by Randi Ocean
“Not yet,” he said with a beaming smile. “I want to tantalize you and savor every inch of you.” We teased each other under the stars, and when the peak of pleasure came, it was as explosive as the fireworks around us. When the temperature started dropping, we wrapped ourselves up in the blankets and watched the stars for a while longer before we finally gave in to the chill and fatigue, and went inside to crawl under the covers to sleep.
Chapter 12
The next morning when we were packing and getting ready to leave, Sergio came over to me and held my face in his hands.
“You know I love you, and if the tides turn and the time is right, I want to be with you more than anything.”
“I love you, too, and I’m grateful you understand that this is best, at least for a while.”
“It’s been a blessing to be here with you, though, and your support and perspective in sorting through this thing with Adele has helped me so much. I think you’ve come up with the perfect solution.” He kissed me and smiled.
“I’ll be anxious to hear what Adele has to say about it.”
“I’ll call you tonight and let you know how things went. Drive carefully.”
“Good luck.” We hugged and each drove off by ourselves.
On the route back, I thought about everything Sergio had told me about Cy and Nicole, and how he and Adele had gotten Buena Comida off the ground. I knew Nicole’s side of the story couldn’t have been the complete picture. Sergio was too much a part of it for Cy to be the only mastermind.
I looked at my watch and realized Nicole was supposed to be in the studio, working with Valerie. I figured I’d better check in with them and see how chilly the vibe was there.
“There’s the beach bum,” Valerie said as her “hello.” “Did you have a good time? Are you back?”
“It was a very nice change of scenery, that’s for sure. I’m driving back now. How’re things going there?” I asked.
“Nicole and I are making progress. I think we’re set for the meeting tomorrow and to start shooting Monday. Hey, she told me that the Ramirez family has a house on the North Coast. I think it was somewhere near the cottage.”
“Really? I had no idea,” I said, trying to seem surprised.
“From Nicole’s description, it sounds like a pretty cool place. I hope we have a chance to check it out sometime. Anyway, all is fine here. Really,” she said with emphasis, to let me know she and Nicole were actually getting along. “Drive safe, and we’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Thanks, Valerie. Call me if you need anything – otherwise, I’ll see you in the morning. ” It was a relief to know that at least so far there had been no more catfights.
When I got home, I turned on the news and began unpacking. I wasn’t paying much attention until I heard a correspondent mention Clint Sinclair’s name. He was standing outside the courthouse where the hearing was set to take place.
“…the key evidence against Clint Sinclair and some of the Mob participants had been provided in video testimonies by Mr. Sinclair’s wife and a former employee. We understand those testimonies will undoubtedly put some people away for a long time,” he announced.
I fell into a chair and felt numb. That former employee was me, and it made me realize how vulnerable I was. Sally was right. I had to keep an extremely low profile to be sure no connection could be made between Bridget Stone and “Mr. Sinclair’s former employee.” I felt sick to my stomach all over again.
My phone rang. It was Sergio. I muted the TV and answered. “How’d it go?” I asked.
“I guess all things considered, it went pretty well. Cy came to the meeting, and he was surprisingly helpful in persuading her. He came up with the idea of creating a boxed set when the three books are complete. He also reminded her that three books would mean a lot more days of work for Nicole. Adele’s all about helping Nicole, so I’m sure that made a difference. Regardless of what the turning point was, she seems to be on board.”
I hesitated for a moment, watching the correspondent as they showed some of the art that had been stolen by Clint. It still rattled me to the core that I’d been in the middle of that and had been so clueless.
“Good,” I responded blandly, totally distracted by what I was watching.
“Are you okay?” Sergio asked. “You sound distant…pre-occupied.”
I turned off the TV so I could focus on the conversation, “I’m okay -- I just have a lot on my mind.”
“I know you do, my sweet. I hope our time away together gave you a break to forget about things for a little while. I know I did.”
“It was wonderful, and I’m grateful for the time we had. It’s just amazing how quickly we can get sucked back into the stress.”
“Please try not to let it get to you. It’s going to be fine,” Sergio said in a calming tone.
“I’m sure you’re right.” I knew he was talking about the book, but I was referring to the stress of my whole life. Sometimes I felt as if I might explode from having to keep the first twenty-six years of my life a complete secret. Witness protection was supposed to keep me safe, but I wasn’t sure I would survive the anxiety.
“Try to get some rest, and I’ll see you tomorrow. Sweet dreams, my sweet,” Sergio said, almost fading to a whisper.
“See you tomorrow.” I was suddenly overwhelmed by exhaustion. All I could do was crawl into bed and fall asleep to escape from life for a few hours.
As I was about to drift off, I got a text from Valerie: Adele stopped by & told us about the 3 books…Coup 4 Dane, hell 4 me! I’ll survive :)
When I got to the studio Friday morning, Dane was already there, but there was no sign of Valerie. The prep kitchen looked organized and ready to go, so I was sure she didn’t feel she had to be in much earlier than our scheduled ten o’clock meeting. However, it wasn’t like Valerie to be in past eight o’clock when anything was happening. I decided I’d better check on her and dialed her cell.
“I’m on the way,” she answered.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
“I’m just feeling a little funky this morning. I’m sure it’ll pass, but I’m moving a little slower than I might like.”
“Okay, take it easy, and we’ll see you when you get here.”
I rooted around in the kitchen and found some herbal tea. A hot cup of soothing tea might make her feel better when she got in.
Dane came over to the kitchen, and I gave him the update. He was as concerned as I was about Valerie. She never got sick. She finally rolled in around nine-fifteen, looking absolutely green. She fell onto a stool at the breakfast bar.
“Do you think it was something you ate?” I asked, putting the tea down in front of her.
“I don’t think so,” she said, somewhat surprised herself. “I can’t figure out what it could be, though. I’m always careful about what I eat. I haven’t been sick to my stomach, but I feel really queasy.”
“Well, just rest and sip that tea. We have a little time before everyone gets here.”
“I’m going to lie down on the couch for a few minutes,” Valerie said.
“That’s probably a good idea.”
Dane and I went into the back to copy the schedule and shot lists for the first week of shooting so we could go day by day and see what Nicole and Valerie had prepped. We hashed out most of the schedule and general approach to the shoot before the holiday, so this meeting would be more of a summary and a show-and-tell of the food and props for each day.
When I walked back into the studio, Valerie looked a little awkward. I went over to be sure she was okay and realized she wasn’t breathing.
“Dane! Call 911!” I screamed. He was still in the back and didn’t hear what I said. When he came out into the studio, he saw my panic. “Call 911!” I said again as I dug through Valerie’s purse, looking for her Epipyn. There was so much stuff in her bag -- makeup, checkbook, note pad, pens, bottled water. No Epipyn.
Dane jumped on the phone, and I went back over to Va
lerie to see if I could revive her, but she was unconscious. The ambulance arrived in a few minutes, but there was no telling exactly how long it had been since she stopped breathing. It was too late. Valerie was dead.
Dane and I were in total shock. We held each other and cried as the paramedics took Valerie to the ambulance. As they were driving away, Sergio, Adele, Cy, and Nicole arrived.
“What’s going on?” Adele asked, looking around at the confusion.
“We think Valerie had an allergic reaction to something and didn’t survive it. She’s dead,” Dane said, breaking down again.
They all looked at each other in disbelief and shock. I hugged Dane. I couldn’t speak.
Sergio came over to me and tried to comfort me. “Bridget, are you all right? How did this happen?”
I just shook my head. I didn’t know how it had happened, and I couldn’t talk about it. “You should go,” was all I could manage to get out.
The four of them left quickly. Dane and I sat sobbing in silence for what seemed like hours when the phone rang. I looked at the caller I.D. “City of Portland.”
“Pratt Photography,” I answered.
“This is the coroner’s office. We need to get in touch with Ms. Essex’s next of kin. Do you have a contact name and number for a family member?”
I didn’t want Valerie’s family to hear about this from the Coroner. “We’ll call them and have someone get in touch with you.”
“That’ll be fine. The number they should call is 503-555-2121. And what’s your name?”
“Bridget Stone.”
“Thank you, Ms. Stone.”
I joined Dane at the kitchen counter.
“Do you have Valerie’s parents’ information?” I asked. “We need to get in touch with them and let them know what’s happened. The coroner’s office needs to talk to them, too.”
“I’ll call them,” Dane said solemnly. “I met them last year when they came for a visit. I should be the one to tell them. I just can’t believe it,” Dane sobbed, and went to his office to make the call.
I went over to the couch where Valerie had been lying to clear the tea and straighten up the mess the paramedics had left behind. When I picked up the mug of tea, I noticed the distinct scent of almond. I knew she had severe nut allergies. How on earth could anything almond get into this tea?
I found the box of tea bags and read the ingredients. It was strictly herbs. There were bottles of water that Valerie and Nicole had lined up on the counter, so they were close by. I had used one of these bottles when I boiled the water for tea. I smelled the water in the electric kettle and got the slightest hint of the almond smell there, too. I opened another bottle and didn’t smell anything. I poured the water out of the kettle, rinsed it, and used the water from the second bottle and boiled it again. There it was -- a hint of almond after it came to a boil.
I gathered up all of the bottles and put them in a box. They had to be analyzed. I went back to Dane’s office just as he was hanging up with Valerie’s mother. Tears were streaming down his face. “Bridget, how could this happen? Valerie was so careful about what she ate or drank.”
“I may have figured it out,” I said quietly.
I explained the boiling test. He looked shocked. “How could almond get in the bottled water?”
“I don’t know, but if it is coming from the bottler that way, other people could be in danger. If it’s not, it’s been tampered with. We’ve got to get it figured out, fast.”
I called Sally because I wasn’t sure where to start. I told her what had happened.
“That’s crazy!” Sally exclaimed.
“I know, but we have to make sure no one else could get sick from this. Who should I call, or where can I take this stuff to be tested?”
“Hang tight. I’ll get someone over there right away.”
About ten minutes later, a detective arrived at the studio. “Mr. Pratt, Ms. Stone, I’m Detective Roberts,” he said, holding up his badge and offering a hand to shake. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“Valerie wasn’t feeling well this morning,” I told him. “She didn’t have any idea what had made her feel nauseous. I fixed her some herbal tea, and she lay down on the couch to try to calm her stomach. Dane and I went into the back office for a few minutes, and when I came out, she wasn’t breathing. She never revived. When I was cleaning up after the paramedics left, I smelled almonds in the teacup. I couldn’t smell anything in the bottled water that was at room temperature, but when I boiled it, it was there.”
“Do you know where the water was purchased?” Detective Roberts asked.
“Nicole brought four or five cases from Familia Cucina’s stock. They buy it in bulk and get it cheaply.”
Detective Roberts examined the bottles I had boxed and the cases that were stacked in the corner. “They all seem to have the same batch number, so we should be able to tell if it is consistent in all of them or only in a few. We can get that figured out in the next couple of hours. I’ll let you know what we find. Ms. Stone, since you handled the batch in the box, can I take your fingerprints so we can sort out who touched the bottles?”
“Sure,” I said, still in shock over the whole situation. Dane stood behind me and rubbed my back, sobbing softly.
The detective pulled out an iPad and tapped at the screen. The outline of a hand came up on the screen. “Place your right hand here inside the outline,” he said. He tapped a button on the screen, and it scanned my fingerprints. My hand print came up on the screen so he could confirm he had a good-quality scan before we moved on to the left hand. When he was satisfied with the prints, he handed each of us his business card and said, “I’ll need phone numbers for each of you so I can be in touch if we have any other questions.”
Dane took out a business card and wrote my information on the back. “Here you go. That has both of our numbers.”
“Thanks. If you think of anything else, please call me. Otherwise, I’ll be in touch with you later. I’m sorry for your loss,” he said, nodding to both of us before he left.
It was barely eleven. Dane and I were shell-shocked.
“Let’s get out of here,” Dane said. “I need to call Steve, and besides, there’s nothing else we can do here.”
“Okay, I guess I’ll go home and wait to hear from Detective Roberts. I’ll talk to you later.”
Dane gave me a hug and locked the door behind us.
**
When I got home, I crawled into bed and wept. I felt horribly guilty that I’d given the tea to Valerie. Maybe if I’d smelled it, I would have noticed the almonds and been able to prevent this. I replayed the whole scene in my mind. I remembered that when I went to find Valerie’s Epipyn, there was a partially drunk bottle of water in her bag. That must have been what made her sick first thing in the morning. Maybe she hadn’t drunk enough to kill her before she got to the studio, but when I gave her another dose of it, her system couldn’t handle it.
I dialed the detective.
“Roberts,” he answered.
“Detective Roberts, this is Bridget Stone from Dane Pratt’s office.”
“Yes, Ms. Stone.”
“This morning when I realized Valerie was having an allergic reaction, I went into her purse to look for her Epipyn, and I remembered that there was a partially drunk bottle of water in there. It was probably from the same batch you’re testing.”
“Thank you, Ms. Stone. We have her belongings here, and we’ll check that out. I’ll let you know when we have more information. Thanks for calling.”
“Okay, thanks. ‘Bye.”
I lay in bed, numb, for hours. My phone kept ringing, but I didn’t even look to see who was calling. I let it go to voicemail. Around three o’clock, I thought I’d better check the messages in case the detective had tried to reach me.
“Bridget, it’s Sally. How are you holding up? I’m worried about you. Call me.”
“My sweet Bridget, I’m so sorry.” I could tell Sergio was cryin
g. “This is so awful. I know how you must feel. I have many feelings from losing my wife coming back to the surface, too. I’m thinking about you. I can put you in touch with my grief counselor if that would help you. Call me if you want to talk.”
“Ms. Stone. This is Detective Roberts. Please call me when you can. Thank you.”
I appreciated Sally’s support, and Sergio was the last person I wanted to talk to. I tried to compose myself and redialed Detective Roberts’ number from my call log.
“Roberts.”
“Detective, this is Bridget Stone returning your call.”
“Yes, Ms. Stone. We’d like to talk to you at the station if you have some time.”
“Can’t we talk by phone?”
“I’d rather talk with you in person, if you don’t mind.”
“Okay. I’ll be there within the hour.”
What could they possibly need to talk with me about in person? I took a quick shower to try to revive myself a little, and headed to the station. Sally was there when I arrived. “What’re you doing here?” I asked her.
“I know it’s been a trying day for you, and I thought you could use the support. Daniel, I mean, Detective Roberts has stayed in touch with me throughout the day. Let’s sit down.”
“Sally, what the hell is going on?”
“The bottles have definitely been tampered with. They think Nicole may have had something to do with it, but they need to talk with you about your whereabouts for the last few days, too. I told him you and Valerie were friends, but he wants to hear the details from you.”
“They don’t think I had anything to do with this, do they?!”
“Well, you did fix the tea for her this morning, which is what seems to have caused the anaphylactic shock.”
“That’s just crazy! Valerie was a good friend of mine. I would never do anything to hurt her!”
