Chili Con Corpses, page 20
“That’s better. Now,” she inhaled for dramatic effect, which was lost on James. He was too busy fixing his coffee just right and wondering if there were any eggs left in the fridge. “First of all, Kinsley’s going to be fine. She was released from Shenandoah General early this morning.”
“That’s great news,” James replied guiltily. In his state of fatigue, he had almost forgotten about the young woman’s frightening physical state the night before. “She was like Sleeping Beauty,” he remarked. “What was wrong with her, Lucy?”
“She was poisoned!” Lucy whispered with a mixture of horror and delight. “With a very high dose of Wildnil. Does that brand name ring any bells?”
James took a grateful sip of coffee and felt the blood coursing sluggishly through his veins pick up a bit of speed. “That’s the potent drug stolen from Colin’s office, right?”
“Yep. A whole mess of it was put in one of the bowls of chili con queso.”
“Wow,” he breathed. “But how can she be fine? I thought that stuff was really potent to humans?”
“Apparently it takes a long time to work if it’s ingested,” Lucy informed him. “At first, it just makes you super sleepy. Dwight should have injected it directly if he wanted Kinsley to die, but who knows what he wanted!”
“So Dwight’s definitely the killer, huh.” James was more than ready to accept this assumption and put the mystery of Parker’s death behind him.
“Dwight was questioned all night and it’s not looking good for him. There was an ampoule of Wildnil beneath the driver’s seat of his car and a pair of muddy boots in the trunk that are an exact match to a set of tracks left outside of Colin’s office. McClellan and his team are searching Dwight’s house today.”
“Has he confessed to anything?” James wondered.
“No. Just the opposite. He claims that someone has set him up and swears that he’s never been to Colin’s office in his life and has no reason whatsoever to hurt Kinsley.”
That gave James pause. “That does raise a point. Why would he wish her harm?”
“I don’t know.” Lucy sounded impatient.
“And Parker? Does McClellan think Dwight killed her?”
“He’s playing his cards close, but think about it. Dwight could have easily slipped out of the office and transformed into Mr. Sneed.” Lucy was growing bored with James’s questions and was obviously anxious to spread the tale. “The state cops will need to find some evidence in his house to link him to that crime. Right now, he’s only being held for attempted murder.”
“Only?” James spluttered. “I don’t get this. If nothing else, Hutchins seemed like a sensible person. How could he be so stupid as to leave his boots in the car?”
“People aren’t always rational when it comes to murder, James,” Lucy responded with a touch of condescension. “I’ll call you later if I hear anything else. Start the phone tree, will you?”
In no particular rush to inform the rest of the supper club members about Dwight’s arrest, James ate some low-fat oatmeal with a low-salt butter substitute. He drank a second cup of coffee and then called Lindy.
“I’m still trying to put my poor house back together!” Lindy grumbled. “Teachers are the worst party guests. I’ve seen them trash other people’s houses, so I don’t know why I expected better behavior from them, but I did!”
James interrupted her litany of complaints, ranging from the amount of punch spilled on various pieces of furniture to the fact that garbage was deposited in both her houseplants and umbrella stand, to tell her that Kinsley was hospitalized but physically unscathed.
“I know all about it, James! She was poisoned!” she shrieked. “And at my party! When the Blue Ridge parents get wind of that little tidbit I’ll be out on my ear. First, Parker’s killed on my field trip and then her sister’s poisoned at my house. I’m officially cursed!”
“No one’s going to blame you,” James soothed his friend. “It sounds like Dwight is our bad guy. How did you know about the poison already?”
“As soon as the ER doc told the police that he suspected Kinsley had consumed something toxic, the cops took samples of all of the leftovers. I wasn’t allowed to clean anything up until this morning. I was told the chili con queso was spiked because its salty taste masked the taste of the Wildnil.”
“And a vet would know all about Wildnil. Looks like Dwight is going to jail for a long time.” James drained his coffee cup and began to feel like a human being again. “I know this is off the subject, but did you have any luck with Chavez last night?”
“Well, I was hoping for a New Year’s kiss, but now I realize that he’d never make a move on me in front of the other teachers. He did stay with me until the bitter end.” She issued a frustrated sigh. “I swear he was going to say something important, too. He took my hand and gazed at me with those beautiful, coffee-colored eyes, and then that Donovan jerk interrupted us. Chavez went home and I may never know what he was going to say!”
“Hmm,” James murmured sympathetically. “We’ll just have to find another way to get you two alone. And soon.”
“What about you, James?” Lindy asked sharply. “From where I was standing, there was more than one female looking to get a little love from you last night. Have you ever had two women after you at once?”
“No,” James gulped. “And just for the record, I don’t like it. I have problems enough handling one woman at a time.”
Cheered, Lindy laughed and promised to phone Bennett before she resumed her cleanup.
After an extremely long and luxuriantly hot shower, James bundled up in a heavy wool sweater, jeans, and lined boots before fixing a mug of black coffee for his father and heading out to the shed. He did a double take when he noticed Milla’s minivan in the driveway and heard the sounds of a relaxed conversation emanating from the shed.
“Pop?” James knocked and then slowly opened the door. He didn’t know what he expected to find, but Milla and his father were both engaged in perfectly innocuous activities. Jackson was painting and Milla was organizing his paints and brushes by arranging them in cutlery boxes according to size and color. Jackson’s radio was set to a soft jazz station, and a plate of partially eaten ham biscuits sat next to a bowl containing the remnants of a fruit salad.
“Happy New Year, James!” Milla gave James a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Can you believe this marvelous work? Your daddy is a genius!”
Looking around, James had to agree. Stacked all around the small space were paintings of hands. Hands sewing, hammering, twisting electrical wires, bagging groceries, changing oil, stirring soup. Each set was as different as a pair of eyes. The skin tones, minute lines, small hairs, freckles, scars, age spots, and other unique markings were as varied as the occupations illustrated.
“Whose hands are those?” James asked. He stepped closer to his father as Jackson added a stroke of green to the palm of a hand holding the foot of an infant while guiding it into a pad of ink.
“Doc Spratt,” Jackson answered without taking his eyes from his work. “He insisted on doing your footprints himself.”
James stared at the tiny foot, cradled with gentle firmness in the nest of the doctor’s skilled hand. The action was tender and proud, and James could almost sense the excitement that his parents must have felt. How his father was able to capture all of these feelings by painting two hands and one foot was beyond him, but Jackson had found a way.
“Amazing, Pop.” James gestured around the room. “Are all of these hands you’ve seen before?”
“’Course!” Jackson snorted. “I just need to see someone’s hands once and for no good reason at all, I can recollect them like that.” He snapped his fingers. “I haven’t been around about town in a while, but folks don’t change too much from one year to the next.” He hesitated. “Not in the hands, anyway.”
Milla collected the plates of food. “I’m going to load the dishwasher, and then we’re going shopping, Jackson Henry. I’m no artist, but there are things a person needs when they sit in one spot all day and we’re going out to get them!”
James waited for his father to argue, but he simply grunted, stood, and began to clean off his brushes.
After the pair drove off in Milla’s minivan, James undertook the chore of taking down the Christmas decorations, boxing them, and hauling them to the storage space his family referred to as the attic. Calling the rickety pull-down ladder and drafty area above the bedrooms an attic was a stretch, and James had debated over whether or not to bother with the family advent wreath, the boxes containing all of the ornaments James had made in school, or the treetop angel hand-sewn by his mother. It was the thought of Milla coming over to an unadorned house that motivated James into setting up a tree and stringing lights around the lamppost outside. Now, however, he grumbled vociferously over having to return them by way of the steep and narrow ladder.
“At least I’m getting some exercise,” he said after standing up and bumping his head on an angled roof rafter. By the time the house was restored to its pre-holiday order, James noticed that Milla had brought over a floral arrangement consisting of carnations and greenery and had set it out on the kitchen table. She had also purchased a new dishtowel in a cheerful plaid. These little touches—ones that the Henry men didn’t know how to add—were already making their small house more pleasant.
“Milla is a miracle!” James told Murphy later that day as they met at Dolly’s Diner for dinner. “She took Pop to an art supply store and to a furniture store to pick out a new chair.”
“That’s great news. See? It’s a whole new year.” Murphy smiled and sipped her tea. “Who knows what can change for the better?”
James reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “Mine is starting off pretty well so far, thanks to you.”
Pleased, Murphy looked around the diner. “I thought I might see Lottie here. It seems as though she’s finally agreed to go out on a date with Scott. I was kind of surprised because her ex-boyfriend is your typical beefy-jock type, so I thought Scott didn’t stand a chance.” She shrugged. “But apparently he made something for her, and she was just swept away by his creativity. I thought she mentioned coming here, but they probably hang out later than old folks like you and me.”
As the two moved on to the subject of Dwight and his antisocial behavior at the party, Kinsley and Gary walked into the diner. Murphy jumped up and waved the couple over to join them.
“You’re looking pretty good for someone who was poisoned!” Murphy teased Kinsley.
“Thank God someone can kid around with me.” Kinsley rolled her eyes and elbowed Gary. “Mother Hen over here is barely giving me room to breathe.”
Gary frowned. “Can I help feeling protective? Someone tried to kill my wife!” He opened his menu but didn’t read it. “At least they got the bastard.”
Kinsley’s smile faded. “I went to see him this morning.”
“What?” James, Murphy, and Gary all shouted in unison. Startled, Kinsley’s elbow knocked into Murphy’s teacup. It tipped over and a river of hot liquid streamed onto Gary’s lap.
“Jesus!” he yelled, leaping to his feet. “Watch it!”
“Oh, honey!” Kinsley tried to dab at the stains with her napkin. “I’m sorry. It was an accident.”
Gary looked down at his wet crotch and the stain spreading on his jacket. “This is suede,” he grumbled as he inspected his jacket. He then stomped off to the restroom. Kinsley followed him with her eyes, which appeared weary and tinged with a sadness that seemed unfitting to a new bride.
“Why did you visit Dwight Hutchins?” Murphy asked quickly, before Gary could return.
Kinsley was still troubled over the tea incident. Reluctantly, she faced Murphy. “I just wanted to know why he tried to hurt me. What had I ever done to him?” She traced circles on the table with the dregs of tea. “Besides, I wanted to look him in the eye and ask him if he killed my sister.” She dropped her gaze and concentrated hard on not crying.
James handed her his napkin just in case. “And did he talk to you?”
Kinsley nodded. “He claims he’s been framed. He repeated this over and over again. He swore he didn’t break into Colin’s office, that he didn’t poison me, and that he would never harm a hair on my sister’s head.” She shook her head. “By the time I left, I was torn between hating him for lying to me and wondering how long he’d been in love with Parker.”
Murphy had quickly transformed into reporter mode. “Did he accuse a specific person of committing these crimes?”
“No,” Kinsley replied and then forced a smile as Dolly approached.
“You poor, darlin’ baby girl!” Dolly exclaimed and cupped Kinsley’s lovely face in her wide hand. “I am so glad to see you up and around. You pick anything you want and Cliff’ll make it for you, special.” She appraised Kinsley closely. “Seems to me like you could use some red meat. How about some spaghetti with meatballs as big as your fist?”
“Sounds perfect.” Kinsley nodded gratefully at Dolly, and the threesome small-talked for a few minutes about the weather and the latest celebrity gossip. In the middle of a discussion about the latest box-office hit, Kinsley’s expression turned anxious as Gary reappeared at the table. “Are you okay?” she asked her husband solicitously.
“I’m not going to sit here in wet pants, that’s for sure.” With one hand on his hip, he held out the other for her to take. “Let’s go.”
Kinsley paused. “But I already ordered dinner and, Gary, I’m really hungry. I didn’t get a chance to eat lunch today.”
“She’s always hungry,” he said to James and Murphy. Though his tone was light, no laughter reached his eyes.
“We’ll drop her off at home afterwards,” James offered, silently bristling on Kinsley’s behalf. “She can’t miss out on Dolly’s meatballs. They’re famous.”
“Or you could go home, get changed, and then come back and join us?” Murphy suggested in a sugary voice.
Gary waved off her invitation. “I’ll just grab Mickey D’s on the way home.” He then gave Kinsley a disapproving look. “Though I’m pretty damned curious about why you went to see the maniac who tried to kill you—especially when you told me you were going to get your nails done.”
Kinsley grabbed Gary’s arm. “I didn’t plan on visiting … him. I went to the nail salon, but they were closed. I totally forgot about today being a holiday.” Her eyes welled. “I just sat there, in the parking lot, wondering why, why? There’s only one person that could answer that question for me, so I went to see Dwight Hutchins. Suddenly, there I was at the county jail, sitting at a table across from him.”
Dolly arrived with a platter the size of a Yule log and inserted herself between Gary and his wife. “You eatin’ today, Mr. Lowe?” she asked the shorter man without her customary excess of exuberance. James was certain that Dolly must have stationed herself so that she could overhear most of the conversation. He was also certain that she wouldn’t be too pleased about how the newcomer was treating Kinsley.
Faced with Dolly’s fierce maternal stare, Gary quickly backed away. “You can explain everything to me later,” he grumbled and walked off.
“I’m sorry, guys.” A single tear ran down Kinsley’s smooth cheek. “I guess he’s just stressed. He used to act like that at Solmes. It’s one of the reasons we broke up.” She twirled spaghetti around and around on her fork. “I could never understand why he got so upset when the market did something unpredictable. It wasn’t like it was his money that was lost.”
“Actually, it may very well have been his money,” Murphy said quietly and quickly sought James’s eyes. “I think it’s time to tell her the truth.”
James agreed, though his heart ached for the woman sitting beside him. Murphy told Kinsley what she knew about Gary being fired as succinctly and straightforwardly as possible. She then fell silent as Kinsley busied herself with her spaghetti.
“You didn’t know about the front running,” James stated softly.
Kinsley speared a meatball with her fork, peered at it as if it were an enemy, and then sliced it in two with her knife before shoving it in her mouth. She wordlessly answered James by shaking her head so that her hair glimmered beneath the lights.
“Sitting in that room today, Dwight told me that he and Gary were roommates their freshman year at Princeton. You could have knocked me over like a bowling pin when he said that.” She took a deep breath. “He believes that Gary is behind the burglary and … and putting the Wildnil in my dip.” She drank half a glass of water in three gulps. “Apparently, Gary was always playing mean jokes on people in their college dorm and continued the pranks after they both joined the same fraternity. Since they were fraternity brothers, Dwight saw Gary at house functions, but Dwight lived in the dorms while Gary moved into the frat house.”
“Dwight doesn’t strike me as the type to join a fraternity,” James remarked.
Gesturing with her fork, Kinsley said, “Me either. And Dwight said he got burned out on all the partying by the end of their freshman year. So he stopped hanging out at the fraternity and he hardly saw Gary after that. Then, Gary suddenly appears in the Shenandoah Valley. Allegedly, Dwight hadn’t seen him for years until last night.”
James and Murphy picked at their barbecued chicken breasts as they struggled to figure out if Dwight was simply creating a smokescreen or if Gary was somehow connected to all three crimes.
“I’m really confused,” Kinsley muttered and put down her fork. “I got so angry at Dwight when he said those things. I screamed at him. I called him a liar and a bastard and … a lot worse than that. I think the cops were shocked that that kind of language could come out of my mouth.”
Murphy signaled to Dolly. “How did he take you not accepting his story?” she asked Kinsley.
“He just sat there. Resigned.” She sighed. “But he was adamant about not hurting Parker. It was the one thing that got him fired up even after I yelled at him. He told me that he loved her but she was too wrapped up in beautiful Colin to see him as anything other than a guy who was good with their patients.”
