“Anonymous gossip, mostly reporting the nurse for theft, suspicions about what Marlene did for a living, and then anything about their neighbors that annoys them.” Evie hit her laptop keys. “Sending them to y’all.”
Reuben scrolled through a website. “I’m looking at a page saying ethylene glycol is perfectly normal in prepared foods. I’m gonna give up grocery stores.”
Jax looked over his shoulder. “So it takes a whole lot of the stuff to poison. Chocolatefrostingcontains glycol! Evie, were those brownies frosted?”
“Looked like it. Poisoning brownies? That ought to be cause for the electric chair.”
“It’s even in some whiskey and a whole lot of prepared baked goods. But I don’t know how they’d add deadly amounts once they’re already prepared. Was there whiskey in the apartment?” Reuben scrolled through search sites.
“Probably purloined before we got there. Since no one else has dropped dead, I’ll guess any whiskey was safe. So from this, I gather antifreeze could have been added to any of the food brought in. I mean, if you can bake cakes with the stuff—” Jax grimaced.
“It’s all about proportion. But if Marlene had already been poisoned earlier by purple punch, then it may have only taken a shot of the stuff in frosting,” Reuben concluded.
“Text from Stacey,” Evie shouted. “She says the fruit was brown, and she threw it out. She tried a brownie and concluded it was stale and tossed it. She refused to touch the tuna casserole, but it looked like Granny ate some of all of them. There was also grape gelatin with grapes in it! Stacey tossed that too.”
“We didn’t see anyone bring a gelatin salad. Isn’t that usually mixed with water?” Jax opened his phone to look up recipes.
“Grape juice,” Evie crowed. “Grape gelatin made with grape juice. Or grape power drink. Stacey said the fridge had both. Marlene liked grape.”
“Scroll back the apartment video.” Jax picked up the remote. “Gelatin sits around forever. I used to feed the asparagus aspic to the dog because it never went away.”
“The camera doesn’t show the kitchen,” Evie reminded them. “Granny may have made it for herself.”
“Using a previously poisoned drink?” And they’d have no evidence at all.
Evie held up her phone. “One of these emails says Marlene was suicidal. Gossip or someone leading us astray?”
“I read that one.” Reuben hit the keyboard. “It was easy to trace. Came from a device owned by Savanna. Leading astray is my guess. She’s looking pretty guilty.”
Jax took the video back to the week before Marlene’s death, when she opened the door carrying sacks of groceries. Behind her, Mr. Charles carried cartons of bottled water. “Right before the party. I wish this thing had audio.”
“She was trying to catch thieves. They don’t talk.” Reuben zoomed up on the grocery bags. “Reckon there’s a box of gelatin in there? I’m guessing those are the grapes on top.”
“Uh oh, look.” Evie tapped Jax’s shoulder and pointed. “Halt it. See? Mr. Charles goes out to retrieve more bags. Isn’t that Lucy Murkowski in the hall?”
“She has a Jim Beam bottle and more purple drink,” Reuben crowed.
“But she doesn’t come in. Did she have time to doctor anything on the way up?”
“Do we have the film from the camera in the hallway? Switch to that.” Jax scrolled through grainy black-and white videos. “Lucy talking to Blue Hair #1. She’s holding up the drinks and making a face. The whole building would know about the purple punch before supper.”
“Lucy is part of management,” Evie reluctantly pointed out. “I like her aura, but if Granny’s death is related to Sunshine—”
“Lucy is the obvious suspect. Let’s start digging there.” Jax shut off the video and pointed at Evie. “Not by going through her trash or her office.”
Evie shrugged and returned to her laptop. “To each his own.”
Jax wasn’t certain, but that sounded like a defiant threat.
Twenty-nine
Roark knewhe was no saint, but he thought he deserved a halo for his night’s work. Showing Ariel how to use the search engines from Jax’s old law firm had been torture enough. All that silky dark hair smelling of heaven right beneath his nose while he leaned over her desk had nearly scrambled his gray matter. But he’d resisted touching.
Spending these last hours in her inner sanctum, watching her work, answering her cryptic questions, while he tried to do his own research—was like setting an alcoholic in front of an open bar.
He ached to kiss her again, to feel her in his arms, to assuage some of his dangerous daydreams. He rationalized excuses for doing so.
But he’d been brought up by strong women who would sever his head and more valuable parts of his anatomy if he acted on his excuses. Ariel was an innocent. She had to be willing. More than willing. And she was too... Hell if he knew what.Etherealcame to mind.Vulnerable. Fragile.