This Poison Heart, page 27
“He’s been working in the bookshop way longer than six months. His mom has an office upstairs. She’s an estate lawyer. She’s the one who brought us out here. But wait, I thought your investigation was over.” The guys she was supposed to be looking into, the men who’d come after me at the theater, were dead.
Dr. Grant caught my meaning. “It is. I wanted to make sure you know the people you’re bringing around.”
“Why?” Mom asked, an edge of annoyance in her voice. “I’m her mother. I think I can handle who she’s bringing around.”
“No, I know. I—” She stumbled over her words and looked down at the floor. “I’m sorry. I failed you.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “Are you talking about what happened with Marie?”
“What happened with Marie?” Mom asked.
We hadn’t gotten to that yet but now was not the time.
“I’m talking about Selene,” Dr. Grant said. “I was in the station the night she died. I was working with the department on another case when I heard the address, and I recognized it immediately. I rode in with the responding officer.”
“You knew how she died?” I managed to ask. My throat felt dry, my chest heavy. “You knew somebody killed her? You—you were there? And you didn’t say anything to me about it?”
“She was my friend,” Dr. Grant said. “My friend and I couldn’t save her,” she continued. “When I realized who you were, I swore I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.”
Mom reached out and put a hand on her arm. Her tone was firm but comforting. “What happened wasn’t your fault. I don’t think you should be shouldering that kind of guilt.”
“But I do.” Dr. Grant sighed. “I do, except I’m not sitting around feeling sorry for myself. I’ve used all my resources to try and solve Selene’s murder and Circe’s disappearance.”
“Hold up,” Mom cut in. “This Circe woman is missing? I thought she was dead. She willed this place to Bri.”
“She was declared dead earlier this year. That wasn’t made clear to you?” Dr. Grant asked.
Me and Mom shook our heads.
“She disappeared after Selene died,” Dr. Grant said. “We never found any evidence of foul play. It’s possible she set something up to make sure you inherited the house in the event of her death but that’s something the estate lawyer should be able to answer for you.” Her phone rang and she glanced at the screen. “I have to take this but I’ll be in touch.” Mom walked her out and I sat down on the couch.
My chest was tight and I could feel a headache creeping up from my temples. Mom came back and plopped down next to me.
“I guess we found the catch, right?” I asked. “We thought this was too good to be true. Big house that’s paid off, but it comes with all the sad memories of my dead relatives and a bunch of deadly plants.”
“I thought the catch would be bad plumbing or termites, not secret bloodlines and goddesses and a Poison Garden,” said Mom as she closed her eyes and rubbed her neck. “They should definitely have put that in the paperwork. I’m gonna find some Tylenol and see if your auntie has come up with anything else.” She gave me a hug. “It’s gonna be okay, baby. I promise.”
She disappeared upstairs, and I went back to the hidden room in the apothecary, this time armed with two flashlights and a lighter from the kitchen drawer.
I lit the black candles that flanked the statue of Hecate. The picture of me sat among the offerings on the altar. A shiver ran through me as the light from the candles danced across the space. Auntie Leti kept her altar stocked with fresh flowers, rum, cigars, and black coffee, and while I didn’t know the ins and outs of her practice, I knew it was important to keep the stuff on the altar fresh.
I went to the apothecary and grabbed the waste bin behind the counter. I swept the rotted garlic and onions into the basket, making a note of where everything was, then went to the kitchen and brought in fresh garlic and a damp rag to dust off the figure.
If I was willing to believe everything I’d learned about the Colchis family, Medea, and her brother Absyrtus, then that meant I also had to believe that the goddess this shrine was dedicated to was the one responsible for the immunity to poison I now possessed. If Hecate was real and willing to reward Medea for her loyalty, maybe she’d do the same for me.
The doorbell rang again, and Mom let out a string of curse words before stomping down the stairs. I went into the hallway to see who it was.
“Mrs. Redmond?” Mom sounded surprised. “Is everything okay? You look . . . rough.”
As Mrs. Redmond limped into the foyer, I tried my hardest to keep my expression unchanged, but I was horrified by her appearance.
Her right eye was swollen completely shut. The skin around it was so purple it was almost black. The left side of her face and neck was splotchy. Her left knee was bandaged but a dark red stain was seeping through. The wounds on her hands were weeping, and her hair was a mess.
Mom shook her head. “What the hell happened to you?”
“There has been some confusion with the bank,” Mrs. Redmond said, avoiding my gaze. “Apparently Circe and Selene owed several years of back taxes, and there is now a lien on the property. The house and land will be sold at auction. You must vacate immediately.”
“Excuse me?” I said, stunned. “You said the house was mine, that they wanted me to have it. You said the taxes were paid through a trust.”
“I know what I said,” Mrs. Redmond snapped. Her professional exterior was gone. “I was finalizing the title search for you and found the error. Circe should have been a better businesswoman. You’ll need to surrender the keys.” She shot me a pointed glance. “All of them. And vacate the property in twenty-four hours.”
“Wait,” I said. “Maybe we can talk to the bank. We can pay the taxes, make a payment plan or something.”
“Why didn’t you know about this?” Mom asked, glaring at Mrs. Redmond. “You’re a property lawyer, right? Shouldn’t you have known earlier?”
“This is news to me, too, but I assure you, I have done everything in my power to honor Miss Colchis’s wishes. Turns out she was a liar and wasn’t being honest when it came to being free and clear on the property. Do you know how much time I’ve wasted trying to facilitate this handover to you?”
“I’ll go to the bank myself,” I said.
Mrs. Redmond opened her briefcase and pulled out a stack of papers. “Everything is right here. There’s nothing that can be done.” On top of the stack was a notice ordering us to vacate the property. She tossed it onto the coffee table. She looked at me and held out her hand. “The keys.”
Mom stepped between us. “Get out.”
“Wait a minute,” I said. “Mrs. Redmond, what’s wrong with you? Why are you acting like this? And did you know that Circe was missing this whole time? How did she know to leave me letters and—”
“You can’t even begin to understand the time and resources I have put into this transaction,” she said angrily. She stepped closer to me. “Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be. Give me the keys.” She reached out and Mom slapped her hand away.
“Reach toward my daughter one more time and see what happens,” said Mom.
“Are you threatening me?” Mrs. Redmond asked.
“Take it however you want,” Mom said, squaring up. “You look like somebody already went upside your head once today. You might not wanna make it worse.”
Mrs. Redmond peered around her. “When you vacate the property, make sure you leave the keys, or I’ll have a warrant issued for your arrest. The police have already been apprised of the situation. I’m sorry it had to be this way.”
“You don’t seem sorry at all,” I said. “Maybe if you were better at your job, this wouldn’t have happened. Dr. Grant told me Karter didn’t grow up here like he said. What else are you two lying about?”
Mrs. Redmond glared at me. “Dr. Grant should mind the business that pays her.” She turned and walked toward the front door. Mom and I followed her out.
She limped to her car, pausing on the bottom step. “Maybe it’s for the best.” She glanced at our car, sitting at an odd angle. The tires were once again cut clean through.
“Seems like people don’t really want you around here anyway.”
Mom kicked off her house shoes, and, with an angry grunt, dove forward. I grabbed a handful of her shirt, trying to keep her from leaping off the porch and pummeling Mrs. Redmond.
“Mom! It’s not worth it! Stop!”
Mrs. Redmond grinned with air of superiority, like she’d won this little battle. As she sped off, we retreated into the house. Mom was angry-crying as she called Mo to tell her what happened. I sat down on the floor and thumbed through the paperwork Mrs. Redmond had left behind.
“There’s an eviction notice,” I said, puzzled by all the legal terminology on the paper. “How can they evict us if this is my house?”
“You gotta pay taxes,” Mom said while she still had Mo on the phone.
“Yeah, but shouldn’t Mrs. Redmond have known that? Like, wouldn’t there be notices or something? They skipped right to eviction?” I wasn’t an expert, but it didn’t make sense to me. I flipped through page after page of paperwork but didn’t find any notices about taxes owed or past due bills. Some of the paperwork had lines that were blacked out. There was no phone number or address for the bank. “How do we even know who we’re supposed to talk to about this?” Frustrated, I tossed the papers back onto the table. “I need some air.”
I went and stood on the porch. This wasn’t right. I couldn’t just sit around and wait for Mrs. Redmond to show back up, police in tow. I thought about calling Nyx to see if she could give me a ride, but a Lyft was only five minutes away. I set a pickup, slipped back inside, shoved the stack of paperwork into my bag, and kissed my mom on the top of the head.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“I’ll be back. Try not to worry too much, okay?”
I went out the front door and got into my Lyft.
There were a half-dozen banks in Rhinebeck and I decided to go to all of them with my ID and Mrs. Redmond’s paperwork to see what I could find out.
The first three stops turned up nothing. It took a half an hour at each place for them to check their records and tell me they didn’t have any information for me. As the afternoon drug on, I was afraid I wouldn’t get through my list before the other banks closed. I walked between the different locations, my ankle throbbing, frustration building with each dead end.
At the fourth place, a branch of Hudson Valley Bank & Trust, I gave my ID to the woman at the counter. She looked puzzled and I felt like I was going to scream.
“Let me guess,” I said. “You have no idea what I’m talking about?”
The woman shook her head. “No, it’s—Can you hang on for a moment?”
I sat in the lobby while she went off with my documents. She came back a few minutes later and led me to a private office where an older woman in a harsh green blouse was seated behind a wide desk, my stack of paperwork in front of her. A small fern sat on the windowsill and it slowly shifted toward me.
“Miss Greene,” she said. She leaned forward and stuck out her hand. “I’m Evelyn Haley, the branch manager here. Please have a seat.”
I sat down as the other woman left the office, closing the door behind her.
“I’m really sorry to bother you,” I said.
“It’s no bother at all,” she said. “I have to tell you, Miss Greene, I think you may want to have a parent or guardian here with you before we proceed.”
“Why?” I asked. “I mean, I know taxes are owed on the property, but if we could please make a payment arrangement or something. We just need a little time.” I was so angry at how casually Mrs. Redmond had ripped the rug out from under us. “Please. Tell me what to do. I’ll find a way to pay the money.”
“Miss Greene, I can see that this has caused you quite a bit of stress, but I have to admit that I’m very confused right now.”
“Confused?” I asked.
She reached into her drawer and pulled out a stack of neatly organized papers, setting them on the desk. She placed her hand on top of them. “Miss Greene, these documents are the official documents for the property on 307 Old Post Road. They were drafted in January of this year when Miss Colchis was legally declared deceased. You have to understand that when there is no will—”
“Wait. Mrs. Redmond said that Circe left me the house in her will.”
The woman shook her head. “There was no will, no paperwork, nothing. The house is paid for, and the taxes have been paid through a trust for over one hundred years.”
“I don’t understand.” It felt like a rock was sitting in the pit of my stomach. “Why do we have to leave, then?”
“Miss Greene, you shouldn’t be in the house in the first place. Not yet, anyway.” Ms. Haley pursed her lips. “These documents”—she touched the ones Mrs. Redmond had left with me—“are invalid. We logged their information as invalid because they went missing.”
CHAPTER 28
I gripped the armrests of the chair. “What?”
“Until Miss Colchis was legally declared dead, the house couldn’t be auctioned or sold or any other such thing. In January of this year, when the declaration was made and certified, we prepared to auction it off. However, we received a visit from a woman representing an adoption agency in Red Hook. She told us that Circe had a living relative and provided your information to us. The documents were meant to be given to you several weeks ago, but there was an unforeseen circumstance that delayed the processing. Mrs. Taylor, the client specialist in charge of this transfer, didn’t come into work. She was in possession of the original paperwork, but unfortunately . . .” Her voice wavered. “Unfortunately, we were informed several days ago that her body was found nearby. The police now believe there was foul play involved.”
The news report I’d seen in Mrs. Redmond’s office had said something about a body being found.
“We immediately established new account numbers for Miss Colchis’s estate to protect the security of the estate. But the process of reestablishing everything took much longer than we had anticipated.” She took a long, deep breath, cleared her throat, and straightened up. “Where did you get the voided paperwork?”
“A woman came to our apartment in Brooklyn. She reached out to my mom first, and then she showed up in person. She had this paperwork with her and said we could move in. We drove all the way up here—”
“She was able to give you access to the property?”
“She gave me the keys.”
The woman looked bewildered. “We’ll need to sign the actual paperwork, and your legal guardians will need to be present, but this eviction notice is fake.” She shook her head as if she were disgusted. “I’ve heard of these types of scams. There are con artists that exploit families of the recently deceased, but this doesn’t seem like she was trying to get money or even the property itself. It seems like she was trying to put you in the house under false pretenses. It’s so odd.” She shook her head, flustered. “We need to call the police.”
My mind went in circles. “Were you here when the woman from the adoption agency came in? Did you see her?”
“Yes.”
“What did she look like?”
She thought carefully. “It was some time ago, but she was tall, black hair with a gray streak right down the center of her head.”
Mrs. Redmond.
“Call the police,” I said. “Call Dr. Grant. Right now.”
The woman immediately picked up her phone and started dialing. I stepped out into the lobby and sent texts to Mom and Mo, letting them know what was going on. Then, I messaged Karter.
Bri: Did you know what your mom was doing this whole time?
I didn’t want to believe that he had known. After everything I’d shown him, everything I’d shared with him. I felt stupid. My phone buzzed with his reply.
Karter: You should go back to Brooklyn. Right now. It’s not safe for you here.
I tried calling Mom. No answer.
A flurry of activity in the front of the lobby drew my attention. Dr. Grant came rushing in.
“What’s going on?” she asked
I steered her into the bank manager’s office. “You were right about Karter, and his mom is even worse. She’s been lying to me and my family and to everyone this whole time.” I looked at the bank representative. “Please fill her in. I gotta go.”
“No,” Dr. Grant said. “Don’t leave.”
“I’m gonna go get my mom and we’ll meet you back here.” I didn’t wait for her to protest. I quickly left the bank and called Mom, then Mo, and then Mom again. No one answered. I set a pickup for another Lyft. My phone rang.
“Mo!” I yelled.
“What’s wrong?”
“Where are you?” I asked.
“I’m on my way back, but it’ll be a while. Your mom was so upset. What’s going on?”
“When’s the last time you talked to her? To Mom?”
“Earlier, when she asked me to come back. Why?” Fear invaded her voice. “Briseis, what is going on?”
“You gotta get here. Are you taking the train?”
“No. I rented a car. I’m driving, but I’m not even halfway back yet.”
“Mo, Mrs. Redmond was lying. There’s nothing wrong with the house, at least not in the way she said.”
“Oh,” Mo said, heaving a sigh of relief. “Okay. That’s good. Wait—why are y’all so upset then?”
“She’s not the person who was supposed to get in touch with us about the house. All those papers were with a woman from the bank who disappeared and then turned up dead.”
