by Leslie Caine
well have been completely misplaced. Which in turn
meant Sullivan's suspicions about our beleaguered client
might have been misplaced, as well.
Walter, accompanied by another man, arrived about
an hour after Sullivan had called him. Walter had been
somber at the service earlier, but his usual cheery demeanor had since been restored. "So, my friends," he
said. "Another power tap line, eh? Don't you hate it
when this happens?" He chuckled at his silly sarcasm,
then introduced his companion as Earth Love's security
chief and investigator, Bob Jones.
"I didn't do this," Burke immediately implored.
"Someone is framing me."
160 L e s l i e C a i n e
"That's what the last guy said," the investigator replied.
Walter chuckled and nodded.
"What last guy?" Burke asked, his voice desperate.
"I've judged more than twenty of these contests
across the country in the last few years," Walter replied.
"This is the third time a power line was run from an external source."
"That's . . . appalling!" Burke said. "But this is the first
time the home owner was set up."
"Second time, actually," Jones said.
"Yeah," Walter explained. "We had a really jealous
maniac over in Dallas. Eating too much tofu, you ask
me." He drew air circles around his ear. "That's when
Earth Love started the policy that all semifinalists had to
provide their fingerprints."
"That guy had the ugliest kids I've ever seen," Jones
muttered.
"Okay. So there's precedence, at least," Burke said.
"Provided you can be open-minded about my innocence."
"Oh, sure," Walter replied with a wink. "I'm always
open-minded."
"Even when your friend and colleague was murdered?" Burke asked incredulously. "And withdrew from
judging because of me?"
"Let's examine the evidence, shall we?" Walter said
evenly. "Fear not, my friends. We'll get to the bottom of
this."
Sullivan and I explained that we had to get back to work.
Burke merely shrugged his shoulders when we said goodbye to him, saying that he was resigned to his fate. The moment we were alone, I asked Sullivan, "So are you starting
to have doubts about Burke having killed Richard?"
P o i s o n e d b y G i l t 161
"Some," he grumbled. "Right now, we both have to
concentrate on getting caught up at work."
All told, our remaining meetings for the day didn't go
well. One carpenter had put a nail through a pipe, and
another client had changed her mind completely, causing us to start over from scratch. At home afterwards,
Audrey and I were both cranky. We snapped at each
other as we ate our microwaved dinners. Feeling exhausted and discouraged, I went to bed early, calling it
another exciting Friday night. But the phone at my bedside rang a few minutes after eleven P.M., awakening me
from a deep slumber.
"Erin, are you awake?" the caller asked.
"I am now." I tried to rouse myself. Hildi was meowing
in protest, and I agreed with the sentiment. "Who is
this?"
"It's Burke Stratton."
"Burke? What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Nothing at all. Sorry to be calling you so
late, but I just got home and listened to a phone message
from Walter Emory. I'm going to be cleared!"
"Cleared?"
"Eventually. It was Margot Troy!"
"You're . . ." I stopped, shaking off my brain fog enough
to realize that he wasn't talking about the murder, but
rather, the running of the illegal power line. "That
doesn't make any sense."
"Maybe not, but her fingerprints were found on the
cable itself and on my meter box. And there's no way for
them to have gotten there innocently."
"That's great news." I yawned. "I'm glad to hear that
they're getting this resolved."
162 L e s l i e C a i n e
"Me, too. Sorry for waking you. Sleep well." He hung
up.
I returned the phone to its cradle, now wide awake
and with the sinking feeling that I was going to stay that
way for quite a while to come. For Margot Troy to have
pulled such a stupid, ugly stunt, she must have hated
Burke. Maybe she'd framed him for Richard's murder,
too.
The following morning, I called Steve Sullivan to tell
him what Burke had reported to me the night before.
"Jeez, that's weird," Sullivan grumbled. "Seems way out
of character for her."
"Yeah, it is. But like Burke told me last night, there's
no other viable explanation for her prints being on his
electric meter." I hesitated, then said, "I'll be setting myself up for more than one major tongue-lashing, but I've
got to know what's behind this. I'm going over to her
house and asking her point-blank what's going on."
"Let me know what she says."
To my pleasant surprise, Margot quickly agreed to
have me come over, so I went directly there from my
house, and we took seats on her living room sofa. Wasting
no time on small talk, which I knew Margot appreciated,
I asked, "Did you hear from Walter Emory about what
happened yesterday?"
"About my fingerprints being on Burke's meter, you
mean? I heard, obviously, but I was merely checking out
my competition's power consumption. Nothing sordid
was going on."
She was avoiding my gaze. "Margot, things just aren't
adding up for me."
P o i s o n e d b y G i l t 163
"What do you mean?"
"For one thing, I can't imagine you really being so interested in your competition's electrical usage that you
went sneaking around his house, checking his meter
readings. You could have asked someone at Earth Love to
tell you what his consumption rates were. It wasn't privileged information or anything."
"I had my reasons, Erin."
"What reasons?"
She sighed and pursed her lips, but I was determined
to wait her out. Eventually she frowned and said, "I
couldn't ask Earth Love about Burke's meter readings
without possibly tipping my hand about . . . my concerns.
Jeremy has more riding on this contest than anyone else."
"How so?"
"Having his design win this contest could finally give
him the respect for his work that he's deserved and craved
for years now."
"I can see that being true. But . . . he'd have had a lot
easier time explaining his fingerprints on Burke's power
meter than you would. He's the architect, after all, and
he's working on the sunroom design even as we speak.
Why did you take it upon yourself to check it out?"
"Because . . . I needed to see for myself if the energy
consumption was really as low as Jeremy was bragging
about. I didn't believe him. And, as it turned out, with
good reason."
She was now fidgeting so badly that I half expected her
to start digging the upholstery tacks out of her vintage
linen sofa. Only one explanation came to mind. "Do you
suspect Jeremy ran those auxiliary power lines?
" I asked.
She winced and answered dejectedly, "The latest figures that Jeremy bragged to me about were impossible.
164 L e s l i e C a i n e
Unless Burke's windmill was operational, that is. After I
saw for myself that the windmill hasn't been fully installed, I confronted Jeremy and he confessed to me privately. But please don't repeat that to anyone."
"He had to know the engineers at Earth Love were going to realize the numbers were impossible. In fact, he's
incredibly lucky that the engineer who spoke at Burke's
hearing didn't pick up on the discrepancy."
Margot nodded. "That's why Jeremy waited till the last
minute to hook everything up . . . on the very day Richard
Thayers was officially named judge. The final round was
only supposed to last a week. Jeremy gambled that it
would be just long enough to make Burke's meter readings first-rate, but not unduly suspicious. And Jeremy
never would have felt forced to hook it up in the first
place, except that things kept going wrong with the installation of Burke's windmill."
"And so . . . Jeremy siphoned power from Burke's nextdoor neighbor?"
She nodded. "When it was clear the windmill wasn't
going to be operational in time, Jeremy calculated that,
even so, the tower and the blades would be in place. So
he ran the cable, planning on hooking it up the minute
the shell of the windmill was in place. That way, he
could siphon power but make it look like the windmill
was producing it. Except the supplier botched the job
and had to backorder most of the tower and the blades.
Jeremy knew by then that he'd get caught in the act if he
pulled out the cable, so he waited till the last minute to
hook it up, thinking it would boost Burke's chances of
winning, but not lead to his getting the boot. In retrospect, he knows full well how stupid that was, but he was
desperate."
P o i s o n e d b y G i l t 165
"Was Burke in on the deception?"
"I asked Jeremy that, and he says no."
"Do you believe him?"
"Yes. Jeremy would have no reason to take full responsibility. It would speak better for him if he'd merely been
acting on his client's behalf."
I took a moment to digest the information. "Margot,
this is too serious for you to keep quiet. This could easily
turn into a criminal investigation. A man is dead! Right
after he was publicly seeking answers to those very improprieties at Burke's house! You've got to tell the police
about this."
She pursed her lips, and her eyes misted over. After a
long pause, she gritted her teeth and said defiantly,
"Who's to say I didn't?"
"Did you?"
"Jeremy would kill me if he knew this, but yes, I told
them."
"I haven't heard any news about his being arrested."
"I doubt he was. Burke called me right after you did
this morning, and apparently he'd already told the police
he didn't want to press charges against Jeremy. Burke
wanted to know if I was the snitch who'd turned him in. I
lied and said no. But I don't know what will happen with
whatever home owners he was pilfering power from.
Maybe they'll have Jeremy arrested, I don't know. They
were the ones who were actually getting ripped off."
If Asia McClure failed to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law, I'd be shocked. And suspicious about her
motives. "What about the utility company? Are they
pressing charges?"
"They've been getting paid and didn't know there was
a problem. Frankly, the greatest damage at the moment is
166 L e s l i e C a i n e
to my and Jeremy's relationship. He hasn't called me
since the Earth Love people first talked to him about this
yesterday, and he hasn't been answering any of my--"
She broke off at a soft thump against an outer wall of her
house. "What was that?"
"I don't know, but--"
I'd been about to say it was probably nothing, but she
leapt to her feet and raced out the back door, grabbing
something from the kitchen cabinet en route. I followed
a few paces behind her and grew alarmed when I heard
her cry: "Stop right there! I'm armed and dangerous!"
I rounded the corner after her, petrified that she'd
grabbed a gun. She'd shouted at Walter Emory and the
investigator, Bob Jones. "Whoa," Walter said, as Bob and
I gaped at her. "We're just running an unscheduled inspection of the finalists' meters to make sure everything's
copacetic. No need for the pepper spray. Or mace. Or
whatever you've got there."
"You were right the first time." Margot put the little
bottle into her pocket. "You scared me."
"Likewise, ma'am," Walter replied with a chuckle.
"You're not going to find any cable splices or whatever
at my house. I'm a very capable watchdog." She hesitated. "I mean in reference to a Doberman. Not to your
ecology group, World's Watchdogs."
"So I gathered."
"Everything checks out fine," Jones said to Walter.
Walter grinned at me. "Hi, Erin." He feigned wiping
sweat from his brow. "This is just not my day for stealth.
Second time in one day."
"Did you have trouble at Burke's house?" I asked.
"No, but I sure did at Mr. Campesio's. Scared me so
bad I decided to save Burke's house for later. Campesio
P o i s o n e d b y G i l t 167
came popping out at me, wearing this guerrilla-warfare
outfit. I half expected him to shoot me on the spot."
"Not with me there, he wouldn't," Jones immediately
stated.
"Oh, right," Walter said amiably. "Forgot I was traveling with a security officer. It's like having my own bodyguard."
"You got it," Jones said, puffing out his chest.
Walter rolled his eyes and gave me a wink. I'm sure we
all noticed that Bob hadn't exactly leapt in front of
Walter, prepared to take a shot of pepper spray for him
from Margot.
Margot lifted a sculpted eyebrow. "In my case, you
should have knocked on the door. I don't appreciate surprises."
"Have you already told them about Jeremy?" I asked
her, pretending it was an innocent question.
"Erin!" Margot snarled.
"Yeah, she did," Walter quickly replied. "We talked to
Mr. Greene last night. He admitted he was the one who
hooked up the power line. Said it was all his own idea. It
made sense," Walter added with a shrug.
"And it fit the evidence," Bob said. "It explained why
the only place on the power cable where Ms. Troy's fingerprints were found was right where it hooked into the
box . . . not where the power lines were coupled together."
"You were trying to unhook the line," Walter asked her
gently, "weren't you, Ms. Troy?"
"Without risking electrocution, yes," she said. "And
unless Burke or Darren has been tampering with my
lines, you're not going to find anything wrong here."
"Good thing," Walter said.
"As long as we're all here," Margot said, lifting her
168 L e s l i e C a i n e
chin, "just tell me my status now. Have I been disqualified?"
>
"No, Ms. Troy. We discussed this with management at
Earth Love first thing this morning, and we're convinced
that Jeremy acted alone. You've been absolved. As has
Burke Stratton, and, of course, Darren Campesio."
"That's great, but . . ." I hesitated as Margot's piercing
gaze shifted toward me. "Sorry, Margot, but isn't there
also a rule about getting disqualified if you willfully ignore knowledge of rule-breaking by another party?"
"She didn't," Walter quickly interjected. "Mr. Sullivan
wasn't the first I'd heard from yesterday regarding this
matter. Ms. Troy beat him to it. She called me right after
the memorial service."
"I'd only just found out myself two days ago, when
Jeremy came to me privately and confessed. I said I'd give
him some time to work things out for himself, but yesterday, when he'd still done nothing, I finally took matters
into my own hands."
"Coincidentally, right when Sullivan had found the
pirated power line?" I asked her as gently as I could.
"Coincidences do happen, Erin," she replied in a
haughty voice.
"One piece of important information that should
make you both happy," Walter said, "is that I'm nearly
done. Just have to check to make sure all my i's are dotted
and my t's are crossed, and I'll be ready to make my final
decision. Monday or Tuesday at the latest."
"That's wonderful," Margot said, finally boasting a
sincere-looking smile. "I can't tell you how much I'll enjoy having this whole contest ordeal come to an end."
"Yeah," Walter said, chuckling again "I think we're
safe in saying that goes for all of us."
P o i s o n e d b y G i l t 169
On Monday morning, Sullivan and I pulled into
Burke's driveway for a scheduled meeting. "I just wish I
could figure out how Margot knew I'd discovered the bogus power line," Sullivan grumbled. After my phone call
on Saturday morning, we hadn't spoken again all weekend, but during our drive I'd filled him in on every last
detail of my conversation with Margot.
"Maybe she paid someone to keep an eye on Burke's
house. In any case, that wasn't the part that bothers me.
It's that Jeremy hooked the splice up in the first place."
He said nothing. I knew I'd given him that reply at
least twice. We made our way to Burke's door, and
Sullivan rang the doorbell.
After waiting a reasonable period, he knocked and
again pushed the doorbell button. Sullivan said, "He's
not here."
