Chapter 34
That earlier pause in the rain turned out to be temporary. By ten o’clock, the deluge had returned with a vengeance. But once again, a cool, rainy July day turned out to be surprisingly good for business. I guess people wanted to be ready to get out and bike whenever the sun shone again.
Orlean and I kept busy until eleven thirty, when the shop emptied and stayed empty for so long I stopped keeping track. I perched on a stool and texted the group.
Lincoln says poison is taxine. Mom told me Byrne had heart condition.
Flo sent a message to me privately not more than two minutes later.
You free? Am on my way over.
I told her to come on ahead. Maybe she’d quickly dug up information about the toxin. One could only hope. Or she could have unearthed information about Byrne. Or both.
I headed over to the doorway to the repair area. “How’s it going?” I asked Orlean.
She glanced up from the workbench. “Good.” She focused on the brake assembly in front of her.
I considered whether to ask her about Edwin and his conflict with Byrne but decided against it. If Corwin had already been in prison, Orlean wouldn’t have had much contact with his little brother. And she didn’t like being interrupted while she worked.
“Take your lunch any time you want,” I said.
A single nod was her reply. I expected no more.
A few minutes later I got a lot more out of Flo. As with the first customers this morning, her hood was back, and her hair was dry.
“Did the rain stop again?” I asked.
“It did, and this time it’s forecast to stay away. A pretty stiff offshore breeze is blowing the clouds right out to sea.” She perched on the stool next to mine.
“So what do you have?” I reached for a pad of paper and a pen.
“As you know, Bruce was my action item. I dug up a mention of his cardiac condition, but I hadn’t gotten around to letting the group know yet.”
No, Flo, you hadn’t told us. She hadn’t told Lincoln, either. I kept my mouth shut.
“The minute you wrote about taxine,” she went on, “it didn’t take long to learn that ingesting the toxin can affect a person with heart issues a lot faster and a lot worse than someone with a healthy ticker.”
“Ooh. That’s interesting. So, one question is whether the killer knew about Byrne’s condition.”
“We won’t know until the authorities lock up the bad guy, and maybe not even then,” Flo said. “More’s the pity.”
“My next question is, where is taxine found?” I asked.
“According to what I read, it comes from the American yew plant, or tree, or shrub, whatever the heck it is.”
“I’m not sure I know what that looks like.”
“It has spiky needles, but it isn’t a conifer. All parts are super poisonous except the red covering around the seed, which is called an aril. They kind of look like berries but, again, aren’t.”
She dragged and tapped her finger on her phone, then laid it on the counter in front of me. “This is a yew.”
I peered down at a common-looking shrub. “But that plant is everywhere. Like in front of people’s houses and stuff. I think I’ve seen whole hedges of it.”
“Exactly.”
“Do you have to, I don’t know, process it or anything to get the bad stuff? Boil it down or grind it up?”
“I haven’t gotten that far yet,” she said.
“Relay all that to the group, okay? And let Lincoln know, too.” I rethought that. “No, wait. He’s the one who told me about that, uh, substance, and he already knows about the heart stuff.” I didn’t want to say the name of a murderous toxin out loud with all these people around. “I’m sure he knows where it comes from. And he’ll know we’re digging, which won’t make him happy.”
“Gotcha.”
“Flo, has Lincoln or Penelope questioned you any more about your conflict with Byrne?”
Her expression darkened. “Detective Johnson came by my house last night. She kept pressing me about where I was that night. I mean, I live alone. What am I supposed to do?”
“Plus, you don’t have a key to the pub.”
Flo glanced away and swallowed. She rubbed a fold of her sleeve between her fingers in a fast move that broadcast Nervous.
“Do you?” I pressed. “Have a key?”
Her shoulders slumped. “While my daughter still lived in town and managed the bookstore, she dated Carl for a while. He gave her a key.”
“Uh-oh.” A key to the pub right there in Flo’s house was bad. Having the key could be the reason she’d seemed evasive and nervous earlier in the week. Who wouldn’t be worried in a situation like that? She had both a contentious history with the victim and access to the place his body was found.
“Ya think?” Her mouth twisted as if she’d tasted a bad clam. “It was still hanging on the key rack by the back door to my house. Right where Suzanne left it. I’d forgotten about it until all this business blew in.”
Flo’s daughter had managed the bookstore in town and lived with her mother. Suzanne had moved away a year or two ago. Maybe that was when Carl left town, too.
“When Detective Johnson came by to question me,” Flo continued, “we were in my kitchen. The minute she asked about a key, my eyes went straight to that rack. I couldn’t help it.”
“That shows that you’re not a criminal. Anybody with something to hide would have kept their gaze away from the key as they lied. And you’re innocent, so you didn’t.”
“From her reaction, I’m not sure Johnson agrees with you.” She raised a finger. “And before you ask, yes, it is strange that my children had prior connections with both Carl and Sita. But they were in the past. What’s done is done.” She pressed her lips into a line.
I had my mouth open to ask her about that “other thing” with Byrne when a flurry of customers swept in through the door, bringing salt-scented fresh air with them. Edwin followed, unclipping his bike helmet as he walked.
“I guess my free moment is over,” I said.
“I have to get back to the library, anyway.”
“Thanks for digging up that info so fast, Flo.”
“All in a day’s work for the research-loving librarian.”
Our group was lucky to have her.
“And don’t worry,” I added. “Key or no key, you didn’t do it.”
“But will they believe me?” She trudged out the door.
That was the question, for sure.