A Star is Dead

by Elaine Viets

  ‘I’m on my way to see Monty Bryant so we can get Mario out of jail. Meanwhile, does anyone have any, uh … drugs here?’

  ‘Just aspirin in the break room.’

  It was time to be blunt. ‘I mean anything illegal like Xanax, opioids, pot?’

  ‘The new manicurist keeps a joint in her station.’

  ‘Flush it. I’ll check Mario’s station while you check the rest of the place.’

  Mario had an alcove in the back with orchids and palm trees – a little bit of warm Cuba in cold Missouri. I was in a hurry – I couldn’t get caught in the salon by Greiman. He’d know I’d tipped off Raquel. I pawed through the drawers and cases in Mario’s station as fast as I could. Between a rack of brushes and a jar of sterilized combs, I found an unmarked vial of white tablets. I didn’t know what they were, but I flushed them.

  I met Raquel back at the desk. ‘The place is clean,’ she said. ‘When do you think Greiman will show?’

  ‘Any time now. Be careful. He’s mad as a wet cat. I’m off to see Monty.’

  ‘I’ll handle that police officer,’ she said. Her long black hair had been pulled into a stylish knot. She pulled out the pins and shook it free, then touched up her make-up. She was getting her weapons ready. Greiman was a notorious womanizer.

  I wished her luck with the search. I still had time before my appointment with Monty. I stopped at a Best Buy and bought a new personal cell phone, and texted my new number to my friends. Then I dropped off the box and my broken phone at my house. I made it to Monty’s office with two minutes to spare. I didn’t have to wait long to see the lawyer. I’d barely sat down in one of his wing chairs in the reception area, when the lawyer came out to get me. I liked his office – it smelled of leather-bound books and had a stunning view of the winter woods. I turned down his offer of coffee and we got down to business.

  ‘Can you rep Mario after you were called in to help Stu?’ I asked.

  ‘Stu made it very clear that once I got him out of the police station, he was no longer my client,’ Monty said. ‘He paid me on the spot, using his cell phone, and said if he had any other problems with the law, he’d bring in his own attorney. We’re finished.’ He didn’t bother to hide his satisfaction.

  ‘Good. Mario needs help. He carried his styling case into the police station, and Rex the K-9 “alerted” when he passed it. There were drugs inside the case. Greiman blackmailed Mario into opening it.’

  ‘Tell me exactly what happened,’ Monty said.

  I did. Monty shook his head after I told him the story.

  ‘This is not good. Missouri has some of the toughest drug laws in the country,’ he said.

  ‘What’s the penalty?’ I asked. ‘Mario didn’t sell the drugs to Jessica. He gave them to her.’

  ‘He’s looking at seven years. It’s a Class C felony to possess or deliver those controlled substances – and it doesn’t make any difference if he gave them or sold them to Jessica. “Delivery” is a crime whether the drugs are sold or given.’

  ‘Can he get bail?’

  ‘It depends. If Mario is cooperative and the prosecutor and the judge believe he’ll show up for court, we can bond him out.’

  ‘Of course he’ll show,’ I said. ‘His whole life is tied up in his salon. He’s not going back to Cuba. They hate gays.’

  ‘I know, and those are points I’ll make sure to tell the judge. We still have one other problem – if Jessica died of an opioid overdose, then there’s nothing we can do. The judge will lock up Mario and throw away the key.’

  ‘When will we know?’

  ‘That information is supposed to be released any time now.’

  There was a long silence. I finally figured out what Monty wanted.

  ‘You can’t call the ME’s office,’ I said. ‘Not when you’re dating the assistant medical examiner. At least, you can’t leave a phone record. How about if I stop by to see my good friend Katie? It’s part of my job.’

  ‘Sounds good.’ He stood up to show me out, politely sending me on my way. Dr Katie Kelly Stern’s office was right down the road and I drove as fast as I could. I suspected Greiman was subjecting Mario to the full horrors of booking, including a strip search and delousing. We had to get him out of jail quickly.

  Ten minutes later, I was at the medical examiner’s office at the back of Sisters of Sorrow Hospital. I parked away from the funeral home vans picking up bodies, punched my code into the door, and made my way down the hall. Katie’s closet-sized office had an autumn woodland scene on the main wall. She’d added a grinning plastic skull to the underbrush.

  Katie was my age, forty-one, and a country girl who drove a pickup truck. She was brown-haired and practical as a pair of wool gloves. At first glance, she seemed plain, but Katie’s wit and intelligence cast a spell. She’d definitely enchanted the Forest’s most eligible bachelor, Montgomery Bryant.

  Today, Katie was behind her desk, doing paperwork and drinking the bitter brew that passed as coffee at the ME’s. ‘I heard you caught the Jessica Gray investigation,’ she said. ‘I finished the post.’

  ‘Why didn’t Evarts do the slice and dice? I thought he’d want the glory.’

  ‘No glory in this one,’ Katie said. ‘He was so upset he canceled his lunch at the club and kept moaning about what this would do to the reputation of the Forest. Whenever it’s a dicey post, I get the honors.’

  ‘What killed Jessica? Please don’t say it was an opioid overdose.’ I was holding my breath, waiting for her answer. Mario’s life depended on it.

  ‘No, she had those in her blood, but they didn’t kill her. She died of nicotine poisoning.’

  ‘Nicotine!’ I was stunned. So many questions flooded my brain. ‘How? Where did she get nicotine? She didn’t smoke. I thought she had double pneumonia.’

  ‘She did,’ Katie said. ‘And she should have followed her doctor’s advice and stayed in the hospital.’

  ‘She was hell-bent on leaving,’ I said.

  ‘She may be there now,’ Katie said. ‘She’s in the morgue, the gateway to hell.’

  ‘Explain how she died of nicotine poisoning. I’ve encountered all kinds of deaths, from overdoses to auto accidents, but this is my first nicotine poisoning.’

  ‘Sit down,’ Katie said. ‘You’re pacing around my room and there isn’t room to think.’

  There wasn’t room to sit, either. Katie had traded her comfortable guest chair for a filing cabinet. Her current guest chair was a wire contraption that left me crippled. I perched on the edge of her desk and Katie explained what happened.

  ‘Jessica wasn’t young, she was way too thin, and she was run down from the pneumonia. But nicotine poisoning nailed her. She had a whopping dose – seventy milligrams. The Centers for Disease Control say sixty milligrams is enough to kill a 150-pound adult, and she didn’t weigh even close to that.’

  ‘How did she ingest that much nicotine?’ I asked. ‘And why? Was her so-called youth drink poisoned? Besides, wouldn’t nicotine taste funny?’

  ‘Yes, it would taste bad. But keep in mind, she had pneumonia, so her nose and taste buds weren’t working right.’

  ‘When she left the hospital this morning – jeez, did all this start this morning? – she was still peddling her Captivate line,’ I said. ‘She stopped in the lobby and gave a presentation for the press. Drank some weird health drink that had kale in it.’

  ‘Kale – the devil’s lettuce,’ Katie said. ‘Ever eat that shit in a salad? Tastes like spiky rubber. Amazing what people think is good for them. We see a lot of health drinks, but they usually don’t kill people. Kale makes one nasty-ass drink, but it’s safe enough.’

  ‘I’ll say this for Jessica,’ I said. ‘She’s quite an actress. She downed that horrible green gunk with a smile.’

  ‘Either that, or she was thinking of all the nice green money she’d be making,’ Katie said. ‘Anyone who can swallow kale with a smile must have no gag reflex. From the reports, it’s clear that Jessica did
n’t have any bad reaction after she drank the kale cocktail.’

  ‘And there were plenty of witnesses,’ I said. ‘The press taped it.’

  ‘The best I can figure out,’ Katie said, ‘Jessica ingested the fatal nicotine dose in some kind of spray.’

  ‘Spray? Like that throat spray she took all the time?’

  ‘Exactly. Witnesses said she used the throat spray in the limo, and that’s when she had the seizures and vomiting. We’re not talking about some polite barfing when you’re carsick – this was projectile vomiting.’

  ‘You’re telling me. Is vomiting one of the symptoms of nicotine poisoning?’

  ‘Yes. It’s a good thing nicotine deaths are rare, because they’re ugly: a killer headache, dizziness, skyrocketing blood pressure, acute gut pain, and vomiting. Leads to seizures and death – within a few minutes to an hour.

  ‘I think someone poured nicotine into her throat spray bottle and that’s what killed her,’ Katie said. ‘A drop of agricultural nicotine on the skin can kill you. And she ingested more than enough to kill her.’

  ‘Did the police find the throat spray bottle?’

  ‘Sure did. It was under the seat in the limo. It’s being tested. The bottle had Stu’s fingerprints on it.’

  ‘That makes sense. He’s the one who found it in Tawnee’s purse. Are you sure that she was killed by nicotine-laced throat spray?’

  ‘Almost positive. All the killer would have to do was dump a bottle of vape juice into the spray bottle, and so long, Jessica. In the confusion surrounding her death throes, it would be easy for Jessica’s killer to toss the bottle. Or hide it in a pocket and dispose of it at the hospital. I assume Greiman didn’t search anyone who’d been in the limo.’

  ‘Of course not. You know his methods – slipshod as ever. Greiman didn’t even isolate the witnesses when he questioned them. He let them sit together in the hospital’s waiting room. I do know that Will and Stu threw away their coats at the hospital because they had so much vomit on them.’

  ‘They could have tossed the bottle with the nicotine there, too,’ Katie said. ‘I’m guessing Tawnee will have to get rid of her coat.’

  ‘Yep. Tawnee wants to shop for a new one,’ I said.

  I groaned. ‘I had the whole thing on video, thanks to Mario. He was in the limo and borrowed my personal cell phone to video himself working on Jessica’s hair. Too bad he dropped my cell phone at the hospital and broke it.’

  ‘How broken is it?’ Katie asked.

  ‘The screen has a big crack and the phone is dead.’

  ‘Let me guess,’ she said. ‘You didn’t buy a case to protect it, like I told you.’

  ‘Didn’t have time,’ I said.

  ‘Well, it may not be permanently dead,’ she said. ‘There are lots of forensic methods to recover the data. There’s a program called Cellebrite that can work wonders. Did you try the old stand-by: taking the back off the phone and removing the battery and putting it back in?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Where is it?’

  ‘At home,’ I said. ‘I was afraid it would fall apart if I carried it around.’ Katie offered me coffee but I declined the nasty brew and turned the conversation back to business. ‘Listen, Katie, was there any way that Jessica could have been saved? She was so close to the hospital. As soon as she started flailing around, the limo driver turned around and roared back down the highway trying to save her. Maybe if she wasn’t fashionably thin and gasping from pneumonia, she might have made it.’

  ‘Not with that dose,’ Katie said. ‘Not even if she inhaled it at the hospital. Jessica didn’t have a chance. Vape juice killed her. Vanilla flavor. Anyone around her vape?’

  ‘All three members of her entourage,’ I said. ‘Tawnee, Will and Stu. That’s her understudy, her make-up artist, and her assistant.

  ‘All three smoked, and Jessica made them switch to vaping, and they weren’t happy about it. I’m wondering if Tawnee’s confusion in the limo – throwing everything out of her purse – was an act? What if she’d slipped vape juice into the spray last night at the hospital? She knew a desperate Jessica would grab the spray and never question it, once it was found.’

  ‘Could be,’ Katie said. ‘But wouldn’t she be too timid for a stunt like that?’

  ‘Maybe Tawnee finally had enough,’ I said. ‘I heard her crying about Jessica’s harsh treatment at Reggie’s party. She hated Jessica.’

  Then there was Becky, I thought, but didn’t say. The homeless woman who hated Jessica – and with good reason. Becky had been on the edges of that drama, sneaking around the hospital suite last night, stealing from Jessica’s entourage. Becky said being on stage with Jessica was like being raped, this time in front of witnesses.

  I was meeting Becky tomorrow for breakfast. Meanwhile, I kept quiet about her. Becky had suffered enough and I wasn’t doing anything to hurt her new start.

  But I still remembered Becky’s hard eyes when she asked ‘Is she dead yet?’

  Becky had stolen vape juice from Tawnee. And she would kill Jessica without a qualm, the way I’d step on a bug.

  THIRTEEN

  ‘Oh, wait! I forgot the best part,’ I told Katie. ‘Stu said he was secretly married to Jessica.’

  ‘What?’ Katie raised an eyebrow. ‘She was married to her assistant? He’s not listed as her husband on the hospital forms.’

  ‘They were married in Vegas. He told Greiman, who had a fit.’

  ‘Why keep the marriage a secret?’ Katie said.

  ‘Who knows? Maybe she was embarrassed. Why are you so surprised? Women can marry the young stuff, too.’

  ‘Well, this youngster hit the jackpot,’ Katie said. ‘He gets her money and no more stud duty.’

  I shuddered when I thought of Jessica’s withered body. It was one thing if she and Stu had grown old together, but the studly Stu was a recent acquisition.

  ‘So there’s no chance Jessica died of Percocet and Xanax?’ I asked.

  ‘None. It was nicotine. Definitely.’

  I relaxed. Now Mario had a chance of going free. ‘Thank God. I need to call Monty ASAP. I’ll explain as soon as I hang up.’

  I called Monty with the good news on my new personal cell, then told Katie, ‘Greiman hauled Mario into the station along with Jessica’s whole crew. Rex the drug dog alerted in the lobby and the cops found Percocet and Xanax inside Mario’s styling case.’

  ‘Why the hell did Mario bring that case into the cop shop?’

  ‘It’s part of his identity,’ I said.

  ‘What? Drug dealer?’ She took a sip of the ink-black coffee, made a face, and tossed the remains in her trash can.

  ‘Before I could stop him, Mario admitted that he gave Jessica some Xanax and Percocet to help her “relax” – his word.’

  ‘Oh, hell! Why didn’t Mario keep his big mouth shut?’ Katie said.

  ‘Good question. Now that Monty knows Jessica didn’t die of an opioid overdose, he can try to get Mario out on bail.’

  ‘I’m glad you’ve got Monty on the case,’ she said and gave me a starry-eyed smile.

  I was, too, but if I didn’t interrupt she’d spend the afternoon singing Monty’s praises.

  ‘At least Mario is off the hook for murder,’ I said.

  ‘Not really,’ Katie said. ‘Anyone can walk into a vape store and buy the juice.’

  I got the bad news about Mario when Monty called at two-thirty that afternoon. I was driving back home when my new cell phone rang. I pulled into a shopping center to take his call.

  As soon as the lawyer opened his mouth, I knew something was wrong. ‘Mario didn’t get bail. In fact, he’s been charged with murder one.’

  My stomach dropped like an elevator with the cables cut. ‘What? Murder one? What happened?’

  ‘Bad luck. Greiman searched Mario’s styling case and found an empty vape juice bottle – vanilla flavor.’

  ‘That’s the kind that killed Jessica.’

  ‘That’s what the DA
said.’

  ‘Mario doesn’t vape.’

  ‘I know. Mario looked stunned.’

  I had a vision of Mario’s terrified face as he was being led off in handcuffs. Now his worst fears had come true.

  Monty was still talking. ‘I asked whose prints were on the bottle and Greiman said the bottle had been wiped.’

  ‘That sounds fishy. Someone set him up.’

  ‘Tell me about it. Worse, we had Lock ’Em Up LeMoine for a judge. Bail was denied. LeMoine said he was sending a message that murder and drugs will not be tolerated in Chouteau Forest. He wants the DA to go for the death penalty.’

  ‘Oh, hell, Monty, I’m sorry. I can’t believe this. Mario was so thrilled to do Jessica’s hair. He thought it was an honor. Now he’s looking at the big needle.’

  ‘I know, I know. I agree with you – it’s some kind of set-up.’

  ‘Is he in jail? Can I go see him?’

  ‘Not yet. I’m sorry, Angela. He’ll be in the Chouteau County Jail. It’s not a country club, but it’s not bad.’

  ‘They’re all bad,’ I said. ‘What happens next?’

  ‘He’s been through the appearance, so he’s already been told the charges and the judge set bail. Or in Mario’s case, Judge LeMoine denied it.’

  ‘So the preliminary hearing is next,’ I said.

  ‘Right. At the arraignment tomorrow, the judge may bind the poor guy over to another judge. If we’re lucky, he’ll be better than LeMoine.’

  Monty did not sound hopeful, and I was feeling worse and worse. Monty must have realized it. ‘Angela, I’ll fight this every step of the way.’

  ‘I know,’ I said. ‘If you can’t get bail, will Mario be shut up in that godawful jail until the trial?’

  ‘Unfortunately, yes.’

  ‘And if Mario’s found guilty and sentenced’ – I was sure he would be, considering the Forest’s dislike of outsiders – ‘can he get anything besides the death penalty?’

  ‘Life in prison,’ Monty said. Those three words sounded ominous. For Mario, I knew that sentence would be worse than death.

  I hung up, feeling dazed. This couldn’t be happening. Saturday night, Mario was flying high, glowing under the stage lights at the Fabulous Lux while the city applauded him. Jessica was the toast of Chouteau Forest, in a glamorous black gown. Now Jessica was a raddled corpse, and Mario was in jail on drug and murder charges, his reputation in ruins and his life in danger. Missouri still had the death penalty. He could wind up on Death Row.