5 Murder by Syllabub (14 page)

“Really, Leo.” Cora Lee’s lips were pursed.

“You think he isn’t?”

Cora Lee’s lips parted in a twisted smile. “Evidently, he’s an effective one.”

If a loud growl had come out of Lt. McMann’s mouth, I wouldn’t have been surprised. His eyes narrowed to slits and the broken capillaries in his cheeks
made them glow bright red. He’d better not have a stroke. My only first aid training had been in Girl Scouts.

“Longo.” Lt. McMann didn’t bother to look at Noah. “Why are you standing around? Aren’t you supposed to be working?”

“I’m off the clock. Have been for an hour or so.”

“Then go home.”

“I
am
home. That house down the road is mine. Those horses behind that fence, they’re mine also.”

As if
on cue, two white heads appeared over the pasture fence. One nickered softly. Lt. McMann stared at the horses, then at Noah. “Yeah. Now, how could I forget a thing like that?”

There was something in that statement I didn’t understand. Something calculated. His eyes flickered over Mildred, who flinched, then shifted back to Noah, who stood,
rigid and unmoving. Cora Lee opened her mouth but shut it before Elizabeth could land the kick she so plainly aimed at her ankle. That Payton Culpepper inflamed everyone, Lt. McMann included, was obvious. There was more to it than his patronizing attitude, but what?

Lt. McMann turned toward Elizabeth. “Contrary to what the famous Mr. Culpepper thinks, we aren’t finished. Just as soon as we check that glass for fingerprints and other substances, we’ll talk again. Tomorrow. Please have your
attorney
—” there was no escaping the stress on the word “attorney”—“contact us to set up an appointment.” His voice oozed sarcasm. He glared at all of us before starting down the stairs toward the only remaining car.

“Goodbye, Leo.” Cora Lee’s voice was almost cheery as she waved.

Lt. McMann turned back toward her and almost lost his footing on the stairs. “You know, I’m up for early retirement. I didn’t think I was ready but, Cora Lee, I’ve changed my mind.”

She smiled and waved as Lt. McMann climbed into the passenger seat of the unmarked police car. The door slammed
and the engine started immediately. The car moved forward slowly then quickly picked up speed.

“I wonder what he said to that poor driver to make him move so fast.” Cora Lee’s smile was gone, her tone thoughtful as she stared after it.

“Whatever it was, I’ll bet that young man didn’t like it.” Aunt Mary, hands on hips, watched the car disappear down the drive.

Elizabeth had also watched the car but had said nothing up to now. She shuddered slightly. “The only good thing is
that I’m not in it. At least, not yet.”

“Thanks to Payton Culpepper?” There was a question implied in Cora Lee’s voice.

“Yes, thanks to him. But no thanks to you, Cora Lee. Leo hates us enough without your goading him.”

“Elizabeth, honey, I just can’t help myself. Leo was a horrible child
. He was ugly to my daddy when he worked here, which was why he got thrown off the place, and he’s downright hateful as a policeman. Just look at how he treats Noah.”

Lt. McMann worked at Smithwood? He was fired? When? Was that the source of all this animosity? He treated them all, Noah especially, with disdain, and he acted as if Mildred didn’t exist. Did the roots of his animosity go that far back?

“Elizabeth’s right. It’s just going to make him more determined to find enough evidence to arrest her, and Payton didn’t help much.” Noah looked furious but also worried. “We would have been fine if it hadn’t been for that glass.”

The
glass. “What happened? How did Lieutenant McMann find out about it?”

Mildred sighed. She shook her head. “It all happened so fast. I couldn’t stop her.”

Aunt Mary looked worried as well, but she also looked tired. “Let’s go inside where we can sit down. Then you can tell us about this glass.”

“What glass?” Cora Lee
was staying put until she got an answer, and Aunt Mary needed to sit down.

I sighed. “Mildred and I found the missing syllabub glass in the dishwasher this morning. Someone, undoubtedly the murder
er, put it in there. I want to know how Lieutenant McMann found it. Then we’re going to try and figure out what happened and what we do now.”

It was Mildred who went inside
first. After a moment, everyone else followed, except Noah.

“Aren’t you coming?” I held back a little, waiting for him. “We need you.”

“So do the animals.” He was already down the steps, pausing only to answer me. It seemed as if he was going to say something more. I waited. “I don’t think there’s anything to find on that glass. Neither does McMann. If he did, Elizabeth would be on her way to a jail cell. No. Whoever put it in the dishwasher made sure it was clean. By charging in here and throwing his weight around, Culpepper just made McMann more determined. If there’s even a trace of poison in that syllabub, well, Elizabeth could be in real trouble.”

Noah
headed for the barn, his back rigid. His long stride, fueled by anger, covered even more ground. He disappeared around the corner of the barn.

I
was about to follow the others, but a flicker of movement stopped me. Someone stood at the end of the east house, watching. He turned and disappeared around the corner, I supposed down the hill toward the river. It was Calvin. No one else on the plantation had long gray hair pulled back and tied with a ribbon. What was he doing up here? Listening? Why? Who was this Calvin, anyway? Why had he been in jail and why was William so determined to give him a job after he got out? I followed the rest of them into the house, deep in thought and eager to consult Dan.

T
he clock on the wall struck six. I looked out the French doors at the sunlight that hadn’t faded. The sky was still blue, the leaves on the trees dappled with light, the flowers that edged the side of Elizabeth’s garden showed no sign of closing their petals and settling in for the night. The clock must be wrong. Only, it wasn’t. Daylight savings accounted for the brightness, but where had the day gone?

My stomach growled. No one else seemed to be thinking of food, not even Aunt Mary, which amazed me. Elizabeth
was seated at the table where she had sat last night. She told us how Lt. McMann had questioned her, badgered her, actually. She had risen to help herself to more coffee, more to get away from Lt. McMann’s face staring into hers than the need for it. Examining the remains in the pot, she’d decided she’d had enough and opened the dishwasher to put in her cup. That’s when she saw the crystal glass and gasped.

“McMann was on her like a cat on a crippled mouse. I tried to get there before she opened that door, but I was too late.” Mildred looked at me almost apologetically. “Why we left it there, I don’t know. We should have hidden it.”

“Quit tearing yourself up,” Cora Lee said. “If you had hidden it, and the police found out, you’d have made things worse. None of this is your fault.”

I was amazed to
see Cora Lee actually trying to give comfort. She reached over and patted Mildred’s hand before quickly withdrawing hers. Afraid someone would see her and think she was weak? I thought again of Rubik’s Cubes. Pushed one way you got one pattern, pushed another square and you got something totally different.
Cora Lee was like that. Only Rubik’s Cubes didn’t offer caustic little remarks. What had happened to make her so angry?

Elizabeth’s long braid had fallen forward over her shoulder. She threw it back and raised her head.
“It’s one thing to choose to put yourself in danger because you’re fighting for a cause you believe in. Trust me, chaining yourself to an old growth tree when you’ve got furious loggers bearing down on you with skip loaders is pretty scary. It’s nothing like as scary as having someone think you’re a murderer.”

“Murderess.”

“Thanks, Cora Lee.” Elizabeth didn’t bother to turn her head. “That made me feel better.”

“No one thinks you’re a murderess, and there’s no evidence, either. Quit worrying.”
Cora Lee’s tone contained its usual nip of sarcasm, but this time there was also a seriousness that surprised me.

“How do you figure that?” Mildred sat up straighter.

Aunt Mary nodded slowly. “I think she’s right. Whoever put that glass there couldn’t take the chance his or her fingerprints might be on it, so they’d already washed it. They only put it there to throw suspicion on Elizabeth.”

“It seems to have worked.” Elizabeth blinked back tears. The muscles around her mouth tightened.

“I’m not so sure,” Aunt Mary said. “If Lieutenant McMann thought he had something, he’d have you in a cell right now. As for the syllabub, I don’t think there’s anything in there, either.”

Cora Lee smiled. “Mary’s right. Not unless whoever’s doing this wanted to wipe out the whole household.”

There it ended. Elizabeth dropped her head again, apparently lost in thought. Cora Lee fiddled with her cane and stared at Mildred, who absentmindedly rolled a napkin into a cylinder, unrolled it and rolled it up again.

The French doors rattled, followed by a deep bark.

The start went through my whole body. Evidently I’d been so absorbed in my own thoughts, I hadn’t noticed the dog. I pulled up the bar and let Max in. Petal appeared out of nowhere, greeted him with licks on his nose then sat down in front and stared intently at the humans. Max joined her. Was it time for them to be fed? No one paid them any heed.

“Where do you keep the dog food?”

“I’ll do it.” Mildred pushed back her chair and headed for what looked like a broom closet. The dogs followed her, tails wagging vigorously.

She ladled food into bowls.

My stomach growled again. “Aren’t any of you hungry? Has anyone eaten since Mildred’s oatmeal this morning? We need food.” At least, I did.

“We also need alcohol.” Cora Lee picked a bottle from the wine rack and pulled open a drawer in the chest on which it sat. “Where’s the foil cutter? I had it last night. Never mind.”

She examined the corkscrew, used it to remove the foil then stabbed the cork with it. Without asking, she took four balloon glasses off the buffet, poured a little in each glass and started handing them around.

“First things first.” Aunt Mary set her glass down on the old highboy. “Ellen’s right. Elizabeth, is that lasagna still in the fridge?”

Mildred nodded.

“Good. I’ll slip that into the oven. We’re going to have to eat dinner.”

Elizabeth looked as if the concept of dinner was foreign and didn’t give a tinker’s damn if she never figured it out.

Cora Lee grimaced and shook her head. “I’m not one bit hungry.”

“Be that as it may, we have to eat. I imagine the salad is still there and I think I saw bread. I’ll butter some of that later.”

Mildred started to laugh.

Aunt Mary looked startled then joined in. “Once a Home Ec teacher, is that it?”

“Yes. Always a Home Ec teacher. Or a mother. We just can’t seem to shake that need to feed people. Go ahead. Do you know how to turn on the oven?”

“Yes. No. I’m not sure. Is it this thing here?”

“You got it. You want me to help?”

I doubted Aunt Mary did, but Mildred needed something to do with her hands. Something that made her feel useful. Mildred’s day had probably left her feeling quite useless. Aunt Mary must have realized it, because she smiled. “Please.”

Mildred picked up the edge of the foil
on the lasagna. “Just checking to make sure there’s no plastic wrap under here. I didn’t check one time.”

Mary laughed again, this time with genuine mirth. “I made that same mistake. I believe we went out to dinner that night.”

Mildred took a bowl from the refrigerator, peeled back the plastic wrap and shook her head. “Cora Lee, you dressed this salad last night. It’s mush now. I’ll make a fresh one.”

“It’s going to be a
while. Make it later. Let’s sit down.”

Aunt Mary picked up the glass of wine Cora Lee
had poured for her, made a face, and set it down. “I’m going to make tea. Want some?”

Mildred immediately headed for a cupboard, brought down two mugs and, from another cupboard, a box of green tea bags. “Wine later. Maybe.”

Maybe. After last night, I wasn’t so sure. Aunt Mary filled the kettle and she and Mildred pulled out chairs and joined us around the table.

The room was very still. Cora Lee reached for her wine and took a sip. She set it down carefully. “Damn. I just knew Payton would screw everything up.”

“He did a good job, too.” Mildred stared at her glass for a moment before pushing it away.

Elizabeth’s glass was half gone. “How can I get rid of him? He thinks he’s so blasted smart but all he’s going to do is land me in jail.”

Aunt Mary folded her hands, rested them on the table and leaned forward a little. “Will someone please tell me what’s going on around here? Why was Mr. Culpepper here? Did he just show up or did someone call him?”

No one answered.

Aunt Mary sighed. “There has to be a reason. Elizabeth, I take it you didn’t call him.”

Elizabeth almost smiled. “It would never have entered my mind.”

“Cora Lee? Mildred? Did either of you? No. I didn’t think so. Then, why?”

The other three looked at each other.

“I have no idea.” Elizabeth shrugged. “He just arrived. Climbed out of his limousine and said he was here to represent me. He demanded Leo tell him everything. Leo bristled like a cornered porcupine. Come to think of it, Leo hadn’t said a word about arresting me until Payton got here.” Her expression grew speculative, as if she, too, was trying to figure out what happened.

“You’re right.” The same look passed over Mildred’s face. “How did he even know Leo was here?”

“Good questions.” Cora Lee took another sip of her wine and smiled a little at Aunt Mary. “Helps me to think. I thought he’d gone back to DC.” She took another sip and furrowed her brow. Probably to look as if she was thinking. “I guess Hattie might have told him.”

“Told him what?” Aunt Mary got up as the teakettle began to scream. She took it off the fire, pouring a little into the bottom of the teapot Mildred had set on the countertop
. Then she swirled it, filled it and put in two tea bags. “Hattie didn’t know Lieutenant McMann was out here or Elizabeth was in danger of arrest any sooner than we did. He moved awfully fast to get here ahead of us.”

Mildred leaned forward on her arms, spreading her hands out on the table. “Not if he was at Hattie’s house in Yorktown. It’s about twenty minutes closer to Smithfield than Colonial Williamsburg. If he was there and Hattie called him, the timing fits.”

“Only, why?” I waited for an answer. None came.

Finally Elizabeth spoke. “I don’t know, but I wish he hadn’t. Leo was dogged before, and I knew if he found one thing that seemed like real evidence, he’d go after me. Now he thinks he’s got something.”

Aunt Mary took two mugs of tea to the table, put one in front of Mildred and set the other in front of her empty chair. Finally she said, “You’re not saying Lieutenant McMann might manufacture evidence?”

“He might not go that far, but he hates us.” Cora Lee took another sip of her wine and glanced over at Mildred. “All of us.”

“Why?”

“Another kind, enduring thing my father did.” Cora Lee didn’t try to hide the bitterness in her voice or her eyes. “Leo worked here his senior year in high school. Several of the local kids did. We still grew tobacco then and they hired on for the harvest. We used to have drying sheds down by the river, and a dock. Farmers from nearby plantations came to use it to ship their tobacco to the big auction houses.” She stopped and examined Mildred’s face, as if wondering if she should go on. Mildred didn’t move. Cora Lee shrugged slightly. “There was a mix
-up about some tobacco bales. One farmer, a relative of McMann’s, got credit for too many, and someone else got shortchanged. My father blamed Leo. Actually got the police out here.” She stopped again, and the look on her face was a combination of embarrassment and anguish. “Leo had nothing to do with it. It was a paperwork mistake, pure and simple, but my father still thought he was guilty. Not only did he fire him, but he blocked a college scholarship Leo was up for. Leo’s never forgiven him, or any of us.”

“That’s not the only reason he doesn’t like Noah.” There was no emotion in Mildred’s
voice or on her face. Just a simple statement of fact.

“Why?”

“You heard what he said about retiring. It took Leo a long time to make lieutenant. I’ve never been sure how he managed it. He’s not very good at the job. If he can hang on a little longer, he’ll get more retirement. Only, the city council has put pressure on Captain Brewley to make Leo quit.” Mildred paused, brought the mug of tea up to her lips, took a cautious sip, made a face and put it back down on the coaster Aunt Mary supplied. “If Noah passes this next exam, he’ll be qualified for Leo’s job.”

Cora Lee eyed her empty glass as if trying to decide if she needed a refill. She pushed it away. “Losing his job would not make Leo happy, but to lose it to Noah
… well … that wouldn’t sit well. His hatred of Smithwood and everyone connected with it includes the Longos. Add that Noah is …” She didn’t finish her sentence but she didn’t have to. What she meant was only too clear. Noah was black. Lieutenant McMann was white.

Aunt Mary set her tea back down. Her hand shook. That simple statement had the power to send shockwaves through both of us. Why, I didn’t know. We weren’t exempt from prejudice in Santa Louisa. Several black families
had moved in and been accepted without a ripple. The Hispanic families, however, had a harder time. The Sanchez family, who lived a few houses down from me, was the victim of a picket campaign. They were accused of being in the country illegally, which was nonsense. Mr. Sanchez was the local bank manager; his family had been there for generations. So had his wife’s. She was an emergency room nurse at Trinities Hospital. Their three children all got good grades and were on half the sports teams in town. That hadn’t made any difference to the protestors. Justice might be blind, but so was hate.

“That business about Harrison Silverstein. It made me furious.” Elizabeth’s eyes narrowed and she looked around the room as if hoping to find someone, or something, to smack. “The way Payton acted, you’d have thought I wasn’t capable of making a decision harder than what color socks to buy.” She paused and took a sip of her wine.

“Choosing the right socks can make or break an outfit.”

Elizabeth glared at Cora Lee, who smiled and smoothed out her fine old linen napkin. “Well, I’m not using his blasted lawyer. I don’t care if he is the best in the state. I’m going to call Aaron Glass. Now. Tonight. I know he won’t be there, but I’ll leave a message. I am not going to let Payton bully me.”

Elizabeth couldn’t have gotten everyone’s attention quicker if she fired a shot across the room. Mildred choked a little on her tea before setting her mug down. Aunt Mary gaped.