Pink Lemonade and Penalties Read online

  “Hey, Lydia,” Leo said, looking up from his desk as she approached. “You have any more of that pink lemonade taffy?”

  She reached into her purse. She normally carried an emergency stash of candy in case it was needed, but all she had were two pieces.

  “I’m sorry. That’s all I have. I rushed over here.”

  “I see,” said Leo. He folded his hands. “I think I know what this is about then.”

  “You do?” asked Lydia. After her guessing game with Amber, she wasn’t confident.

  “It’s Suzanne, right?”

  “What’s going on with Suzanne? Is she all right?”

  “She’s fine. That’s not why you’re here?”

  “I’m here about Bill Vector.”

  “Bill Vector?” Leo asked, confused. “Why?”

  “Well, a friend of his doesn’t think that he would have committed suicide, but I’ve heard that’s what the death was ruled.”

  “So, now you’re even interfering with my closed cases?” Leo asked with an eyebrow raised.

  “I’m sure you’re right about what happened, but I said I would check. This friend is pretty upset. She even reached out to someone she can’t stand for help because of the death. I think that’s worth checking into.”

  Leo gestured that she could sit down and she did.

  “I can appreciate your concern for this person. But just because someone doesn’t like the actions that another person took doesn’t mean that there was foul play involved.”

  “So, you’re absolutely sure that this wasn’t a murder?” asked Lydia.

  “The man was alone on his boat. He locked himself inside the bedchamber. No one else could have gotten inside.”

  “I guess that does make it sound like suicide,” Lydia admitted.

  “The poison was fast-acting, so it couldn’t have been something that was ingested before he boarded the boat.”

  “Wait a moment,” Lydia said. “Poison was the means of murder? Someone could have set that up earlier.”

  “We did consider that possibility,” Leo said. “But we found no evidence of that.”

  “No one could have set up the poison in what he ate or drank? Or maybe on the dishes or silverware he used?”

  “No. The man was very careful with his meal preparations. Only he had access to it. All his serving supplies were also locked up when he wasn’t using them himself. He must have added the poison to his own drink. There was no trace of the poison in the liquor bottle, but there was some in the empty cup on his floor. We believe he did this because he wanted to be at sea when he died.”

  “Could the people who found the dead man be involved?” asked Lydia.

  Leo shook his head. “A fishing boat just reported that the vessel looked unmanned. The authorities had to break into the sleeping quarters and found him.”

  “Still, if it was poison, there are ways a smart killer could have accomplished this.”

  “Lydia, we did our due diligence with this one. We tested all his half-eaten food and the drinks on board and found no trace of poison except on the lip of the glass he drank from and emptied. We compared what was found to the stomach contents to make sure nothing was unaccounted for. We learned of the victim’s habits and when he purchased the food and drink that he brought with him. It was not possible for someone to tamper with the beverage that contained the poison, and the glasses were kept locked up so no one could have planted anything there.”

  “So you think he added the poison to his glass when he was alone on the boat?”

  “Yes. That must be what happened,” said Leo. “Cases like this are always sad. But I think the best thing you can do is comfort the person who misses the deceased. Not look for other answers when there aren’t any.”

  Lydia frowned. Though she thought choosing poison was odd, the rest of what Leo was saying made sense. She just didn’t want to have to report this back to Amber.

  Detective Grey walked into the room, looking serious as usual. His manner was still professional as he asked, “Did you bring any of that pink lemonade saltwater taffy with you today?”

  “No. I’m sorry,” Lydia said. “But I will bring some to you both soon.”

  “She’s here asking questions about Bill Vector,” Leo explained. “I had to tell her that the death was ruled a suicide by poison.”

  Lydia decided she might as well ask the other detective for his opinion and took a step toward his desk.

  “Did you think there was anything strange about his death?”

  Detective Grey seemed to ponder this. “I had met the man before. We were both part of a double date. I was there with the woman I had been dating, Brie. Her good friend Amber was accompanied by Bill. It seemed a pleasant evening at the time. If pressed, I would say that I did not believe that Bill Vector was contemplating ending his life at that time. However, my whole false relationship with Brie has further taught me that people are not always what they appear. In our work, we need to follow the evidence. And the evidence says that only Bill Vector had access to his glass and beverage. He must have added the poison himself.”

  “Well, thank you both for giving me your thoughts on the case.”

  “This isn’t something you should get used to,” Leo grumbled. “We’re only revealing certain information because the case is closed.”

  “Fine,” Lydia said to her brother. She didn’t want to argue about how helpful she had been on past cases. She also didn’t really want to go to Cones and Cola and report back to Amber. Looking for an excuse to stall, she started to tell the detectives that she could pick up some pink lemonade taffy and bring it back to them. She thought that this was a worthy excuse because Detective Grey was looking a bit sad, and she rationalized that putting off her unpleasant task to cheer up a downtrodden detective was a worthwhile endeavor.

  However, before she could finish telling them, they were joined by Suzanne. She had a big smile on her face but started blushing when she saw Lydia. She kept her hands behind her back as she edged closer to Leo.

  “Did you tell her?”

  “Tell me what?” asked Lydia.

  Leo and Suzanne exchanged a look and then grinned. Suzanne revealed her left hand and the diamond ring on it. She looked a bit sheepish as she showed it off.

  “When did this happen? And why did it happen?” Lydia blurted out. She quickly tried to recover. “Not that I don’t think this is a good thing! I just thought that a premature proposal was what caused all your previous relationship problems.”

  “It did scare me off before,” Suzanne admitted. “Though that was also because I was working through some other issues. Being kidnapped did mess with my head.”

  Leo placed a reassuring arm around her.

  “I do love Leo, and since we’ve been back together, we realized how strong our relationship was. When we were here at the station the other day I saw that he still had the ring box in his desk.”

  “I didn’t have the heart to get rid of it,” Leo said. “Part of me still hoped I’d be able to give it to you.”

  “And, well, we talked for a good long while.”

  “And we decided to get engaged.”

  “But we’re not rushing into anything,” Suzanne assured her. “This is not a knee-jerk reaction to Leo thinking he nearly lost me like I was afraid it was before. This is based on our feelings and the future we want to have together.”

  “We’ve decided to have a long engagement,” said Leo. “But I thought she still might like to wear the ring.”

  “It is beautiful,” said Suzanne. “You picked out the perfect one.”

  “Well, Lydia helped a little bit,” Leo admitted.

  Suzanne turned to her. “Thank you. For everything. And I hope when it gets closer that I can ask you to be one of my bridesmaids.”

  “Sure. And I’ll wear whatever hideous dress you want,” Lydia said before feeling like she was putting her foot in her mouth again. “I mean – I would truly love to.”

  Leo
left his desk and walked up to his partner. “This won’t be for at least a year. It might be two or three. But I know that my first choice isn’t going to change. When the time comes, will you be my best man?”

  “Me?” Detective Grey asked, surprised.

  “Of course, you. You’re my partner and my friend,” said Leo. “So, will you?”

  “I’d be honored.”

  Detective Grey shook Leo’s hand, looking happier than Lydia had seen him since he discovered that his girlfriend was using him for insider scoops for the newspaper. Actually, Detective Grey probably looked happier than Lydia had ever seen him.

  Lydia was happy that her visit to the station had included some happy news, but she knew that the bad news that she would have to tell Amber would feel like it overshadowed it.

  4

  Cones and Cola

  Lydia approached Amber’s ice cream shop with even more dread than usual. She always thought that the ice cream and toppings on display looked delicious, but that the treats weren’t worth dealing with Amber.

  As she walked into the shop that was also seeing a good deal of last-minute tourist business at the counter, Lydia tried to think of the best way to break the news. The problem was that she kept thinking about how Amber had admitted to throwing something at Leo’s head when he told her what the death was ruled. She hoped that Amber would be holding an ice cream cone and not anything heavy if she tried to pelt something her way.

  “Lydia, over here!” Amber called when she saw her.

  She was seated at a table with her best friend, Brie, who was holding her hand supportively. There was a bowl of ice cream in front of Amber, but it looked like she had let it melt instead of enjoying it. There was also a pile of tissues next to the treat, and Lydia knew that she must have continued to cry after speaking to her.

  “Hello,” Brie said evenly as Lydia approached.

  “Hi,” Lydia replied. She knew that Brie was not happy with her, to begin with, and could only imagine how she would feel after Lydia reported back the unwelcome news to Amber.

  “What did you find out?” Amber asked, ignoring any pleasantries or small talk.

  “I’m afraid the police have ruled the death a suicide. They think that there is evidence to support this and no reason to suspect foul play.”

  “What?”

  “I’m sorry. But they don’t believe that anyone else could have had access to the cup or the drink besides Bill Vector and that he had to be the one to add the poison to his own drink.”

  “Okay. That’s what they think,” Amber said, holding on to the table for support. “But what do you think? You look into murders all the time, don’t you? This is one of them, right?”

  “I don’t see any reason to doubt the police,” Lydia said.

  “There are plenty of reasons,” Amber said. “Bill was young, healthy, and happy. He was making plans for the future. He just bought that boat and was going to bring it to a new marina. I saw that he paid his gym membership for next month. And he was planning a vacation in September. To go on a cruise. I went shopping with him, and we bought a hat. He wouldn’t have done those things if he was going to kill himself, would he?”

  “I don’t know,” Lydia said.

  It did sound strange that Bill had gone about making plans for the future if he hadn’t planned on going on vacation. However, she knew that she wasn’t an expert when it came to this. She didn’t think she was qualified to say for certain that he wouldn’t have done something like this.

  “No. He wouldn’t,” Amber said angrily. “He didn’t love shopping. He wouldn’t have spent so long trying to find the right hat for a cruise that wouldn’t blow off his head if he wasn’t planning on going on the cruise.”

  “Tell her what you told me before,” Brie suggested. “About his food. It seems to have bearing if he was poisoned.”

  “That’s right,” Amber agreed. “Bill was really careful when it came to food preparation. He was careful about what he bought. And he was diligent about how his plates and glasses were cared for. He even locked them up on his boat, so his friends didn’t touch them before meals.”

  “The police told me a little about that,” said Lydia. “That’s why they don’t think anyone else had access to the glass or beverage where the poison was added.”

  “But there’s a reason why Bill was so careful. He had some food allergies. He didn’t like to talk about it all the time, but it affected his behavior. He didn’t want to eat anything that would make him sick,” said Amber. “See? He was really careful about his health.”

  “And it doesn’t seem in his temperament that he would have chosen poison as the way to kill himself,” said Brie.

  “I wish you told me all this before,” Lydia said. “Then, I might have had something more concrete to tell the police.”

  “You rushed out of your office right away,” Amber pointed out. “Right when Daniel arrived. Is there something wrong? Troubles in paradise?”

  “No,” Lydia said, not wanting to go down this path with the woman who had tried to steal Daniel using a bachelor auction.

  “Can you tell the police about this now?” Brie asked, staying focused. “That Bill was making plans for the future and was careful about what he ingested, so poison is an unlikely method for him to choose.”

  Lydia shook her head. “I don’t think it will do much good now. They’ll think that we’re grasping at straws. They still believe that no one else could have set the fast-acting poison in Bill Vector’s glass except for him.”

  “But someone had to!” said Amber.

  “But the case won’t be reopened until we can find some evidence to support this,” said Lydia. “We’d need to prove that someone else was involved.”

  “How?” asked Amber, picking up another tissue.

  “I’ll have to figure out a way that someone could have done this. Have you seen his boat? Could someone have hidden aboard in the sleeping chambers and locked the door behind him?”

  “Not the lock the door part,” said Amber. “There was a chain lock in the sleeping chambers. That has to be set from the inside.”

  “So if Bill was the only one found inside, then Bill had to be the one to lock it.”

  “There are no secret compartments or trap doors on the boat if that’s what you mean,” Amber said. “It’s not big enough for all that. I used to tease Bill and say that he was a lawyer and he couldn’t afford a yacht. But he was just so happy when he got this boat. He was so excited to go on this fishing trip.”

  Lydia frowned. “My gut wants to side with you, but I don’t know how the poison could have been planted.”

  “Does that mean you’re giving up?” Amber asked.

  “No,” Lydia assured her. “It just means I have to think about this case for a while.”

  “This is hard for me to say… but thank you,” Amber managed to get out.

  However, then she started to cry again. Lydia wasn’t sure if this was because she had thanked her enemy or was thinking about Bill’s death.

  “Excuse me,” Amber said. “I need to fix my make up.”

  She left the table and scooted away. Brie looked after her sadly.

  “I should get her some waterproof mascara. She keeps crying it off.”

  “Unless she wants everyone to know that she had been crying,” said Lydia.

  Brie stared at her. “Do you think that you can really get to the bottom of this?”

  “I’m going to try. I think what you have both been telling me makes sense and I want to make sure that other possibilities aren’t overlooked. I wouldn’t want a killer to get away with murder.”

  Brie sighed. “If someone is overlooked, I hope it’s not because of how I dealt with Detective Grey. I would hate it if I affected his work. I am sorry about what I did.”

  “That’s probably something you should tell him someday.”

  “I will when I figure out a nice way to say it. The truth is that he always seemed so serious and rob
otic that I didn’t think his feelings would get hurt. I thought we would enjoy some meals together and I would start getting inside scoops for the paper. I thought he would like to say that he had a girlfriend, but I didn’t think he would really fall for me. I guess I’m more charming than I realized.”