Since Mark and Allie had not eaten at church, as they usually did on Wednesday nights, they went to Maison de Manger and ordered sandwiches. Though the place was nothing more than a deli, it was decorated like a Bourbon Street bistro. Jazz music was piped in, and on the walls were photos of Louis Armstrong and various other jazz greats with whom the owner, Eddie Neubig, had once shared an acquaintance. It was Allie’s favorite place because of the crawfish popcorn she could get as an appetizer, something she craved in the wee hours of morning.
They had invited Dan to join them, and he had seemed inclined to come with them, even though he’d already eaten, when he got a beep from Jill. He had gone to call her, so Mark and Allie had gone ahead to the restaurant.
Allie was finishing off her coveted crawfish popcorn when Dan and Jill came in together. Jill looked as if she’d gone days without sleep, but she was holding Dan’s hand. Allie wasn’t sure she’d ever seen Dan hold a woman’s hand before. He’d once told her that he didn’t like to date a woman over three times, because after that she thought of them as a couple. Allie had asked him how he’d ever get to be a couple with anyone if he cut it off at three dates. He’d grinned and said that was the idea.
She realized that he and Jill were long past three dates, unless he was creative with his counting and didn’t consider something like this a real date. The fact that he held her hand seemed a monumental breach of the distance Dan so arrogantly liked to keep. She didn’t know what Jill was doing, but it was apparently the right thing. Maybe it was the fact that she was so busy and often so unavailable. The challenge. Maybe Dan needed to be kept on his toes that way.
“Sorry I look like I’ve been drugged,” Jill said, dropping into the booth and sliding over. “But I wanted to see you guys. Dan told me about prayer meeting. Thanks for standing up for Celia, Allie.”
“How is she?” Allie asked as Dan slipped in beside Jill.
“Not good. Her brother is with her, which cheered her up some. But she’s still not feeling very well. I’m afraid the doctors overlooked something that could be wrong with her in an attempt to rule out arsenic. And of course, she’s miserably depressed and sick with worry about Stan.”
“He’s still not awake,” Dan said. “I got his mother on the phone, and she sounded really discouraged.”
The bell on the front door jingled as the door swung open again, and R.J. Albright, in his tent-sized uniform, came in and went to the bar to place his order. He glanced behind him and saw the four of them sitting there. He waved, quickly placed his order, then ambled across the room toward them.
“Slow night?” Mark asked him.
R.J. chuckled. “Hardly. I’m just now gettin’ to supper.”
“Oh, yeah?” Dan asked. “Something going on tonight?”
It was a common question among emergency personnel. No one ever wanted to miss anything big.
“We just searched the Shepherd house again,” R.J. said. He saw Jill bristling, and said, “We had a warrant, Counselor.”
“Well, I hope you’re satisfied now that she didn’t do it. There was no arsenic anywhere in that house, was there?”
R.J. grinned as if he had a secret that he couldn’t tell. “I wouldn’t say that,” he said.
Her face changed as she gaped up at him. “Then what would you say?”
“I’d probably be better off not to say nothin’,” he told her.
Jill’s face was beginning to turn red. “R.J., I’m Celia’s attorney. I have a right to know what you think you found.”
“Talk to Sid, Jill,” he said. “He’s headin’ up this investigation. I ain’t sayin’ no more.”
He turned and waddled back between the tables, and for a moment, Allie thought she saw Jill’s heart pumping through her shirt. “Excuse me,” Jill said. “I have to make a phone call.”
Dan got up and let her slide out, and she hurried out the door into the night.
“What do you think they found?” Mark asked Dan.
“Who knows?”
They waited quietly, perusing the menu with their minds on that conversation with R.J., while they waited for Jill to come back in.
Out in the privacy of her car, Jill dialed the police station and got Sid Ford’s desk.
“Ford,” he answered quickly.
“Sid, this is Jill Clark,” she said. “I understand you searched the Shepherd house tonight.”
There was a slight pause. “How’d you know?”
“What did you find?” she shot back.
Again, a pause.
“Sid, so help me…”
“We found arsenic hid in the attic, Jill.”
Her heart lurched. “In what form?”
“Rat poison,” he said.
“So maybe they had mice!”
“Maybe, and I’m sure you’ll make it your life’s work to prove they did. But we found what we were lookin’ for, Jill. Evidence. And that ain’t all of it. That Lee Barnett fellow you asked me to check on? Seems he just turned up in Newpointe. Moved into the Bonaparte Court apartments. And guess who paid the deposit and the first month’s rent?”
“Who?”
“Celia.”
“No,” Jill said. “There must be some mistake.”
“No mistake, Jill. Y’ask me, your client’s got some explainin’ to do. You should know that we’re tryin’ to get a warrant right now, Jill. We got no choice but to arrest her.”
“Sid, there’s a killer out there laughing at how stupid you guys are!”
“All right, Jill, that’s enough.”
“You’re right! It is enough!”
“Hey, I didn’t have to tell you. You oughta be thankin’ me.”
She clicked off the phone and flung it across her car, screaming with frustration. How was she going to tell Celia? She wasn’t sure, but she knew that she had to tell her before the police showed up to arrest her.
Feeling even more drained than before, she went back into the deli. Dan, Mark, and Allie all looked hopefully up at her. Dan slid over, and she plopped into the booth.
“Celia’s about to be arrested,” she said, “so I’ve got to get over there.”
“Oh, no.” Allie’s face became as pale as Jill imagined hers was.
Mark and Dan stared at each other across the table.
Finally, Dan spoke. “Jill, why? Have they found more evidence?”
“Looks that way.”
“They found arsenic, didn’t they? That’s what R.J. was hinting at, wasn’t it?”
She didn’t answer. “This is Celia we’re talking about. There’s some explanation.”
“What?” Dan asked. “I mean, her first husband is dead of the same thing; there was enough evidence to indict her for it the first time—”
“An indictment is not a conviction,” Jill said through her teeth, her face turning red. “She wasn’t convicted, and no one has the right to try her right here in Maison de Manger because of a box of rat poison that may have been there before she and Stan even bought the stupid house!”
“Is that what she said?”
“I haven’t talked to her about it.” She slid out of the booth. “I’ve got to go.”
“Hey, come on,” Mark said. “Dan didn’t mean—”
“I can speak for myself,” Dan cut in, irritated. “Jill knows I don’t think Celia did it. All I meant was that people will think she did.”
“You know what?” Jill bit out. “I’m going to prove all of them wrong, and when I’m finished, I’m not sure if Celia and Stan can go on living in this town. Celia will want to go where she can depend on people, and Stan won’t want to be around people who think so little of his wife.”
“Hey, calm down. You’re strung a little too tight right now, acting like we’re the enemy.”
“You’re right,” she snapped. “I’m sorry. Just…I’ve gotta go.”
And as they stared after her, she rushed out to her car.
“Go after her,” Allie told Dan as the door closed behind her.
Dan shook his head. “No way. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“She’s just tense and upset,” Allie said. “This whole thing is on her shoulders.”
Dan muttered, “You ask me, Stan’s the one we ought to be feeling sorry for. Not Jill.”
“Chill out, Dan,” Mark said. “I know she ticked you off, but it’s not worth ruining the whole relationship over.”
“What relationship?” Dan asked.
Mark gaped at Allie. “What relationship?” Allie repeated. “Dan, don’t give us that. You’ve broken your three-date limit with her, and you know it.”
“There you go,” he said. “You take someone out more than three times, everybody assumes you’re a couple. Well, we’re not a couple. I’m still a free agent. A happy free agent!”
“Seem real happy to me,” Mark observed.
“I’m going home,” Dan said, disgusted, and slipped out of the booth.
Allie and Mark just looked at each other as he slammed out of the cafe.