Hooked On A Feline

chapter 9

I stared at him, wondering if I’d heard him right. “I don’t understand,” I said. “Leitha had a heart attack. Her car went off the road. Everyone agreed it was an accident.”

Marcus did his hand-hair thing. He looked tired. There was dark stubble on his face and lines pulled at his mouth. “I know, but I couldn’t let go of the idea that something was off about her death, so I went back through the file on the accident and I noticed that Leitha had been involved in a study on heart disease and longevity.”

I nodded. “I know. Mike told me that Leitha was the only person in two generations of their family to live into her nineties.”

“It was a long shot, but I contacted one of the doctors who is involved in that study and I sent him a copy of the medical examiner’s report. He called me back less than an hour later and he told me that he had concerns over the levels of potassium chloride in blood samples taken at Leitha’s autopsy. According to the doctor, she had used a salt substitute in the past that contained potassium, but not enough to explain the levels found in her blood in his opinion. And as far as he knew, she hadn’t been using that substitute anymore.”

“If those levels were too high, they could have caused an irregular heart beat and heart failure.”

“Exactly,” Marcus said.

He fastened his seat belt and started the SUV and we drove over to Tubby’s. I got strawberry frozen yogurt. Marcus chose orange cream. We walked along the Riverwalk and sat down on the second bench we saw with our cups of frozen yogurt.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” he said.

“I’m thinking that I’ve always felt bad about Leitha’s death,” I said.

“Why?” he asked.

“She came to the library for the presentation about the history of Mayville Heights that Mary was giving.”

The talks on the history of this part of the state had turned out to be extremely popular. All of them had been well attended.

“And she and Mary ended up having a very loud and very public argument about the early settlement of the town,” Marcus said.

I nodded. “Yes.” My chest tightened at the memory of their raised voices, particularly the disdain in Leitha’s tone. “I had to step in to put a stop to it.”

I remembered how Leitha had given Mary her steely gaze and said, “Breeding will tell.”

Mary had met the other woman’s stare with an equally undaunted look and said, “Yes, it certainly will.”

I licked a bit of frozen yogurt off my thumb. “Some people found Leitha to be too blunt and abrasive and they liked seeing Mary stand up to her. I know Mary was sorry for making a scene. She apologized immediately and she came out to the house that night to apologize again.

I had been surprised to see a somber-looking Mary at my door. “May I come in?” she’d asked.

“Of course,” I’d said.

“I know I told you this afternoon how sorry I am for getting into an argument with Leitha and making a scene at the library. It was petty and childish of me,” she’d said as she stood in the middle of the porch.

“But understandable. Leitha is a challenging person.”

“I want you to know that something like that will never happen again. I give you my word. And I’m sorry that I put you in a difficult situation.”

“I appreciate that,” I’d said. “I don’t understand what happened? What made you so angry?”

Mary had looked at the floor for a moment; then her eyes met mine. “Leitha was going on about the Finnamores being among the first settlers in this area. The fact of the matter is it was Ruby’s family—the Blackthornes—not the Finnamores who first settled this area. And Keith King’s family and Lita’s have been here almost as long. I reminded Leitha of that and that the town was actually built where there had been an earlier indigenous settlement.” There was a flush of color in her cheeks. This was obviously something she felt strongly about. “You know about Ruby’s indigenous ancestry, I’m guessing.”

“I do,” I’d said.

“In fact Ruby’s family was here a couple of generations before the Finnamores, or anyone else for that matter. Leitha was dismissive as though they weren’t important because they didn’t come over on the Mayflower. So I got my knickers in a knot. I should have known it was a waste of time, trying to talk to that woman.” Her cheeks got a little pinker and she stuffed her hands in her pockets. “I was wrong for calling Leitha an old bat.”

I’d nodded. “It didn’t help.”

“And I will apologize to her for that,” Mary had said.

“Of course she didn’t get the chance,” I said to Marcus. “She felt bad that maybe their argument had contributed to Leitha’s heart attack, which then led to the accident. Leitha was very angry when she left the library. I think Mary still feels a little guilty.”

“I can see why she would,” he said. “Do you want some of my frozen yogurt?”

“Maybe just a taste,” I said.

He held out the cup and I scooped out a spoonful. The orange cream flavor was tart and rich all at the same time. “Oh, that’s good,” I said. “I’m getting that next time.” I offered my own cup. “Would you like to try mine?”

He smiled. “Kathleen, you ate it all,” he said.

I tipped up the container to take a look. It was empty. How had that happened?

“Was Mary’s talk like the previous ones?” Marcus asked. “Did you offer tea and coffee again?”

“Yes, we did,” I said. “Oh, and there were maple cookies from Eric’s.”

“Did you see Leitha eat a cookie or drink a cup of tea or coffee?”

“You don’t think she was poisoned, do you?”

“I didn’t say that,” he said. “Did you see her eat or drink anything?”

I tried to picture the aftermath of Mary’s talk. People had been milling around, getting tea or coffee, talking. More than one person had commented on the cookies.

“Mary offered a cookie to Leitha,” I said.

His blue eyes narrowed. “Offered or gave?”

“Mary would not poison Leitha or anyone else. You know Mary. You have to know that.”

“I didn’t say she did.” He waited.

“Offered,” I said firmly. “I remember that she was holding the tray.” I set my empty yogurt cup on the bench. “You can’t possibly think that Mary killed Leitha—that Mary planned to kill Leitha—because it’s not like she would have had potassium chloride in the pocket of her sweater.”

Marcus held up one hand. “I don’t believe Mary killed Leitha. I don’t believe she would kill anyone—give them a stern talking-to, yes, or in a worst-case scenario maybe drop-kick them across the room, but I don’t see her resorting to murder.”

I tapped my spoon against my bottom lip. “When would Leitha have to have ingested the potassium chloride for it to have caused her heart attack?”

“The doctor thinks it would have to have been in her system about an hour before the heart attack that caused her to go off the road.”

“So at the library,” I said.

“It’s possible that Leitha had pills on her and took too many by mistake, but I can’t find any reference to any kind of medication in any police reports and she hadn’t been prescribed potassium chloride by her doctor.”

“I didn’t see her take anything.”

“But you weren’t watching her all the time.”

I shook my head. “No. There was a lot going on.” I looked out over the water for a moment. “Marcus, do you think it’s possible that Leitha committed suicide?” I asked.

Marcus stretched one arm along the top of the bench. “I admit that did occur to me, but it doesn’t make sense. She was in good physical health, especially for her age and her mind was sharp. I checked with her doctor and the doctor running the study—she had no cognitive issues at all. No one who knew Leitha said anything about her seeming depressed. She had plans made several months ahead. Nothing suggests suicide.”

“So what happens now?” I asked.

“The medical examiner is doing more tests and consulting with Dr. Faraday, the doctor in charge of the study.”

The breeze lifted my hair and I tucked a stray strand back behind my ear. “What happens if they decide that Leitha was murdered? And how does that all connect to Mike’s death? Or does it?”

Marcus shrugged. “That’s the part I still don’t know.”