Death in Detail Read online

  In the next instant, he’d disappeared back through the door and was gone.

  Alders approached the phone that Chester had indicated with interest.

  “What is this, the land that time forgot?” he asked, eyeing the old-fashioned rotary dial. “I didn’t even know these still worked.”

  Before Felix could answer, he was interrupted.

  “Was that Chester?” came a woman’s voice. Stephanie was walking down the hallway towards them.

  “It was,” Felix confirmed. “He just wanted to have a word with me. What can I do for you?”

  “I’m sorry, I just had to get out of the room with all the shouting - I’ve just remembered what I was doing when Aunt Agatha told me she thought someone was trying to kill her. I was bringing her medications.”

  “Can you show me these medications?” Felix asked immediately.

  “Yes,” Stephanie said. “I do it so much that I forgot about it. Every morning and evening, I’d bring Aunt Agatha her medications. She had a lot of them. We kept them all in a big box in the medicine cabinet. I’ll show you.”

  She started down the hall, beckoning Felix and Alders to follow her.

  “You gave your Aunt her medicine?” Felix prompted.

  “No, not really. I just brought her the box. She counted out all her pills and took them herself, even towards the end, when she couldn’t get out of bed.”

  “I see.”

  They paused at a cabinet outside an adjacent bathroom, and Stephanie opened the cabinet, filled with bandages and ointments. She took out a heavy silver-colored metal box, decorated with images of swirling roses. It had no lid, and was filled with a dozen bottles of white and blue pills.

  “She was on all kinds of medications,” Stephanie explained. “Statins, heart medicine, painkillers-”

  Felix reached into the box and plucked out a bottle. Alders was startled to see that his hands had become gloved.

  “All the other bottles are full,” Felix said. “Why is this bottle empty?”

  “Empty?” Stephanie said, startled, and peered at it. “I’m sure none of the bottles should be empty. Lisa refilled most of them two weeks ago. I remember because it was Aunt Agatha’s birthday.”

  “Parabarbital,” Felix read from the prescription label. “The instructions say to take one each week, and the date says this prescription was filled two weeks ago. So why is the bottle empty?”

  Stephanie looked helplessly at him.

  “This cabinet doesn’t have a lock. Does everyone know the medicines are kept here?”

  The woman nodded slowly.

  “Would you like to know what I think?” Felix asked Alders.

  “I’m thinking the same thing,” Alders answered. “That parabarbital, whatever it is, is probably a dangerous drug. And I’m willing to bet it’s what killed old Agatha.”

  “I agree completely. Sam, is it possible you could arrange to have Agatha’s body screened for this drug?”

  “I think I can, yeah,” Alders answered, walking over to the telephone. “They should be able to get it done pretty quickly if they only have to screen for the one drug.” He looked at the rotary dial dubiously. “Now how the heck do you work this thing?”

  Chapter 5

  The next morning, Alders re-entered the office to find Felix on his desk phone. Alders was about to greet him when Felix waved him quiet.

  “Hello?” Felix asked. “Am I speaking to Ms. Agatha Bellinger’s doctor? Thank you for taking the time to speak to me. Yes, so you’ve heard about her death? Terrible. I was calling to ask you about a drug you prescribed her. Parabarbital.”

  Felix had a several minute conversation of which Alders only heard half. At the end of it, Felix slammed down his office phone with a shake of his head and began to explain.

  “Apparently, parabarbital is a member of a mostly defunct family of drugs called barbiturates, which aren’t much prescribed anymore. They’re very dangerous. Just a few of those pills could have killed her, and the whole bottle definitely would have. Her doctor didn’t want to prescribe them, but apparently she was very insistent. They were taken by her father, she said, and they never did him any wrong.”

  Alders snorted. “An old-timey woman sitting in her old-timey house with old-timey things murdered with old-timey drugs.”

  “Probably. Was the mail early again today?” Felix asked, gesturing to the envelope Alders was carrying under his arm.

  “Nope. This I just picked up from my friend at the forensics lab.” Alders threw the brownish envelope onto the desk in front of Felix. “It confirms our suspicions. They found a lethal dose of parabarbital in her blood stream, at least ten times the safe concentration.”

  “There’s no doubt anymore, then,” Felix said with a grim nod. “She was murdered.” He tapped the small, empty bottle of parabarbital on the table, having confiscated it the previous day. “This bottle of parabarbital was emptied by the killer. It has three sets of finger prints on it. One set belongs to Agatha, I’m sure, and another perhaps to Stephanie, but the third set could be the murderer. We may be lucky enough to have found an incautious killer.”

  Alders frowned. “I thought you didn’t believe in good luck?”

  “I don’t.”

  “But you think we should go back to the house and start taking sets of finger prints?”

  “Not just yet.” Felix reached into his jacket pocket and drew out a small slip of paper. At first, Alders thought it was the “Defeat in Detail” slip that they had taken from the chess table, but he quickly realized it was too large and differently colored.

  “This is a pawn shop ticket,” Alders said. “Where did you find this?”

  “I found it during my examination of the house yesterday,” Felix said.

  “Where?”

  “In the hallway, near the portrait.” Felix turned over the small slip in his hand. “There’s no indication of what item the ticket corresponds to. I’d very much like to see what it redeems. What do you say?”

  “Alright, fine. Let’s go.”

  They drove to the pawn shop indicated on the ticket. Alders did not even leave the car. Felix went into the pawn shop and emerged a few minutes later with a very self-satisfied smile.

  “What was it?” Alders asked as Felix ducked into the car.

  “That would ruin the surprise.”

  “I hate the way you act like you know more than I do and I don’t like surprises. What was it?”

  “I’ll tell you, but next time I get to keep my little secret. Deal?”

  “Fine. Deal. What was it?”

  Felix plopped a small, heavy, metal object onto the dash board.

  “A spoon?” Alders asked, examining it.

  “A sterling silver spoon that, judging from the crest, once belonged to the Emperor of Mexico.”

  “Ah. So someone was stealing from the house.”

  Felix’s grin broadened.

  “You know who, don’t you?” Alders asked. “Who was it?”

  “We had a deal,” Felix said, his smile now stretching from ear to ear.

  “I hate you, you know that?” Alders snapped, and put the car into gear.

  About twenty minutes later, they arrived at the house. Stephanie met them in the hallway.

  “It’s you!” she exclaimed. “Everyone’s been very, um, anxious, waiting for you to get here.”

  “Oh?” Felix asked. “Where are they?”

  “They’re mostly in the drawing room again. They’ve been arguing. I - I told them about the parabarbital. Should I have done that?”

  “They would have found out eventually,” Felix said with a shrug. “Is everyone waiting?”

  “I haven’t seen Gloria in a while and I never exactly know where Chester is, but Henry, Jasper, and Diane are up there, at least.”

  “May I quickly ask you - you said there were three members of your household. Who were they again?”

  “We have two maids, Lisa and Jackie, and a cook, Gerald. Gerald isn’t h
ere, though. Aunt Agatha sent him on vacation after her birthday.”

  “Oh? And how did she get her food after that?”

  “Well, until her last few days, she was making it herself. She could cook, Aunt Agatha. It’s not as if she was useless. In fact, she used to like to cook. She has a garden out back and she would grow tomatoes - she liked growing tomatoes particularly, I don’t know why - and then she’d pick them and cook them. I think she liked to do the whole thing herself.”

  “You said that your Aunt sent your cook on vacation. Do you mean that it wasn’t your cook’s usual vacation-time?”

  “No.” Stephanie shook her head. “I mean, it was strange for her to let anyone take a vacation. She was sort of a slave-driver.”

  “And afterwards she picked and made all her food herself?”

  “Yes.”

  “Was this, possibly, after she mentioned to you that she thought someone was trying to kill her?”

  Stephanie put her hand to her mouth in horror. “Yes - yes it was. You don’t think-”

  “Alright,” Felix said, cutting her off. “If you’d be so kind, Stephanie, could you tell your cousins that I’ve got an announcement to make in just a minute?”

  “Sure.” Stephanie shuffled away.

  “She started making all her food herself?” Alders repeated. “It sounded like she really did suspect someone of murdering her.”

  Felix nodded. “On the day she told Stephanie someone was trying to kill her, Agatha must have realized some pills were missing - maybe the bottle was even empty at that point, but her killer hadn’t yet had the opportunity to administer the lethal dose.”

  “So to save herself, Agatha started to prepare her own food,” Alders finished. “But the killer managed to get her the lethal dose anyway. It only delayed her murder.”

  “Yes. Let’s go have a look at that garden.”

  They found their way to the back of the house, where a huge pair of windows flanked two glass doors opening onto a beautiful garden with an array of plants, bushes, and trees, many bearing colorful fruit. There were so many different kinds that Alders could not immediately identify many of the fruits and vegetables, but a row of tomato plants caught his eye.

  “They didn’t save her,” he commented.

  “No they did not. Defeat in Detail. Death in Detail. I wonder...” Felix trailed off. “Agatha had a pristine garden here. Stephanie didn’t mention a gardener, so I have to assume they didn’t have one. Agatha tended it herself, and she must have loved her garden very much.” He paused. The morning sun was shining brightly on the many leaves and branches that filled the yard. Birds were chirping in the distance. It was hard to believe that they were standing in a house of mourning.

  “Let’s go talk to the family,” Felix said at length. Without another word, they left the garden and returned to the house. When they reached the drawing room, they could again hear shouting from within, but, as yesterday, when Felix entered the room, everyone went deadly quiet. Five of the six heirs were seated around the table - Diane, with her neon-green scarf, was conspicuously absent, but everyone else was looking up expectantly at Felix.

  “I have an announcement for you,” Felix began, his voice level and quiet. “You all know that your aunt suspected someone was trying to murder her, because she engaged me to investigate her own death. I have the grim duty of informing you that she was absolutely correct in her suspicions. A forensic test on her blood has revealed that your aunt was given a lethal dose of the drug parabarbital before she died.”

  “God no,” Gloria murmured, falling back in her chair.

  “Outrageous,” Henry thundered.

  “That doesn’t mean she was murdered,” Chester observed, leaning back in his chair.

  “I beg your pardon?” Felix asked him politely.

  “Well, she might have killed herself,” Chester said. “You know, suicide with pills. She could have just realized she was going and decided to end it all. Downed the whole bottle.”

  Jasper scoffed. “Do you have any idea what you’re saying Ches? Aunt Agatha never would have killed herself. She would have clung to life to the very last minute, even if it meant she had to beat the Grim Reaper around the head with her cane.”

  “Besides, I would have noticed if she’d done that,” Stephanie said quietly. “I brought her the pill box every day, and I know she didn’t take a whole lot of them.”

  “She could have gotten it herself,” Chester shot back.

  “She couldn’t even have gotten out of bed on her last day, Ches,” Henry interjected. “Come on. We’ve got to face up to it. Someone - probably one of us - killed her.”

  “Indeed-” Felix started.

  Suddenly, the door burst open and, in a flash of neon green, Diane burst in.

  “It’s gone!” she declared.

  “What’s gone?” Felix asked sharply, turning to her.

  “Auntie’s diamond necklace. I went to find it because I wanted it so badly I just couldn’t wait. It would go well with my scarf, don’t you think?” She gestured to her flamboyant scarf, which Alders eyed skeptically. “Anyway, she kept it around the neck of the bust in her room upstairs, but it’s just not there anymore. It’s gone. Well? Aren’t you a detective? Aren’t you going to do something?”

  “As I was just explaining to your brothers, blood tests indicate your Aunt was murdered, and I feel that is the more important problem at the moment. I wouldn’t worry overmuch, though. I believe that I will be able to recover your missing necklace in short order, depending on the number of thieves you have in this house. But, as I was saying, I would like to be able to interview each of you, separately, in the living room. Unless there are any objections?”

  No one objected.

  “Good,” Felix said briskly. “Which of you would like to go first?”

  “You’re the oldest, Hank,” Jasper said. “Lead by example?”

  “The fearless mountain climber suddenly lost his nerve?” Henry shot back. “Besides, if we’re going by seniority, Gloria should go first.”

  “We’ll draw straws for it,” Stephanie suggested.

  “In your own time,” Felix said, thrust his hands in his pockets, and sauntered out of the room. Alders glanced quizzically at him when they’d reached the safety of the hall.

  “You wanted to see their reactions when you asked who wanted to go first?”

  “Yes, although I wouldn’t read too much into them. No one ever wants to be the first murder suspect.”

  They walked into the living room for the second time. Felix walked around the room, running his hand along the richly decorated wall and pausing here and there.

  “Any more slips of paper?” Alders asked, himself examining the chess board.

  “Not that I can see.” Felix stopped at a small table with two crystal pitchers and several glasses. He undid the stoppers on each pitcher and sniffed them gingerly.

  “This I think is water,” he said, gesturing to one holding clear liquid. “The other is alcohol, possibly brandy.”

  “Do you think she was poisoned through them?” Alders asked.

  “Possibly. Certainly she could not have produced her own drinks in the way that she produced her own food. I have no idea if parabarbital has a taste or a smell, though, so it might be difficult to say.”

  Felix poured out very small measures of the contents of each pitcher and tasted them.

  “Normal,” he declared.

  “I hope it’s better than normal,” said a voice from the doorway. “That’s very expensive brandy. Aunt Agatha was very fond of it.” Alders caught a flash of red hair as he turned to find the speaker.

  Henry was standing in the living room doorway.

  “Drew the short straw, did you?” Alders asked.

  “I thought it better to get this over with,” Henry said, straightening his tie as he sat down in a convenient chair. “Now, what did you want to ask me?”

  Alders took a chair and sat facing Henry. “For a start
, do you know anyone who’d want to do your aunt harm?”

  A humorless smile crossed Henry’s face. “I think everyone in this house might want to do her harm, detective. I know you’ve worked that much out. Everyone here stood to inherit from her death, and I think we were all getting tired of waiting for her. It was an endurance battle, you know, not just a waiting game. Whether she would die before we snapped and stormed out and got written out of the will.”

  “You weren’t fond of your Aunt then?” Felix asked.

  “She was a very trying person, and she had lots of different rules and demands, some of them old-fashioned, some of them just meant to drive you crazy. For example, she wouldn’t let anyone in the house unless they were wearing formal clothes. Suits for men, dresses for women. She wouldn’t have let you in the house with that,” he said, gesturing to Felix’s baggy black jacket. “And she was a very bitter person generally.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Let me give you an example. It was her birthday a few weeks ago, right? Her hundredth birthday, a celebration, a happy occasion. We all showed up to have dinner with her. Well that evening ended with her shouting her head off at each of us, saying we were worthless, and storming off upstairs. She told Diane she was a skank and me I’d never be as good as grandpa.”

  “You’ve been staying here in the house since your Aunt’s birthday?” Alders asked.

  “Two weeks ago, yes. I had to leave at one point. Company business, unavoidable. But I’ve mostly been staying here, along with the rest of the family. Aunt Agatha had a fall the day after her birthday. She was walking down the stairs and she collapsed. That might have been the end of her, then and there, but Stephanie was there to stop her falling - and Aunt Agatha was tougher than that anyway. If she’d fallen down the stairs, I’d have expected her to be unharmed and the stairs in ruins. But she said her legs hurt badly and she was having trouble walking and moving around.”

  “And your whole family was staying here? Your brothers and sister and so forth?”

  “Yes. Well, they’re my half-brothers and half-sister, by the way. My father remarried after my mother died,” he said, frowning a little. “Stephanie’s my cousin and Gloria isn’t really related to us at all.”