Winston tried to yank his foot away from Eve’s grasp. He flailed at her, feeling as useless as when he button-mashed an old arcade game. Eve’s fingers loosened a tad but found some traction on his flip-flops and his knobby toes. He decided to distract her by engaging in conversation. At least, that tactic worked in the movies. “I know you’re cheating the system, Miss-Fake-Dementia.”
She chuckled. “You still don’t understand, do you?”
“I know that Rob didn’t kill Joe, and I intend to prove his innocence.”
“Rob was a great scapegoat. I liked chatting with him through Space Domination.”
“Wait, you’re Zuras?”
“Now you’re getting it.”
“How did you have access to the game at Sweet Breeze?”
“My trusty tablet. You saw Carmen borrowing it that day on the back patio. Didn’t you see my logo on it?” The woman with the serpent around the Apple symbol: Eve.
“Where did you keep that hidden?”
“Used my typical attire.” She patted her giant heart-covered muumuu. “I keep all my important stuff near me.” She flashed it open, and he saw the hidden inner pocket—with a pair of rainbow fuzzy socks nestled inside.
He needed to continue talking and keep her occupied. “I saw the figure-eight mark on Joe’s body. Why use the DM-160 at all?” Winston snapped a branch off the bush for a weapon, but the soft bark curled up in his hand.
“That happened when Plan A failed. I had already put the poison in the dialysis bags in the cabinet while people were distracted during Anastasia’s birthday party. Easy to do since I’m always ‘wandering.’ But then Rob had to be a hero and cut the bags.
“I knew the poison would drain out before Joe was affected, so I went to Joe’s room to finish the job. The extra boost from the DM-160 would make the poison stronger. I needed it to act fast, so I could grab his lucky socks.”
“He saw you,” Winston said. “Anastasia heard him talking to somebody.”
“He managed only a few words before I mixed the primer with the remaining toxin and injected him with it.”
Winston eyed the bush near him. He pulled the leaves back, increasing their tension, hoping for the plant to spring into Eve’s face. Instead, it struck him on his left cheek, and he winced. “But Joe was a friend of yours. A fellow resident.”
Eve’s eagle talons seemed to slice into his big toe as she spoke. “They’re all pawns to me: Rob, Joe.”
“Tell me something. How do you even get a batch of suicide tree?”
“Connections from past customers.”
“That reminds me. Tell me about your daughter, Doris.” Eve’s hand slipped then, and Winston tried to pull away, but she held onto the teeniest fraction of his heel. “You let her grow up in a whorehouse, use drugs, even OD.”
“No, not true. Dragon drove her to her death.”
“But Doris was the one using drugs.”
“It’s a rough life,” Eve said with a sigh. “You never grew up in the projects. It’s so hard to get out of there.”
“But didn’t you marry Teddy and leave?”
Eve spat at him and missed his face by a few inches
to the left. “That was all a ruse.”
“How did you have a daughter then?”
“The same way Doris did. Who do you think would ever marry a whore?”
“But the photo at Joe’s funeral?”
“The sample picture that comes with the frame.” Anastasia had been right about that. “No husbands for us. Although we didn’t have anybody but ourselves to rely on, Doris still insisted on having the baby. Stubborn girl.” She said the words without malice, and a tiny smile even appeared on her face.
“So then you raised Doris’s daughter, Carmen. Like grandmother, like granddaughter, huh? You and Carmen did Joe in together.”
Eve snarled at him then. “My granddaughter’s innocent of murder. I told you before. Family is everything to me.”
“Carmen’s the only family you have. Do you mean you killed Joe for her?”
“In a way. I knew Dragon owned some sort of residential care facility near downtown—somebody Facebooked about it—but couldn’t figure out the exact name. He doesn’t deserve to be a successful businessman, rich only by ditching my daughter and marrying up.
“It was a two-for-one deal. With a murder on his hands, his reputation would falter. And my granddaughter’s always wanted a grand home like this.” Winston thought back to the day on the back patio when he discussed Carmen’s modeling career and what she wanted to buy with the money. “I managed to get her the exact one she wanted. With his Chinese superstitions, I realized he’d sell a house where there had been a murder.”
“Carmen must have known something.”
“Winston, my granddaughter may be well-endowed, but it’s not in the brains department. All she did was follow my suggestion of getting a fake dementia diagnosis. That was so she could get the grant money.”
“She was scouting out old people’s homes with you, though, looking for a victim.”
“No, I couldn’t afford Life Circles much longer. My savings was going away, and I knew Carmen couldn’t support me. Besides, a senior home would make my dementia story even more believable.”
“You two came together to see me at my office, so that I could eventually frame Rob.”
“Right. I wanted to create a huge scandal. But keep Carmen out of this. I told her that I suspected some foul play. She knew nothing about how it actually happened. All she did was find your sorry name in the Pennysaver.”
Eve dropped her grip on his foot then and lunged at his throat. He contorted his body in a twist and kicked out. Startled by the movement, she fell backwards. Meanwhile, Winston landed facedown and army-crawled through the hedge. He made it to the back patio and clambered over a side gate.
Winston puffed his way to his car and sped off to Life Circles. There, Kristy stared in surprise at his crazy state. While she bound his big toe, bleeding from a deep gash, he relayed his exploits at the Solstice home.
After he finished talking, Kristy said, “I keep thinking about that wrecked room.”
“Pete did mention that he saw Carmen scrutinizing the floor the day of Joe’s death. Probably looking for that missing DM-160 tube.”
“If Eve hasn’t found it yet, there might be someone else who spotted it first.” She tapped against the box of bandages, forgotten in her hand. “Let me take some time off and join you on a little trip.”