Black Beans & Vice (37 page)

James saw the receptionist pick up the phone and then glance
in his direction. She pointed at the wall button and gave him a
nod of consent. "Gotta go," he told Lucy and moved toward the
double doors. A nurse took James and Eliot back to the treatment area and had them wait while she went inside a room with a
closed door. Several minutes passed before a doctor emerged from
within, explaining that Jane had been given activated charcoal and
seemed to have successfully purged the contents of her stomach.

"The good news is that your wife ate a meal before drinking
the tea, so the harmful qualities of the poison were absorbed at a
slower rate." He eased off a pair of clear disposable gloves. "We'll
be watching her closely over the next few hours, but I believe she'll
be just fine. Her throat will be sore and she may have other side effects such as headaches and cramping, but we'll make her as comfortable as we can."

"Can I see her?" James asked, his voice full of yearning.

The doctor flicked his eyes at Eliot. "You might want to wait a
bit. Let her get everything out and then get cleaned up. Trust me,"
he clapped James on the shoulder. "No one wants to be watched
at a time like this. Honestly, it wouldn't help her to know you're in
the room. She can only focus on one thing right now."

Heeding the physician's advice, though not without feelings of
guilt, James entertained Eliot by telling him as many Aesop's Fables as he could remember. At the end of "The Fox and the Grapes"
Lucy called again.

"Roslyn's gone. Anything of value has been removed from
her house and office." She cursed under her breath. "With all the
money she got blackmailing Ned and Tia, she could be anywhere
by now, on a first-class flight to paradise."
"

I take it you didn't find a defibrillator under the floorboards
either," James responded with equal anger and dejection.

"I'm with the team at her house now, but Roslyn was no
dummy. She was prepared for flight. Hold on, her phone is ringing." James heard Lucy speaking, but her low voice was garbled.
After a rustle, Lucy returned. "That was a gallery in New Market.
They called to tell Roslyn that her framing job was ready to be
picked up. She'd commissioned custom frames for a series of ten
nature photographs."

James stood up abruptly, nearly dumping on the floor. "Fern's?
The photos Lennon bought for his girlfriend?"

"Maybe she's not his girlfriend. I cannot picture them together.
No, I'm thinking Roslyn is Lennon's mom."

A light bulb went off in James' mind. "Lennon's new SUV! He
told me a generous relative gave him a bunch of cash. Roslyn must
have given Ned's money to Lennon, to her son..."

"He might have been involved in the murders too. Remember
the prints on Tia's neck? They were made from a large hand? And I
could see her letting Lennon inside without worrying about being
hurt. With his gentle hippie act, he might have had us all fooled. You sit tight," Lucy commanded. "I've got to track down that rockraking bastard!"

Having no plans to leave the emergency room area, James and
Eliot wandered back to the vending machines. He bought a package of Fig Newtons for Eliot and a granola bar for himself. The
receptionist came out from her glass enclosure and gave Eliot a
coloring book, crayons, and a sheet of rescue vehicle stickers.

"How's Mama doing?" she asked Eliot.

Putting a fire truck sticker on his shirt, Eliot thanked her for
the goodies. "Daddy said she's going to be okay. He's always right."

The receptionist winked at James. "I bet he is."

Eliot had colored three pages when a nurse came out of Jane's
room and told her husband and son they could go in and see her.

"She's a bit dehydrated and her throat hurts, but by the time
she goes home tomorrow she'll be good as new," the nurse said
and then lowered her voice. "The cops are going to want to talk to
you.

"Fine. The more the better," James replied, and then walked to
his wife's bedside. She smiled weakly and he felt the fear, which
had clung to his chest like a parasite, release its grip and scuttle
from the room.

Later, after Eliot was in bed and James had listened to the frantic phone messages left by his friends, he sat in the dark living
room and thought. With his pets nestled beside him, James turned
over all the details of the two murders. Pieces were still missing.
How did Roslyn get Ned in her power in the first place? Who used
the defibrillator and where had it come from? Why would Roslyn
perform such hideous acts of violence? As a moneymaking scheme
to provide for her son? And what hold did she have over Tia?

It was difficult to think clearly without experiencing spurts of
rage and indulging in fantasies of revenge. After all, Roslyn Rhodes
had poisoned his wife. If one little sip had been so harmful to Jane,
James couldn't stand the thought of what the tea could have done
to Eliot.

"To protect her son, she would have willingly killed mine," he
whispered, the anger flooding through him like an intense heat.

He'd saved his phone call to Lucy for last. When he reached her,
he wanted to hear that it was all over. The culprits had been apprehended, there was irrefutable proof that they'd murdered two
townsfolk and had attempted to kill a third. and they'd be spending a long, long time in prison.

"I wish I had better news," Lucy said as soon as she heard his
voice. "But the governor's pulling out all the stops on this one.
He's got the state and local police involved. Photos are being
shown during every news broadcast and for once, the media's skill
at sensationalizing might work to our advantage. I already saw a
segment about our manhunt during the six o'clock news."

"What about their cars?" James tried to rein in his frustration,
but failed. "Are they broadcasting their license plate numbers?
Lennon's was pretty hard to miss. Green SUV with a vanity plate
reading, VEG OUT."

"We found his car on a CarMax lot. Lennon sold the truck four
days ago and deposited a check for over twenty grand in his bank
account. He was smart," Lucy grudgingly admitted. "He waited for
that check to clear and then withdrew all his funds. He's run off
with at least forty thousand in cash."

James sighed and Snickers raised his head in concern. "That
kind of money makes it easier to hide."

"Hey, my neck is in the noose here. If they get away I look totally inept! Trust me, James. I am very motivated to catch those
two. And I'll start tomorrow by going over every possession, every
piece of mail, and every detail people can recall about Roslyn and
Lennon. It also means I'm giving you an assignment."

"What's that?"

"Think back on the conversations you've had with both mother
and son. If I gather enough data from enough conversations, I believe we'll get a clue as to where they've gone."

James smoothed the fur on his dog's neck. "I'm way ahead of
you on that front. That's what I've been doing for the last hour.
Between Roslyn and Kenneth, I've got scores to settle." He hung
up.

A summer thunderstorm was brewing outside. The wind curled
around the treetops and clouds blanketed the moon. At the sound
of a branch tapping against a window, Snickers cocked his head and
growled. In the dark and silent living room, James growled too.

A WEEK LATER, THE Henry family arrived at Gillian's colorful Victorian for
what their hostess had dubbed a "Union
of Souls" fete. Gillian had tied white and
silver balloons on the porch railings and
fastened crepe paper sculptures of kissing doves on the sconces flanking the
wooden doors. A little sign taped to the
brass knocker directed guests to head straight for the back yard.
Gillian had outdone herself in creating a romantic atmosphere.
She'd decorated her gazebo with more balloons and curtains of
white streamers while twinkling white lights hung from the rafters
in loose, graceful swags.

It was a perfect summer night. The humidity was blessedly low,
a soft breeze flowed down from the mountains, and the first fireflies of the season were speaking to one another in their magical language
of light.

The women were clad in cool sundresses and the men in shorts
and polo shirts. The Fitzgerald brothers played croquet on the
lawn as Lindy adjusted the volume on a battery-powered radio.
Tony Bennett serenaded the party goers who exchanged small talk
until Gillian asked them to congregate for a toast.

The table she'd set was beautiful. Scott, Francis, Bennett, and
Gillian had somehow wrestled her dining room table out the back
door. Gillian had then covered it with a cloth so pristinely white
that it glowed beneath the periwinkle sky like a new moon. Tall
pillar candles protected by hurricane glass and posies of white
roses in silver vases created a line of flickering light and heady fragrance down the center of the table. Rolled white cloth napkins
were fastened with ivy vines and a silver tray bearing glass tumblers filled with a bright green liquid and sprigs of mint rested at
the head of the table.

"A green toast!" Gillian shouted. "To the bond between man
and woman and parent and child! May your future together be
filled with joy, adventure, and an endless stream of love!"

The newlyweds clinked glasses with the other guests and even
Eliot, who was given a limeade in a "grown-up glass," participated
in the toast.

Bennett cleared his throat. "To James Henry. The best friend a
fellow could hope to have. And to Jane, for bringin' my man happiness. Lord knows he deserves it!"

"To the couple that makes me believe that love is forever!"
Lindy cried.

The toasts continued for another five minutes. Eventually, most
of the women were in tears and even Jackson's eyes were shining.

"What is this stuff?" he grumbled, holding out his glass and
struggling to maintain a gruff expression.

Gillian interpreted his question as a cue to pour refills all
around. "It's a Zen cocktail. I didn't want anything traditional like
champagne. A whole family has been united by this marriage. By
going green, I was able to truly include Eliot and to celebrate how
he's influenced his parents to embark on a healthier, vegetarian
lifestyle." She performed a little curtsy in Eliot's honor.

Bennett gestured at the grill. "Is he the reason we're eatin'
mulch burgers tonight?"

Gillian elbowed him roughly in the side. "You can have a nonvegetarian patty if you want. I prepared both, but I'm grilling the
bean burgers first so they're not tainted by the meat."

"Leave the grillin' to me," Bennett insisted. "I don't want to ingest any more carcinogens than I have to."

While the pair bickered over cooking time and temperature,
Fern and Willow escorted Eliot away from the table and showed
him how to play horseshoes. Gillian had thoughtfully purchased
several lawn games perfect for a boy his age. However, it was the
Fitzgerald brothers who got the biggest kick out of the putting
green, the beanbag toss, and the croquet set.

The rest of the adults settled at the table and continued to sip
on their refreshing green cocktails. Eventually, the conversation
led to the subject of Kenneth Cooper and the unsolved murders of
Ned Woodman and Tia Royale.

"Kenneth is out of our hair," Jane explained. "We were granted
a strict restraining order. I've heard he's also lost his job."

"I hope he gets disbarred," James murmured.

Milla rubbed her dimpled chin thoughtfully. "What about official charges? He's not going to have to do any time?"

Lucy fidgeted with the sprig of mint in her glass. "We couldn't
charge him with possession. He didn't have any cocaine on his
person or in his car-just in his body. And there wasn't much we
could do as far as his affinity for leaving dead birds around Jane
and James. But no one wanted to see him go unpunished, so we
decided to put Murphy's idea into play."

"Ah ha! Her plan was to make the official inquiry public, right?"
Lindy declared. "She splashed Kenneth's history of cocaine use all
over the front page. Every news service in the country picked up
that story. No wonder that jerk's law career is over!" She grinned.
"Luis was certainly at the right place at the right time! It's funny
though; he keeps telling me he wasn't. He's being very mysterious
about the big finale I missed. Even my students are acting weird.
They won't even talk about the play!" She shrugged. "Guess that's
what final exams will do to you."