Drizzled with Death(75)

Graham was tipping his cell phone this way and that trying to pick up a signal. Despite the smell filling my nostrils, I was so hungry I peeked around for something to eat. Knowlton’s workshop seemed like he had stolen the space. His taxidermy tools were clean and laid out on a workbench in an orderly fashion. The rest of the shed looked like a purgatory of delayed decisions. Ice skates with broken blades, belts with missing buckles, rusty handsaws with missing teeth heaped up in piles and leaned against the walls.

Here and there among the mess a perfectly preserved creature struck a pose. From the top of a stack of plastic milk crates a stuffed raven prepared to swoop down on me. A bobcat crouched between a wicker chair with a busted seat and a child’s wagon. A coiled snake wrapped convincingly around a chunk of granite on the floor in the corner. It was so realistic I could have sworn I saw it twitch just a little.

My eyes roamed the room for a box of crackers, a sleeve of fig bars, a slightly withered apple, anything that would slake my hunger. I lifted plastic bags left from a defunct discount store, balls of grubby used string, and cans of greasy bolts and washers. Graham startled me with his voice just as I was yanking open a metal cabinet door.

“Do you remember the name of the poison that killed Alanza?” I looked at him, trying to determine why he would ask such a thing. He was stooped over a metal toolbox, the large red kind on wheels. One of the drawers was opened and he gestured at something in it. I stepped over to look.

“It was called Compound 1080, I think. It has another name, too. Like flouro something. A pesticide and rat poison was what Lowell said.”

“Could it be called fluoroacetate 1080?”

“I’m pretty sure that was it.” I started to pick up the box he pointed at, but he shot out his arm and circled my wrist with strong fingers.

“Don’t touch it.”

“Why not?”

“Because Lowell said a few salt-sized particles of this stuff were enough to kill a fully grown woman and that means it would be twice the amount needed to kill you.” I shrank back. If Graham hadn’t been there to remind me, I would surely have picked it up. Even if just handling it hadn’t killed me, it might have if I had found something to eat and wasn’t able to wash first. Which given the amenities in the shed, I wouldn’t have been. With the way my stomach was growling, I wouldn’t have stood on the formalities.

“Thanks. I was foolish.”

“Just enthusiastic. Besides, you wouldn’t want your fingerprints found on what might have been used to kill Alanza.”

“You think this is the actual poison used to kill her?”

“It is the same sort. Since it isn’t a commonly used murder weapon, I’d say that ups the chances considerably.”

“You don’t think Knowlton killed her, do you?”

“Someone killed her, this is the sort of poison that was used, and this building was not locked when we arrived. How many people in town would have known this wouldn’t be locked?”

“A lot probably knew and anyone would have guessed. People just don’t bother with locks on outbuildings, especially not those filled with stuff they’d just as soon see get stolen.”

“Which makes this serious.”

“But there is no saying the poison even belonged to Tansey or Knowlton in the first place. Anyone who knew it was open could have snuck it in here and left it where it would look like it belonged to the Pringles.” I was feeling hot and then cold and all over shaky. If someone like Tansey could kill a person, then probably anyone could. I felt like someone had snatched my rose-colored glasses off my face and stomped on them with steel-toed boots right in front of my stinging eyes.

“We need to call Lowell.”

“I’m not speaking to Lowell.”

“Well, I am, and as soon as I can get a signal, I’m calling him. Stay away from that box, and for God’s sake don’t eat anything you find in here. We’ve got no idea if any of that stuff has gotten spread around.” Graham resumed his lift-and-check dance with his cell phone and I stood in the corner looking out the nearest window. In the distance, with the light fading as fast as it was, it was hard to say for sure but I thought I saw two large birds slipping off through the trees. Graham began to speak in that peculiar telephone call tone people use when talking to those they do not know well. “He says they’ll send someone out right away.”

“Did you ask them to bring snacks?” My body felt like it was experiencing an earthquake the way I was shaking from all the stomach growling.

“It wasn’t the thing most on my mind. Besides, how could you even consider eating with the smell around here?”