Murder by Arrangement (Edna Davies mysteries Book 5) (17 page)

“How does Bobbi
feel about that,” Edna wondered aloud.

Louise lifted a
shoulder. “Says she doesn’t mind, but I think she’s not making a fuss because
she knows it will upset Duke and me. She’s a sensitive and warm-hearted young
woman, so I think as long as John behaves, she’ll put up with him.”

“Does your
husband mind John coming back into your lives?”

“John isn’t back
in my life,” Louise protested. “I want nothing to do with the man, but to
answer your question, Duke wasn’t a bit happy. As long as John keeps his
distance, there’s not much we can do, though. It’s just something we live with,
watching over our shoulder.”

When Edna left
the Callahan home shortly thereafter, she had a lot to think about, but all
that went out of her head as she checked her cell phone. She’d left it in the
car so as not to be disturbed while she was talking to Bobbi. Now, she noticed
several calls from Matthew, but only one short message. “Call as soon as you
can.”

She did.

The first words
out of his mouth were, “Don’t worry. Dad’s okay.” Taken by surprise, Edna was
speechless, so Matthew repeated. “He’s okay. We got him back onboard in less
than fifteen minutes.”

“What are you
talking about? What happened?” By now, Edna’s heart was racing. She had a
sudden urge to laugh, but swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “Please,
Matthew. Tell me what happened.” Then, she changed her mind. “Is your father
there? Put him on the phone.”

 “No. Yes.”
Matthew stuttered and then seemed to take a deep breath himself. “He’s here, in
the hospital. Patrick’s doctor checked him over and Dad will be fine. I think
mainly he’s just shaken up a bit.”

“If he’s fine,
why is he in the hospital?” Edna wasn’t feeling reassured. “What happened?” Her
patience was beginning to wear thin with this son of Albert’s. He was
her
son only when he wasn’t exasperating her.

“He bumped his
head when he fell overboard. We don’t know
how
exactly. One minute we
were fishing and the next thing we knew, Dad was shouting at us from the water.
He was floundering because of his bad leg. I jumped in, and Ken threw me a
ring. Course, we all had on life jackets, so nobody was really in big trouble.”
Matthew went on to explain how he swam Albert to the side of the boat with a
lifeguard hold. Roger and his brother had to lean down to grab Albert’s arms
and pull him up the side of the boat. Apparently, it was too hard for him to
climb up the ladder, again because of his injured leg, and he was a little
groggy because of the knock on his head.

Matthew ended by
saying, “I asked Dad if he wanted to leave earlier than planned. He said no, he
doesn’t want to spoil the trip, but he asked me to call and let you know he’s
okay.”

So I’ll be
sure to coddle him when he gets here
, Edna thought with a grin, but didn’t
say aloud. Instead, she asked, “What do the doctors say? Could your father have
fainted or had a touch of heat stroke?”

“They’re not
sure. Maybe all the above. Hard to say, but they’ve checked him out and say he
should be fine to fly tomorrow.”

“
Should
be,” Edna echoed weakly.

Chapter 23

When she reached
home, having dwelt for the entire trip on her husband’s accident and how he
might have simply fallen off a boat, Edna phoned her daughter-in-law.

“Have you talked
to Matt?” Irene asked as soon as preliminary greetings were over.

“Yes, and I’m
worried about Albert, but there’s nothing to be done until they get home. I’ll
see if he’ll go get checked over by his own physician, but I don’t hold out
much hope. You know how stubborn he can be.” She spoke more lightly than she
felt and changed the subject. “How’s Lettie?”

“Oh, my
goodness, I think I’m beginning to regret getting involved with the Becks.”

Edna was
surprised at the irritation in Irene’s tone. It took a lot to rattle this
mother of four, but she did sound annoyed. “What’s happened?”

“Rosie has
apparently decided to take Lettie to her grandmother’s, first thing in the
morning. Talk about a ping pong ball. I don’t know what’s going on with that
woman. Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, the day she’s been working toward for
weeks. Now, it sounds like she’s skipping out on her employer, only to take her
daughter back to her grandmother’s. Just the reverse of what she did a few days
ago. Why would she remove the child, leave Lettie with me during the day and
then suddenly turn around and take her back to Lily?” Irene paused to take a
deep breath before adding. “If that child doesn’t become neurotic in the next
few years, it won’t be her mother’s fault.”

“Do you think
Rosie’s been fired?” Edna was as surprised and concerned as her daughter-in-law
sounded.

“Maybe after the
big day, but certainly not before. This seems like very erratic behavior, Edna.
I’m worried about Lettie and the effects on her. What should I do? What
can
I do?”

Edna was wondering
the same thing. “I’ll visit Lily tomorrow. I want to talk to her again anyway,
so maybe I can learn what’s going on.” She ended the call soon thereafter and
headed for the grocery store.

For the rest of
the day, Edna busied herself cooking and straightened the house, so she
wouldn’t sit and ruminate on Albert’s health or Rosie’s strange actions or
Louise Callahan’s revelations. While a chicken was simmering, preparatory to
making soup, she puttered around the house putting away her knitting, music discs
and books. Beverly and Junie of Housekeeper Helpers would arrive in the morning
to clean, so Edna got rid of any clutter that might be in their way. She then
made cranberry cake, a favorite of Albert’s. She thought the homemade soup
would not only be comforting, but would also ward off any cold or flu bugs that
might be hanging around in his body after a dunk in the ocean. She planned to
pamper her husband when he got home, and maybe he’d feel mellow enough to allow
her to make a doctor’s appointment for him.

Benjamin
followed her around the house, inspecting her work and, occasionally, undoing
her straightening with a swipe of his paw to a tatted doily on the arm of a
chair or a stack of papers on the desk in the office. Edna indulged him with a
chuckle as he finally settled on a cushioned chair in the kitchen to watch as
she deboned the chicken.

The antics of
her cat and the chores kept Edna’s mind occupied for several hours. With the
work done, in the late afternoon, Edna poured herself a glass of wine, lit a
small fire in the hearth and settled in her favorite chair with her notebook.
It was time to concentrate. She had written down several questions earlier in
the week, when she’d been sitting in the mall parking lot, hiding from John
Forrester. Now, she wanted to review and update her notes. She wanted to be
prepared to press Lily tomorrow. Edna was convinced the woman knew much more
than she’d admitted.

By now, Edna was
as certain as she could be that Gregory Haverstrum had been poisoned, and most
likely, the substance he’d ingested was ranunculin. Clem Peppafitch had the
bloom of a Christmas Rose clutched in his hand at the time of his death.
Coincidence? She was beginning to doubt it very strongly. She may be accused of
watching too many crime shows on TV, but Edna was convinced he was trying to
tell them something.

Charlie reported
that Clem had died of an overdose of digitalis, but Peppa said he wouldn’t have
taken the drug. Why not? Could he, too, have been poisoned?

Edna made a
mental note to corner Peppa that evening at Mary’s and find out why she
disagreed with the medical examiner’s conclusion. Through online research, Edna
had learned that the symptoms of too much digitalis in the body can cause
confusion and impair vision. That would be precisely why Clem looked to be
stumbling and disoriented, as if he were drunk.

Thinking about
some of the other plants she’d seen in Lily Beck’s garden, Edna went into her
office and scanned through Mrs. Rabichek’s journals. She stopped speed-reading
and carefully re-read the information on Pieris japonica, more commonly known
as “lily of the valley shrub.” She looked particularly at the red notations,
Mrs. Rabichek’s color coding for warnings.
“Mad honey” made from the plants can
cause cardiac arrhythmias, mild paralysis, convulsions. Also, m
uscular
weakness, impaired vision.
 S
erious
cardiovascular effects: bradycardia, hypotension (caused by vasodilation), atrioventricular
block. May be lethal.

Carefully
returning the journal to its place on the shelf, Edna went back to her seat by
the fire. She speculated. If Clem felt his heart going into overdrive, he might
have taken digitalis to slow it down. Maybe he panicked and took too much. She
already knew that the symptoms of the overdose would make it appear as if he
were drunk. Had he been trying to get away from the Beck house and seek safety
with Peppa? If so, why?

And what about
the “mad honey” Edna had just read about. According to Mrs. Rabichek’s
warnings, that would also slow one’s heartbeat. Lily had said she’d stopped
keeping bees because of the potentially tainted honey. Had she kept some from
that one year’s harvest?

Quite a lot of
what Edna was finding circled around to Lily, but what about Rosie? Certainly
she had as much access to the garden as did her mother, and she must also be
knowledgeable about all sorts of vegetation after working in a nursery.

I wonder.
Retrieving her small notebook, Edna played with her pencil for a few minutes,
idly and almost subconsciously sketching the blossoms of the Christmas Rose.
Why had Clem been carrying a rose? Had he been planting so simple a clue?

Edna suddenly
wanted to discuss the idea with Charlie. She pushed herself out of her chair
and almost ran to her office. He must meet her at the Beck house tomorrow.

Receiving no
answer from the detective’s cell phone, Edna figured he must be working and
unable to pick up her call. She left a message and, wanting to be certain he
knew how important her request was, she phoned the station and left the same
message with the man on duty.

“Yes, ma’am.”
He’d be sure to deliver the message to Detective Rogers. “Urgent. Yes, ma’am.”

With a sigh,
Edna hung up the phone. That was all she could do tonight. In another couple of
hours, she needed to be at Mary’s. After a light supper and a short nap, Edna
was ready to face the evening ahead.

“No, Benjamin. I
want you to stay here in the house,” she said to the ginger cat before she
stepped outside the back door and waited for her eyes to adjust to the
darkness. Clouds obscured the moon, so there was hardly any natural light to
guide her, but the temperature seemed almost mild. She switched on the
flashlight she’d taken from a shelf in the mudroom. From the dimness of the
bulb, she could tell the batteries were low, but she didn’t want to take the
time to go back for new ones. Certainly, they would last until she crossed to
the neighboring house.

Plodding
carefully over the uneven lawn, Edna saw light coming from Mary’s kitchen. Tuck
and Peppa must have arrived. As Edna reached the barway in the stone wall
between the properties, her flashlight went out. Stopping to shake the heavy
metal tube, she was rewarded with a faint glow. The moment she lifted her head
to continue her walk, she saw a light go on in Mary’s attic.

“They’ve started
without me,” she muttered, but before she could take another step, the upper
story went dark.
Odd
, she thought, staring at the top floor of the
house. She started forwarded again, mindful of her footing, but looked up
sharply when light again appeared in the attic window.
It’s as if someone
were turning on a three-way light
, she thought, watching the brightness
grow in stages before being extinguished again.

Picking up
speed, she hurried as fast as she dared across the rest of the lawn, hardly
noticing that her own light had gone out as she reached the packed-dirt
driveway and along to Mary’s back door. When she passed the kitchen window, she
saw all three women in the room.

So who would
be upstairs in the nursery?
Edna wondered.

She entered the
back hall, left her coat on a peg near the door and went through into the
kitchen, surprised not to be greeted by Hank or Ink Spot. The thought of Mary’s
pets vanished from her mind as she moved into the kitchen and spotted her
neighbor. “Who’s in your attic?”

She’d apparently
startled Tuck and Peppa who spun around at the sound of her voice. Mary had
been leaning back against the counter, facing the door. She frowned. “What do
you mean?” Then, realization seemed to strike as her expression changed from
confusion to excitement. “What did you see? Did you see my ghost?”

“There’s a light
going on and off in your attic. Do you have a lamp on a timer? If so, there
must be a short in it.” Edna had reached what she thought was a sensible
answer, if there was nobody else in the house.

“Don’t have
anything up there on a timer,” Mary insisted. Still looking happily excited,
she said, “Let’s go see.”

Tuck’s eyes had
grown wide and she was beginning to look nervous, but Peppa seemed as eager as
Mary. “
Lay on, Macduff, and damned be him who first cries Hold! Enough!
”

“Do you think
you should be quoting Macbeth?” Tuck asked in a low, shaky voice. “Isn’t that
bad luck?”

“We’re not in a
theater,” Peppa retorted.

“Hush. Don’t
want to scare ‘im,” Mary hissed, even though nobody had yet left the room.

Edna felt the
urge to laugh aloud at the drama played out by the other three, but bit her
tongue so as not to offend her friends.
But really, this is too comical
,
she thought. Following the troupe toward the living room and the front stairs,
however, she had to admit to a prickling sensation growing between her shoulder
blades.

The back stairs
were closer to the kitchen, but the front ones provided a more direct climb to
the nursery side of the third floor. Mary led the way and Edna noticed that
each of the women carried flashlights. Imitating the slow tiptoeing of her
friends up the wide staircase, she suddenly wished she’d taken the time to
replace her batteries. Still, she held the heavy metal tube in her hand, in
case she needed to defend herself.

Mary halted on
the third-floor landing and waited outside the nursery until the women all
stood together.

“Open it,”
whispered Peppa.

As Mary reached
for the knob, a ribbon of light appeared in the crack beneath the door. She
jerked her hand back as if she’d been burned, and the women all stared as the
radiance brightened and then disappeared. In that brief instance, Edna saw
everyone’s eyes were as large as hers felt. She was wondering if their spines
were as tingly as hers, too, when the sound of pattering feet sounded from the
other side of the flimsy wooden door. Whatever made the sound was running away.

Peppa nudged
Mary’s upper arm with her flashlight. “Go on. Open it,” she repeated her
earlier command. “We’re right behind you.”

Again, Edna felt
the urge to laugh, but bit down hard on her lip. It was more of a nervous
reaction than comic now.

Reaching out
hesitantly, Mary took hold of the knob, twisted and thrust the door wide. She
pushed so hard, the door banged against the wall and bounced back, slamming
shut. In the second or two that the door had been open, Edna hadn’t seen
anything ghostlike.

“Oh, phooey,”
Peppa said. Elbowing Mary aside, she grabbed the handle, opened the door and
walked into the room. The others followed with Edna bringing up the rear.

As soon as she
moved to stand beside Tuck, Edna saw the flash of eyes an instant before they
disappeared. Mary must have seen them, too, because she directed the beam of
her light across to the far wall from where faint scratching noises emanated.
She was just quick enough to catch two tails disappear behind a wooden chest,
one white and the other black. At once, Mary reached to the side and tapped a
floor lamp, turning it on.

“A touch light?”
Edna guessed.

At Mary’s nod
and sheepish look, Edna began to laugh. She couldn’t hold it back any longer
and neither, did it seem, could the other women. Even Mary joined in.

When they
finally had control of themselves, the quartet moved as one to the trunk.

“My toy box,” Mary
explained.

The scratched
and battered container, looking much like a storybook pirate’s chest, stood
next to the two steps that led up to the storage room door and about five
inches out from the wall.

Leaving
enough room for the rounded lid to be lifted
, Edna mused. Putting her hand
on a back corner, she pushed the chest askew to see where the cats had gone.

“Forgot about
that space under the stairs,” Mary said, bending over the trunk. “Help me move
this,” she said to Edna. “I want to get those cats out of there. Can’t imagine
how they got up here in the first place. I left ‘em in Father’s room.”