Winston looked for Anastasia in her room. Sweet Anastasia. Surely, she would give him no problems. Her floor was covered in a rainbow of see-through material, her discarded gauzy coverings. She wrapped him up in the folds of her flowing dress. “Winston, my hero. I’m so glad you uncovered Joe’s killer. Poison through the dialysis bags, right?”
“Word sure spreads quickly around here.”
Anastasia fluttered one bejeweled hand against her heart. “I wanted to double-check the facts. You were so thorough in your investigation, what with fingerprinting everyone. Too bad you didn’t get a copy of Rob’s prints then.”
“Yeah. I remember you were very nervous during that session, Anastasia. I had to redo yours.”
Anastasia’s mood shifted. She hung her head, her pointed chin half-covered by fabric. “Actually, I was scared I was to blame for Joe’s death.”
“What do you mean?”
“The day Joe died, I was in his room. Right after Kristy left.” So that’s how Anastasia had really known when Joe had started coughing. She’d been awake the whole time. “I was furious at him. He hadn’t paid enough attention to me on my special day. He even held that delirious Eve’s hand instead of mine when they were singing ‘Happy birthday’ to me.”
“So you went to confront him?”
“No, I wanted to get a quick birthday hug, that’s all. I thought he would have stayed awake after Kristy did the dialysis, but the man was asleep, so I positioned his arms around me. He didn’t wake up, but he started squirming. I didn’t mean any harm, though I might have snagged his tube with my bracelets.”
“Did it pull out?”
“I didn’t think so at the time, but I didn’t want to bother Kristy and have her check. It would have made me look like a fool, begging for a birthday hug. But I did call Kristy to come when I heard him coughing later on. Anyway, the dialysis bags must not have been disturbed since the poison was in them. They must have been in place for the toxin to enter his system.”
“You should have told me this earlier, Anastasia, so that I could have all my facts straight.”
“It worked out in the end without my saying anything, though.”
He would forgive her this time. She hadn’t meant any harm by withholding information. Winston started picking up sheer fabrics off the floor for her to pack.
Anastasia clapped her hands. “What a dear. Do you see my pearl wrap?” How could he even begin to search the fabric layers scattered around her bedroom?
“It’s a white gauzy thing that I wrap around my shoulders when I get cold,” Anastasia said.
Winston checked the pile in his hands.
“It’s not in there,” she said. “I already checked those. That’s why they’re on the floor. Oh well, never mind.”
She took a wrap off the top of the pile, and something dropped out. Winston grabbed the white envelope with a ripped corner. “What’s this, Anastasia?”
“Nothing. Give it back to me.”
“This is addressed to Joe Sawyer.” He looked closer at the torn edge. “I can’t make out the return name, something Davies Law Offices.”
She tried to grab at the letter with her birdlike fingers, but he dodged her efforts. “This is evidence, Anastasia. It could help us lock Rob away for even longer.”
He pulled out a piece of paper from the ripped envelope. A letter on heavy parchment contained the header, “Boyle & Davies Law Offices.” He skimmed over the legalese, deciphering it. “A cease and desist order from a lawyer named Tim Boyle. For Joe Sawyer to stop harassing Jacqueline Harrison?”
Anastasia wrung her hands, wrinkling the soft fabric she was holding. “Joe didn’t have a mean bone in his body, so why would his ex-wife ask to stop communicating with him? It doesn’t make sense.”
“I don’t know, Anastasia, but I’ll need to keep this. Where did you find it?”
“It was in Joe’s drawer.” Winston then remembered the scrap of paper with the word “Boy” on it, presumably part of “Boyle & Davies Law Offices” stuck in its corner when he went snooping around Joe’s room.
“How come you didn’t tell me this before?”
“I didn’t want to mar Joe’s image with this absurd legal document.”
“I see. You wanted to protect Joe’s honor,” he said.
“Thank you for understanding, Winston.” She fixed her creased wrap and folded it into a tight square. “Now what was all that commotion I heard outside?”
Winston summarized how he’d alarmed Eve by blurting out the truth about Joe/Teddy dying.
“Pshaw. She’s wired all wrong. Don’t mind her bawling.” She frowned at a wrinkle in the thin fabric she held and redid the folding. “Eve’s crazy. Did you see what she brought to Joe’s funeral?”
“A picture of her dead husband?” The image that hadn’t matched Joe.
Anastasia snorted. “No, it was the original paper that gets stuck to a photo frame, the generic sample that says 5x7 on it.”
“Well, she does have dementia.”
“I know. She’ll probably get to stay with her family because of her diagnosis, too. Although I don’t know how they’ll survive. Her wannabe model granddaughter can’t even make enough money to support herself.”
Anastasia plopped onto her bed. “On the other hand, poor me. Kristy will try her best, but I’ll probably be stuck in a nursing home.” She flung one arm across her eyes.
“It won’t be so bad, Anastasia. I’ll come and visit you.”
She removed her arm. “You promise?”
“For sure.”
“Okay then.” She got off the bed and smoothed down the sheets.
Women, Winston thought. So dramatic. First Eve melting down, then Kristy lashing out at him, and now Anastasia flipping her moods like pancakes. It was time to find the men, the sane folks in the home. He backed out of her door as she started organizing her jewelry for packing.