be in a lot of pain.

The EMTs made quick work of loading him onto a gurney and placing him in the ambulance.

The Greene family, Cricket, and Francie dispersed quickly to follow the ambulance to the hospital. In minutes, only the minister, the violinist, Nina, and I were left.

Practical Nina said calmly, “I guess we’d better take Cupcake with us. I seriously doubt that it will occur to any of them to feed her tonight.”

At nine o’clock, I paced the floor, a peculiar mixture of exhaustion and taut nerves that wouldn’t let me sleep. Every few minutes, I stepped outside, looking for lights in Francie’s house.

Unless there were several killers in the Greene family, someone had murdered Heath and tried to kill Roscoe, Mindy, and Audie. What did they have in common?

I could link Roscoe, Audie, and Heath due to Heath’s attempt to embezzle from Roscoe’s company, but Mindy was outside the loop.

I could link Mindy, Roscoe, and Audie, because Mindy’s arrival in the family had caused heartache, but then Heath didn’t fit into the equation.

What were the facts? What did I know for sure?

Roscoe and Mindy were both poisoned by digoxin, yet that didn’t seem to be the case for Audie, since he’d had different symptoms. Had the poisoner run out of digitalis and switched to something else? Had he changed to another drug because Mindy and Roscoe survived?

That was all useless speculation. I had to focus on the facts.

Audie and Cricket intended to marry. Mindy could have been jealous. No, that, too, was speculation. Who knew what Mindy felt? Why did everything lead back to unfounded theories?

Audie had been poisoned by food Cricket brought from his home. Now there was something concrete. It pointed a finger at Cricket. Who was I kidding? Olive, Roscoe, Violet—the whole family probably had access to keys to Audie’s house, the same way Natasha kept taking my keys from Mars.

But Francie and I had seen Mindy go into Audie’s house. If Audie wasn’t having an affair with her, why had she been there? What if he didn’t know she was in the house? Was that possible?

“Don’t jump to conclusions, Sophie,” I muttered to myself. There were bottles of the dressing stored in the guest house. That was a fact. It was also indisputable that Mindy had a key and let herself into Audie’s home.

My pulse quickened.

She had easy and private access to bottles of dressing in the guest house, which she could have doctored. Francie and I could place Mindy at Audie’s house, the scene of the crime. It would have been a snap for her to replace one of the bottles in Audie’s house with a poisoned bottle. But what about Cricket? Why wasn’t she sick? That blew my whole theory.

I walked outside again. There was a light on in Francie’s house. I rushed to her door and banged the knocker. Nina must have been watching for Francie’s lights, too, because she ran up behind me.

Francie opened the door. “I should have known.” She walked back to her kitchen. I closed the door and followed Nina. Francie set three Waterford sherry glasses cut in the Colleen pattern on the table and retrieved a bottle of Hartley and Gibson’s Cream Sherry.

I always enjoyed the ambience of Francie’s kitchen. It struck me as part kitchen, part library. The stove and other kitchen appliances took up one corner in the back. The rest of the room was lined with cabinets topped by bookshelves. A chunky French farmhouse table occupied the center of the room.

She sat down, shoved the bottle toward me, and closed her eyes.

I poured some of the sweet amber liquid into each glass. “How’s Audie?”

Francie sipped her sherry. “He’s my godson, you know. I never thought I’d see a day like today. The police, namely that idiot, Kenner, think Olive tried to kill Audie.”

“Olive?” Nina cried. “She loves Audie.”

“That she does.” Francie slowly swung her head from side to side. “The EMTs said she was acting like she knew what had poisoned him.”

“She was, sort of.” She had been adamant about that water.

Francie glared at me.

“She kept telling him to drink,” I said. “In fact, I think she might have told them she knew he was poisoned.”

Francie rested her elbows on the table. “Turns out all the water probably saved him.”

“Did they test the dressing?”

Francie scratched her head. “See, that’s the weird thing. It was mostly dressing. The doctor said they spread some out, and it looked like someone had chopped up various plants and added them. Harmful ones, as well as bits of daisies and petunias.”

“So what caused the problem?” I asked. “He was violently ill.”

“Monkshood. One of the most poisonous plants in the
English garden. You can be poisoned just by touching it. Olive suggested they test for it because she had planted some back near the pond. Fortunately, Audie must not have gotten much, and all that water Olive forced him to drink helped save him. It also made her the prime suspect.”

“But that’s crazy,” said Nina. “If Olive had wanted to poison someone, she wouldn’t have added all those nontoxic plants. She would have known what she was doing.”

“It’s absolute nonsense to place blame on Olive,” said Francie, looking more alert. “She would never hurt Audie. Never! She was spitting mad about Mindy’s plan to dig up those beautiful gardens and cover them with concrete, but Olive wouldn’t kill anyone.”

“Okay, I’m making a list,” said Nina. “This is driving me crazy.” She snatched a pad of paper and a pencil off a shelf. “It all began with Roscoe. Then Mindy fell. And now Audie.”

“You forgot Heath,” I reminded her. “He was really the first victim.”

“Wow. Four victims.” Nina added Heath to the top of the list.

Francie lowered her head into her hands. “It’s as though someone wants to wipe out the entire Greene family. No wonder they suspect Olive.”

“I’m making a suspect list on the right,” said Nina. “Olive. Have to add Mrs. Danvers, er, Violet. She’s looney.”

I swiveled the liquid in my glass. “What I don’t understand is why Cricket didn’t get sick. Didn’t she and Audie eat the same foods?”

“Hah!” spat Francie. “The doctor asked her that. Turns out she doesn’t like Italian dressing. She’s a ranch dressing girl all the way.”

“Adding her to the list of suspects,” said Nina, writing.

Francie set her glass on the table. “I love Olive like she’s my sister, but I never understood her desire to plant monkshood. Audie was just plain lucky that he didn’t get a bigger dose.”

“Which begs another question,” I said. “Why switch from digitalis to monkshood? Roscoe and Mindy had digoxin in their systems, but Audie was poisoned by monkshood.”

“It’s faster.” Francie twisted the stem of her glass around while she spoke. “Monkshood can kill a person in thirty to sixty minutes. Foxglove brings a slower death.”