We all jumped from our seats and raced to the doorway. Dominic and Brayden collided by the sideboard, almost knocking over the candelabras.
Dominic swore under his breath and grabbed a candelabra. He brandished it like a weapon and forced Brayden out of the way.
I shrunk against the wall and let both of them pass. Given Brayden’s obsession with Merlinda and his need to always be first, I didn’t want to get in his way. I motioned for Tyler to go ahead of me too. Then I picked up the second candelabra and followed the men out into the hallway.
I almost ran into Tyler’s backside as he stopped abruptly in front of me.
Aunt Amber swore as she slammed to a halt behind me. “What the heck is going on?”
“Merlinda!” Dominic’s wail sent a chill up my spine.
No answer.
I craned my neck to see around Tyler and saw Merlinda lying on the floor. Dominic knelt beside her. His lit candelabra sat on the hall table and illuminated the otherwise dark hallway. The flickering light only intensified the dark mood.
Merlinda was curled in a fetal position in the hallway, unconscious. She had collapsed before reaching the bathroom.
“Merlinda! Talk to me.” Dominic shook Merlinda’s shoulder, his voice breaking. “Wake up!”
Tyler walked around Merlinda and knelt on her opposite side. He lifted her arm, but it was limp. He leaned over her and checked for a pulse and vital signs. “She’s not breathing.”
I followed Tyler and stood behind him. I placed my candelabra on the floor by the wall.
“Somebody call an ambulance, quick!” Tyler turned sideways and began CPR. His broad torso partially blocked my view, but even so, it was painfully obvious that the CPR wasn’t yielding results.
“I already did.” Westwick Corners was so small we didn’t actually have 9-1-1. Or, unfortunately, a hospital or paramedics. Even the closest doctor was an hour away in Shady Creek. I had called Shady Creek Emergency anyway, hoping for a miracle. But the storm was so fierce that even the paramedics were grounded. “Unfortunately, they can’t get here in the storm.”
A minute passed, then a few more. Even in the dim light, Merlinda’s bluish skin tone was evident. It didn’t look good.
Tyler and Dominic took turns performing CPR, though it soon became obvious to us all that his efforts were futile.
Finally, Tyler stood and turned to Dominic. “I’m so sorry, Dominic. We did everything we could, but…she’s gone.”
“She’s not gone. She can’t be. She just fainted. We have to keep trying.” Dominic shoved Tyler out of the way and resumed CPR, though it was obvious from his technique that he had never resuscitated anyone before.
“Dominic, I’m so sorry.” Brayden placed a hand on Dominic’s shoulder.
Dominic brushed Brayden’s hand away. “She’s not gone. She’s just...”
Aunt Pearl shoved in front of Brayden and knelt beside Merlinda. “Let me see her. I’ll get her to the hospital.”
Tyler’s eyes met mine. Clearly, he thought the same thing I did. Not even magic would bring Merlinda back to life.
Aunt Pearl rose to her feet and stood completely still as the gravity of the situation hit her.
“What the hell is happening? Just a few minutes ago she was…” Dominic shook his head in disbelief. He slowly backed away from Merlinda and leaned against the wall, defeated. He slumped down into a sitting position and covered his face with his hands. His whole body shook as he cried into his hands. “She can’t die on me.”
Dominic was clearly distraught at losing his sweetheart.
He wasn’t the only one.
Aunt Pearl screamed. “No!” She collapsed on the floor beside Merlinda and curled up into a fetal position.
The rest of us stood frozen in place, stunned. An apparently healthy twenty-something woman had passed away right in front of our eyes with no logical explanation.
Merlinda’s hands clutched her stomach in a death grip, her face frozen in a grimace. Her eyes remained wide open, unseeing. Even in the dim candlelight, it was obvious she was dead.
“I’m sorry, Pearl.” Tyler gently pulled Aunt Pearl up into a standing position and placed his arm around her shoulders. He steered her toward Aunt Amber and Mom, who both sobbed quietly a few feet away.
Dominic sobbed into his hands. “She was eating and talking and everything was fine. I don’t understand what happened. How can someone so young just die like that?”
Tyler shook his head. “Sometimes people die suddenly. Maybe she had an undiagnosed medical condition. We’ll have to wait and see what the medical examiner says.”
The medical examiner, like pretty much everyone else, was in Shady Creek.
Mom’s hand flew to her mouth in shock. “I can’t believe it. She was the picture of health. She had such a healthy appetite too. She was just enjoying my Christmas cake.”
Aunt Pearl jumped to her feet and shook her fist at Mom. “You have to stop making that cake, Ruby. Your stupid cake killed my star student.”
“You think I poisoned Merlinda?” Mom’s mouth dropped open, aghast at Aunt Pearl’s accusation. “That’s crazy. What about everyone else? You all ate the cake and you’re not sick.”
Actually, only Merlinda, Gail, and Dominic had sampled the cake. The rest of us had stashed our cake, uneaten. But Mom didn’t know that. I patted her shoulder, relieved that so far Gail and Dominic showed no symptoms. Yet. “Aunt Pearl didn’t mean—”
“Damn right, I meant it, Cendrine. It’s Ruby’s fault that Merlinda’s dead.” Aunt Pearl paced back and forth, clearly distraught. “I’ll never have another student like Merlinda. All that talent, destroyed by a few crumbs of poison cake.”
Mom sucked in her breath. “It can’t be my cake, Pearl. It’s the same recipe I make every year. How can there be anything wrong with it?”
“Uh…Ruby, there’s something I need to ask about.” Earl shifted uncomfortably on his feet. “You know how I was helping you with that rat problem?”
Gail sucked in her breath. “You have rats in this place?”
“Afraid so,” Earl said. “Thing is, I set the measuring cup of rat poison on the counter for a minute, and when I went back for it a couple of minutes later, it was gone.”
Mom gasped. “You don’t think that…you mean the white powder in my measuring cup wasn’t flour? I used it in the cake.”
“If you didn’t fill the measuring cup yourself, then why did you use it, Ruby?” Tyler asked. “How did you even know it was flour?”
Tears ran down Mom’s cheeks. “I-I wasn’t thinking, I guess. I thought it was weird because I didn’t remember using that measuring cup. But I’ve been run off my feet lately and just thought I had measured it out earlier and forgotten all about it. I’ve been so busy organizing the dinner with all of Pearl’s last-minute guests that I lost track of things.”
I scowled at Aunt Pearl’s insult to Mom’s cake and, indirectly, my Pearl’s Charm School dropout status. “Even if Merlinda was poisoned, it could be from anything. Like your herbal tea, for instance.”
“Hey, I ate that cake and there’s nothing wrong with me,” Dominic said. “It can’t be the cake.”
“You probably weigh twice as much as Merlinda,” Brayden pointed out. “You can absorb the poison better. Either that, or it just takes longer to affect you.”
Dominic’s hand flew to his mouth. “I don’t feel so hot all of a sudden.”
Gail nodded. “I ate some too, and I’m not sick. You sure it was rat poison? I feel just fine.”
‘Some’ was a bit of an understatement. Gail had probably eaten four or five pieces by my count. Yet she showed no signs of poisoning.
Aunt Pearl pulled her hand from her pocket and gave me the finger. As she did, a crumpled piece of paper fell to the floor.
“Such a tragedy.” Aunt Amber stooped to pick up the paper. She frowned as she unrolled it and read the writing. “Uh-oh. Your milk thistle tea remedy has a mistake, Pearl. Instead of milk thistle, it says mistletoe. You know mistletoe is poisonous, right?”
“Of course I know—let me see that.” Aunt Pearl snatched the paper from Aunt Amber’s hand.
Aunt Amber shook her head as she stared at Merlinda’s lifeless body. “Oh my god, Pearl. What have you done?”