Brewing Death

by P. D. Workman

  “It’s fine,” Joelle said, her voice a low moan that was at odds with her words. “Got some stuff…”

  Some stuff. That bolstered Erin’s thought that it might be painkillers that were affecting Joelle. Maybe she was hypersensitive or was having some kind of reaction. Maybe she had misunderstood the dosing or had taken too many by accident. Erin checked the other surfaces of the room, the dresser, and the other bedside table. No prescriptions.

  There was an ensuite bathroom, something unusual in houses of that age, and Erin went into it, still talking to Joelle to distract her from the fact that Erin was snooping around her room.

  There was a pill bottle with a red lid on the vanity counter, and Erin snatched it up. Bingo!

  But turning it in her hand, she saw that it was just acetaminophen. Regular dose, not even extra strength. She unscrewed the red lid. The top seal had been punched through. Weighing it in her hand and looking down at the pills within, Erin was disappointed. The bottle had probably just been opened. It looked full. Joelle obviously hadn’t overdosed on them. Erin continued her search, looking for any other signs of prescriptions or illicit drugs, checking the medicine cabinet behind the mirror, the shelves and drawers, and anywhere else she could think of that Joelle might conceivably have put her pills. She wouldn’t have hidden them too carefully or too far away, because she needed to be able to get back at them with her bum leg, pain, and whatever other symptoms she was experiencing.

  Erin was coming out of the bathroom as Vic was returning with a hot bowl of soup and a spoon. Vic raised her eyebrows questioningly. Erin shook her head.

  “Here you go, Joelle,” Vic announced. “Here’s that chicken soup you wanted. Let’s see if you can get some of it down.”

  Joelle’s eyelids fluttered. She tried to focus on Vic, but seemed too drowsy to keep her eyes open all the way.

  Vic perched on the edge of the bed and half-filled the soup spoon, then held it in front of Joelle’s mouth. “Here you go. Open up.”

  Joelle obediently opened her mouth. Vic tipped the spoonful of soup into it. Most of it just dribbled down Joelle’s chin.

  “Let’s try that again,” Vic said with a bit of a laugh.

  She again tried to get a spoonful of soup into Joelle. Joelle gagged and coughed.

  “Maybe we should have gone vegan,” Vic said. “What do vegans eat when they’re sick?”

  “I have no idea. Tofu?”

  “This isn’t working,” Vic said more seriously. “What do you think we should do? We probably shouldn’t leave her alone.”

  “No. I think she should be in hospital. She doesn’t even have anyone watching over her here.”

  “Should we drive her? There might not be an ambulance available.”

  As if Erin didn’t already know that. Bald Eagle Falls only had limited emergency resources, and if the dedicated ambulance was in use, they would have to get one from the city or make use of another option. “No… I think she’ll be okay until they can get here. We’ll just hang around to make sure she’s okay and nothing happens to her before they get here. She’ll probably just sleep.”

  She looked over at Joelle, whose eyes were already closed again.

  Chapter 5

  Erin talked to the emergency dispatcher for Bald Eagle Falls, who broke the news that their ambulance was in use, but promised to scout around for another and get someone over to take care of Joelle.

  “Do you need a doctor over there, honey?”

  Erin smiled at the twang in her voice. “No, she’s sleeping comfortably, so I think she’ll be fine until the paramedics can get here. She’s not in any pain or distress or throwing up.”

  “How about breathing? Good breaths?”

  Erin leaned close to Joelle and watched her breathe. Joelle’s chest rose and fell in a regular rhythm, long and slow in sleep.

  “Yes. Her breathing seems just fine. Clear and regular.”

  “Okay. You be sure to call me back if anything changes. We’ll have a doctor over there pronto if she takes a turn for the worse.”

  “Thanks. Any idea how long the ambulance will be?”

  “It will depend on what is in use right now. I’ll call around to see who I can get, but it might be a couple of hours.”

  Erin nodded. She’d expected as much. “Okay. Thanks for your help.”

  Erin stayed in the room with Joelle, wanting to keep an eye on her just to make sure she didn’t run into any problems. Vic was restless and spent most of the time watching TV in one of the other rooms, only re-entering the bedroom occasionally to check on Joelle and make sure that Erin didn’t need anything else from her.

  Erin sat in a chair in the corner, listening to Joelle breathe and move around restlessly. Erin picked up a worn paperback copy of A Pocketful of Rye and started to read.

  Joelle tossed and turned, getting increasingly agitated. Erin put down the book and went over to Joelle’s side. She shook Joelle’s arm gently to wake her up, figuring she was having nightmares. Joelle opened her eyes and stared at Erin, not seeming to take her in at first. Then she looked around the room and flapped her arm toward the bedside table.

  “Drink.”

  Erin picked up the cup of room temperature tea. “Let me go get you some water. I don’t know how long this has been sitting here.”

  “No! Give me the tea.”

  Erin hesitated. “It’s not going to taste very good. It’s not hot.”

  “It’s for my leg,” Joelle insisted. “Heal faster.”

  She reached insistently for the mug, and Erin eventually relinquished it. She expected Joelle to taste it and then decide it was too nasty to drink, but Joelle seemed oblivious to the bitter smell, taking a few swallows.

  “What’s in it?” Erin asked, thinking maybe she should let the paramedics know, just in case it was anything that might have an effect on her treatment at the hospital.

  “Boneknit.” Joelle’s voice was weak, but her words were clear. “From Adele.”

  “Adele brought the tea?” Erin looked down at it in surprise. It wasn’t like she would be able to somehow identify Adele’s hand in the making of the tea, or that knowing who had made it would reveal what was in it.

  She was surprised that Adele had gone to Joelle’s house with tea for her injury. Adele knew who Joelle was, of course, and might have heard about her injury through the grapevine, as Erin had, but Adele spent most of her time in solitary pursuits and didn’t hear the rumors like Erin did. But maybe it was usual for Adele to drop in with healing teas for the residents of Bald Eagle Falls. Just because she hadn’t told Erin anything about it, that didn’t mean anything. Adele was a private person and didn’t share many of her inner thoughts.

  Erin took the cup back from Joelle when she was done, and Joelle put her head down, closing her eyes again. Erin waited until she was sure Joelle was back asleep before leaving the room.

  “How’s it going?” Vic asked, looking up from the TV. “Everything okay?”

  “Yes. She wanted some more of that tea.” Erin wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know how she could drink something that tasted like that, especially cold.”

  “Like what? Did you taste it?”

  “No, but I can smell it, and that’s bad enough.”

  Vic shook her head. “What did it smell like?”

  “I don’t know. She said it was boneknit, and that’s comfrey, but that’s not what it smelled like. It has comfrey in it, but something else that doesn’t smell very nice. Bitter. Pungent. I don’t know.”

  “I guess that answers what a vegan drinks when she’s sick or hurt. She probably can’t even taste it. Not everyone’s nose is as sensitive as yours.”

  “No. I guess not. But I wouldn’t be able to drink the stuff, that’s for sure.”

  “See if there’s some in the kitchen, and we can make some fresh for her. At least then it won’t be cold. You can put some honey in it if it makes you feel better.”

  Erin went into the kitchen to see if any of t
he leaves had be left out.

  “Did she go back to sleep?” Vic asked.

  “Yes. She was only awake for a minute or two. Just long enough to have a few sips of tea, then she was off to slumberland again.”

  Erin was going through the cupboards and drawers in the kitchen when the doorbell rang. Erin listened to Vic answer it and deduced that it was the paramedics.

  “This way,” Vic invited, and led them down the hall to the bedroom. “Joelle. Joelle, honey, wake up. The ambulance is here, they’re going to take you to the hospital to keep an eye on you. Joelle?” Vic’s voice rose “Joelle?”

  Erin paused in her search. Vic’s voice was concerned, anxious. The paramedics spoke, taking over the scene and asking Vic to leave the room. Erin met Vic in the living room.

  “What is it? Is everything okay?”

  Vic’s eyes were wide and panicked. “I couldn’t wake her up, Erin. I think… she didn’t respond at all. I don’t know if she was even breathing.”

  Chapter 6

  Stunned, Erin steadied herself, putting her hand on the wall.

  “What?” She looked down the hall toward the room. “I was just in there. She was fine!”

  “I don’t know. Maybe I’m wrong. I hope I’m just wrong!”

  “Come in here,” Erin led Vic over to the couch and sat her down. “Just relax and take deep breaths. I’m sure she’s fine. There’s nothing to panic about.”

  “What if she’s dead?” Vic wailed, “I don’t understand what happened. She just hurt her leg!”

  “I don’t know. We’ll figure it out, okay? I’m sure it will all be okay.”

  Erin sat holding Vic’s hand and rubbing her shoulder, trying to keep her calm, until one of the paramedics returned to the living room to talk to them.

  “I need to know what happened,” the man said. He had a stocky build, dark hair, and acne scars. Erin didn’t recognize him from Bald Eagle Falls and assumed that he must have come from the city. Wherever the dispatcher had managed to find a free ambulance.

  “What do you mean?” Erin asked. She shook her head. “We came here to check in on Joelle and bring her some chicken soup. She didn’t seem like she was in very good shape, and we didn’t want to leave her to take care of herself, so we called for an ambulance. That’s all. I looked around for any pills, in case she had taken too many painkillers, but all I found was the Tylenol in the bathroom, and it looked full.”

  “What made you think she had overdosed on painkillers?”

  “She hurt her leg, that’s why she was in bed. So I thought maybe it had been bothering her and she had accidentally taken too many pills. She seemed really dopey and distant. She didn’t want anything to eat, even though I don’t think she’d had anything recently. Why? What’s wrong? Is she worse? Vic said…” Erin looked at Vic and trailed off.

  “She was non-responsive,” the paramedic said. “We weren’t able to detect any pulse or breathing. How long was she like that before we came?”

  “She wasn’t. I was just in there. She asked for more tea, so I gave her a sip. I came out here to make some more and then you arrived. I was in there and she was talking to me and awake not five minutes ago.”

  The paramedic looked from Erin to Vic and back again. He nodded, apparently seeing nothing that disturbed him. “Okay, then. We’ll call for a doctor and your PD. I’m sure there’s no reason to be concerned, but… it’s an unattended death, and you did make an emergency call…”

  Erin nodded numbly. “Okay… yeah. Of course. Whatever your procedure is. Do you want Vicky and me to stay here, or should we go home and stay out of the way?”

  “I’d like you to stay put for now. We’ll let the authorities make that call.”

  He went back down the hall to the bedroom. Vic raised her eyebrows at Erin.

  “You see? I told you. I knew something was wrong.”

  “But she was just awake. She was just talking to me. What could have happened?”

  “I don’t know.”

  They waited for something to happen. But of course, nothing happened quickly in Bald Eagle Falls. The minutes seemed to drag into hours before the doctor showed up to examine Joelle’s body and declare her dead. The doctor put the same questions to Erin and Vic as the paramedics had, shaking his head in confusion.

  “I can’t say what happened,” he told them. “Maybe an embolism or a stroke. Even a heart attack. No way to tell until an autopsy is done.”

  “She’s too young for something like that, isn’t she? Women in their early thirties don’t just drop dead.”

  “She had a leg injury. Probably there was a clot. It traveled to her lungs and she was gone very quickly.”

  Erin breathed out. “I suppose. I never thought of anything like that happening. Is there something I could have done? Some symptom I should have seen? Should I have elevated her legs?”

  “There was probably no way you could have known. She might have had pain and tenderness in her leg, but considering that was where she had hurt herself… there would have been nothing to make you think it was anything other than just being sore after a fall.”

  Erin felt a little reassured by that. “Okay… thanks. This was really a shock!”

  “I’m sure it was. I’ll just wait for the police,” the doctor looked at his watch, “and then we should all be able to get home. You two are the bakers, right? So you want to head to bed pretty early.”

  “I don’t think there’s much hope for that tonight,” Vic sighed. “Normally, we’d be getting ready for bed now.”

  “It shouldn’t take long for the police officer to arrive. He should be here any—”

  There was a quick knock on the door, and Officer Terry Piper entered, K9 at his side. He looked at Erin and Vic, his jaw dropping. “What are you doing here?”

  “Uh… we…” Erin was having trouble finding the words to explain their presence. “We were here for the soup.”

  “What?”

  “Joelle, we heard that she was laid up, so we brought her soup.”

  “Joelle? What does she have to do with this?”

  Erin swallowed. “She’s the one who died.”

  Terry shook his head, his eyebrows drawing down in a scowl. “I wasn’t told who it was that had died. Joelle Biggs? She seemed like a fit, healthy person. She was always going on about her yoga and healthy eating and training regime…”

  He made it sound like he’d talked to her on a regular basis. Erin was puzzled, but pushed the thought aside, trying to bring Terry up to speed.

  “I know. She always acted like she was really in good shape. I don’t know if she was or not, but she had an accident and hurt her leg badly. We didn’t know if she was going to be able to be up and around, so we stopped by with some soup…”

  “Why?” Terry asked suspiciously.

  “To be neighborly,” Vic snapped. “That’s the Christian way to behave, isn’t it?” She glanced at Erin and got a little pink. “I mean… we were just trying to help out.”

  “Okay. And you discovered her body?”

  Erin pushed her hair back over her ear. “No. She was alive when we got here. But she seemed like she wasn’t in very good shape, so we called for an ambulance to take her to the hospital. So they could look after her.”

  Terry nodded encouragingly.

  “She had some tea… I came out to the kitchen to talk to Vic… the paramedics came here, and when they went into her bedroom… they said she was dead.”

  Terry pulled out his notepad and started to scratch out some notes to himself. “So you were out of the room.”

  “Yes. The doctor said maybe it was a blood clot. From the injury in her leg. And she just… died when I left the room. Coincidentally.” Erin looked over at the doctor for confirmation, and he nodded.

  Terry looked at the doctor. “Stay here,” he told Erin and Vic. “I’m going to go over the scene with the doctor and the paramedics, and then I might have more questions for you.”

  Erin nodde
d. She and Vic sat in silence while they waited for Terry to conduct his investigation and then return. The time crawled by. Erin pulled out her phone to peek at the time.

  “Does it seem to you like he’s taking a long time?”

  Vic shrugged. “I guess. I’m sure he’s just being careful…”

  Erin rubbed her temples tiredly. “We were just being neighborly,” she mumbled.

  “No good deed goes unpunished,” Vic quipped.

  They exchanged weak laughs over this and were again quiet. Eventually, Terry and K9 returned from the bedroom, talking seriously with the doctor. Rather than leaving, the doctor sat down to join the further discussion.

  “Can you go through everything that happened from the time you got to the house?” Terry suggested. “Did Joelle get up to let you in? Did someone else let you in?”

  “Uh… no, we let ourselves in,” Vic said. “She wasn’t well enough to get up.”

  “So she had left the door unlocked for you?”

  “No. The door was locked. The key was under the toad.” Vic motioned in the direction of the front garden.

  “Under the toad. She told you that’s where to find it?”

  “No, I just looked around. She didn’t exactly know that we were coming. So I had to improvise.”

  “She didn’t know you were coming, and you just searched out the spare key and let yourselves in.”

  “Well… yes,” Vic agreed. “We knew she was hurt and probably couldn’t get to the door to let us in. So we just did the logical thing.”

  “And broke in.”

  “We didn’t break anything. We used a key to unlock the door. If she didn’t want anyone to use the key, she shouldn’t have left it in the front yard.”

  “Hidden out of sight under a toad.”

  “Anyone could have found it.”

  Terry made notes. “And what was it that concerned you about her condition when you went into her bedroom?”

  “She seemed very weak,” Erin explained. “She seemed… foggy. She couldn’t sit up by herself. She didn’t want anything to eat.”