Sweet Ginger Poison

“Sure.”

“Do you know Silvy Knox?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“She’s young, blonde—very attractive.”

“Oh.” She leaned in closer and whispered. “That might be the woman I saw in Bull’s office the other day. I knocked on his door and went in. He was in the middle of something, if you know what I mean. She was a beautiful young blonde. Waytoo young for him, if you ask me.”

“I see.”

“But please don’t tell anybody I said that. I need this job.”

“I won’t say a word.”

Chapter 24

Ginger left Bull’s and quickly walked around the corner to Cash & Carry Donuts. She went directly to Cash’s office. He was slumped over in his chair, obviously in great pain.

“Where is she?” said Ginger.

Cash could barely speak. “Who?”

“Silvy.”

He jumped up from his chair and hurried around the desk and out into the hallway, pointing to the back door as he ran into the bathroom. Judging by the sounds coming from the bathroom, he had not quite made it in time.

Ginger rushed out the back door, into the alley. She saw Silvy sitting in a Ford Ranger pickup, starting the engine.

Ginger ran over to the truck.

Silvy rolled down her window and smiled. “Good morning, Ginger. How are you today?”

“I’m fine. But I can’t say the same for Cash or Bull.”

“Yeah. Must be something that’s going around.”

“So, youhad nothing to do with it?”

“Well…” Silvy’s smile took on just a hint of evil. “Maybe a little bit. But they had it coming. They usedme.”

“So they deserve to die?”

“Die? It’s just a strong laxative. I put it in their coffee. It won’t kill them. But hopefully it will make them wishthey were dead.”

“What about Navy? What did you have against him?”

“I didn’t even knowNavy.”

“Maybe youdidn’t. But Molly Castorside did.”

Silvy’s smile disappeared.

“What did he do to you back in high school, Molly?”

Silvy reached for the gearshift.

“You’re just going to drive away? Come on, Molly, you know you want to get if off your chest.”

Silvy took her hand off the gearshift. “You can’t even imagine.”

“Then tell me,” said Ginger.

“My mom and I moved here the summer before my freshman year. There were only three new kids in high school that year. The other two were boys—basketball players. And they were pretty good. So kids accepted them as though they had lived here all their lives. I wasn’t so lucky.”

“They picked on you?” said Ginger.

“My hair was long and oily, and I had to wear stupid, ugly glasses. And a name like Castorside is just too easy to make fun of. Some guy called me Molly Castor Oil. The nickname stuck. I was suddenly the best known, most hideous girl in the whole high school. Even upper classmen began to recognize me in the hall and call me by name.”

“That’s awful. Kids can be so mean.”

“I started wondering what would happen if had a major makeover. Maybe then I could get rid of the nickname and people would start liking me. My mom took me to the eye doctor and got me some contacts, even though she couldn’t really afford it. Then she got my hair styled and taught me how to put on makeup.”

“Did it work?”

“Yeah—at first. I decided to try my new look at Navy’s graduation party. I wasn’t invited, but I thought if I looked pretty enough they would let me in anyway. I made up a name—I can’t even remember it now. And I couldn’t believe how nice everybody was—especially the guys. Nobody recognized me. And Navy really liked me. He took me up to his bedroom and—”

“—and rapedyou?”

“No. He didn’t make me do anything. I wanted it. And it was wonderful…being in his arms. He wanted me so badly. It made me feel good. But then later, one of the girls realized it was me and started telling everybody. They laughed at Navy for sleeping with Molly Castor Oil. Then he started making fun of me too. I ran out of there crying.”

Ginger shook her head.

“And that’s not all. Navy wouldn’t answer my calls. And when I went to his house they wouldn’t let me through the gate. He wanted nothing to do with me—even after I found out I was pregnant with his baby.”

“Oh, no.”

“Then I lost the baby. But I told Momma I could not go back to that school. We moved to Gilmer and she got a job working for a florist. I worked there too, part-time.”

“That’s how you knew about Castor plants.”

Silvy hesitated. “Yes.”

“And I guess that’s how you kept them alive in the winter. You had access to a greenhouse.”

“You’ve done your homework.”

“But why did you give Castor plants Cash and Bull? Were you planning to kill them?”

“Not really. But I figured they’d find out how dangerous the plants were after I’d gone, and realize how easily I could have poisoned them. Maybe they’ll think twice about how they treat women in the future.”

“But you didkill Navy.”

“It was easy. I knew about his allergy to shellfish. At his graduation party one of the kids brought crab dip. Navy’s mother freaked out when she thought he’d eaten some of it. She demanded to know where his Epi-Pens were. When he told her he only had one left, and that it was in the car, where he always kept it, she yelled at him for not having any in the house. This is life or death stuff, Navy. And one of these days your stupidity is gonna get you killed, she said.”

“So, you figured he still kept it in the car.”

“Yeah. I did it while he was delivering your recipe book to Cash. Once I had found the Epi-Pen in the glove compartment, all I had to do was inject the fish oil into the coffee cake.”

“And you knew if somebody else ate the cake, it wouldn’t hurt them.”

“Right. The worst thing that could have happened was some old lady at the nursing getting an extra-moist coffee cake.”

“And you figured the police would suspect Cash as the killer once they found out he had hired Navy steal my recipe book.”

“Yeah. But I never thought about Lacey getting the blame. I’ve got nothing against her. She was one of the few kids who didn’t make fun of me.”

“So, you moved here to Coreyville just to get even with Navy,” said Ginger. “Why did you wait all these years?”

“I wasn’t really waiting. I hadn’t plannedto do it. But then after my mother died…”

“I’m sorry. What happened to her?”