Arsenic and Ole

by Jessa Archer

  “That’s all we get, too. We get more info with the other food taxi place that operates in Caratoke, because the customer has to call to order the food from the restaurant, and then the driver picks it up using their name. It’s two separate transactions. But with OBXpress, you pay through the app, and they transfer the funds to the restaurant. I know that for a fact, because one of the drivers nearly grabbed the wrong bag one night when we had two different orders for pickup at the same time. Our receipt just has the number, and he glanced at it and thought he had the right order. I guess the driver has to know the name, though, or at least the address.”

  I flipped off the lights, and we stepped outside onto the deck that stretched across the back of the theater. It was still a bit windy, but the clouds had mostly cleared away, and the sun hovered just above the horizon, painting the water of the sound in shades of red and gold.

  As I turned back to lock the door, Ben added, “If OBXpress double charged you or something, and you can’t figure out who to contact, you could probably ask Bethany now that you’re back in her good graces. She delivers for them, or at least she did last summer.”

  I was glad that I wasn’t looking directly at him, because my jaw dropped. Melinda had mentioned that Bethany delivered pizzas for extra cash last season, and that she had accidentally spilled that information to the rest of the cast. But since she said pizza, I’d assumed it was with Domino’s or one of the local chains that delivered. And Bethany had come back into the auditorium yesterday to get her script while Ben and I were talking about Mrs. Whitley’s threats against La Costera.

  “Thanks,” I told Ben. “There’s no problem. I’d just noticed that on my receipt and was wondering how it worked.”

  “I was actually thinking about signing up with them last year,” he said. “Bethany said the good thing about the job was the flexibility. You pick what hours to work, and you can decide which orders to take, if you know someone is a good tipper—or that they don’t tip at all. So she was able to work around her hours here at the Playhouse and her school schedule. I might have to see if they’re hiring if business doesn’t pick back up at La Costera.”

  Given what Sam had told me about the burrito, I thought that the restaurant’s problems might be just beginning. But I couldn’t divulge that to Ben, since Sam had asked me to keep it confidential.

  I could, however, tell him about the other test that Sam had run. That was work he’d done for me, not for Travis.

  “You might want to let Dia’s parents know that it looks like Leo wasn’t actually poisoned. Or at least, not by anything a human did, whether intentional or not. He was sick because he’d been eating some toxic plants. The symptoms are apparently very similar to what happens when animals get into something like rat poison. Leo upchucked when he was staying in my garage last night, and I asked Professor Davies to run a chemical analysis. I can probably get Bill and Silvia a copy of his report if it will help them shake this thing off. Although, I guess there’s no longer much worry of a lawsuit over Leo now, unless one of her kids decides to pursue it.”

  As we rounded the corner, a car pulled into the lot. I assumed it was one of the cast members who had gotten a few miles down the road and realized he or she had forgotten a cell phone or something else inside the theater. But when the car door opened, Andrew Whitley stepped out.

  “And speak of the devil…” Ben said.

  Chapter Fourteen

  It was strange to see Andrew Whitley driving. Every time I’d seen him in a car, his mother had been behind the wheel. Mrs. Whitley had dropped him off in front of the administration building on campus each morning and picked him up in the afternoon. I hadn’t even been sure the guy had a driver’s license.

  Ben sighed heavily. I knew he didn’t particularly like Andrew, at least in part due to the guy’s previous relationship with Dia. But I suspected Ben was also feeling a bit of the same dread that I was, the same dread most people feel when talking to the recently bereaved. Condolences are always awkward. In the past, I’d been worried that I’d say the wrong thing and somehow make things worse. After my mother’s funeral, however, I’d realized that was kind of egotistical on my part. I really couldn’t remember anything that anyone said to me that day, although I assumed I’d made the standard responses to her friends and colleagues. Her funeral service was a blur of mostly unfamiliar faces, and the only clear memories I retained were of standing in the receiving line, trying my best to be strong both for Paige and for my father. He had taken Caroline’s death harder than I’d thought he would, given that four decades and as many marriages had passed under the bridge since their divorce.

  “Sorry if you were heading home, Professor Alden,” Andrew said. “Paige told me you were out here, and I kind of needed to get away from the house. It felt like the walls were closing in on me, so…I thought I’d take a drive. But we can talk later, if you need to get back.”

  “It’s no problem, Andrew. We can talk out on the deck. And just call me Tig, okay?”

  “Hey, man,” Ben said. “Really sorry to hear about your mom. If there’s anything I can do, just let me know.”

  Andrew nodded and said thanks. Once Ben was gone, we headed around to the deck. I went into the building to fetch two of the sodas that I’d stashed in the theater fridge a while back, While I was inside, I sent Paige a text to tell her that I’d be running late. She and Delaney weren’t at the house anyway. Whatever tiff she’d had with Nathan had apparently blown over, because she messaged back saying that the three of them had driven up to the 4x4 beach in Carova. They were going to stop and get pizza on the way back, so I was off the hook in terms of bringing home dinner. Well, at least for them. I was starving. Lunch had been a container of yogurt and a half pack of nearly stale cheese-and-chive crackers I’d found in the side pocket of my backpack.

  I flicked on a few of the outside lights and then joined Andrew at one of the small tables overlooking the sound. He thanked me for watching out for Leo, and I filled him in on what I’d learned about the azaleas. “My mom has a fence around them, but he was chewing on the plants underneath and maybe a leaf or flower fell. Or maybe just pollen. Leo is so tiny that it wouldn’t take much to have an impact. I probably should have mentioned him getting sick again to your sister, actually. Hopefully he didn’t barf in her car. Or in the police station.”

  “So…she’s got Leo, then? When I asked her to go get him, she told me she couldn’t have dogs at her place. And now I can’t reach her.”

  “I don’t think she was expecting you to get in so early. I’m kind of surprised you were able to get home from Utah so quickly. Especially given that you also had to make the drive from the airport. Did you come into Norfolk or Raleigh?”

  Even in the dim light, I could tell that he was blushing. “I got home a little after noon. The debate tournament actually ended Thursday. I flew back to Norfolk that night so I could spend the weekend with some friends in Virginia Beach.”

  “Ohhh. And I’m guessing your mom didn’t know that?”

  “She did not,” he said. “There was some pretty elaborate subterfuge involved to make sure she didn’t find out, including a fake website I set up with the wrong dates for the competition. And she still nearly wrecked it by deciding she was going to fly out there with me. If Leo hadn’t fallen ill, it would have been a total waste of effort. I hate that he was so sick, but I owe that little guy big time. I talked to my mom last night. Pretended I was still in Utah. And now I’m feeling bad that the last thing I told her was a lie.” His mouth twisted into a wry smile. “She’s going to haunt me for that.”

  “Let’s hope not,” I told him. “Have you spoken with the police yet?”

  “Yeah. I called right after I got in. Talked to Chief Lamm.”

  “And you told him the truth about where you were last night, right?”

  “Yeah. Of course. Mom was the only one I was trying to keep it a secret from.”

  That was a relief. I’d hated even mention
ing it to him, but Virginia Beach was only a few hours’ drive from here. It would have been quite easy for someone to drive down to Caratoke, kill Whitley, and be back in Virginia Beach, maybe even before the body was found. And sadly, even though I really didn’t want to believe he was capable of killing his own mother, almost everyone I’d spoken with about Andrew had commented on the degree to which Rebecca Whitley had tried to control his life. The conventional wisdom was that Andrew was a very likely candidate to completely snap one day.

  “And it’s a good thing I was honest,” Andrew said. “Chief Lamm stopped in about an hour ago to let me know that they’d gotten back some preliminary forensic information that suggests it may have been foul play. He didn’t go into a lot of detail, though. Said he would let me know as soon as he had something more definitive. If I’d lied to him about where I was, they might have thought I was involved somehow.”

  “I think that’s a really good possibility,” I told him. “Were you with other people all day?”

  “Yes,” he said. “Three other people were in the condo we rented. I was with all three of them most of the day. And one of them I was with all day and all night. They can vouch for me. And I know how things look. A lot of people have joked, some of them even to my face, about my mom pushing me too far and me pulling a Norman Bates. I get why it’s a good thing that I have an alibi.”

  “So, if you spoke to Travis, I guess you know the details about how I found her?”

  He nodded. “And while I’m not questioning Chief Lamm’s assertion about foul play, I still think it’s much more likely that her death was accidental. She drank. A lot. She was also on a bunch of prescription drugs. And she mixed those prescriptions rather frequently.”

  Apparently Travis had been somewhat vague on his reasons for suspecting foul play, so I didn’t push the point. But it seemed unlikely that her death was an accident unless she had been in the habit of mixing her prescriptions with a very strong poison hidden inside a burrito.

  “Why was she on so many medicines?” I asked.

  “A variety of conditions. And a variety of doctors who didn’t ask too many questions about what else she might have been prescribed. The last diagnosis I heard was fibromyalgia. But she also had a minor congenital heart defect, and…I mean, you lived next door. I think you have a decent idea about her general mental state.” He stared out at the horizon as he talked, watching the last slivers of sunlight as they filtered through the distant tree line on the other side of Currituck Sound. “I was feeling a little better about things the past few months, though. Sure, she was still making a lot of people miserable, but at least she started patching up the rift with my sister. I even convinced her to go out to New Mexico for a visit at Thanksgiving. Audra was doing field research there for a degree in cultural anthropology. That’s why my mom cut her off. Cultural anthropology isn’t exactly a high-paying degree. She didn’t object until Audra was a few years into her graduate work, and then Mom suddenly decided she wasn’t footing the bill anymore. I think she really just wanted Audra to come home so that she could have more control over her, but Audra was determined to stay in New Mexico and finish the degree.”

  “Was she able to get loans so that she could finish?”

  “Oh, she didn’t need loans. We both gained control of our trust accounts my dad left to us when we turned twenty-one. It’s not as much money as my mom will leave behind. Not even a fraction, but…it’s more than enough to cover college. When Audra finished up her field work and the last of her courses, she also moved out here and rented a condo down in Nags Head. She can write the dissertation from anywhere pretty much. But they’d already started patching things up even before that. Audra seemed a lot more patient with Mom lately. And then while we were out there for Thanksgiving, Mom met the—” He chuckled and cleared his throat. “She met Rick. I was really skeptical about that relationship at first, but I have to admit things have been a lot better since he moved in. Rick takes good care of her. He was trying to help me wean her off some of the prescriptions. He convinced her to get out more. Even talked her into going on a cruise to Cancun with Mrs. Winstead and some of the other women she golfs with, but she backed out at the last minute, because Rick was going to be out of town, and she couldn’t leave me alone for five days.”

  He shook his head. “It was never really about me, though. I think she knew I was okay on my own. That was just the excuse she used, because she was terrified of any situation she couldn’t control. I tried to warn Rick that he needed to take baby steps with Mom. But…she was getting better.”

  “This is going to sound sort of unkind, maybe. But I don’t know Rick at all, and…” I tried to think of a polite way to say it, but there really wasn’t one. “How well do you know him? Do you think it’s possible that he might…be responsible for your mother’s death? Could he have married her for her money?”

  I didn’t add the rest of what I was thinking, which was that I couldn’t imagine any other reason someone would be willing to put up with Rebecca Whitley. Well, okay. She was an attractive woman for her age, so it’s possible that money wasn’t the only reason.

  Andrew shook his head. “I don’t think so. My mom is…” He sighed. “Was the suspicious type. She ran a criminal check before she ever agreed to go out with him. Never married. No kids. Owned his house out in New Mexico. Runs a business selling custom leather goods—jackets, purses, and so forth—that are produced on the ranch his parents own. He had a few hundred thousand in a savings account, so it’s not like he was super wealthy, but he was comfortable. He’d been talking to Mom about them moving back to New Mexico once I finished college. Rick was really devoted to her. And the rent on Audra’s condo goes up in the summer. She’d mentioned maybe moving in with Mom, and I was thinking that with both her and Rick there, Mom might be stable enough that I could move into an apartment with Ellie. That’s the girl I was with in Virginia Beach. We’re tired of sneaking off to her dorm room between classes. Her roommate is always…”

  He stopped, looking a little embarrassed. I think maybe he’d forgotten that I worked at the university. Not that I was under any illusion that the dorms at SCU, even those that were presumably single sex, were filled with chaste young adults who spent every spare moment on their studies.

  But I changed the subject, since he seemed uncomfortable. “Does Rick know about your mom yet?”

  “Yeah. Or at least I think so. I was going to call him this morning, after I spoke to my sister. I left it to Audra, though, since I thought it might be easier coming from her.”

  “But…when I saw Audra this morning, she told me she didn’t have his number. I’m pretty sure she said you didn’t have it either. She asked me to call her if I saw Rick at the house.”

  Andrew gave me a slightly perplexed look. “You must have misunderstood. Audra has known Rick longer than any of us. She met him while she was doing her field research on the Navajo. In fact, she’s the one who introduced him to Mom.”

  Even though I was positive that I hadn’t misunderstood, it seemed kind of rude to argue the point. So I didn’t interrupt.

  “I just don’t get why Audra hasn’t called me. We both had a complicated relationship with our mom, but I did love her. I think Audra did, too. I’ve left four messages, but she hasn’t called back. I guess I thought she’d be at the house with Leo when I got back. It would be kind of nice to be around someone else who’s also grieving for Mom today.” He gave a bitter laugh. “You shouldn’t be the one stuck out here listening to me.”

  I told him that it was okay. That I was happy to help. And I was a little surprised to realize that it wasn’t just a platitude. As much as I’d been dreading this conversation, Andrew clearly needed to vent, and his words had given me an even greater appreciation of how lucky I’d been in terms of my relationship with my own mom.

  “I’ve been through at least some of what you’re feeling recently,” I told him. “It helps to get it out. Friends listened to me. I’m happ
y to pay it forward.”

  “Thanks,” he said. “And you’re right. It’s helped. I’m just a little baffled, and yes, a little angry at Audra and Rick for leaving her alone. He has to travel unexpectedly sometimes if they get a lead on a big order, but Audra said she’d step in. She’s been telling me for years that I should cut the cord, get out into the world on my own. Said that I cared more about getting the inheritance than I did about having a life. But…she left. Someone had to stick around, you know? And the one time I do leave, the one time I actually follow her advice and count on someone else to keep Mom stable…” He looked almost on the verge of tears but shook it off. “She said this morning that we’d need to get together to talk about the…arrangements, and then total radio silence.”

  “People deal with grief differently, Andrew. Maybe she needed to take some time for herself. And when I spoke to her, she seemed to think you wouldn’t be back until late tonight. I take it she didn’t know about the Virginia Beach leg of your trip?”

  His eyes widened a bit. “No. You’re right. I hadn’t even considered that. It wasn’t that Audra would have disapproved. Like I said, she was always pushing me to get out of there more. I just didn’t want her to have to lie for me, too. Maybe you’re right. Maybe she and Rick both just need some time to deal with things on their own. And, to be honest, I’m pretty sure most of the funeral arrangements are already taken care of. My mother had been saying she might only have a few months to live since I was like nine or ten. She planned her funeral out in minute detail, including a list of the people she wants to attend and another list of people that she absolutely does not want there.” He looked over and gave me a weary smile. “This is probably going to come as something of a shock, but you’re on that second list.”

  I laughed. “And here I was assuming that she’d want me to give her eulogy. I already had the first section written.”