Last Licks

16

Sunny drove through the darkness, the bottle of nerve tonic lying on the seat beside her in a plastic bag. The moment she left Luke’s apartment building, she’d gone to call Will, only to realize that her cell phone was in the pocket of her black jacket—which was still on the passenger’s seat in Will’s pickup. So she drove home at a very sedate speed, not wanting to even jostle the evidence.

You’d think I was driving home with a bottle of nitroglycerine, she thought. Well, it could blow this whole case sky-high. Sunny sighed in relief when she at last pulled up in her driveway. Using just her thumb and forefinger, she picked up the bag and walked inside the house—where she found Mike waiting for her in the hallway.

“What’s going on with Luke?” He waved the note Sunny had left. “Is he okay? That was a pretty rough evening he had.”

“‘Rough’ might be an understatement,” Sunny reported, giving her dad the highlights of her recent conversation with Luke.

“Wow—he told you he’s actually Gardner’s son? And that he was in the room giving him something to drink the night Gardner died?” Mike stared at the bag in her hand. “Is that the stuff? What are you going to do with it?”

“I think it’s more like, ‘What am I going to do, question mark?’” Sunny shook her head. “No, that doesn’t sound right. But here’s my plan. First, I’m going to call Will so we can decide what to do with this blasted bottle. And get my cell phone back from his truck. Second, I’m going online to learn more about monkshood.”

“We used to have some in the backyard, in the shady area by the garage,” Mike said. “Big blue flowers. They were very pretty.” His expression went from reminiscent to grim. “Your mom got rid of them all when she found you messing with them.”

“I know, I remember,” Sunny told him. “That’s why I got so worried when I heard what was in this tonic. Mom gave me a good scolding—said they were dangerous. Now I’ve got to find out exactly how dangerous they are.”

By the time Will arrived fifteen minutes later, Sunny had finished her research and was ready for his questions. “You think Luke killed Gardner with something made from flowers?” Will asked.

“The active ingredient is something called aconite,” she told him. “And yes, it comes from the monkshood. Aconite is used in homeopathic medicine, but it’s dangerous stuff. Too much, and it’s poisonous. From what I’ve been reading, the symptoms are numbness in the face, weakness in the limbs, and vomiting. In the end, your heart stops, and you die.”

“Which pretty much sounds like what happened to Gardner Scatterwell.” Will frowned, opening the bag to look at the bottle inside. “What do you think we should do? Have the contents tested, or go straight to Nesbit?”

“The more I think about it, the more I feel that Luke should turn himself in. After all, what happened was an accident.”

“Was it? An accident committed by a poor musician who just happens to be a rich guy’s son,” Will pointed out.

“In that case, Luke got the order of things all wrong,” Sunny said. “He didn’t reveal himself to Gardner, didn’t get the will changed . . .”

“There are plenty of ways to contest a will. Besides, maybe he did reveal himself to Gardner, who wasn’t happy about it,” Will challenged, going into full cop mode. “Daconto’s suddenly got some pretty strong motives.”

“Aren’t you jumping the gun? We haven’t even tested the stuff in the bottle. We don’t even know what killed Gardner.”

“Thanks to Alfred having him cremated.” Will scowled.

“As for the scenario you’re suggesting, there’s one big problem—again,” Sunny argued. “Would Gardner have accepted a drink from Luke if he’d rejected him? The way Ollie described the whispered conversation he overheard, it sounded cordial, not like someone having poison forced down his throat.”

“You’re cutting this Luke guy a lot of slack because you like him,” Will complained. “Somebody died here, after all.”

“I’m not saying we should keep quiet while Luke makes a quick getaway out of town,” Sunny shot back. Then she added in a small voice, “I did give him Tobe Phillips’s number, though.”

“Oh, great,” Will burst out. “You think Daconto is guilty, but you hook him up with the best criminal lawyer we know?”

“If the stuff is deadly, then Luke made a mistake, which he’ll have to pay for,” Sunny replied. “That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have good legal advice.”

Will fumed for a moment, then reluctantly nodded. “We’ll need a secure place to keep that bottle until we turn it in. I nominate my gun safe. Have you talked to Tobe yet?”

Sunny shook her head.

“Well, we should do that, too, get everything set up. Any other details you want to mention?”

“Just one,” Sunny told him. “My jacket and cell phone are still in your truck.”

*

Sunny got up the next morning at the crack of dawn, yawning. She’d spent a lot of time on the phone before she could get to bed, talking with Tobe Phillips about his new client, Luke Daconto. The plan was to bring Luke to the Sheriff’s Department that morning.

Sunny woke herself up under the shower, then made toast and coffee. Mike was asleep, and she decided not to wake him. She poured dry food into Shadow’s bowl, figuring that would bring him into the open, but the cat hadn’t shown. Then she spotted him trying to hide behind the kitchen doorjamb, eyeing her suspiciously.

“Oh, come on in,” she told him. “No strangers, no weird smells. Just me, trying to get out of here.” She met him as he advanced with cautious steps, ran her fingers though his fur, and then stood up. “Be a good cat,” she whispered to him as she hurried down the hallway, trying not to clomp and awaken her father, “and don’t drive Dad crazy.”

She got outside just as Will pulled up in his pickup. The ride up north went by without conversation. Will had the news channel on the radio, and they listened for any breaking news bulletins about murders at nursing homes.

They arrived at Bridgewater Hall when most of the residents were still asleep. In fact, in Room 114, Ollie’s roommate lay flat on his back, snoring loudly. Ollie, however, was awake. He gave them a bleary-eyed glower. “I guess this must be something big,” he muttered.

His eyes got progressively wider as Sunny and Will described the events of the previous night. “Luke is a nice kid,” Ollie said when they finished. “Okay, maybe he’s a bit of a goof-up. Look what happened when he tried to open that bag of chips for me.” Unconsciously, his hands made brushing motions on his chest. “But this is the last thing I’d expect to hear about him.” He frowned, figuring angles. “So what’s the next move?”

“In an hour, Luke and his lawyer will be coming here,” Sunny said. “I figure that will give you time to get washed, shaved, and dressed, not to mention arranging a meeting with Dr. Reese.”

Will glanced over at the snoring Mr. Vernon. “And maybe they can get Sleeping Beauty out of the way.”

By the time Luke and Tobe arrived at Room 114, a somewhat surprised Vernon had been woken, then wheeled off to rather early therapy. After Vernon was gone, Luke entered the room hesitantly, followed by his lawyer.

Ollie offered his hand. “This is a hell of a thing, Luke.”

Luke’s shoulders sagged. “I don’t know how it could happen. I’ve made remedies out of that book for years.”

Sunny remembered the salve he’d given her. The skin on the back of her hand was as good as new, with no trace of scratches or scarring.

At last Dr. Reese arrived, with Dr. Gavrik at his heels. “I hope we can make this quick, Mr. Barnstable. I have a lot of meetings this morning.”

“You may have to cancel them,” Ollie replied. He turned to Luke Daconto. “Luke, you have the floor.” Luke stumbled a little as he began, but he managed to get clearly enough through his explanation of what happened the night Gardner Scatterwell had died.

Explanation, Sunny thought as she listened to the halting story, or confession?

For a long moment, silence filled the room when Luke concluded, until Tobe Phillips spoke up. “There’s a definite possibility that due to a mistake in preparing the tonic, Mr. Gardner ingested a heavy dose of aconite.”

“Aconite is toxic,” Reese said slowly. “You’re saying that Mr. Daconto precipitated the whole episode?”

Dr. Gavrik was less diplomatic. “This untrained idiot played at making medicine, administered it without approval, and killed my patient!” She stormed over to Luke, who shrank back. “You fool! You stupid, damned fool!”

Then Gavrik turned on Reese. “I have argued and argued about hiring useless people to make the patients feel better instead of devoting our resources to medicine. Now you see what happens—not only are they useless, they can be dangerous—fatal, even.”

She obviously had more to say but bit back her words. Her sharp features tightened, almost clenched, from the effort of keeping them in.

Tobe’s handsome face looked disapprovingly at Dr. Gavrik and Dr. Reese as he spoke up. “We came here this morning as a courtesy.” He gave the word a slight emphasis and then went on. “Mr. Daconto will now go to the sheriff’s office, surrender himself, and make a full statement.”

“Oh, yes,” Gavrik sneered. “He’ll tell everyone how he did wrong, and how he’s very sorry, and they’ll feel sorry, too, and tell him he’s a naughty boy—and do almost nothing!”

She spit the last words out, stepping past Tobe to Luke again. “You practiced medicine without a license, without any training, without any sort of knowledge even, you made a stupid mistake, and now a man is dead. You should be tried for murder.” Luke flinched, but he still faced the woman.

“I didn’t mean him any harm,” he said in a tight voice. “He was my father.”

“What?” Reese said.

“Gardner was my father.” Luke cleared his throat. “When I came here, I was trying to find out who that was, and I did. I’ve got the proof at home. He met my mother years ago in a commune in California. He was on a road trip.” He paused. “Maybe you remember that.”

Reese stared at Luke as if he’d never seen him before. “And you’re his son?”

Luke nodded. “Yes, sir. He kept telling me that his nerves were eating him up ever since the stroke, and I knew my mom had used this tonic to help people. So I gave him a couple of doses. I tried . . .” He hung his head. “And I made a big mistake. I have to take responsibility for that, whatever the law thinks is fair.”

“And just,” Tobe hurriedly put in. Before he could start on the mitigating circumstances, Gavrik cut him off with a disgusted sound.

“Words, words,” she said, fanning with her hand as if to dissipate the hot air. Gavrik glared at Ollie, who up to this point had been taking everything in as a spectator. “I suppose you’re satisfied now, Mr. Troublemaker. From the beginning, I could tell you were going to be a difficult patient, excitable. And your friends”—she expanded her glare to Sunny, Will, and Luke—“would only make things worse.”

Ollie wasn’t about to take that tirade lying down, even if he was in bed. “At least this was an accident,” he snapped back, glaring up at Dr. Gavrik. “Stupid, sad—but done out of love. But we’ve still uncovered information that a lot of other people, more than usual, have passed away in this joint. And they may have died on purpose. I know one thing for sure. I’m going to have a chat with my friend the sheriff and ask him to look into that. He’ll be able to get into your so-called confidential files to dig out the truth. Hell, after what happened with Luke here, Nesbit will probably feel he has to investigate, if only to see how tightly wrapped this place is.” Ollie did something Sunny wouldn’t have thought possible: he shut up the nasty doctor . . . although the glitter in her eyes promised an unpleasant time in store for the next underling she bumped into.

“Radmila, I don’t think there’s anything more we can accomplish here,” Dr. Reese said quietly. It was the first time Sunny had ever heard Dr. Gavrik’s first name. “We have other business.”

Like trying to get a jump on the damage control when this comes out, Sunny’s reporter alter ego chimed in. It wouldn’t be easy. The accident happened in the rehab ward, which had been the source of Bridgewater Hall’s excellent reputation. But Sunny suspected that most of the fallout would come from the residential side of the operation, and she could understand why. Would I want Dad to stay in a place where one of the patients got poisoned by mistake?

And since the residents were actually the facility’s bread and butter, and Reese had said the finances were already on the rocky side, the administrator and the directors might have to decide whether the place would survive at all.

Sunny didn’t envy Dr. Reese his job that day. Although it was early in the morning, the tall man already looked tired as he shepherded Dr. Gavrik out of the room.

“Don’t listen to her,” Ollie told a shaken Luke Daconto. “The only reason her mouth got so mean is because you made her look bad.”

“She’s right, though.” Luke ran a trembling hand over his face. “What was I thinking? Mom at least had years of experience making her mixtures and using them. Me, I just followed the recipes—and I screwed this one up big-time.”

“It really comes down to two questions,” Tobe said. “Were you indifferent as to whether Mr. Scatterwell would live or die when you gave him that tonic?”

Luke stared at him. “No! I wanted him to be okay, to feel better. That’s the whole reason I gave him the tonic in the first place.”

Tobe nodded. “And at the time you gave that mixture to him, did you know it was risky?”

“No,” Luke said after a moment’s thought. “I trust all my mom’s recipes.”

“Then don’t let other people tell you how you should feel about what happened,” Tobe told him. “You’re the only one who knows what went on, why, and how you felt.” Luke nodded, looking a bit better. Sunny couldn’t help noticing, though, that Tobe’s assured expression quickly faded when Luke turned away to talk to Ollie.

“Thanks for being on my side,” he said, shaking Ollie’s hand again. “I don’t know how much more or how much better I can say it, but I’m sorry. I never meant for anything like this to happen. And I know how much you were upset over it, so I really have to apologize to you.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Ollie told him.

Sure, that irreverent voice piped up in Sunny’s head. What have you got to worry about? This kid won your argument for you.

“You need to straighten things out for yourself,” Ollie went on.

“And we’ll start that right now,” Tobe said, “by going to the sheriff.” He turned to Sunny and Will. “I understand one of you has the evidence?”

Will reached into his breast pocket and pulled out the little bottle, still wrapped in its plastic bag. “It’s either been in Sunny’s possession or mine since Luke gave it up.”

Tobe nodded, acknowledging the chain of evidence, as he slipped the bag into the side pocket of his suit. He put a hand on Luke’s shoulder. “Time to go.”

“Don’t let Nesbit or the DA push you into something stupid,” Ollie warned as they headed for the door.

“That’s why I’m coming along,” Tobe said over his shoulder, “to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Sunny waited until they were out of earshot before she asked Will, “What are Luke’s chances, really?”

“Not as good as Tobe’s trying to make them.” Will sounded serious as he spoke. “Maine has a law on the books for unintentional murder. That can make things pretty rough for Luke.”

“Yeah.” Ollie grinned and then began to laugh. “But you forget who you’re dealing with. I think Frank Nesbit would much rather call this a medical mistake than any kind of murder.”

Will’s lips quirked. “Well, you’ve got a point there.” He stretched, trying to hide a yawn. “I figure I’d better make myself scarce while the sheriff absorbs these new developments. Do you mind an extended visit, Ollie?”

“More to the point, what about you, Ollie?” Sunny said. “You just dropped a big bomb here. It might not make you popular. Do you want to leave Bridgewater Hall and go somewhere else?”

“Why?” Ollie demanded. “It’s not as if they hand out poison nerve tonic every night. I’m settled here, used to the way they do things. I like the therapists. As far as I see it, the only problem is that witch Gavrik, and how often do I have to see her?”

“Soon you may not be seeing her at all,” Sunny reminded him. “She’s applying for that job down in North Carolina.”

“Even better.” Ollie rested back on his pillow with a satisfied smile.

“So you’re not actually going to press Nesbit on the death rate here?” Will asked.

“I was mostly just going for intimidation,” Ollie said. Then his eyes sharpened. “That might make a nice campaign issue for you—if and when you decide to run for sheriff,” he said thoughtfully. “But remember, I’ve been backing Nesbit all these years.”

“Sure you don’t want to switch horses?” This was the first politicking from Will that Sunny had ever seen. At least he kept it light.

“Not in midrace,” Ollie told him. “Besides, even Sunny had her doubts about those figures. I read somewhere there are four kinds of lies: lies, white lies, damned lies, and statistics. The numbers may not pan out, and I don’t see much percentage in stirring things up.”

“You told Dr. Gavrik you were going to go to the sheriff over it,” Sunny felt obliged to point out.

“Aaaaah, she got me annoyed.” Ollie waved it away and then gave her an impish grin. “It really did shut her up for once, though.”

“That it did,” Sunny had to agree. “That it did.”

*

Keeping low to the ground, Shadow made his way unobtrusively but quickly down the hallway to the entrance to the kitchen. There he peered suspiciously around the doorway. The Old One sat at the table, drinking hot stuff out of a cup. Although it probably wasn’t so hot now. Shadow didn’t see any steam rising from the cup.

That was good. Things were normal. Too many odd things had happened since last night. Shadow didn’t like it when things changed—well, not unless he changed them.

Last night, however, had been more disturbed than in longer than he could remember. First, Sunny and the Old One had each gone to stand under water and then had left the house after eating when it wasn’t even eating time. That definitely wasn’t usual. Then Sunny had come back after dark with her He, and they’d tried to hide in the backyard. Very, very strange, even for two-legs. Shadow still hadn’t been able to figure out what they’d been doing out there. And, of course, it hadn’t gotten any better when he’d fallen on them. Then Sunny had gone off again, the Old One had come home late, Sunny had come back, and Sunny’s He had turned up again. All these comings and goings were enough to make a cat nervous.

Even this morning, Sunny had gotten up very early and left the house, moving in that funny way the two-legs did when they thought they were being quiet. Shadow hadn’t been fooled, of course. He’d been awake when she got out of bed and trailed after her through her whole morning routine. Even when Sunny left some food out for him, and Shadow’s stomach had rumbled at the sound of the dry food landing in his dish, he’d stayed where he was, watching the room and Sunny from afar instead of running in for a bite.

Shadow had considered trying to follow Sunny, discover where she went when she’d come home smelling of that She he found so interesting. But he’d given up the idea. Even if he managed to get outside, it was hard to sneak into her go-fast thing.

She’d even fooled him, going off with her He. So that hadn’t worked at all.

The Old One, though . . . he paid very little attention to Shadow. And he moved a lot more slowly than Sunny. Shadow was pretty sure he could get around the Old One’s legs and out the door before being noticed.

And the Old One drove a machine that was open in the back. An enterprising cat could jump up there and ride along.

So now Shadow watched Sunny’s father carefully as he sat in the kitchen. The Old One wore the loose, floppy clothes he put on before going out and coming back smelling worse than usual. Sometimes he really stank when he came home, but he never came home from wherever place he went to smelling of the She.

Shadow could be patient, though. When the Old One came back, stood under the water, and put other clothes on, Shadow would be ready . . .