Drizzled with Death(47)
“Are you really allowed to take down witness statements?”
“He seemed pretty interested in what I had to say. And now with the way things look about Alanza dropping from eating your syrup, I’ll be surprised if you don’t get hauled off to the loony bin in Concord.”
“The syrup is not my fault. There are all sorts of people with great reasons for poisoning her.”
“Like who?”
“Like Roland. Like Knowlton.” Although knowing Piper’s taste in men, if Knowlton landed in jail on a murder charge, she was sure to become even more interested in him.
“Don’t forget Myra.”
“Myra had a problem with Alanza, too?”
“Of course she did. Myra was a Bett before she married a Phelps. Alanza got her mitts on the property bearing the family name and then set about destroying it. You can bet Myra was angry.”
“I didn’t realize Alanza and Myra were related.”
“Only distantly, to hear Myra tell it.”
“But how did someone from out of town like Alanza inherit when Myra didn’t?”
“That I don’t know. Myra likes to yak but she decides what about, and she wasn’t mentioning anything about the terms of the inheritance.”
“Did you try to pry it out of her?”
“Of course not. It was none of my business.”
“Well, it might be now. It sounds like it could be a motive. And Myra has access to the grange hall.”
“So does everybody and his brother,” Mitch reminded me.
“That doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be asked about it.”
“That’s something best left to Lowell. I have no intention of tangling with her.” Mitch slid toward the edge of the booth. “As a matter of fact, I think I’m going to leave it to you to mention it to Lowell. Something as potentially explosive as accusing an employee of murder might be best coming from you.”
“Why me? You’re the professional, remember?”
“But you’re the do-no-wrong goddaughter, remember? Have you forgotten the crossing guard incident?” Mitch stood next to the table and managed to snitch one last fry.
“You steal my food again and I will be sure to speak to Lowell about your proclivity for crime.”
“That’s to get you back for the radar gun details Lowell put me on after I dumped you.” Mitch walked off, wiping sausage grease from his fingers on his pant leg. Just another reason things would never have worked out between us. If my grandmother had ever seen that at her dinner table, she would have given him some poisoned syrup on purpose.
• • •
I meant to keep out of things and simply wait for the call from Lowell letting us know someone had tampered with Alanza’s syrup bottle. But by nine the next morning, I had bottomed out my e-mail in-box, polished silver service for thirty-six, and scorched three different batches of caramel sauce for Thanksgiving dinner. I could hardly refuse when Grandma suggested I leave her kitchen in peace by heading for town to do some early Christmas shopping. I decided to use Christmas shopping as an excuse to ask Tansey Pringle a few questions about Alanza.
Tansey had her feet up on an overturned plastic milk crate when I pulled up into her driveway. I’m sure she was surprised to see me since generally I am doing my best to elude her efforts to hook me up with her son, Knowlton. She knocked over the crate and sprang to her feet, an impressive feat considering her age, sixty-six, and her arthritis, rheumatoid. Neither of which stopped her from serving as president of the local snowmobile club or running her small family farm.
Tansey liked to complain but never about her health or her work. She was happy to complain about town politics, other people’s decisions, and the weather but not about herself and certainly never about Knowlton. He could do no wrong in her eyes, and she just could not comprehend why it was that he was still single. I don’t know that it had occurred to her that having her as a mother-in-law might be a part of the problem. She spat a huge gob of tobacco on the ground next to her before speaking. A little trickle of the juice strayed down from the corner of her mouth, and I resisted the urge either to stare or point it out to her. If her mother had never gotten basic niceties into her head, there was no way it would be worth my time to try to do it. Besides, my grandmother would take me over her knee if Tansey reported I had been sassing my elders.
“Knowlton’s not up yet. But if you wait a bit, he’ll be moving around. He had a long night out in the woods.”
“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about the snowmobile club.” I didn’t want to come right out and ask her about how the club would have been affected by Alanza’s plans to close the property for use. She might take offense and clam up entirely. But given any sort of opening, she was sure to let it all out. If I was careful, there was no way she could resist. Now for a good excuse as to why I was asking. I hated to do it to him, but I was about to sacrifice my own brother to the snowmobile gods.