Pretty Poison

“What about this one?” Al asked the tape operator to stop. “What’s she doing over there anyway? Nobody needs to lean in that close.”

“We think she could be our suspect. Unfortunately, we can’t ID her. She came in and asked for change for a twenty. Notice she’s wearing gloves, so we can’t even get fingerprints from the twenty. Not that it would matter with that much money and that many prints without a comparison. If this is what she really looks like, she’s tall, long dark hair, slender build.”

Al looked at Peggy. “Could be Ms. Prinz.”

“What was your system of delivery on the poison in Charlotte?” The captain finished his phone call and questioned Al.

“We’re not sure yet. CSI is still working on it. Could be root beer for all we know. We do have a suspect who matches this woman on the tape.”

“Does she have some beef with Bank of America?” Ramsey asked.

“No. Her thing was the man.” Al’s face suddenly lit up. “We need to check out a few facts about this. If our suspect was responsible for Ms. Stone’s death as well, maybe they had something else in common.”

“Such as . . . the man?” Ramsey followed his thinking.

“Exactly.”

“Let’s take a look at Ms. Stone’s phone calls. See if she had any personal or professional contact with your victim.” Ramsey took out his cell phone. “What was his name again?”

“Mark Warner. He was a senior executive vice president in Charlotte.”

Peggy didn’t like the way the conversation had changed. She thought it was a mistake to consider the two poisonings as a conspiracy against the bank. But she knew it was a mistake to try to pin both of them on Keeley.

She had to admit the woman in the video looked like her assistant, at least from the back. She could only hope they couldn’t find any record of Keeley being in Columbia that day. Not that it would take much to make the police feel they had a case against her. Keeley’s confession had seen to that.

14

Carnation

Botanical: Dianthus caryophyllus

Family: Caryophyllaceae

The name comes from the Greek word di, meaning of Zeus, and anthos, meaning a flower. It was called dianthus by the Greek botanist Theopharastus, meaning divine flower. It is believed that carnations can tell fortunes. In Korea, three carnations are placed in a girl’s hair. If the bottom flower dies first, she will be miserable her entire life. If the top one dies first, her later years will be hard. Her younger years will be hard if the middle flower dies first.

THE NEWS HEADLINE in the Charlotte Observer on Monday morning told the city a judge had dismissed the charges against Joseph Cheever. He was released into his daughter’s custody. Local television news showed the father and daughter leaving the Mecklenburg County Jail hospital facility. Joe Cheever was in a wheelchair, said to be recovering from a stroke. His daughter was tearful and thanked the police for releasing her father.

Peggy watched on a small television set in the faculty lounge at Queens. She was glad for Mr. Cheever but apprehensive about Keeley. She knew the police from Columbia and Charlotte had worked through the weekend to prove her assistant murdered two people.

Obviously, the evidence wasn’t forthcoming. Or the police were taking their time, making sure they had the right person. It looked bad when they arrested someone only to find out it was the wrong person. They probably wouldn’t let it happen again in this case.

And that was why it was imperative she find out who really killed Mark and Molly. If she waited too long, the police would have a case difficult to dispute. She knew Al would do the best he could to find the truth. But the Charlotte police were desperate. Everyone from the mayor down was leaning on them. With the added involvement from South Carolina, they needed the right suspect fast.

By now, the police knew if there was a connection between the dead woman in Columbia and the dead man in Charlotte. Since they were still pursuing Keeley, she guessed they’d found one that involved her.

It wasn’t a large stretch of the imagination to link the two deaths. Once the method was discovered, just the fact that the dead woman worked for Bank of America made Peggy suspicious. Mark managed several affairs at once in his home office. It was possible he’d managed to conduct a few with women in other offices. The question for her seemed to be, why Molly? If Keeley or anyone else wanted to kill one of Mark’s women, why would it be Molly? The others were closer, simpler to kill.

Keeley called her early Sunday morning to tell her the police were searching the apartment she shared with another girl on campus. They confiscated every piece of glassware and two houseplants they found. Peggy advised her assistant to call Hunter Ollsen.

What needed to be done to create anemonin took equipment and specialized knowledge. Keeley didn’t have either. But who did? Besides herself, of course. She finished her blackberry tea and left the lounge to go to her classroom. She gave her freshman class a complex quiz requiring line drawings of plant parts. It took the entire hour and gave her plenty of time to think.

If she couldn’t find some clue that would lead to a search for a workplace or utensils to tie to the making of the poison, she was afraid the circumstantial evidence against Keeley could prove insurmountable.

The class bell rang, startling her from her thoughts. Unhappy faces piled papers on her desk as students grumbled while they left her class.