Fruit of the Poisoned Tree (37 page)

“I’m fine.” Selena opened the shop door for them. “We’ll talk when you get back.”

“What’s with her?” Steve asked as they left the shop.

It was her words to Selena about the
ethical
question of romance that struck Peggy like a bolt of logic. Suddenly, she knew the answer. She pulled out her cell phone. “I have to cancel Shakespeare’s lesson for today.”

“What’s up?” Steve wondered, herding the dog into the SUV.

“I think I know what the link is between Cindy and the money. And I’m sorry, Steve, but you can’t help me find it.”

STEVE WASN’T SURE IF he should be offended or glad he had to be excluded. “What are you planning to do?”

“I’m going to take a look around Cindy’s condo.”

“You’re going to ask her first, right?”

She glanced at him, eyebrows raised.

“Never mind.” He started the Vue’s engine. “I don’t want to know. But you can’t go in alone.”

“I have to. It’s the only way.” Peggy outlined her plan. “I know where she lives. We’ve done work there. I think I can get the doorman to let me in.”

“I could be there with you, taking Sam’s place,” Steve volunteered. “I won’t let you go in alone.”

“All right. You wait downstairs. If you see Cindy, call me on the cell phone, and I’ll get out.”

“I don’t like it,” he maintained. Shakespeare barked to agree. Or disagree. It was hard to tell. “What are you hoping to find?”

“The link Al told me has to exist. Cindy can’t get her hands on the money and probably isn’t doing this for herself. She’s always had bad taste in men. If I’m right, she’s involved with Gary Rusch. He could access Park’s money. It would be easy for him to ‘take care of’ the estate and the insurance. And Beth’s suicide attempt came on the heels of her telling me she said something to him about it. I’m betting he gave her the Nembutol when she was with him.”

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this.” Steve shook his head as they stopped at a light. “But if you actually suspect Gary of being the killer and Cindy of being his accomplice, wouldn’t it make more sense to go through
Gary’s
place? He might still have some of the poisoned honey. Or something else incriminating.”

Peggy leaned over and kissed him. “
That’s
why I love you!”

The light changed, but Steve didn’t move the Vue forward. “You
do
?”

She cleared her throat and rearranged the folds of her scarf, carefully not looking at his handsome face. “Yes, I suppose I do. It happened so fast that I—”

He took her in his arms and kissed her while car horns blared and drivers either laughed or cursed as they went around them. “I love you, too, Peggy. For different reasons, probably. I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time.”

“You mean all three months we’ve known each other?”

He grinned. “Every minute since you crashed into the side of my car.”

She stared into his wonderful eyes, almost forgetting her plan to find Park’s killer. She never thought she’d see that look in another man’s eyes. “Well! I don’t really know what to say.”

“Don’t worry.” He started the Vue off again down College Street. “I’m not asking to go house hunting or hit the bridal registry at Belk. What we have right now is enough for me as long as it’s enough for you.”

“It is.” She smiled and squeezed his hand. “Thank you.”

He squeezed back, then sobered, his eyes glued on the road. “So where does Gary Rusch live?”

Peggy didn’t know. “But it should be easy to find out.” She used her Internet connection on her cell phone to access the Charlotte Yellow Pages. “Well,
that’s
cozy!”

“What?”

“Gary lives in the same condo complex as Cindy. What a coincidence!” She glanced at Steve. “So Plan A still works, except I get into Gary’s condo instead of Cindy’s, and you keep watch downstairs for either of them.”

“Why don’t you let me go and
you
keep watch?” Steve suggested as they pulled into her driveway.

“As you’ve said before, I have a talent for this. Jonas might call me a busybody, but I prefer to think of it as research.”

“All right.” He gave in as he let Shakespeare out of the Vue. The dog whined and pulled at the leash, trying to reach Peggy.

“Let’s get him settled in and take care of it.” She patted Shakespeare’s head. “With any luck, we’ll have our answers and still be done in time for dinner.”

 

PEGGY GRABBED A THRIVING red amaryllis from her kitchen before they left and put a Potting Shed tag on it as they drove back downtown. It was as simple getting into the condo as she thought it would be. The doorman knew Sam and the Potting Shed name. He was glad to finally meet Peggy.

“I’m glad to meet you, too.” She endured his hearty handshake after she put the amaryllis on the bench near the door at the entrance to the plush, expensive condos.

“You know, I’ve heard rumors the owner here is going to hire a new landscaping service, inside and out,” Tommy, the doorman, confided. “I was wondering if you might be interested. I was planning on giving Sam a call.”

“That would be great.” She smiled, thinking how life worked in strange ways. “Should I get in touch with the owner or give you my card?”

“Let me give you the owner’s number.” He wrote it out on a piece of paper and gave it to her. “I think he’ll be interested.”

“Thanks!” She tucked it away. “I’ll give him a call.”

“Nothin’ at all. I hope you get it.”

Peggy walked quickly to the elevators after a peek at Steve waiting outside the building. She called Tommy when she reached number 17 on the seventh floor. He buzzed her into the luxury condo unit.

Inside the elegant condo, nothing was out of place. Not even a smell of any kind. It was more like a high-dollar hotel room than a home. She put the amaryllis down on a table, not planning to leave it behind. With all the glare protection on the windows, there wouldn’t be enough light to grow a shade plant. Amaryllis loved sun. In this environment, it would shrivel and die. She couldn’t imagine anything
living
there anyway.

What was she looking for? Contrary to her confident manner with Steve, she wasn’t really sure. She searched the kitchen for any sign of honey. There wasn’t
anything
edible in the room, poisoned or not. But it was very shiny and glamorous. Lots of chrome and beautiful inlaid black marble on the countertops. Like a kitchen from a magazine. She wondered if Gary had ever been in there. He didn’t seem like the type who cooks.

She tackled the bedroom next. The bed was huge, with a large portrait of Gary on the wall behind it. There were mirrors everywhere. The black carpet muffled any sound as she walked into the room. She accidentally touched a switch by the door, and a cascade of light and sound streamed into the room. Multicolored strobe lights flashed across the bed.

“So this is the way the other half lives,” she mumbled to herself with a wry smile.

Peggy checked through the closet carefully. There was no sign of women’s clothing or shoes. There were no personal photos on the bedside tables. Nothing that could tell her if Cindy had been there. The immense bathroom with the black marble tub was the same story. It was like no one lived there.

“I love you, Steve,” she said as she dialed Tommy’s number at the front desk, “but you’re not a great detective.”

Tommy was totally understanding of the fact that she forgot to mention she had something for Cindy Walker as well. Apparently it happened frequently with multiple deliveries to the building. She picked up her amaryllis and carefully shut Gary’s door behind her.

The buzzer sounded, and Peggy pushed open the door to Cindy’s condo. She knew she was at the right place as soon as she peeked inside. Clothes were strewn everywhere. Some of them were Cindy’s, but there was also some men’s clothing. Two wineglasses and two empty take-out boxes proclaimed the fact that Cindy had been there with someone else. Stationery from Lamonte, Rusch and Peterson had a shopping list scrawled on it.

“Let’s take a look in the kitchen.” Peggy left everything like she found it. As soon as she saw enough, she planned to go back downstairs and call the police. She wasn’t sure how she was going to explain what she knew about Cindy, but she trusted it would come to her when the time was right.

There were two quart jars of honey under the kitchen sink. Both were labeled with the handwritten date, September 9. She held the golden syrup up to the light, but there was no way to tell if it was poisoned without testing. On the kitchen table was one of Beth’s pretty tea mugs. It made her blood freeze to see it.

She’d seen enough. She couldn’t quite make the connection between Cindy and Gary, but it was obvious it existed. If the police found the poisoned honey in Cindy’s condo, she had no doubt it would be a short walk to arrest Gary, too. Cindy wasn’t made to be a hero. She’d crack under questioning.

“Peggy!” Cindy’s voice was accompanied by the distinct sound of a safety being released on a revolver. “How
nice
of you to visit!”

“Confess now and save yourself.” It sounded quaint, even to
her
ears. But Peggy refused to be bullied by the younger woman in the pale blue designer dress just because she had a gun. “I know
you
didn’t make this honey.” She opened the cabinet door. “Help the police get the
real
killer.”

Cindy looked confused for a moment. “What is
that
doing under there?”

Quick to catch on, Peggy shrugged. “He was probably setting
you
up to take the fall in case something went wrong. Did he just hide these here today?”

“Damn, worthless piece of crap! I
knew
I couldn’t trust him!” It was easy to see Cindy’s brain working hard enough to blow steam from her delicate ears. “Never mind. Pick those up. And give me your cell phone. We’re going for a ride.”

There was a side door to the condos only used by the residents. Peggy went out of it ahead of Cindy while her cell phone rang just out of reach. It was probably Steve, wondering what was taking her so long. There was no way he could have seen the woman pull into the side street and use the private entrance. Some plans didn’t work out.

“Where are we going?” Peggy asked her, conscious of the revolver pressed into her side under Cindy’s jacket. She carried both jars of honey carefully. One slip, and the evidence would be gone.

“You’ll see when we get there,” Cindy vowed as she opened the door to her Cadillac Escalade and pushed Peggy inside. “Just sit there and hold the honey and you won’t be hurt.”

Peggy did as she was told. She wasn’t in fear for her life so much as worried Cindy and Gary would get away with the murders they committed. She didn’t believe they wouldn’t hurt her. They’d already killed two people. What would stop them from killing her?

But if she dropped the honey on the ground or if she tackled Cindy as she drove through the deepening dusk that enveloped the streets of Charlotte, she might never make the connection between Cindy and Gary. This way, she’d look them both in the face. She’d be able to accuse Park’s killer of his terrible crime.

Just before they kill you.
Her cell phone rang again. Steve would find some way to get upstairs at the condominium complex. When he did, he’d realize something happened to her. He’d see the amaryllis she left in Cindy’s condo.
But will he realize Cindy kidnapped me? Will he know where I’m going? Will he get there in time?

Peggy wasn’t sure how much satisfaction she’d get knowing the truth if she couldn’t do anything about it because she was dead. She wasn’t
afraid
to die, but she wanted to see the couple brought to justice. Unfortunately, it seemed she couldn’t have it both ways. At least not at that moment.

Cindy drove the Escalade down Providence Road to Myers Park. Peggy frowned when she parked the SUV in front of a redbrick house, like Park’s, close to the Presbyterian church. “Get out.”

“Where are we going?”

“You’re going to have to see our little lover’s spat, Peggy.” Cindy smiled as she shifted the gun to her free hand. “I hope you won’t be
too
offended. Bring the honey with you. You can be my witness.”

Peggy picked up the jars of honey. The wind whipped her purple scarf free, and it fell to the ground. She didn’t move to retrieve it. Maybe it would help them find her if she had any chance of surviving.

Cindy walked up to the heavy oak door and pushed it open without knocking, nudging Peggy inside the foyer before her.