Death By Bourbon

by Abigail Keam

  “Did she know she was allergic?”

  “I don’t think she had a clue. Meriah’s never been stung before.” Matt gave me a hug. “It could have been a wasp or even a sweat bee. It didn’t have to be a honeybee. It probably got caught up in that garb she was wearing and trying to free itself. It’s not your fault.”

  Reluctantly I left the hospital and, with my usual dragging gait, found the SUV. There was a handwritten note on the windshield.

  YOU’RE HELPING A MURDERER GO FREE!

  I looked around but didn’t see anyone suspicious. But I knew who had written it. Checking the tires and the gas tank, I just hoped Lacey hadn’t crawled under the car and cut the brake line. I drove carefully out of the parking lot testing the brakes before heading for the police station. There I found Goetz slumped over a nasty-looking metal desk eating a garlic bagel from Blue Moon Farm with cream cheese.

  “She’s becoming a pest,” I declared, throwing the note on his desk.

  “I’ll call Lacey’s shrink. She is court ordered to see a therapist on a regular basis at that hospital complex.”

  “I bet she was going to an appointment when she saw me in the parking lot.”

  “No doubt. I don’t think she’s following you.”

  “I hope you called Doreen and let her know that Lacey is out.”

  “I left a message for her to call me but she hasn’t yet.”

  “You better go by Doreen’s house if she doesn’t return your call.”

  “Why do you care? You think Doreen is guilty of murder.”

  “If she is, then she deserves her day in court . . . not to be hounded by some lunatic.”

  “Simpatico?”

  “Maybe. Are you going to give me some of that bagel?”

  Goetz hunched over his desk protecting his bagel from my grasp. “Go buy your own.”

  “I will next Saturday at the Farmers’ Market. Selfish,” I accused, before storming out of his office. What does it say about a man who won’t share a garlic bagel?

  I had one more thing to do before I called it a day. Heading back to my place, I stopped in at the barn. A barn hand told me that Shaneika had taken my golf cart and was waiting for me at the Butterfly. It only took several minutes more to reach home. The front door was wide open. Great.

  Walking into the Butterfly, all the doors and windows were open. A record playing on my old console was blaring. Hearing me come in, Baby raced to greet me, and after nudging my hand for a pet, ran back out to the patio in sheer ecstasy.

  In the pool was Shaneika in one of my bathing suits, sitting upright on a float sipping a martini. She waved to me.

  “I guess my safety means nothing to you.”

  Shaneika whipped off her sunglasses. “There is no one after little-old-you right now. Quit living like a hermit and open this house up. It needs to breathe.” She kept muttering, “Everything has to be locked up. Two alarm systems. Cameras all over the farm. Gee, you’d think you were someone important like the President.”

  I reached down and flipped the float over.

  Shaneika came up coughing, “Hey, what’s the matter with you?”

  Throwing a towel at her, I said, “I need to see you as soon as you’re dressed.” With that I began the process of locking up the house again as well as turning on the cameras and rebooting the alarm systems. Once everything was back in place, I made myself some tea.

  Forty-five minutes later, Shaneika showed up in the kitchen. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think I’d put your nose out of joint by using the pool.”

  “You didn’t . . . with that.”

  “Then what?”

  I threw Asa’s file across the counter.

  Shaneika’s eyes grew wide at the sight of it.

  “Well?”

  “I can explain.”

  “Then do.”

  “It was at Asa’s request.”

  “Why would Asa want you to keep a file on her?”

  Shaneika hesitated.

  “If you don’t tell me, I’ll call Asa.”

  Shaneika sang like a bird. “It just was easier to get information on Asa from agencies if I accessed the info myself. Asa wanted to find out what information was out there about her. It was her way of keeping tabs on what was documented without actually being involved. Each time she comes into town, she asks for the file.”

  “Now why would you do that for my daughter?”

  “Remember when I first met you, I said that I owed Asa a favor.”

  I nodded.

  Shaneika took a deep breath. “When I passed the bar, I went to work for a big pharmaceutical company in New Jersey, which had been aggressively recruiting minorities. It was a respected company even though it farmed out the actual making of the drugs to China. After several years with the company, my security clearance was given a higher status, so I was getting some classified memos. But it was really by chance that I came across email memos stating that the company knew that the new diet pill they were perfecting caused cell anomalies in the gut.”

  “In other words, intestinal cancer.”

  “There was enough to suggest there was a possibility that long-term use of this drug might cause cancer, but so do a lot of other drugs. That was not the problem. Just more testing needed to be done.

  “What was alarming was that the company was covering the data up and not willing to do more research. They just wanted FDA approval and to move the drug on to the market as soon as possible. Although I had no proof, I strongly suspected that FDA officials were being bribed to ramrod this drug through.”

  “So?”

  “I couldn’t live with that. I had met Asa during law school at UK. She was an undergraduate then, but was already taking advanced courses. Asa stood out and we gradually began an acquaintance, saying hi at the cafeteria or at the library. She was impressive even at that young age and through the years I kept up with her. When I made my decision to go public with the emails, I contacted her company for help. It was due to Asa’s help that the information went public, but I was never caught as the whistle blower. After the furor at the company died down, I resigned and came back to Kentucky, but I never suffered any consequences. Without Asa’s help, I probably would have lost my savings, been barred from practicing law and banned from working for other companies. I owed her a lot and still do.”

  “Much of the information in her file is wrong.”

  “We know that. We are just keeping tabs on what others are saying about her. Lots of influential people don’t want Asa to resurface, but Asa is becoming powerful again in certain circles. She’s gaining overseas contacts. That worries a lot of enemies so they put out misinformation.”

  “I’ll use the real word for it – lies.” I believed Shaneika but I would have to verify her story with Asa. Anyway I said, “Please put that in a better hiding place.”

  Shaneika nodded like a scolded child and tucked the file under her arm.

  “Tell me something. Does my daughter frighten you?”

  “I would say that I find the need for caution. I make sure that I never lie to her.”

  “Do you think she is a sociopath?”

  Shaneika thought for a moment. “She has a very rigid moral code. There are no greys for her. There are good people and bad people. In that way, she is very simplistic, sort of like a female Dirty Harry and like Dirty Harry, Asa makes practical choices and acts on them. She thinks some people are just taking up space.” Shaneika looked at me with concern. “Just because Asa gets her hands dirty from time to time doesn’t mean that she is dirty herself. It’s just how you have to play the game.”

  I took a sip of my tea. “I read the psych evaluation in the file. It was disturbing.”

  “That was the prosecution’s psychiatrist. Yes, Asa will bend the rules to get things done. That doesn’t make her crazy. It makes her effective. Most people don’t like that because they can’t control her. After Asa got framed, that little innocent Southern girl died and something else took her place
.”

  “The defense evaluation wasn’t much better, just couched in better terms.” I took another sip of my tea. “When Asa was a child, she was very good with animals, so kind and gentle with them, but with other children her age . . . I had to keep an eye on her. She liked to dominate her playmates, bend them to her will. I guess in ancient times that need to dominate would have been seen as a maker of kings, but I always found it troublesome. The only people she was ever close to besides her father and me was her high school boyfriend whom she dumped right after high school graduation.”

  For once Shaneika said nothing but shifted her feet.

  “Do you know anything about her personal life?”

  “No.”

  “Nothing?”

  “I think she works all the time.”

  “You wouldn’t be fibbing to me, would you, Shaneika?”

  “I’ve never lied to you, Josiah. Never.”

  I gave her the motherly “I’ll know if you do lie” look before cutting her loose. “I don’t mind you using the pool anytime. Just don’t cut off my security protocol. You may feel strong and safe, but I don’t.”

  “I think I better go.”

  “One more thing, Shaneika. Do you trust Asa?”

  Shaneika didn’t hesitate. “With my life.”

  “Okay then. Yes, I hear your mother calling for you.” That was my little code line that meant go home. It was the first time since I had known Shaneika that she had deferred to me. I liked it.

  “Shaneika,” I said as she was leaving.

  “Yeah?”

  “Thanks for being here for Asa and me. I won’t forget it.”

  Giving a dimpled smile, Shaneika replied, “We girls gotta stick together. The world can be awfully cold.” Then she clattered down the hallway in her crocs and out to her black SUV, forgetting to close the front door.

  So much for my security talk.

  24

  Sitting with a legal notepad on my lap, I wrote down reasons why I thought Doreen had murdered Addison.

  Motive – Money

  Opportunity – Matt’s engagement party

  How – Drugging his bourbon with ground-up aspirin

  Method of delivery – A poison ring just like Lucrezia Borgia’s

  I looked up aspirin poisoning on the computer and was shocked at what I found.

  Every year, the use of NSAIDs (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) accounts for an estimated 7,600 deaths and 76,000 hospitalizations in the United States. NSAIDs include aspirin, ibuprofen and some stuff I had never heard of like tiaprofenic acid, diclofenac, ketoprofen and naproxen. It was also highly suspected that the overdosing of aspirin during the 1918 Influenza pandemic caused many deaths attributed to the flu.

  I had always thought aspirin was a wonder drug with no side effects. Apparently for many, it really was highly toxic. Hmmm.

  Yet in the correct dosage, aspirin saves millions from heart attacks and strokes.

  I kept writing on my pad.

  Witnesses – Lots, but no one understood what they saw.

  When drug was administered – Must have been right before Jake and I arrived. It seemed the most likely conclusion is that Addison ingested the deadly drink at the toast or right after.

  Maybe it was time for me to go nosing around the people who had arrived before I did. I called June.

  “You want me to invite all the women for a bridal shower? That’s awfully short notice, Josiah!” exclaimed Lady Elsmere.

  “Every woman that was there except for Doreen.”

  “Won’t that look suspicious?”

  “Who cares? We’ll use the excuse to gather everyone for a bridal shower. If there are questions about Doreen not being invited . . . we will just say that you thought she was still in mourning. I’m sure you can come up with a good reason.”

  “You mean I take the blame.”

  “That’s right. For once take some responsibility.”

  June snorted into the phone and hung up.

  Smiling, I put down the phone. I knew she would do it.

  Two days later I was in the Lady Elsmere’s drawing room holding a gaudily wrapped bridal gift for Meriah who was ooohing and ahhing while opening assorted colorful packages brought by bored women who were glad for a chance to get out of their houses . . . or rather away from their demanding children and disinterested husbands.

  Meriah puckered up her orange lips, air kissing some matron who had given her a Cuisinart. “I just looooove it,” she schmoozed.

  I snickered. I doubted that Meriah’s dainty fingers would ever touch the controls of the expensive machine, but maybe her Hispanic cook’s would. Sensing the cause of my snicker, Meriah narrowed her eyes at me.

  I batted my eyes back at her.

  “Has anyone heard how Doreen is doing?” asked Ginger Konkler, who looked like an overgrown hobbit complete with broad glowing cheeks and twinkling button eyes. She had the nasty habit of grinning all the time and being so cheerful I just wanted to tweak her nose . . . really hard. “I’m surprised she isn’t here.”

  Lady Elsmere said without missing a beat, “Yes, I’m surprised she isn’t here as well.”

  “Why didn’t she come?” asked Sally Durham, a former Kentucky beauty queen twenty years past, but still perky, tits and all.

  God, I hated her.

  “More tea?” asked Lady Elsmere, reaching for perky Sally’s teacup.

  “I still can’t get over Addison’s death,” I stated, wanting to get this show on the road.

  “Terrible, terrible,” all the ladies murmured in unison.

  “I just don’t know how Addison got hold of that aspirin. Did anyone see anything?”

  All the ladies clucked and turned to each other in a sympathetic chorus, “No, I didn’t. Neither did I. Can’t imagine.”

  That is, all except Beryl Hubble, who stared at the plate balancing on her very large kneecap with her meaty face a nice shade of pink. She blew a wad of carbon dioxide out of her mouth, looking very much like a blowfish.

  Our eyes caught when she arched her Joan Crawford eyebrows only to have her peepers slide back down towards her lap.

  Bulls-eye!!!!

  Meriah took up her cue to poke and pry the herd, with Lady Elsmere coming behind to round the ladies up verbally, but to no avail. Nobody had seen anything untoward.

  I was just waiting for an opportunity with Beryl. She knew something. I could feel it.

  After several women had visited the powder room, Beryl excused herself as well. This was my opportunity. I waited several minutes and then followed Beryl. I went right in as the front part of the powder room had a two-sink counter, with the toilet in an adjoining room. Beryl was dabbing her face with a damp hand towel.

  “Oh sorry, Beryl. Didn’t mean to disturb you. Just want to check my hair.” I went over and stood next to her. We both looked like sad sacks if you asked me.

  Beryl averted her eyes.

  I could see she was a scared little rabbit and it was up to me to shake her from the bramble bush.

  “Beryl, did you see something the night of the engagement party?”

  Beryl’s eyes widened. The look reminded me of Janet Leigh’s when she turned around and found someone invading her nice hot shower with a butcher knife. You know the movie.

  “Beryl?”

  “NO!”

  “I think you did.”

  “I don’t want to get involved.”

  “Even if it might be murder? You’re some good citizen.”

  “You’re not going to bully me, Josiah. My son just finished medical school. He’s going to Johns Hopkins for his residency. I’m not going to tarnish his reputation with something as sullying as a murder.”

  I had to admire her guts in standing up to me, but that would not keep me from going for her throat. “Beryl, if you don’t tell me what you know, I’m going to tell everyone about that affair you had with your son’s married soccer coach and that you used to do the nasty with him in the parki
ng lot of the Parkette.”

  “I knew I should never have confided in you.” She pointed a finger at me. “You swore to secrecy.”

  “And I’ve told no one all these years, but this is murder, Beryl.”

  After blinking her eyes, dabbing her nose and sighing, Beryl came clean.

  “It’s probably nothing but I was standing next to Doreen and Addison during the toast. They both were drinking Kentucky bourbon, but she gave Addison her glass to hold so she could drink the champagne that Charles was handing out. Then I came into this very powder room on the night of the engagement just seconds after the official toast was given.”

  “Yeah?”

  Beryl leaned forward whispering. “Doreen was in here rinsing out a bourbon glass.”

  “You saw her rinse out a glass?”

  Beryl thought for a moment. “I saw her pour water out of a bourbon glass into the sink.”

  “How do you know it wasn’t white wine?”

  “It was water, I’m sure. Wine has a different look to it from water. I’m sure it was water. And Doreen looked startled. I mean she jumped a little bit when I came in.”

  “Did you ask her what she was doing?”

  “No. I thought she just didn’t like the taste of her drink and was rinsing out the glass.”

  “Why wouldn’t she just place the glass on a piece of furniture or hand it to Charles, if she didn’t like it?”

  “I don’t know,” whined Beryl. “People have their own patterns of doing things and maybe that was hers. I didn’t think it was a big deal at the time.”

  “But you did later?”

  “Not too long after Addison had his fit. Josiah, you’re not the only one with a quick mind around here. I just felt something was suspicious.”

  “And because you’re the wife of a doctor and the mother of a doctor, you know when something looks wrong.”

  “I just felt something was off – I had a bad case of the . . . of the . . . “

  “The ‘icks’?”

  “That word will do nicely. Yes, I felt icky. I don’t know why.”