Too Far Gone

105

Alexa removed the tape of Sibby’s statement, dropped in a blank one, and pressed the RECORD button. She looked out at the storm, which was tearing bushes apart and blowing wrought-iron pool furniture across the courtyard. A sheared tree limb slammed into the soft earth of a flower bed, sticking upright like a diseased sapling.

When Casey returned, she had dressed in black jeans and a long-sleeved turtleneck. She had Deana on her left hip and carried a tray with two glasses and a bottle of wine. Casey handed Deana to Alexa and placed the tray on the table.

“I not you fren,” Deana said. It seemed to Alexa that the little girl seldom said anything else. Deana stared up at Alexa, a smile on her cupid lips.

“Darling, be nice to Alexa.”

“Poo-poo,” Deana said.

Casey handed the wine bottle to Alexa. “Could you open this for us?”

She placed a glass in front of Alexa, then lifted it. “Oh, damn. The base has a crack in it. I’ll go and get you a good one.”

“This is fine,” Alexa said. “I’m not drinking out of the base.”

“You take mine. I’ll use the damaged one.”

“Don’t be silly,” Alexa said. “Should this sit before we drink it?”

“Let it breathe in our stomachs.”

After Casey poured wine into each of the glasses, Casey took Deana and put her in a high chair.

“Cooteeee!” the little girl demanded.

Casey went to the kitchen cabinets and, after rummaging around, returned with three chocolate cookies.

Casey laughed. “She’s a baby. She’s happy with cookies. Why should I deny her? I was never denied and I turned out fine.”

Alexa was silent, took a long sip of the wine, and was delighted by the rich flavor. “Tastes marvelous. What is it?”

“Burgundy. A very special wine I’ve been saving for a special occasion. This is certainly that. Today I’m closing the door on the past and bringing in a new day.”

“I could grow accustomed to good wine,” Alexa said, smiling.

“That’s probably the best wine you’ll ever drink.” Casey looked at Alexa and smiled. “I have to say, I feel like a great burden is lifting off my shoulders.”

Alexa took another swallow, then set the glass on the table. She wasn’t going to get tipsy.

“I have a confession to make,” Casey said.

“Yes?”

“When I came out earlier, I unloaded your gun and took the magazines. I hope you can forgive me going into your purse without permission.”

“Why?” She intends to kill me.

“I thought you might pull it on me since I admitted…you know, killing Andy. Killing Grace. How do you like the wine?”

“I suppose expensive wine is an acquired taste. I guess it’s wasted on me. You took my bullets because you don’t trust me. You don’t intend to change, do you? You aren’t capable of changing.”

Casey picked up her glass and emptied it in three swallows. “You should have let me replace the glass for you.”

“The wine?”

“It’s laced with a little something that is decidedly lethal and highly unlikely to be detected. Since you wanted to know, it’s what I used to put Grace down. She purchased the poison, so it will ultimately be traced to her. I’ll say Grace gave me the wine, knowing I would drink it and die, but, horror of horrors, you drank it. After they know what to look for, your blood will show it. A flawless plan, I think. It works in only a few minutes. Do finish the wine. It won’t make any difference, I assure you.”

“Casey, why?” Alexa asked, setting down her half-empty glass. Terror blossomed inside her. A burning sensation grew in her chest and she found it hard to get her breath.

“I really do admire your abilities, Alexa. That makes this very difficult for me. I’m sorry to have to kill you, but you’re a little too dangerous for my tastes. Nothing personal.”

“You didn’t-”

“You’ll feel the paralysis starting any time now, Alexa. I was assured it’s not at all painful. It simply paralyzes the lungs, stops the heart.”

“You’re drinking the wine too.”

“I put the poison on the rim of your glass. I’ll put some in the bottle later and say I was fortunate not to have had any before you collapsed.”

“Casey, you need to listen to me. What is the poison? You have to tell me, so I can help you.”

“Help me?”

“Tell me! What’s the antidote!”

“There’s no antidote, Alexa.” Casey’s smile was not one of regret or pity. It was the smile of victory and pleasure.

“You didn’t poison me,” Alexa told her. “I switched wineglasses when you were getting the cookies.”

“What?”

Alexa stood and looked down at her would-be murderer. “You poured me more than you poured for yourself. I don’t like red wine and I didn’t want to drink too much. Please, tell me how to stop it!”

Casey’s face was a luminous white. She looked at the wineglass in front of her in disbelief. “Alexa, what did you do?”

Casey stared at Alexa with an expression that morphed into one of unbridled hatred. “You? You! You bitch! I…can’t die. I can’t! You…” She stiffened suddenly in her chair, locked her eyes on Deana, then turned them back to Alexa. “I…can’t…breee.”

Casey fell sideways to the floor. Alexa rushed around the table, rolled Casey over onto her back, and started CPR compressions.

“Mary! Call 911!” she yelled.

Alexa pressed as hard as she could on Casey’s chest as she counted the compressions. But as hard as she worked, as horrified as she was, she knew that Casey couldn’t be brought back from where she was going. Casey shuddered violently, and then was still.

“Mommy nigh-nigh,” Deana said, waving a partly eaten cookie in the air. “Ahm not your fren,” Deana said, smiling down at Alexa coyly.

Alexa kept working, compressing and blowing into Casey’s open mouth for ten minutes, then gave up. She realized that she was crying, and put her head in her hands. She heard the security guard talking to Mary, but she couldn’t make out the words.

The wind howled, rattling the windows violently like a raging man trying to beat them in to save his children from a fire inside. The moaning and creaking sounded like a chorus of grief-stricken mothers.

As she knelt staring into Casey’s fully dilated and clouded eyes, she was aware of an explosion as an oak tree gave up its grip on the earth, rolled over, and crashed into the long hallway, collapsing the roof and exploding the glass walls.