I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the cushion.
“Well,” I said, “aren’t you something. Take that box of letters, too. They ought to help your case.”
“Hey, you finally found something! How about that.” He slid off his stool and looked into the box.
I said, “I think that’s what Laura threatened him with. Vonette might have known about them too, but was too afraid or embarrassed to reveal what she knew. They both probably threatened him with exposure. In Aspen Meadow that would have been the kiss of death. Which it was for them.”
“Sort of like closing down a catering business?” he said with a smile. He stopped talking for a minute, shifted his weight on the stool. “Well, Miss Goldy, after all this, I ought to at least rate breakfast with you,” he said with a big clown grin. “Make that brunch. Soon’s I get some of the work on this done.” He eyed Pomeroy, who was finally removing the sooty beekeeper suit. Then he added, “I mean, since we never did get to finish our date.”
I looked at Tom Schulz.
I said, “You bet. Give me five minutes and you can take Arch and me home, out for breakfast when the sun comes up, whatever. Meanwhile, I need to have a little chat with the beekeeper. Outside.”
Pom gave me a rueful glance and said, “Let’s go.”
The two of us walked in silence down to the creek. Our feet swished through the grass. The clouds had left the night sky, but acrid smoke stench still hung in the air. Lights from the flashing fire trucks made Pomeroy’s tired face look like a statue in a city square at night.
I said, “You had a predator who raided one of your hives a couple of weeks ago. A skunk, maybe. That’s why you couldn’t bring me any more honey before the funeral, right?”
“Yes, a skunk. So what?”
“Arch didn’t forget the things he learned from you,” I went on. “He talked about those facts, even used them in his games. When a wizard trespasses a secret lair, he is attacked by a straight-flying line of stingrays. Just like bees. You have to approach danger from the side. Just like bees. When you have unwanted animals, you call the Division of Wildlife. Just like bees. In a game, when you have problems with giant water rats, you crack open a raw alligator egg and mix in chopped-up electric eel. Just like bees. Only with bees, when you have a skunk or rat or field mouse getting into the honey, you crack open an egg and mix the yolk with poison, right?”
“Yeah. So?”
“A poison called Just One Bite, right? That you just happen to keep on the shelves of your shed. Still right?”
Silence. Then he said, “That’s right.”
“And when a caterer turned cleaning lady tells you she’s going to be cleaning the club, you sneak over to look for the poisonous disinfectant, right?”
“Right.”
“But you make the mistake of bringing the club cleaning woman flowers in the hospital, and you call her ‘sweets’ at a party, both of which are remarkably like the bouquet and note you sent her after you first tried to poison Doctor Fritz Niebold Korman, right?”
“Goldy, I wasn’t trying to kill him,” he protested. “I wanted to, to terrify him, make him sweat. I wanted him to get real worried about dying.”
“Uh-huh. And you mention to your protege, the one who is so easy to talk to, who sounds just like a little adult, and who just happens to be my son, that Laura didn’t get along with Fritz and Vonette, and that furthermore, Fritz had no respect for human life. Right again?”
There was a long silence. Pom crossed his arms and stared at the black rushing creek.
He said, “After my wife had her abortion, she left. All I could think about was death. And of course, getting back at him for what he’d done. I know it’s not grounds for a malpractice suit. She did what she wanted. But nobody thought about me. It was my child, too, even if she was an alcoholic and the baby probably would have had problems. I wanted Korman to think about death for a while. I’m sorry if Arch took what I said too seriously.”
“It’s his grandfather we’re talking about.”
“I am really sorry. Revenge makes you a little crazy. I’m sorry about your business, too,” he said. In the moonlight I could see his furrowed brow, his earnest dark eyes. “That’s why I wanted to teach Patty Sue how to drive, so she could help you—”
“All because of your ex-wife’s abortion? I thought in Al-Anon you were supposed to learn how to take care of yourself. Let go of the addict in your life. I wish I’d figured out earlier what you were doing in that organization, instead of just working on Laura.” I paused. “Wake up and smell the coffee, Pom. You want to have children, get married and have them.”
We didn’t say anything. I crossed my arms. It was time to go.
I said, “You know what Newman says to Redford in
Pom turned away from me completely. He put his hands on his hips and stared at the creek. He cleared his throat. I let him have his silence.
“I’m ready,” he said after a moment. “The person I wanted to hurt is being punished. You don’t need to turn me in. I can do that myself.”
I touched his shoulder. He headed back to the cabin.
Later, although I could not say how much later, Tom Schulz was driving me out of the Aspen Meadow Wildlife Preserve in a police car. We bounced along the dirt road in silence. Despite all the excitement Arch had fallen asleep in the backseat within minutes.
The night was very still. Overhead, a sea of stars glittered. The moon was crossing to the west and the wind had died down. Or, I reflected, since it was near dawn and already All Saints’ Day, the wind like everything else had given up the ghost.
“Guess you’ll be getting back into the catering business,” Tom finally remarked.
“Guess so,” I replied, “since I don’t need to worry about people coming along and dumping strange chemicals into people’s drinks at my functions.”
“You know,” he said, “I had a feeling it was Pomeroy. Quiet people make me nervous.”
“How’d you figure that out?”
“I thought I saw him. Couldn’t be sure. It was right after you were talking real close to him, he bent over to put that net hat down and brought out the cleaner. Sometimes you don’t arrest someone right away, especially when Murder One and a bunch of other stuff are a possibility at the same time. Anyway,” he said with a self- satisfied smirk, “when you followed him I figured you knew he’d done it too, and that you could take as good care of him as I could.”
“I thought you didn’t want me to leave the party! Was that all an act?”
“Course it was. If Goldy’s the prime suspect, Pomeroy won’t try to bolt before I’ve got some evidence. Or a confession, thank you very much. You mind?”
“I can’t believe you! Pomeroy could have killed me!”
“Oh, I think you and Arch could’ve defended yourselves. It took three fire trucks and six smoke pots just to get the bees and Molotov cocktail under control.”
I smiled in spite of myself.
Tom Schulz turned onto the highway.
Funny thing, revenge.
Revenge against Fritz Korman was what had motivated Laura because of Bebe and Patty Sue, Vonette because of Laura and Bebe, Pomeroy because of his baby, Arch because of his teacher and his grandmother. Nor was I above reproach, with my hatred of John Richard Korman, the jerk I used to be married to.
Ahead the highway stretched like a smooth gray ribbon pulling us into the day when we remember the dead. To the west the mountain tops were fiery with dawn’s light. Schulz pointed to the pine trees, whose needles glowed silver.
Why do we remember the dead? I had asked my Sunday school class when we were studying All Saints’ Day. So we can let them go.
Tom Schulz pulled up in front of the Aspen Meadow pastry shop. The warm scent of cinnamon rolls wafted into the morning coolness. I was happy to be there, happy to be with Tom Schulz, happy, period.
He said, “I love this place. Let’s start with some rolls. Not as good as yours, of course.”
