“If it was antifreeze, isn’t there some way of tracing it?” Liz sat in a leather armchair in the hotel’s mammoth library. Charlotte and her father were on the leather sofa across from her. She looked first at Charlotte, then her father. “Do you think someone was out to get Dorian and Julian ate some tainted food or drank antifreeze from the blue bottled SWS water? Did Auntie tell you that she saw Julian holding a letter meant for Dorian? He was quite upset about it.”
“Yes, Charlotte knows all about it,” Fenton said, glancing at his tight-lipped detective fiancée.
“Did you ask Dorian about it?” Liz asked.
“Dorian’s in no shape to answer much of anything right now,” Fenton said, drumming his fingers on his knee, worry lines on his forehead. “I don’t know about this idea for the brunch Dorian insists on giving in memory of Mr. Rhodes.” He looked at his fiancée.
Charlotte wore an off-white blazer and matching skirt. Under the blazer was a lime-green sleeveless tank top and at her neck a trio of delicate gold chains in varying lengths. Her attire screamed Palm Beach but her determined hazel eyes and tone of voice shouted Agent Pearson, tough homicide detective for the Brevard County Sheriff’s Department. “I’ve posted someone to keep an eye on things once the food leaves the kitchen, I don’t think she’ll let us down.”
Liz smiled. “Susannah Shay, I’ll bet. Nothing will get past her. I know she’s devastated after finding Mr. Rhodes near death. Have you got any of our suspects in your crosshairs, Charlotte?”
“It’s early days,” her father answered for Charlotte. “We’re looking into everything involving both Ms. Starwood and Mr. Rhodes. We’re not saying that you shouldn’t get involved, but for now, Charlotte is in the preliminary stages of the investigation and still waiting for lab results on Dorian’s stomach contents. Legally, Charlotte can’t make anyone stay at the Indialantic. However, before they realize they’re free to leave we need to learn as much as we can about each of them and at the same time keep Dorian safe in case she was the original target. Plus, after what Charlotte told me about someone chasing you last night.”
“He wasn’t exactly chasing me.”
Her father looked down at her skinned and bruised knees but didn’t say anything. She’d considered opting for a long skirt but decided against it, and instead wore white shorts and a silk-screen T-shirt with a beautiful underwater mermaid surrounded by tropical fish and coral. The shirt was made by Home Arts’ mixed-media artist, Minna. It was like wearing a one of a kind piece of art. She’d let her long strawberry-blonde hair do what it did best, go wild, like Daryl Hannah’s in the movie Splash, trying to stick to the Mystical Merfest theme.
“How about your search of the hotel?” Liz asked. “Did you find any antifreeze?”
Charlotte wore a frown. “Not a thing. The hotel and entire grounds have been searched and we haven’t come up with anything out of the ordinary. Certainly not a container of antifreeze. We do think it had to be put into a sweet drink or dessert. It has a very sugary taste on its own.”
“Lovely,” Liz said, thinking about Julian’s contorted face when she’d seen him on the stretcher.
The pear-shaped diamond engagement ring her father had given Charlotte on Christmas Eve sparkled when it caught the early morning sunlight from the window, sending rainbow prisms onto the table. Liz thought about her mother’s engagement ring that she kept safely hidden away in a book safe at her beach house. Her father had given it to Liz when she was twelve. Recently and annoyingly, Aunt Amelia kept reminding Liz about it in front of Ryan. Too soon, she thought, especially after what had happened on New Year’s Eve.
“Have you gone over all the photos that Ashley took?” she asked Charlotte. “It might show someone near Dorian and Julian’s table?”
“I looked them over quickly and I didn’t see anything unusual. When we figure out by what method he’d ingested the antifreeze, we can analyze the photos further. We do know something specific about the type of antifreeze found in Mr. Rhodes’s system. It hasn’t been produced since the nineties. If you bought a bottle of antifreeze from an auto supply store today, it wouldn’t contain the ingredient that killed him.”
“So, we’re looking for old antifreeze?” Liz asked. “How would someone know that only the older version was enough to poison someone?”
Fenton answered, “Well, there was quite a public case of a woman who poisoned her husband with a combination of antifreeze and oleander. There’s even an entire book about the murder and it was featured on an episode of Law and Order. As I found out, all it would take is an online search.”
“Oleander? There’re tons of oleander in Florida. You aren’t even allowed to burn it as part of yard waste. One leaf could kill a dog. Auntie’s told me all about the hazards of oleander. You won’t find it anywhere on the Indialantic’s property. Did Julian have any in his system?”
“No, he didn’t,” Charlotte answered. “Just antifreeze.”
Is it possible Julian was trying to kill Dorian, but the poison got switched like in an Agatha Christie book?”
“We have to keep every avenue open,” Charlotte said standing up. “Dorian is a very wealthy woman but I don’t see how Mr. Rhodes would benefit by killing her before they were married.” All five foot ten of her went to stand next to the huge fireplace in the corner of the room. Next to the fireplace was a large window with a view of the glass summerhouse. All the other walls in the library were covered with rows and rows of antique books in floor-to-ceiling mahogany bookcases. Charlotte reached her hand to the mantel and ran her fingers over a bronze bust of Chaucer, the father of English literature, then spoke. “I suppose he might have been trying to poison her. Like I said, we need to keep an open mind.”
“I know they didn’t have a prenup,” Liz said. “I heard it in that argument between Dorian’s financial adviser Garrett and Julian that I told you guys about yesterday.”
There was silence for a moment, then Liz turned to Charlotte. “Why are the two of you being so forthcoming? You don’t usually share the particulars of a homicide investigation with me.”
“Depending on how things go, we might need you, along with Ryan, to get closer to the limited number of people that were on the boat for the rehearsal dinner. We’ll do the investigating into their backgrounds…”
She told them about the argument Greta had witnessed between Branson and Wren on the Queen of the Seas. “How did Auntie take it when you told her about the poison?”
Fenton said, “Aunt Amelia was very adamant that we find out what happened to her friend’s fiancé.”
“We didn’t tell her the specifics of the poison, but we did tell her he’d been poisoned,” Charlotte added. “I want to keep that under wraps for the time being.”
“Dad, how about Dorian? You told her too? Right?”
“Yes. But it didn’t seem to sink in. She’s convinced there’s some curse that someone put on her fiancé and she’s all upset she can’t communicate with him on the other side to find out who caused his death.”
Charlotte raised her brow at Fenton’s last comment and came to where they were sitting, taking her handbag off the rectory table. As she took a step toward the door, Charlotte said, “We still haven’t found out much about Wren Wagner. Her prints aren’t in the system. It’s like she’s a ghost.”
“Well, thanks for keeping me in the loop. I assume you’ve already talked to Ryan.” Finally, Liz felt like Charlotte was taking her seriously. Should she tell them about the contract for the water company that made Julian and Wren/Renee partners? First, she’d talk it over with Ryan. What she’d done earlier in Wren’s suite was illegal and she didn’t want to jeopardize being a part of the investigation. Perhaps Ryan could tell Charlotte on the down-low to have one of her deputies check out Wren’s Louis Vuitton bag, no questions asked. Charlotte and Ryan had always gotten along and even more so since he got his P.I.’s license. If not, she would come forward with her reconnaissance work. It could wait for at least an hour until she talked to Ryan. Now that she thought about it, she had a breadcrumb to give to Charlotte in order to stay in her good graces.
As Charlotte took a step toward the door, Liz called out, “Can you hold just one a sec? I have something to show you.”
She hurried out of the library and ran to the pantry to retrieve her handbag. She fed Barnacle Bob a treat, removed the invoice for the new water filtration system that Julian had shoved into Garrett’s hand yesterday, then ran out the door. A litany of Barnacle Bob’s curses followed her out. Oops, she realized she’d just given him a cat treat. Served him right with that potty mouth. She also realized something else. The cases of SWS water were no longer stacked in the corner. Had Charlotte taken them for evidence?
Liz was winded when she reentered the library and had to bend at the knees to catch her breath. When she looked up, she saw Aunt Amelia sitting with a very determined look on her face. Draped around her neck was Farrah. The ferret’s eyes were closed, obviously comfortable on Aunt Amelia’s wide shoulders.
“Lizzy, there you are,” she said, “I just wanted to tell Charlotte something. Maybe you should hear it too. I just had a talk with Phoebe, and she told me something about Garrett that I thought I should pass on. He’s been with Dorian for ages and it’s hard to believe he would ever kill anyone, but Phoebe said he’s madly in love with her mother. He even proposed to Dorian right before Mr. Rhodes came into the picture. Phoebe says before Dorian could give him an answer, Dorian was swept off her feet by Mr. Rhodes, and we all know how that turned out. I remember an episode of Mannix, I think it was 1967, when I played Joe Mannix’s temporary secretary for a day, after his secretary, Peggy, had to stay home with her sick son. It had a similar storyline about a wealthy businesswoman and her financial advisor. That Mike Connors sure made this girl’s heart throb.” She finally took a breath and pounded a fist against the left side of her ample chest.
“I remember that scene. You spilled coffee all over Mannix’s desk and he rolled his eyes, obviously missing trustworthy Peggy,” Liz said.
Her father and Charlotte laughed.
Aunt Amelia joined in, causing the large fuchsia ball dangling from one of her earrings to whack Farrah on her tiny ferret nose. Startled, Farrah high dived from Aunt Amelia’s shoulders onto Fenton’s lap, ricocheted down to the Persian carpet, then scampered out the library’s open door.
“Oh dear. Oh dear,” Amelia moaned. Dorian will have my hide if her prized pet gets lost. She jumped up and scurried after her. Liz had no doubt she’d catch her, owing to her tri-weekly Zumba classes. Liz’s eighty-year-old great-aunt could probably beat Liz in a relay race.
“What was that? Some kind of drive-by visit?” Charlotte said with a smile.
“That’s interesting what she said about Garrett,” Liz said. “I’ve seen the way he looks at Dorian. I have a feeling he would protect her with his life. But I don’t know about killing someone. Does he have any kind of record or anything?”
Charlotte ignored Liz’s last question. She wanted Liz’s help but didn’t seem or wasn’t legally able to share much of anything else.
Liz handed the crumpled paper to Charlotte, then explained how she’d gotten it yesterday after the argument between Garrett and Julian. “I know the labels on the Sunshine Wiccan Society’s water states that the water is bottled at the source in Jacksonville, where Dorian says the SWS grounds are. However, that paper,” Liz pointed at the bill Charlotte had smoothed out on the coffee table, “says the new filtration system will be in Ocala. I know Ryan told you about Betty going to the address in Jacksonville. What if the whole Sunshine Wiccan Society is a sham?” Liz said, excitedly, heat flushing her cheeks. “Dorian never visited the grounds, and she told Aunt Amelia she’d only known Julian for six months. Six months!”
“We have talked to the local authorities in Jacksonville,” Charlotte interjected. “They’re getting back to us on anything they can find on Julian Rhodes and his Wiccan society. There is a natural spring on the property. At least that part is true. We’ll check out this address in Ocala,” she said, referring to the invoice for the water filtration system. “It will have to wait until tomorrow, when the courthouse opens, to get any concrete information.”
A few minutes later, Liz left them. More confused than when she’d walked in.