Death in Detail

by Andrew Stanek

  “Yes,” Felix confirmed. “It was kept in her medicine cabinet.”

  “Well, from where I was sitting, I could see down the hall the whole time. I had a perfect view of the medicine cabinet. I always did, because I always sat there. Imagine that? It’s horrible, isn’t it? I had no idea that’s what was going to kill her.” He shuddered and downed his brandy.

  “Did anyone go near the medicine cabinet that night?” Alders asked.

  “What, to grab the poison right in front of me, you mean? No. Why would they?”

  “To use the bathroom?” Alders suggested.

  “Nah, the other bathroom’s closer. No, I didn’t see a soul down that end of the hallway. Stephanie sat next to me. She could have seen the cabinet just as well as I could. Ask her.”

  “And what happened for the rest of the night?”

  “We stayed up pretty late, drinking. Everyone else went to bed and it was just Hank and me left in the end. I’d kicked back quite a lot, and I went to bed too. I never saw anything funny. I had no idea that Aunt Agatha was poisoned until you told us about it.”

  “Can you think of anyone who’d have wanted to hurt your Aunt?”

  Jasper paused. “Well, I don’t want to point my finger at anyone, but if I had to pick someone, I’d say it’s Chester. He’s addled enough to do it.”

  “Addled?”

  “Sure, you know, with the -” Jasper mimed drinking from a bottle, then smoking, then popping pills. Then he snorted an imaginary line of something from the table, then began to madly tap the veins on his hand with two fingers and depressed a plunger on an invisible syringe, then said, “Ribbit, ribbit,” and made a licking motion.

  “I see. Jasper, how are your mountaineering expeditions funded?”

  “I have a little money that dad left me, and climbs sometimes have sponsors. Sports labels and so forth.”

  “Is all you do mountain-climbing?”

  “Well, I guess I do some - I guess you’d call it tourism. I wanted to see the world.”

  “I see.”

  “Do you only climb mountains, Jasper?” Felix asked suddenly.

  “What else do you think I’d climb? Flagpoles?” He grinned at his own joke.

  “Buildings, for instance.”

  “No. I’ve never been much of a building-climber. I have a friend whose’s done some urban BASE jumping though, you know, climb a skyscraper and jump off. But I’m just not that much of an adrenaline junky.”

  “Have you ever climbed this building, Jasper?”

  He raised his eyebrows.

  “No.”

  “Do you think you could?”

  “Sure, if I needed to. Why?”

  “Just interested,” Felix asked. “I think that’s everything. Thank you for your time, Jasper.”

  He shrugged and stood.

  “I don’t have any urgent need for money, detectives,” Jasper said as he dusted himself off. “Just try to make sure that you’re done with this investigation before the month is up. Sooner is better than later, of course. I don’t know who to trust anymore.”

  With that, he left. It was only a few seconds before Felix had started to dust his glass for fingerprints.

  “Do you think he climbed in through the window, then?” Alders asked.

  “Too early to say,” Felix remarked. “But to find out, we’re going to have to talk to the person we should have been talking to all along: Stephanie.”

  Stephanie entered the room promptly when called, and sat down uncomfortably in the chair. Before Alders could ask a question, Felix stepped forward and from his pocket produced the small orange plastic bottle that had once held the parabarbital. The woman stared at it with something approaching terror.

  “This bottle,” Felix said. “When did you first see it?”

  Stephanie gulped. “I saw it on Aunt Agatha’s birthday for the first time. Lisa - she’s one of the maids - went to the pharmacy and refilled most of Aunt Agatha’s prescriptions. Since she couldn’t leave the house herself, Agatha had it set up so Lisa could do that. Lisa gave me the bag in the morning, just before I brought Aunt Agatha her pills. It was definitely full then. All the bottles were full when I put them in the pill box.”

  “When was the first time you realized it was empty?”

  “I didn’t realize it was empty until you pointed it out yesterday. I didn’t think to check. Aunt Agatha always measured out her own pills. She was very deliberate and careful about it. Before that, I didn’t notice any were missing.”

  “Is it fair to say that she might have noticed some were missing?”

  “Yes. Thinking about it, you might be right. Maybe she noticed some were missing from the bottle that next morning, and that’s why she said that someone was trying to kill her. She only took those pills once a week, so even if there was only one missing, maybe she would have known somehow.”

  “Could anyone have accessed this bottle in the medicine cabinet?”

  “Yes. It wasn’t locked.”

  “Do you know which pharmacy this prescription was filled at?”

  “Yes.”

  “Could you please write it down for me?” Felix handed her a pen and paper. Stephanie scribbled it on paper. When she had finished, Felix returned the paper, the pen, and the empty pill bottle to his pocket.

  “We now know that someone poisoned your Aunt,” Felix said. “You said that she was picking her own food.”

  “Yes, I helped her out into the garden and then she’d pick the vegetables herself, or the fruits. Then she went into the kitchen and washed them, prepared them, and so forth. She was especially fond of the tomatoes.”

  “Was that unusual?”

  “Yes. She’d make food sometimes, but before her birthday, she liked to eat in her room. I’d usually bring her up food from the kitchens, made by the cook. After her birthday, she sent him on vacation. I think I already said all that.”

  “You did. But at no point did she allow anyone else to handle her food?”

  “No.”

  “What about her drinks?”

  “Well, Aunt Agatha never drank tapwater. I think it was because a very long time ago, the tapwater wasn’t safe to drink. She liked tea in the morning and that didn’t stop after her birthday. One of the maids would prepare the tea and then leave it out for me on a tray, on the dining room table. I’d take it up to Aunt Agatha.”

  “So this tea was unsupervised in the dining room?”

  Stephanie seemed to tremble a little.

  “Yes,” she said. “But a week before she died, Aunt Agatha stopped taking tea.”

  “A sensible precaution if she thought someone was using the tea to poison her,” Felix said in his usual low murmur. “She must have drunk things other than tea. Did she drink bottled water, for example?”

  “I don’t think Auntie knew bottled water existed. I doubt she’s ever been to a supermarket. When she wanted something else she’d send me down to fetch it from the fridge. I’d get it myself.”

  “What sorts of things did she ask for?”

  “Milk, sometimes. She took her tea with milk. Orange juice, from the fridge. Sometimes she drank a little sherry or brandy.”

  “Well, we know the brandy’s fine, since about five people have drunk it,” Alders commented. “Where did she keep the sherry?”

  Stephanie pointed to one of the cabinets.

  Alders walked over and took out a small bottle of sherry and a glass. He poured out a small measure of the sherry and drank it.

  “It doesn’t taste unusual, unless parabarbital is sweet,” he said. “We ought to get all these things tested.”

  “In time,” Felix answered, then turned back to Stephanie. “Anything else?”

  “No. We had wine, but I don’t remember her drinking any in the last month or so.”

  “When you got these drinks for her, you took them straight up to her room?”

  Stephanie nodded, still appearing terrified. Then, suddenly, she seemed to break down.
r />   “You think I did it, don’t you?” she said wildly. “I wouldn’t - I’d never kill Aunt Agatha, never, I swear I wouldn’t.”

  “Calm down,” Felix said soothingly. “Sam, pour her some of the brandy.”

  Alders complied, and Stephanie downed it with a shaking hand.

  “Now, on the night of your aunt’s death, I understand you were sitting outside the room.”

  Stephanie nodded. “Aunt Agatha’s Doctor, Dr. Rosemary, visited the day before and he said she wasn’t doing very well. The pain had gone, but she was very, very tired, and she could hardly get out of bed or walk. I was there in case Auntie needed anything or in case, well, she died.”

  “Did you fall asleep?”

  “Not while I was sitting there, no, but I didn’t sit there the whole night. Henry offered to take over for me. He said I looked awful. I hadn’t gotten much sleep for the few nights before that.”

  Felix and Alders glanced at each other.

  “What did you do then?”

  “I went to sleep. I hate to think that I was sleeping soundly while Aunt Agatha was dying.”

  Felix set the mortar and pestle on the table.

  “Have you ever seen this before?”

  “Yes. It was sitting on a shelf in the kitchen. I never knew what it was used for though. Grinding flour or something, I imagined. Why?”

  “Just interested,” Felix asked, and whisked the mortar and pestle away. “I’d like to know a little more about your family. I have a lot of difficulty understanding, particularly, how your aunt could have been a hundred but all of you are so young.”

  Stephanie gave a large sigh. “Well, Auntie was the oldest of four siblings. That’s a long story. Auntie was born a hundred years ago, as you know, and then she had a younger brother who died very little, when Auntie was still living in Honduras with Grandma and Grandpa. She told me once that her brother’s death was very distressing for her mother, so my grandparents didn’t have any more children for a long time. Then, finally, more than twenty years later they had another boy, and then my mother. My mother was by far the youngest - there was a gap of about thirty years between her and Auntie. Auntie outlived all her siblings, though. I think that made her feel very alone. My mother had me very late in life, and Uncle Virgil married twice also quite late in life. Henry was born in his first marriage, and Jasper, Diane, and Chester in his second, but both of his marriages ended in very messy divorces. I’ve always wondered if that’s why none of my cousins ever got married.”

  “I’ve been told your aunt didn’t approve of your mother’s marriage.”

  “No, she didn’t,” Stephanie said with a sad smile. “Papa was latino and my aunt, well, she was a bit racist. Just like grandma and grandpa. They wrote mama out of their will. Then my mother and father died in a car crash and I came here to live with Aunt Agatha, and I’ve been here ever since I was little.”

  “What happened to your uncle Virgil?”

  “Uncle Virgil died of natural causes. Old age. I think that scared Aunt Agatha, though she didn’t show it. She was twenty years older than Uncle Virgil, and if he’d died of old age, then what was going to happen to her?”

  “So your family’s money was divided up between your Aunt and your Uncle, your mother having been disinherited.”

  “Yes, though Uncle Virgil lost a lot of his in his divorces. That’s why my cousins aren’t rich already. I think a lot of his money must have also been in the business.”

  “What about this house and all the things in it? How long have they been in your family?”

  “Oh, the house and all these antiques were owned by my grandfather, or my great-great uncle Horace. I think great-great uncle Horace built this house. It’s one of the oldest buildings in the city, I think. It was damaged during the 1918 Earthquake, but grandpa had it rebuilt, not that the family was living here then. I think they must have been living in Honduras at the time. I know my grandmother lived in Honduras, where our family’s business fruit plantations were, during early life. She moved back here before the war.”

  Felix brought out the small golden locket he had found in the bedroom and opened it to show Stephanie the small photograph.

  “Can you tell me who this is?” he asked, indicating the smiling baby.

  “I’ve never seen this before,” she answered slowly, examining it closely. “I think this must be my Uncle William. He was Aunt Agatha’s younger brother, the one who died very young. I might be wrong. This photograph is very old.”

  “What do you know about your Uncle William?”

  “Nothing,” said Stephanie, shaking her head. “Aunt Agatha hardly ever spoke about him.”

  Felix sighed and closed the locket, returning it to the boundless folds of his baggy black jacket.

  “Let’s talk about the night of your Aunt’s birthday. I understand that she yelled at your family that evening.”

  “Yes, she did. I don’t think she really meant it though. I don’t think Aunt Agatha really liked to be reminded that she was getting older. At a hundred, she must have known she was near the end of her life. And she was always saying that I and my cousins weren’t as good as her father and great uncle.” Stephanie sighed.

  “Can you think of any other reason she might have been upset that evening?”

  “No. I told you that she’d decided the maids must have been stealing.”

  Felix gave her a wry smile.

  “Yes. We’ve already looked into that. Anything else?”

  Stephanie shook her head. “I can’t think of anything else. She did snap at me a bit. Auntie was just a little sour in general, I suppose.”

  “Can you remember what else happened that evening?”

  “I helped Auntie dress for the dinner, then I took her down the stairs. Chester and Jasper were there. You must know this already. Auntie started yelling a bit after Gloria and Diane came in. I was really a bit shocked. Auntie always liked Gloria more than the rest of us.”

  “After that?”

  “Nothing much happened after that. Auntie went back upstairs. I brought her up some food and she seemed alright.”

  “I understand you were sitting at the table where you could see down the hall, towards the medicine cabinet. Did you see anyone by the medicine cabinet at any point in the evening?”

  Stephanie shook her head, mystified. “I think I understand what you’re getting at. Someone must have taken some pills that night if Auntie was frightened she was being poisoned the next morning, but it must have been after I went to bed. I didn’t see anyone near the medicine cabinet before then. The next day, Auntie had an awful fall, though. She said her legs had given out and suddenly started to hurt very badly.”

  “And after that?”

  “She got worse day by day. Aunt Agatha said the pain was getting worse for a few days and she was having trouble walking, then it seemed to be getting better, then all of a sudden she couldn’t get out of bed anymore.”

  “When your aunt stopped making her own food, who made it?”

  “I did. She usually gave me very specific instructions what to do, but I - I didn’t watch it every minute. I don’t see how I could have. I usually went out to the garden to get more vegetables and I guess someone could have slipped into the kitchen while I was out.”

  “Do you have any idea who might have killed your Aunt?”

  “No,” Stephanie said adamantly, shaking her head. “I know she could be cruel at times, but I can’t think of anyone who’d want to kill her.”

  “Have you noticed anything else you’d like to tell us about?”

  She shook her head again.

  “Alright, Ms. Reins,” Felix said with a nod. “Thank you for your time.”

  Stephanie fled the room without another word.

  “What did you get for fingerprints this time?” Alders asked.

  “The locket,” Felix remarked, as he took out the small object and began to dust it.

  “Well, we’ve now interviewed everyone,” A
lders said with a sigh. “I don’t know what to make of this family. They’ve got more than a few oddballs, I think, and none of them seems to have particularly liked their aunt. Any one of them could have slipped the pills into her tea, then into her food later on when she’d stopped taking tea.”

  “Yes indeed,” Felix said. “But I don’t think we’ve interviewed everyone. I’d like to have a word with these maids that old Aunt Agatha was so desperate to fire.”

  Chapter 9

  A blonde young woman in a strangely mismatched apron over a dress was now standing uncertainly in the living room.

  “You wanted to speak to me?” she asked.

  “Yes I did,” Felix said. “What is your full name?

  “Lisa Lebell,” she said crisply.

  “And you work here, I believe?”

  “I’m a maid. I clean and run errands - that is, I ran errands, for Ms. Agatha.”

  “Did you refill your employer’s prescriptions on her birthday, about two weeks ago?”

  “Yes I did.”

  “What do you remember about this bottle?”

  Felix showed her the empty bottle of parabarbital, which the maid stared at blankly.

  “I don’t remember that bottle in particular. There were about eight or nine bottles I had to pick up. Ms. Agatha had all kinds of medications.”

  “What did you do with these medications after you picked them up from the pharmacy?”

  “I had them all in a little brown sack and I gave them to Stephanie. She put them in the medicine box, then took them up to her aunt, I imagine. It was about that time of day. Stephanie took up her medicines once before lunch in the morning and once before dinner at night.”

  “How long have you been working for Ms. Agatha?”

  “About six years.”

  “What was your opinion of your employer?”

  “I hated her and I don’t care who knows it,” Lisa said with a smile. “She paid alright, but that’s just because no one would do this job otherwise. She was a crazy old witch and she’d snap at us whenever she saw us. If we wanted to work for her, we had to wear dresses all the time, no matter how stupid they are,” Lisa gestured down to her dress beneath her apron. “Old Ms. Agatha was a terrible racist, too. A few weeks ago she was asking about my family - she always wanted to know about our families - and she found out my great-grandfather was Latin American. After that, she accused me of stealing every time she saw me. I don’t know how Stephanie put up with her. Stephanie’s father was Mexican. Oh, and what’s more, she told us that we weren’t to be seen with any men while we worked for her. She said she thought it would bring scandal down on her house. Honestly, I think she thought it was the eighteen-hundreds. The way this house is done up it wouldn’t surprise me. I don’t think there’s anything in the whole building that was invented by anyone later than Thomas Edison.”