Dear Old Dead(81)

“But you know when,” Ida insisted. “Strychnine is a fast-acting poison. Grandfather must have been poisoned almost immediately before Michael found him.”

“Not that kind of when,” Gregor explained. “It’s true your grandfather must have been poisoned very close to the time he was found, but that doesn’t mean the poison itself was acquired in the preceding few minutes. It could have been taken out of Michael Pride’s medical cabinet an hour earlier and not been given to Charles van Straadt, but hidden instead. There’s no way to know.”

“I don’t think we ought to do this,” Martha said. “We could be incriminating ourselves.”

“Of course we won’t be incriminating ourselves,” Ida said impatiently. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“There are dozens of people around here,” Martha shot back. “He could get any one of them to do it. It doesn’t have to be us.”

“It doesn’t have to be,” Gregor told her, “but it would be convenient. You’re all young and healthy, so we don’t have to worry about giving you a stroke asking you to race up and down stairs. And none of you seem to be on duty at the moment. Of course, Miss Greel might be called on in an emergency.”

“I go on at six,” Ida said. “I think this all sounds perfectly reasonable, Mr. Demarkian. I’m sure we’d all like to do anything we can to help.”

“Speak for yourself,” Martha said. Her face was a little red. “I’m not going to help. I’m not going to have anything to do with this.”

“I think it sounds like fun,” Victor said. “I haven’t done any real running since I left college. I was on the rugby team.”

“I should have known this was going to happen.” Martha was indignant. “You’re ganging up on me. Ida’s got all the money and Victor thinks she’ll throw him some of it, so they’re closing ranks against me. I should have realized.”

“Oh, Martha,” Ida said. “For God’s sake.”

Victor looked confused. “I’m not closing ranks on anyone. I just think it would be fun to run around for a while.”

“It was supposed to be Rosalie who got all the money.” Martha swung around to Gregor Demarkian. “That’s what Rosalie thought and that’s what I thought too, but it wasn’t true. It was Ida.”

“I didn’t get all the money,” Ida said angrily. “Martha, I mean it, for God’s sake. Grandfather died before he could change his will.”

“And you’re trying to make it look like I killed him,” Martha snapped. “You’re trying to make it look like I fed him a lot of poison so he wouldn’t have a chance to change it.”

“And then you poisoned Rosalie,” Ida said, “and this Robbie Yagger. What for? Obviously there’s some kind of maniac running around.”

“I don’t care who you think is running around.” Martha had a full head of steam now. Gregor had seen cartoons where furious characters shot smoke through their ears. He had never before seen a living human being who seemed capable of replicating the feat. Martha seemed to be going feral. Her left foot was stamping rhythmically against the floor. It reminded Gregor of something large and shaggy pawing the ground.

“I don’t care what either of you say,” Martha bit out at them. “Family solidarity. Family solidarity my foot. This family has as much solidarity as Bosnia-Herzegovina. You two do anything you goddamn well want, but don’t expect to drag me into it. I’m going to go out and hire my own attorneys.”

“Martha.” Ida was near tears.

Martha wasn’t listening. She pounded her foot one last time onto the hard floor, glared at Gregor Demarkian, and spun away. Then she marched straight to the front doors and out of them, out of sight. She didn’t turn around once. Ida, Victor, and Gregor watched her go. Hector Sheed watched her go, too. The detective had come up to the group with the stopwatch in his hands just moments before Martha started her last speech. Now he stared after her in astonishment.

“What was that?” he demanded. “What was the matter with her?”

“She didn’t want to help with the experiment,” Victor said nervously.

“So what?” Hector was still bewildered. “She didn’t want to help, all she had to do was say so. What’s going on around here? What’s all this about? Gregor?”

Gregor Demarkian was thinking. He was thinking as hard as he had since he first got to New York on this trip, and for once it was doing him some good. What was it Sherlock Holmes always said? “Eliminate the impossible, and what you have left, however improbable, will be the truth.” Gregor didn’t know if that was the exact quote, but it would do. Not that he put much stock in silly fictional characters like Sherlock Holmes. He was too much of a professional for that. But still. You had to take your good advice where you could find it. Anywhere.