Drizzled with Death(84)

Connie sank to the floor, her flock of goats clustered around her. Profiterole stood next to the trash can growling and poking his nose against it. I expect the snake was lucky to be deaf since I can’t imagine how terrible the noise would have been if it hadn’t been.

I gently placed the bottle of syrup on the floor of the loft and sat at the top of the ladder, glad not to need to support my weight on my trembling knees any longer. Now that the adrenaline was seeping away, the stiffness had gone right out of all my bones.

“It’s okay now, Dani. It’s safe to come down,” Lowell called up to me. Graham nodded in agreement.

“I don’t think I have what it takes to do the ladder yet. Besides, there is something up here you need to see.” Lowell climbed the ladder and sat next to me. He draped a protective arm across my shoulders, and I felt the backs of my eyes start stinging and my nose began to drip. I leaned against the fabric of his uniform and just let loose. I felt all the scared and hurt and angry flow out of me and run in a messy stream down over him. He just sat quietly, a warm sturdy rock, one that deserved a chance to be happy with someone he loved, until I’d emptied myself out of all the toxic feelings I’d been dragging around for a while.

“Now what is it you need me to see?” he asked, handing me a handkerchief for my nose even though the damage had already been done to his shirt.

“See that pile of stuff?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“That’s what’s left of the tinkering project that pushed Alanza to the other side of the veil.”

“How do you know?”

“Connie told me. If I were you, I wouldn’t let her leave until she answered some questions.” Lowell nodded.

“Connie,” Lowell called down, “is there anything you want to tell me about all this?” She looked up at the loft for the first time since the snake was captured.

“Alanza was blackmailing me. She found out I was billing Lewis for products and services Hanley never provided and that I kept right on doing it when Alanza took over the place.”

“How’d she find out?” Lowell asked.

“She got all the information she needed from me. She asked to see the trust accounts, and as the trustee, I had to let her have them. I figured it would make her more suspicious if I refused. Besides, I thought I had covered my tracks pretty well.”

“So what gave it away?” Lowell asked.

“It was the Best Bett All in One, wasn’t it?” I asked. Connie turned her attention to me, a look of surprise on her face.

“It was. She remembered how you praised maple trees as a low-maintenance crop at the talk you gave to the Chamber of Commerce. When she looked at the bills paid from the trust to Hanley’s tree service, she knew I was skimming.”

“What did she want in return for keeping quiet?” Lowell asked.

“Money from the trust. She got use of the house and the land and a very small stipend. Blackmailing me was probably the easiest way to get more money from the trust.”

“But why kill her?” Graham asked. “She wasn’t taking your money.”

“She started wanting other things, too, right?” I asked.

“Yes. She got me to persuade the other board members on the planning committee to approve her storage facility and then she got me to give up my seat and to convince them to appoint her in my place.”

“Still, that wouldn’t be enough to take that sort of risk.”

“She decided to clear Bett’s Knob and she was making Hanley do it. Do you know what that would have done to his business?”

“I know my family would have had a hard time not holding that against him,” I said.

“Still, the trees would have grown back and people might have understood,” Lowell said. Connie stared at the ground and clutched at Clementine.

“I think it was more personal. When did you find out about Alanza and Hanley?” I asked.

“Friday morning. Alanza told me she wanted me to come by the house because she had something she needed to discuss with me. When I got there, she told me she and Hanley had been seeing each other behind my back and she wanted me to give him a divorce. She said if I didn’t, she would expose me, and since the penalty for embezzlement is seven and a half to fifteen years in prison, she would have him all to herself for a long time anyway.” Connie began weeping in earnest. She was so loud and fractious about it, Clementine tried to pull away.

“Where did you get the poison?” Lowell asked.

“The attic at the Stack Shack. I remembered Piper had warned me to stay away from it when I was putting the tax returns I help her with up there. I told Alanza I needed to think over what she said and I went to the Stack. I told Piper I needed something from the box and I helped myself to the rat poison.”