Grandma stood behind his wingback chair, a firm hand squeezing his shoulder. In our family it was not an unusual event to see tenderhearted Grampa’s eyes tear up. Grandma’s, on the other hand, never did. I didn’t like to give any thought to the sorts of things that would crack her stoic exterior. She looked like she had bitten down on a lemon, and a moldy one at that. My mother sat on the antique camelback sofa I couldn’t bring myself to sit on since the incident at church on Sunday, fingering the dowsing pendulum she wears around her neck.
Loden paced near the long window facing the oak tree with the swing and the most perfect sledding hill on the property. His hands were stuffed into his pockets, but I could see the outline of them clenching and unclenching. Celadon looked like she’d had a portion of Grandma’s lemon but had dunked her bite in vinegar before she popped it into her mouth. Fortunately, the children were not in the room. I expected Celadon had sent them out when she heard the syrup might be involved. Little pitchers have big ears, and while the children aren’t inclined to be naughty, they might not be able to resist mentioning what had happened. It was sure to be all over Sugar Grove before the end of the next day, but still, we didn’t need to blow wind in the gossip ship’s sails.
“We don’t know if any of the stored syrup has been tainted. I suggest you suspend sales until we can get to the bottom of this,” Lowell said.
“You don’t really think we’ve sold something poisoned, do you? Could anyone else be hurt?” Grampa crumpled his handkerchief in his gnarled hand.
“Emerald, I don’t. I think Alanza was deliberately poisoned, and Dani has come up with a good way to determine if the bottle was tampered with. Why don’t you tell them?” Lowell gestured, giving me the stage. I suddenly felt a bit shy, as if I were nine years old again giving an impromptu piano recital to a group of my parents’ friends at a dinner party. But it was a good idea and would put everyone’s mind at ease.
“Lowell is going to check the syrup bottle Alanza had at the breakfast and check the ring around the neck for color and style. If it isn’t the same as all the others, we’ll know it was tampered with individually.” Everyone nodded in understanding since they were all familiar with the way the bottles were capped.
“But what if it is the same as the others?” Mom asked, rubbing her pendant a bit faster.
“Then we’ll have to start testing everything. We’ll need to recall the syrup sold online and at the shop,” I said, hating to hear the words come out of my own mouth.
“We may need to contact media outlets,” Celadon added, practical as usual.
“We’re hoping it won’t come to that. The best thing we can do now is to check the evidence. I’ll drive over to the state lab tomorrow as soon as they open to check the ring on Alanza’s bottle with the other ones. Hopefully, there won’t be any worries about your stock after that.”
“What about actual access to the grange itself?” Loden asked. “Was there any sign of a break-in?”
“No, there wasn’t. As a matter of fact, that was one of the first things Mitch checked for once we suspected her syrup had been tampered with,” Lowell said.
“So it may come down to who else had access to a key?” Celadon asked. The family has a key, which of course they would since Grampa and Grandma have been on the grange facilities committee since my father was a toddler. But they would have locked up when they finished.
“It looks like it. Any idea who did?’ Lowell asked.
“Easier to ask who didn’t. Not only have the locks never been changed, I’d be willing to bet it was the most copied set of keys in town. We have at least three sets to the place at our house alone,” Grampa said. The grange was one of many buildings in town where keys were handed out like beads at a Mardi Gras parade.
“Each board member always has a set, and most people stay members for life. No one thinks to ask their loved ones after they die for their keys back, so sets go missing from time to time. It’s not like there is anything worth stealing in there so no one seems to care,” Grandma said.
“Just about everybody in town either has a set or is related to someone who does. Myra, Hanley, Roland, Jill, even Alanza herself would have had a set somewhere in her house since Lewis Bett was a key holder. Just about anyone in the fire department could have used the set they have at the station,” Grampa said.
“Don’t forget, Mindy Collins has one because she uses the hall for Scout meetings,” my mother added, shaking her head.