With the bookstore not officially locking the doors until half an hour after close, both women were exhausted when they finally climbed the stairs up to their shared apartment. Ellie’s feet ached and her mind was spinning from taking sale after sale all afternoon, but she had a smile on her face.
“You relax,” she told her grandmother while Beau circled their legs. “I’ll go make us some dinner.”
“You sure?” Ma’May asked, but she was already dropping down on the couch as she said it.
Ellie chuckled and said, “Yes, Ma’May. I’ll whip something together.”
Whipping something together might have been a bit of an understatement. When Ellie opened the fridge, she realized that with all the excitement over the last week, neither woman had thought to do any of the grocery shopping. In the large stainless steel fridge sat a head of cauliflower, a brick of tofu, a shelf of half used up sauces and condiments, and a couple cartons of coconut milk, but not much else.
The freezer wasn’t much better. A mostly finished bag of tater tots and an unopened bag of frozen corn were waiting for her inside. In less skilled hands there wasn’t going to be much to eat, but after years of having to essentially scavenge for good meals while in college, Ellie was pretty sure she could turn the bits and pieces into a decent meal for the two of them.
“What would you say to some buffalo cauli wings?” Ellie called to her grandmother.
“I’d say ‘Yum’!” Ma’May called back to her.
With that ringing endorsement, Ellie got to work on dinner. Her first step was taking the tofu out of its watery packaging and laying it between some paper towels and two cutting boards. She’d accidentally left her fancy press behind in Chicago and hadn’t been willing to make the trek back into the city to replace it, so she had to do the work manually. With the cutting boards in place and Ma’May’s heavy duty cast iron kettle on top, she left the tofu to squish down while she got to cleaning, slicing, and saucing up the cauliflower.
Once the cauliflower was ready for the oven, Ellie laid it out on a greased cooking sheet and then scattered some tots along with it. With twenty-five minutes on the timer, she put the sheet in the oven and moved back to her tofu.
Tofu had once been Ellie’s least favorite food. The only way it was served in the college cafeteria had made her believe that it could only be bland, watery, squishy, and pretty much gross. No one ever did anything with it more creative than throw it in a little vegetable stock to soak up some flavor. All in all it had always been pretty terrible.
But then Ellie learned how to cook for herself, more out of necessity than desire. Thanks to the internet she learned the best – though definitely not the healthiest – way to cook her tofu was by pressing out all the water and then throwing it in a frying pan with some hot oil. A few of her chosen herbs and spices, along with a little salt made the tofu savory and crispy on the outside while light and fluffy on the inside. Plus it only took about ten minutes!
Once the oven dinged to signify that the tots and cauliflower were done, Ellie removed them from the oven and prepared two plates. She and her grandmother rarely ate away from the kitchen table, but she figured they deserved a treat. With forks and knives placed carefully between her fingers, she carried both plates to the living room and sat them both on the coffee table.
Immediately, Beau went to rest his chin on the table in hopes that someone would be kind enough to share a little bit of their dinner with him. With a grin, Ellie slipped him one of the three tots she’d set aside on her plate just for him.
“What a day,” Ma’May said before she popped a piping hot piece of cauliflower into her mouth. “If it stays this busy I’m going to have to stop you from running around playing detective.”
With a wink, Ellie knew her grandmother was kidding and she laughed. “Well if you don’t, I think Will Murphy is going to.”
“Oh?” her grandmother asked as she began to slice up her share of the tofu.
“I got the third degree about trying to figure out who killed Abbie,” Ellie told her. “I think he thinks I’m just going to get in his way.”
She not-so-accidentally forgot to add the part where she got mad about him not understanding how badly Dave and Abbie must have wanted a baby and him pointing out how he knew exactly what that was like. Just thinking about that made her cheeks go slightly pink. She wasn’t sure how long it was going to take her to get over that embarrassment.
“I think he’s worried about you,” Ma’May said with a cheeky grin. “I think he’s sweet on you.”
“I doubt it,” Ellie told her. Even if he had been before, their argument earlier led her to believe that he wouldn’t be anymore.
Ma’May shook her head between bites of dinner. “Come now, dear,” she said. “He’s a single, adult man. He’d be crazy not to be interested in a catch like you!”
Ellie gave her a smile, but wasn’t sure how to tell her exactly what had transpired. Instead, she chose the details that would keep her from sharing her previous embarrassment. “I don’t know if he’s interested in anyone right now,” Ellie told her. “I found out that he’s fairly recently divorced as well.”
Ma’May gave a thoughtful sigh before she said, “Oh.” She didn’t need to say any more than that. Though it was a little different of a situation, Ma’May had said time and time again after Ellie’s grandfather had passed that she wasn’t ready to see other men, and had continued saying that for twenty years. At this point, Ellie was certain that her grandmother would never date again, and she was also certain that Ma’May was perfectly happy with the arrangement. She had always been strong and independent, and Ellie wasn’t sure there’d ever be a man like her grandfather who could keep up.
“Oh indeed,” Ellie said. “Besides, I keep saying I don’t think I’m ready to date.”
Ma’May put down her fork and squeezed Ellie’s hand. “I know, dear,” she said. “You know I’m just teasing you, right?”
Deep down, Ellie knew her grandmother was telling the truth. She’d always been a joker, and had been gently teasing Ellie about boys since she’d bought her first training bra.
“I know,” Ellie said as she squeezed her grandmother’s hand right back. “But I hope he doesn’t think that some kind of interest I may or may not have toward him is going to keep me from cracking this case,” Ellie added with a touch of sass.
“That’s my girl!” Ma’May said. “Any headway?”
Ellie filled her in on what she’d learned about Dave, Stella, and the baby-to-be. The more she talked it out, the more certain she was that the only person with a truly strong motive was none other than Lilith White.
“I told Will what I was comfortable with,” Ellie said. “But I don’t know if there is enough there for him to get a warrant or whatever he might need to bring her in for official questioning.”
“Do you think he’s talked to the book club ladies?” Ma’May asked her.
“It would stand to reason,” Ellie said. “But beyond being in the right place, I don’t know if anyone there could have done it. Abbie got sick so quickly. Does poison work that fast?”
“It would probably depend on the dosage,” Ma’May said with a quick nod. “Could someone have added it to Abbie’s drink or the cookies you made?”
Ellie’s mind flashed back to that terrible Wednesday. She was so preoccupied with trying to keep everyone happy and things running smoothly that she missed a lot of the small details. She was handing out glasses and a few of the ladies were helping or grabbing their own. One minute she was putting cookies on a napkin for Hettie and the next Abbie had a glass of punch in her hand while she chatted with...
“Lilith!” Ellie cried.
Ma’May gave her a puzzled look. “Yes, sweetie, you already said that you think Lilith White is a suspect.”
“No,” Ellie protested, and then shook her head. “I mean yes, she’s my number one suspect, but that’s not what I meant. I saw her hand Abbie a glass!”
Ma’May’s eyes went wide. “You mean, you saw her actually poison Abbie?”
“No,” Ellie admitted. “I didn’t see her poison the drink, but she did hand her the glass. Wouldn’t it stand to reason that she was the one who poisoned Abbie?”
Ma’May nodded. “I think so. We should call Will!” With a sharp look from Ellie, she added, “And tell him about what you saw. Nothing fishy, I promise.”
Ellie was about to agree, but then she had another idea. “Abbie’s wake is tomorrow night,” she said. “Obviously the whole town will be there, but so will Lilith. There is no way she’d miss an opportunity for that much attention. If I can talk to her and see if she says anything fishy, I can tell Will.”
“Or you could call him now,” Ma’May pointed out as she plucked a tot from her plate and tossed it to Beau.
“I could,” Ellie said. “But after our talk today, I don’t think he’s going to take anything I say seriously. I can’t tell him ‘Oh, I think I saw Lilith White hand Abbie Ainsley a cup of poisoned punch, but I’m not one hundred percent certain,’ without him either accusing me of snooping around or worse, that I’m making it up.”
It was more than that. She was too embarrassed to call him right now, not after what happened earlier. Her pride was a bit bruised and it would take a day or two before it was mended enough for her to try again.
“I guess, dear,” Ma’May agreed, but she was obviously deflated. “And that is how the rumor mill keeps turning. Perhaps it’s best we keep this between us until we have proof.”
“And we will get proof,” Ellie assured her. “Tomorrow night, at Abbie’s wake. There is no way Lilith would miss it. It’s the perfect opportunity for her to get attention, and everyone knows how addicted to attention she is.
“That,” Ellie went on, “and if I’ve learned anything from my favorite crime books, is that the killer always goes to the wake when they were friends with their victim. It’s their last chance to enjoy their work, so to speak.”
A devilish smile crept over Ellie’s face, and she noticed that her grandmother shared the same one.
“You just tell me what I need to do,” Ma’May said. “I want to catch her just as badly as you do.”
“We will,” Ellie said. “But we can’t move before we have all the pieces in place. Lilith White may be attention starved and possibly even a murderer, but I’d bet dollars to donuts that she’s more clever than she lets on. We can’t let her know we’re on to her or she’ll run, I’m sure.”
Ma’May nodded in agreement. “Okay, I’ll follow your lead.”
“Once we have some more information,” Ellie said, “then we’ll go to Will. If we both talk to him, then he has to believe us.”
At least, she was pretty sure he’d believe them. He’d have to. It was the best lead they’d gotten so far.