Drizzled With Death (21 page)

“It’s the poison that killed Alanza. You can’t even breathe the stuff without getting sick, maybe dying. Whatever you do, don’t throw it.” More footsteps clattered into the barn and I had never been so glad in my life to see anyone as I was to see Lowell at that moment. Unlike either Connie or myself, he knew to look for a large snake and spotted it straight off.

“You all right, Connie?” See what I mean about remaining calm? He was overwhelmed enough to release his grip on the galvanized trash can he held. Connie burst into tears and I wondered if she was hoping the snake was going to swallow her down whole or squeeze the life right out of her. Graham was hot on Lowell’s heels with his loop-on-a-stick contraption. With as much ease as the snake wrangler guys you see on television, he slipped it over the snake’s head and cinched it down, then pulled the giant reptile’s head toward the floor of the old barn. Lowell stepped up to help with the thrashing, and with less fuss than I would have imagined, the snake was coiled up in the bottom of the trash can, the lid, complete with a few airholes punched in the top, firmly in place.

Connie sank to the floor, her flock of goats clustered around her. Profiterole stood next to the trash can growling and poking his nose against it. I expect the snake was lucky to be deaf since I can’t imagine how terrible the noise would have been if it hadn’t been.

I gently placed the bottle of syrup on the floor of the loft and sat at the top of the ladder, glad not to need to support my weight on my trembling knees any longer. Now that the adrenaline was seeping away, the stiffness had gone right out of all my bones.

“It’s okay now, Dani. It’s safe to come down,” Lowell called up to me. Graham nodded in agreement.

“I don’t think I have what it takes to do the ladder yet. Besides, there is something up here you need to see.” Lowell climbed the ladder and sat next to me. He draped a protective arm across my shoulders, and I felt the backs of my eyes start stinging and my nose began to drip. I leaned against the fabric of his uniform and just let loose. I felt all the scared and hurt and angry flow out of me and run in a messy stream down over him. He just sat quietly, a warm sturdy rock, one that deserved a chance to be happy with someone he loved, until I’d emptied myself out of all the toxic feelings I’d been dragging around for a while.

“Now what is it you need me to see?” he asked, handing me a handkerchief for my nose even though the damage had already been done to his shirt.

“See that pile of stuff?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“That’s what’s left of the tinkering project that pushed Alanza to the other side of the veil.”

“How do you know?”

“Connie told me. If I were you, I wouldn’t let her leave until she answered some questions.” Lowell nodded.

“Connie,” Lowell called down, “is there anything you want to tell me about all this?” She looked up at the loft for the first time since the snake was captured.

“Alanza was blackmailing me. She found out I was billing Lewis for products and services Hanley never provided and that I kept right on doing it when Alanza took over the place.”

“How’d she find out?” Lowell asked.

“She got all the information she needed from me. She asked to see the trust accounts, and as the trustee, I had to let her have them. I figured it would make her more suspicious if I refused. Besides, I thought I had covered my tracks pretty well.”

“So what gave it away?” Lowell asked.

“It was the Best Bett All in One, wasn’t it?” I asked. Connie turned her attention to me, a look of surprise on her face.

“It was. She remembered how you praised maple trees as a low-maintenance crop at the talk you gave to the Chamber of Commerce. When she looked at the bills paid from the trust to Hanley’s tree service, she knew I was skimming.”

“What did she want in return for keeping quiet?” Lowell asked.

“Money from the trust. She got use of the house and the land and a very small stipend. Blackmailing me was probably the easiest way to get more money from the trust.”

“But why kill her?” Graham asked. “She wasn’t taking your money.”

“She started wanting other things, too, right?” I asked.

“Yes. She got me to persuade the other board members on the planning committee to approve her storage facility and then she got me to give up my seat and to convince them to appoint her in my place.”

“Still, that wouldn’t be enough to take that sort of risk.”

“She decided to clear Bett’s Knob and she was making Hanley do it. Do you know what that would have done to his business?”

“I know my family would have had a hard time not holding that against him,” I said.

“Still, the trees would have grown back and people might have understood,” Lowell said. Connie stared at the ground and clutched at Clementine.

“I think it was more personal. When did you find out about Alanza and Hanley?” I asked.

“Friday morning. Alanza told me she wanted me to come by the house because she had something she needed to discuss with me. When I got there, she told me she and Hanley had been seeing each other behind my back and she wanted me to give him a divorce. She said if I didn’t, she would expose me, and since the penalty for embezzlement is seven and a half to fifteen years in prison, she would have him all to herself for a long time anyway.” Connie began weeping in earnest. She was so loud and fractious about it, Clementine tried to pull away.

“Where did you get the poison?” Lowell asked.

“The attic at the Stack Shack. I remembered Piper had warned me to stay away from it when I was putting the tax returns I help her with up there. I told Alanza I needed to think over what she said and I went to the Stack. I told Piper I needed something from the box and I helped myself to the rat poison.”

“What made you decide to doctor her syrup?” I asked.

“As the treasurer for the Sap Bucket Brigade, I was there on Friday night when your family brought in the syrup. As soon as I saw the tag with Alanza’s name on it, I knew just how to do it. When no one was looking, I grabbed a couple extra bottles from the box next to the contestants’ table. I brought them home and added the poison to three of them, just to be sure I had at least one if something happened.”

“Where did you get the caps to reseal the bottle?” Lowell asked.

“I had them. I never get rid of anything, and a few years ago I started selling bath products made from goat’s milk. I had a bunch of caps in different sizes.”

“I thought that was how the poison got into the bottle.” Despite everything else I was relieved the rest of the syrup supply was safe.

“Graham, I assume you’ve got a pair of cuffs with you and a working knowledge of the Mirandizing procedure?” Lowell gestured toward Connie with a quick thrust of his chin. She looked up at me as Graham headed her way.

“You’d better get an expert in here to handle that stuff. I’d hate to be responsible for anyone else getting hurt. And Dani, I am sorry about what this did to your business.” Graham snapped the cuffs in place as Connie bent her head down for what I guess she expected to be a last nuzzle with Clementine. Profiterole followed Graham out of the barn dancing along at his heels like a child behind the Pied Piper. I suppose Graham is a banquet for the senses if you are a dog.

“Looks like I’ve got a job to get on with, and not a pleasant one either. Are you going to be all right?”

“I think I can manage the ladder now.”

“That’s not what I meant.” He gave my shoulder another squeeze.

“I’ll be fine.”

“Maybe what I should have asked was, will we be all right?” For such a calm man, he looked mighty worried.

“We will be.” And I meant it. It was time to move on, to change, to grow up. My mother had found a way to get over my father’s death, and I should follow her example and do the same. “As long as you promise to be good to my mother.”

After giving my official statement at the police station, all I wanted
to do was to sit in the sugarhouse office and play mahjong on my computer. The driveway was empty of cars when I’d pulled up, and I managed to sneak down to the sugarhouse without being spotted. I was in no mood for any more emotions coming off any more people. What I needed was to just be alone.

I paused on the porch thinking about where everything had started and wondering what had become of the mountain lion and what would become of Graham once the last monkey had been rounded up. A metallic glint caught my eye. A fluttering shred of tinsel was snagged on a rough spot on a floorboard. In all the excitement I had completely forgotten the Christmas typhoon that had laid waste to the sugarhouse. Where had it all gone?

I pushed open the door and sniffed the air. No cinnamon, no pine. A stiff fresh breeze blew in from the back and I went to close whatever window had been opened. My mother knelt in a corner, a red and green peasant skirt swirled out around her, carefully lifting sparkly ornaments from an artificial tree. All around the room, surfaces that had been smothered by her efforts to cheer the place up were once again cleared. When she turned to face me, I noticed glitter sprinkling her face like metallic freckles.

“Lowell called,” she said.

“I expect he had a lot to say.”

“He said that Connie confessed and Greener Pastures is in the clear.”

“I know. I was there when it happened.”

“He also said the two of you settled your differences.” She leaned a little toward me, like a well-behaved dog eyeing the turkey platter. Restrained, but hopeful. I sank to the floor next to her, close enough to feel the peculiarly unnatural itching fake trees cause.

“Uncle Lowell and I are all patched up.”

“But you and I are not.” She clutched at the ornament box like it was a life preserver.

“Why didn’t you just tell me?”

“I wanted to, Dani, but I just didn’t know how.”

“You could have just come out and said it. I can’t see what was so hard about that.”

“I didn’t want you to be hurt. You’ve been through enough with what happened with your father.”

“And whose fault is that, do you think?”

“Do you blame yourself for what happened to him?” She dropped the box in her lap and gave me her full attention.

“I’m the one who had to go to college so far away.”

“What was so wrong with that?”

“There are plenty of great schools within a two-hour drive. I broke his heart and the rest of you paid for it.”

“I loved your father and I never had a word to say against him. But he was wrong to discourage you from making your own choices. If I hadn’t decided to visit new places, he never would have met me. Not all your genetics come from your father’s side, you know.” Which was hard to remember sometimes with the way there were Greenes all around me all the time.

“That doesn’t change the fact he had a heart attack.”

“Your father ate a pound of butter and half a cow every other day. And don’t get me started on his ice cream habit. It’s pretty hard to keep your heart working properly when your arteries are flowing with fudge ripple.”

“I still didn’t have to upset him.”

“Dani, his heart attack came after you’d been gone more than three years. Trust me, he’d gotten used to it. And he was proud of you for going.”

“Celadon blames me. She said I was guilty of killing him.”

“Celadon told me about your argument. Did she say you killed him or that you felt guilty for killing him?” Mom reached out and took my hand in her own. Despite everything else that had happened, the ugly conversation with Celadon was still fresh in my memory.

“She said I only started the business because I felt guilty about Dad’s heart attack. And then she broke a wooden spoon and stomped out of the room.”

“See, she doesn’t blame you. She said you felt guilty, not that you were guilty. She’s been worried about you. We all have. I was chatting with your father about it just the other day.”

“He’s dead, Mom.”

“What does that have to do with anything? We talk all the time.” Usually I just smile and nod when my mother gets started in on her spirit world mumbo jumbo, but this time it got a rise out of me.

“Really? What does he have to say?”

“He said you should stop in at Mountain View Food Mart for some snacks. And while you’re there, you’ll find something worth discovering in the pet supplies aisle.”

“That’s the message my father wants me to receive from beyond the grave? An ‘I love you’ would have been nice. An ‘I’m proud of you.’ Even a little confirmation that the afterlife lives up to the brochures. But not a reminder to run errands.” I couldn’t help but feel ripped off. My mother just shook her head at me.

“He also says just because you don’t look at things the same way as someone else doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen to what they have to say.”

“Is this exactly what you heard or is it an interpretation of one of your visions?”

“Information from the other side always has to be interpreted. It isn’t like communication with words. It mostly comes in pictures. And you know how your father was a man of few words.”

“So what exactly did you see?” I might not believe she was really in touch with the great beyond, but her impressions when she visited the sugarhouse earlier were hard to ignore.

“I saw you standing on a big hill holding a box of animal crackers and waving excitedly at Aunt Hazel’s fat old cat Petunia.”

“So, of course that means I should stop for snacks at the grocer? And maybe a flea collar?” I asked as my mother rose to her feet.

“What else could it be?”

• • •

Even though it was still late afternoon, it was November so the light
was starting to fade as I grabbed my keys and headed for the minivan. So help me, I pointed it in the direction of the Mountain View Food Mart. While I wasn’t quite ready to believe my mother had received a message from my father saying he wanted me to go to the grocer, I wasn’t willing to discount it entirely. I parked out front, picked up a box of animal crackers, and grabbed a bag of cheese curls for good measure. I stood in the pet food aisle pretending to scrutinize the ingredients on the cans of cat food for as long as I could stand. As much as I love to read, lists of glutinous barley meal and poultry by-products have only so much power to fascinate. While I knew it had been a long shot, I have to admit I was disappointed there was nothing more exciting at the store than a fifty percent discount on name-brand toilet paper.

I started for home the long way, slowing as I passed the footpath leading to Bett’s Knob. I put the van into park and stuck the snacks in the pockets of my down vest. If my errand wasn’t going to lead me to anything important, at least I could enjoy something for my efforts. I picked my way through the leaf litter and fallen branches, listening to the wind and noticing how the autumn light slanted through the bare branches of the trees. At the top of Bett’s Knob, a rocky outcropping offered a natural seat from which to view Sugar Grove spread out below. I settled myself in a dimple in the largest boulder and soaked up the warmth radiating from the sun-soaked stone.

From my perch I could see the rooftops of the Congregational church, the grange, and the library. A curl of smoke wound its way out of the butter pat shaped chimney at the Stack. Acres of maples and beeches and cow-dotted fields met my eye. Even in the bleakness of late November, the beauty of my hometown was as easy to see as the sunlight sparkling on the lake at the foot of the hill.

Behind me, I heard a rustling and cracking twigs. Graham emerged from around the side of the outcropping. His official uniform jacket bulged as if he had indulged in few dozen too many Thanksgiving pies.

“What have you got there?” I asked.

“The last monkey for the barrel.” Graham opened his coat and the little monkey he’d been chasing the other day stuck its head out. “What brings you up here?”

“I was out on a fool’s errand and thought I would stop and take in the sights.” I patted the rock next to me. “There’s a seat here free if you and your friend would like to watch the sunset.”

“Don’t mind if we do.” Graham stretched his legs out in front of him and settled the monkey on his lap.

“How about a snack?” I pulled the packages from my pockets. “I’ve got two choices.” I held up both, and the little guy slipped a hand out above the jacket zipper and reached toward the cheese curls. “I’d say that’s a yes.” I handed the monkey a cheese curl and the bag to Graham.

“I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t be the sort of thing his mother would approve of,” Graham said before crunching into a curl of his own.

“Just make sure to wipe off all the orange sawdust before you reunite them. That’s what I do with Celadon’s kids. She never catches on.” I carefully opened the animal cracker box, and pulled out a zebra.

“If he holds still, I’ll give it my best.”

“So, I guess you’ll be headed back to wherever it is Fish and Game officers go now that you’ve caught your last fugitive.” I kept my eyes fixed firmly in the middle distance, not wanting to look either eager or disappointed.

“Where we go is mostly up to us as long as we patrol our territory. Sugar Grove happens to fall within mine so I can be through here as often as I wish or as often as someone here needs me.” I felt him scootch just the tiniest bit closer. I felt my stomach go all cold then hot. Before I could think of a thing to say, I spotted something long and lean and ending in a swishy tail picking its way through the trees on the hill opposite us. I jumped to my feet and, without taking my eyes from the mountain lion, grabbed at Graham’s arm.

“Do you see it? Now do you see it?” I waved my free arm, jabbing it in the direction of the big cat.

“See what?” Graham asked.

“The mountain lion. It was right there.” And then, it was gone. I strained my eyes but the light was fading fast and the buff-colored leaves provided perfect camouflage. I turned toward Graham, his arm still held tight in my grasp.

“I’m sorry, Dani, the only thing I’m looking at is you.” I started to laugh. There I was standing on a big hill, waving wildly at a cat while holding on to a man named after a cracker. Now what else was it my father wanted me to know? Then I remembered: Don’t discount what someone says just because they aren’t looking at things the same way as I do. I turned back to the valley and breathed in deeply, inhaling the scent of wood smoke drifting up from below. Graham and I might not look at things the same way, but somehow it felt like my father approved.

Celadon was right, at least in part. I had started the business because of my father. But it hadn’t just been guilt. I wanted something I had shared with my father to continue and even to grow. After the way I felt when it looked like Greener Pastures was doomed to close, I realized the business meant more to me than it had when I had first proposed it. I was proud of what I had accomplished, and as I looked out over the place I knew I belonged, I felt sure the pasture was greener right here in Sugar Grove.