Protecting Emma

by ML Michaels

  Chad whispered. “I’m so sorry…For everything…”

  Stan and Suzie left the room to give Lisa a few moments alone with her brother.

  “Miss Brewer…Suzie,” Stan said, as they walked. “I really must know, as it will be dredged up by the prosecution as a motive, and Lisa won’t tell me. What caused the rift between her and Chad?”

  Suzie felt torn. It wasn’t her business to reveal Lisa’s deepest pain. But Stan seemed like a competent lawyer, and she wanted to give him every possible advantage to defend Lisa.

  In a hushed voice, she told him the story: “Just before Chad left town when he was 18, there was a…problem in the family. Lisa and Chad had lost their mom a few years earlier, and for some reason Chad just didn’t get on with their dad. Sure, they seemed to have their close moments, but there was always a competitiveness between them. Really, I think Chad’s dad just thought pushing his son was the best way to make sure he made a success of himself.”

  Suzie and Stan walked out of the police station into the sun as Lisa and Chad’s family history was laid bare.

  “The problem was that their dad felt the best way for Chad to secure his future was to get involved in the family business. His dad was a fisherman, a tradition that went back a few generations, and it was kind of expected that Chad would do the same.”

  “But Chad wasn’t interested in that?” said Stan.

  “Exactly. He was more interested in martial arts. One night, Chad again turned down his dad’s offer to join the family business. He said he wanted to fight competitively, and…things escalated. I’m not exactly sure what happened, I know there was shouting, and I know that there was some kind of physical confrontation.”

  “Was anyone hurt?”

  “Not as far as I know, at least not much. I think it was just a lot of pushing and pulling. Two people who loved each other, on the brink of something worse. Well, in the middle of the argument, Lisa stepped in trying to calm everything down, but by all accounts it just escalated.”

  “Into an actual fight?”

  “No, there wasn’t time enough for that. Lisa’s dad dropped dead of a massive heart attack there and then…It was his grave she was visiting when she was arrested.”

  Stan sighed. “I see. Poor kids. And Lisa blames Chad then?”

  Suzie looked sadly back at the police station. “Yeah, she does, well she did at least…How do you fix something like that?”

  It was a rhetorical question, but nonetheless Stan answered.

  “With time…”

  Just then, Chad walked out of the police station; his eyes red as if he’d been crying.

  Suzie gave him a hug, shocked to see him so rattled. “Are you okay, Chad?”

  “I’m fine. I think we needed that,” Chad said, turning to Stan. “Is there anyway you can stop Lisa from being transferred to the county jail?”

  “I’m afraid not. The most we can hope for is that something comes up. A new piece of evidence, perhaps. But I’m afraid we’re just going to have to accept that in a few hours Lisa will be taken elsewhere.”

  After saying their goodbyes to Stan, Chad and Suzie knew what had to be done. They had four hours to stop Lisa from being taken away and put into a cell with God knows who.

  “There has to be something. Someone has to know what happened…” Suzie said, trying to grasp a fleeting thought that somehow seemed important.

  “Well. Let’s get to it,” Chad said.

  Suzie’s idea of finding out who had a grudge against Chad was the only thing they could go on. Chad had no idea, and why should he? People tended to love him, regardless of whether they followed his fights or not, he was just that kind of guy. They would have to rely on something Danvers Bay and most small towns were good at; in fact, residents had it down to a science—gossip.

  They headed for the Old Hag, the local tavern that was much nicer than the name implied. It sat at the end of Main street, just as the town limits came into view. Stuffed animals adorned the walls, and old wood paneling that had long since lost its veneer provided authenticity as some of the locals called it. The owner of the bar, a friendly bear of a man called Hank, would have replaced the decor, but the tourists seemed to love it.

  “Hank!” Suzie squealed as she came through the door, Chad following behind her. She’d always had a soft spot for Hank, a Goliath of a man with a big bushy greying beard.

  “Ah, Suzie, my wee lass!” Hank always played up on his Scottish ancestry. “What are ye drinking?”

  “No drink today, Hank. We need your help,” Suzie pointed at Chad.

  “Ah, young Chad, good to see ya, Champ.” The men shook hands. “What can I do for you?”

  “You must hear a few things around the bar,” Suzie said, before Hank interrupted.

  “A few? I hear too much. I wish some of these drunks would keep their thoughts to themselves!” Hank raised his voice in jest.

  Two men further down the bar sipping whiskey garbled something in return, but it was completely unintelligible.

  Chad placed his hand on the bar gently and leaned in: “You ever hear about someone around town who doesn’t like me, Hank?”

  “Everyone likes you, Champ.”

  Suzie could see that Hank was being genuine enough, but there was more thread to pull at, and so she did. “Hank, I’m sure you’ve heard about the poisoning yesterday. Those pies were meant for Chad, not the mayor and his wife…”

  Hank looked confused behind his big bushy eyebrows: “Who would want to kill Chad?”

  And that was when it struck Suzie. Who would want to kill Chad? She smiled wryly to herself, how could I have been so silly? “Of course!” she said loudly, almost with joy.

  “What…what is it?” Chad asked, smiling himself at how happy Suzie seemed.

  Suzie grabbed a stool at the bar and hopped up onto it. “Okay, so two people die. But because you handed them the apple pie that Lisa gave you, people assume that you were the intended target.”

  “And wasn’t he?” said Hank, his voice booming.

  “No! Well…at least…I don’t think so…It was hiding in plain sight all along.”

  “What was?” Chad asked.

  “Truth is stranger than fiction. It seems like coincidence all of this. Lisa hands you, someone she’s been angry with for a long time, slices of apple pie that turns out to be poisoned. The pie is accidentally given to the mayor and his wife, killing them. But if we believe Lisa is innocent, and the police themselves have shown that the rest of the pie at my stall had no poison in it, then we can only deduce one thing!”

  “Do tell, Holmes,” Chad joked.

  “Oh shut up…” Suzie giggled. “We can only assume then that the pie was poisoned after Lisa gave it to you, and that the intended victims were indeed killed.”

  “But I had the plates, I gave them to the mayor, and that was it,” said Chad.

  “Was it? Was it really? Think for a second, did they place those plates down on a table anywhere for even a moment?”

  “Uh…You know, I think they did!” Chad said enthusiastically.

  “Well, now we have reasonable doubt. There was an opportunity for someone else to do it. Someone watching carefully. Someone who hated the mayor and his wife enough to wait until they put down drinks or food and to quickly add the poison while they were chatting with someone else,” Suzie breathed deeply, gathering her thoughts.

  “Hank? Beautiful man, you…” said Suzie.

  “I always thought I had a rugged charm to me,” Hank replied.

  Suzie leaned over the bar and kissed him on the cheek. The areas of Hank’s face not covered by his beard reddened.

  “Now what?” Chad asked, with a hint of jealousy.

  “Now we can make some progress. We couldn’t figure out who wanted to kill you because no one does. At least no one in town. So let’s assume the mayor and his wife were the targets….” Suzie turned to Hank. “Hank, have you ever heard of anyone who hated the mayor, someone who seemed to hold
a terrible grudge?”

  “Well…” Hank looked reticent for a moment, as if he wasn’t sure he wanted to implicate someone.

  “Please, Hank. Lisa could go to prison for this, and she is innocent,” Chad said.

  “Okay…” Hank crouched over the bar a little and spoke in a hushed voice. “Obviously, the mayor was in politics, so you’d always get a few people mouthing off…”

  “But was there anyone who ever seemed angrier than that. Someone who might have considered killing him?” Suzie asked.

  “Yes,” Hank said. “A year ago, there were a few rumors. More than rumors in fact. That the mayor was…messing around with a woman in her 20s, two towns over, at Cove Point.”

  “Oh yeah, I know it, the place with the big mining refinery?” said Chad.

  “That’s the one. Anyways, I always thought it was a lot of nonsense myself, but then one day this fella comes in, pale as a sheet he was. He wasn’t angry. He was small and quiet, but something about him seemed out of place. Anyway, he was asking a lot of questions about the mayor and his wife, and then he asked if the mayor was spending a lot of time at Cove Point. One of the regulars who’d had too much to drink piped in and said yeah, he was having an affair over there. The fella’s name was Albert. Never forget it because there and then he broke down and started crying like a child. I didn’t know what to do. Eventually we had to call an ambulance for the poor fella. It was as if he’d just had a complete breakdown.”

  Suzie’s eyes widened. She leaned in closer. “Do you remember his last name?”

  “Not off-hand. But I did write down his details before the ambulance arrived, in case anything more came of it. Can’t be too careful…” Hank rifled through an old diary. “Ah, here it is, Albert Smithfield. Poor little guy. Here’s his address.”

  “Hank! I’m going to kiss you again!” Suzie leaned over and pecked him on the cheek.

  “Enough of that,” Chad said, trying to sound light-hearted.

  “Okay, so now we need to go and…” Suzie trailed off for a moment. She was staring at something. “Can I see that newspaper, Hank?”

  Hank obliged and handed her that day’s crumpled local newspaper that sat on the bar for anyone who wanted to read. “Something wrong, Lass?”

  Suzie stared down at the paper in disbelief. “My God…I need to take this, okay, Hank?”

  “Sure thing, can I get another kiss for it?”

  “No time! C’mon, Chad!”

  “Nice try,” Chad smiled with sarcasm at Hank before following Suzie outside.

  Suzie ran across the street to the police station.

  “Hey! Wait up, Suzie, what is it?”

  “How long does it take to drive to Cove Point?” Suzie asked out of breath.

  “I don’t know, an hour, tops. Why?”

  “Okay, I…I need to go. You need to stay here and try to delay Lisa’s transfer to the county jail. Make sure she’s okay! Damn, this is going to be close!”

  Chad tried to get more information out of her, but Suzie was in the zone trying to save her friend. She ran down the seafront and was at her closed bakery in a few minutes. She unlocked her car, jumped in the front seat and waved at Chad as she passed him on her way out of town.

  Two hours had passed. Detective Lawson had returned to oversee Lisa’s transfer. A large police van pulled up outside, and Chad stared on. Several minutes later, the detective and his men exited the station with Lisa in handcuffs, tears streaming down her face. She looked up and saw her brother. “Chad!”

  Chad ran over.

  Detective Lawson stood in front of Lisa. “Hold on there, Champ. Let’s not do anything foolish, you may be a world champion, but my taser here would stop a rhino.”

  Chad looked helplessly at Lisa. “I’m not going to cause any trouble, detective. I just... There’s been a development.”

  “What do you mean?” the detective asked.

  “Suzie…Miss Brewer…will be back any minute. You have to wait for her. She’s going to prove to you that Lisa is innocent.”

  “I’m sorry, Champ. We’ve got a schedule to keep. If something new has come up, tell her to contact me directly.” The detective waved his men on as they opened the van doors and carefully helped Lisa inside.

  “You’re making a huge mistake!” Chad felt a pit in his stomach as he heard her gut-wrenching sobs. He looked around for some way to delay the inevitable. Suddenly, he jumped in front of the van and lay down on the ground.

  Detective Lawson walked to the front of the van and sighed. “What’s this Champ? Having a little nap?”

  “No…” Chad stammered for the words. “It’s a non-violent protest.”

  “It’s perverting the course of justice is what it is. Do you want to find yourself in a cell for the night, young man?” the detective asked, his voice more serious than before.

  “I’d rather be in jail than have my sister spend one more minute—”

  Suddenly a car came tearing down Main Street. Danvers Bay glistened in the evening sun, as Suzie screeched to a halt outside the police station.

  As she exited her car, the detective raised an eyebrow: “You know, speeding is a crime too, Miss Brewer…”

  “I’m sorry, Detective Lawson, please just listen, I’ve…What are you doing down there?” Suzie asked, noticing Chad laying on the ground in front of the police van.

  “Uh…”

  “It’s a non-violent protest…” the detective said.

  “Get up, you big goon!” Suzie said. Chad stood up, wiping the dust from his jeans.

  “Miss Brewer, I admire your enthusiasm. I really do. But what is this all about?” the detective asked.

  “It’s about making sure the wrong person doesn’t go to jail. May I explain?” Suzie asked.

  The detective’s face remained grave, “Okay, quickly.”

  Suzie continued: “Chad wasn’t the intended victim of the poisoning, the mayor was. Did you know the mayor was having an affair with a woman named Angela Smithfield from Cove Point?”

  “No, I didn’t…” the detective said, looking increasingly annoyed.

  “Then you probably also didn’t know that Angela Smithfield’s jealous husband, Albert, came to town last year looking for the mayor just before he had a mental breakdown?”

  “No, Miss Brewer, I didn’t know that either. But I’m not interested in town gossip. I’m looking for solid, tangible evidence.”

  Suzie grinned. “Well, maybe this will interest you.” Suzie handed him the crumpled local newspaper from Hank’s bar. On the front, there was a large picture of the mayor, his wife and Chad among others.

  “Notice anything strange about the picture, detective?”

  “Go on…”

  “I did, as soon as I saw it. There was something very off about that picture. I had to go to Cove Point to be sure. I had a chat with Albert Smithfield himself…” Suzie took a deep breath.

  “So you believe that Smithfield murdered the mayor and his wife?” the detective asked.

  “Do you know what Cove Point is famous for?” asked Suzie.

  “Yes, it’s a mining town,” answered the detective.

  “I knew that. I knew that!” Chad said proudly.

  “Yes you did, Sweetie, and that was part of the puzzle.”

  “What does that have to do with the murder?” the detective said, looking at his watch.

  “Do you know one of the primary methods of removing gold from metal ore?” Suzie waited for a response.

  It was clear the detective knew the answer: “Potassium cyanide.”

  “Exactly!” Suzie said.

  “So, Albert Smithfield somehow got his hands on some cyanide from his hometown and then used it to kill the mayor and his wife?” asked the detective, now obviously intrigued.

  “Not quite.” Suzie stood in thought for a moment before proceeding. “Something was bothering me, and I couldn’t figure out what is was. It came to me when I saw that newspaper. The one thing that was off in the
picture. The mayor’s wife wasn’t wearing a wedding ring…”

  “You don’t mean…”

  “I have Albert Smithfield himself as a witness. He saw the mayor’s wife, Elizabeth, in Cove Point just four days ago. She wanted to confront his wife about the affair, but Albert stepped in and put a stop to it. The mayor’s wife then drove away from his home and heading in the direction of the Cove Point Mining Refinery. I contacted the local mining company to see if they had misplaced any cyanide of late. They’re a bottle short. A bottle I’m convinced Elizabeth bought from someone at the refinery. Who, we may never know. Now Chad is a witness to the fact that the poisoned slices of pie were put down on a table for a few minutes while the mayor chatted with others. That gave his wife plenty of time to pour the cyanide from a small container and then dispose of it.”

  “Did she mean to poison herself?”

  “Who knows, perhaps, perhaps not. Either way, she probably enjoyed the thought of ruining his big day. Scorned lovers will do anything when pushed.” Suzie looked intently at the detective. “Detective Lawson, if you can just postpone Lisa’s transfer for a few hours and check all of this out, perhaps search the mayor’s home for the remaining cyanide, I’m sure you’ll come to the same conclusion as I have.”

  For a moment, no one was sure how the detective would respond to Suzie’s clues. Suddenly, he laughed loudly. “Nicely done, Miss Brewer, nicely done.”

  The detective personally opened the police van doors. Lisa, who had heard the entire conversation, looked hopeful. Suzie reassured her that everything would be fine.

  The police got a search warrant and discovered the cyanide in a drawer at the mayor’s home later that night. The townsfolk would be shocked by the turn of events.

  But for now, Suzie smiled, looking out to Danvers Bay as she always had. It had been a hell of a few days, but the beauty of the place had not been altered by the experience. It was, and always would be her home.

  Chad stood next to Suzie, looking at her longingly as they waited for Lisa to be released. As they stared into each other’s eyes, Lisa opened the door and stood there for a moment. Then she flashed the happiest smile that Suzie had seen on her face in years.