Quill explained, downplaying the chest-pounding to a few brotherly taps.
'I'm going to see him. I've got a couple of questions for him myself. I'll be a half-hour or so. Will you be here? I want to talk to you.'
'I want to talk to you, too,' Quill said glibly, 'but I have a few things to do today in the village. Can we meet for an early dinner?'
'Let me rephrase my request,' said Myles cordially. 'I will see you here in half an hour. Consider it a date, Sarah. The official kind.'
'Oh.' Quill pulled her lower lip. 'Does this mean you won't tell me the results of the autopsy on Mavis?'
'Sure, I'll tell you the results of the autopsy on Mavis. The media already has the results of the autopsy on Mavis because some damn fool at the morgue leaked the results. So you can hear it from me, or you can wait for the six o'clock news. Take your pick.'
'I'd rather hear even the weather report from you than some boring old reporter,' said Quill earnestly, 'or even the price of hogs, or arrivals and departures at La Guardia. The sound of your voice alone sends...'
'You do want to drive me to an early grave,' said Myles. Quill wondered if the noise he was making really came from grinding his teeth, as she thought it might. 'Mavis had ingested a large amount of alcohol an hour or two before her death. But the amount of alcohol wasn't sufficient to cause a blackout; she also took ten milligrams of Valium about eight o'clock that morning. The Valium and the alcohol weren't sufficient to cause unconsciousness, either.'
Quill wondered for a wild moment if the Scotch Bonnet pepper had made her pass out. 'She had either taken - or someone had given her - five grains of Seconal, probably in a drink twenty minutes or so before she went on as Clarissa Martin. There was so much junk in her system, it's hard for me to believe that she didn't drown in the ducking pool.
'Seconal,' said Myles, 'means we can prove premeditation.' He looked at her grimly. 'You stay here. I'll be back after I talk to Baumer.'
Baumer had been drinking with Mavis just before she went on. Quill caught her breath. 'Why don't I come up with you?' said Quill. 'We can give him the old one-two.'
'No.'
'Won't you need a witness?' asked Quill. 'You know, in case Baumer tells you one thing in private and then lies to you later?'
'No.'
'But, Myles, Baumer was with Mavis the whole morning before the play. He ate breakfast with her. He showed up at the play with her.'
'And Baumer came down to the station at noon to put up bail for his wife,' said Myles. 'He was at the station until well after two-thirty. He left to walk down to the Pavilion - a twenty-minute walk from the station, Quill - and I saw him leave.'
'But he could have gotten a lift and gotten there early.'
'Mavis hadn't had any beer; four or five mint juleps, judging from the stomach contents, and only beer is served at History Days. You know the ordinance. She must have gotten them from a private source, or a bar. Baumer wasn't carrying a Thermos when he left the station.'
So Nate would know who she'd been drinking with.
'So Nate will know who she'd been drinking with, since the Croh Bar sure as hell doesn't make mint juleps. Quill, you are not to question Nate. Do you understand me? I love you. I will also put you in jail for obstruction of a criminal investigation.'
' 'Oh God of love, and God of reason sa-a-a-y,'' sang Quill, ' 'which of you twain shall my poor heart obey?' '
Myles grinned. A reluctant, very small grin, but a grin nonetheless. 'Stick to the contralto roles. Your voice cracks on the B flat. Gilbert, not to say Sullivan, would spin in his grave.' Quill bobbed a mock curtsy. She watched Myles jog upstairs to beard Baumer in his den, then went into her office to place a call to Nate.
'Nope, sorry, boss,' he said. 'Bar was busy at one, but I remember the damn mint juleps. I didn't make any on Sunday.'
'Was Kathleen waiting tables? She sometimes makes up orders when we're busy.'
'Nope. Two of the kids from Cornell were on the early shift. And I don't let them behind my bar.'
Quill hung up the phone and pulled out a pad of paper.
She wrote: 'Bolt. Must find.'
Then she wrote: 'Seconal: Who has?'
Followed by: 'Follow the money!'
Then: 'More matchbooks?'
And last: 'Mint juleps: Who can make?' Then she drew a chart.
DUCK POND OPPORTUNITY MOTIVE
Marge Yes, if she and Mavis Set up before
were together hand to get Mavis?
Tom Peterson Yes Business/tainted meat?
Baumer Yes Mavis blackmailing
