what one party referred to as 'Devil worshippers.' '
'Oh, no!' said Quill, dismayed.
'You see my concern for the Inn,' said Mrs. Hallenbeck. 'I did not record the times of those departures. There were,' she said frankly, 'too many.
'You, Sarah, left the breakfast table at eight twenty-two. You stated you were headed for the prayer breakfast, and I had no reason to assume you were lying.'
'Thank you, ma'am,' said Quill. The sisters exchanged grins.
'I finished my breakfast and went to the, er, ladies room.' Mrs. Hallenbeck flushed slightly. 'When you drink as much hot water as I do, it is convenient to be near a WC. It is very good for the kidneys, however. I took up my post at nine-ten. At nine-eleven, three thugs came out of the lounge, followed by you, Quill, and Peter Williams. You didn't notice me, which led me to conclude that my choice of observation post was correct.'
'Willy Max and the Jerks for Jesus,' said Quill.
'The guests will be back,' said Meg. 'Just wait for the review from L'Aperitif.'
'You came back three and a half minutes later. You went into your office. Forty-five seconds after that, Keith Baumer crossed the landing upstairs and went down the hall. I got up to look to see who it was. He returned two and one-half minutes later. Seven minutes later, Doreen Muxworthy went into your office. Eleven minutes later, she left and went upstairs. Then, a young man named Harvey Bozzel knocked on your door and went in.'
Meg rolled her eyes at Quill and poured herself a cup of coffee.
Mrs. Hallenbeck primly took a sip of hot water, replaced the cup in the saucer, and took a delicate bite of seedcake. 'How am I doing so far?' She twinkled at Quill.
'Go on,' said Quill. 'I think you may have something here.'
'Four minutes later Doreen came downstairs, carrying something in a plastic bag. She went out the front door. About five and one-half minutes after that, the sheriff came in the front door and went upstairs. He was upstairs for about ten minutes. Then he came down and went into your office.'
'The bolt!' Meg cried, and took a triumphant gulp of coffee.
Quill yelled, 'The pills. Baumer planted the pills in John's room! We have proofl'
Meg howled, 'Jeez!' and spat the coffee into the sink.
'Good heavens!' said Mrs. Hallenbeck disapprovingly.
'What?' said Quill.
'Something miserable's in that damn coffee. Darn! I swallowed a slug of it, too. Yuck!'
'Sit down, Meg.' Quill pushed her sister anxiously onto a stool. 'I'm calling Andy Bishop.'
'Why?' Meg demanded.
'Why? There's that damn Baumer wandering around the Inn putting God knows what into things, that's why. He knows we're on to him, Meg. Do you feel all right?' Quill, dialing Andy's number on the kitchen phone, looked worriedly over her shoulder.
'I feel fine,' said Meg. She went to the espresso maker and looked critically at the coffee grounds. She held them to her nose and sniffed them, then poked them experimentally with one finger.
'Don't do that!' said Quill. 'You're messing with evidence.'
'Quill, if it'd been poison or something, I would have been dead by now, and I feel perfectly fine. Don't fuss!' She picked up the jug of spring water she used to make the coffee, unscrewed it, and sniffed the contents. 'I can't smell anything. Whatever it was, I didn't get enough of it to matter.'
A nurse-like voice put Quill on hold for several long minutes. Suddenly, Meg yawned.
'Andy?' said Quill into the phone. 'Could you get the ambulance over here? I think Meg's swallowed something. What? I don't know. Just a minute.'
Meg sat down on the stool. Her eyelids drooped. She yawned again, prodigiously.
Quill set the phone receiver on the counter and put her finger into the coffee grounds, then tasted them. She picked up the phone. 'Very alkaline. Very bitter. What?'
She heard the sound of a body falling. She whirled and shouted into the phone. 'Andy! Get here right away! She's passed out!'
-15-
Hair flatter than Quill had seen it, Meg lay prone in the hospital bed.
'I'm fine!' she insisted. 'I am just bloody fine and I want to get out of here!' Her voice was hoarse from the esophageal tube that had been stuck down her throat. An IV drip ran into her left forearm. Quill was convinced that as soon as Myles, Andy, and the nurse were out of the room, Meg would detach the IV and escape out the hospital window. The Hemlock Falls Community Hospital was small, a single-story building tucked modestly behind the high school. The sounds of an evening baseball game came through the open window; to get back to the Inn, Meg would have to cross the field. Quill had taken Meg's jogging clothes and put them in the car, doubting even her sister would have the nerve to stalk across the diamond in an open-backed hospital gown. But she wasn't absolutely sure.
'Just for observation. One night. That's all. Then you can bounce out of here in the morning,' said Andy Bishop.
'I didn't swallow enough of that stuff to kill a cat, much less an adult human being,' said Meg angrily.
'The mineral water had a four-grain solution of Seconal dissolved in it,' said Andy patiently. 'You don't weigh much more than one hundred pounds, Meg, and you were dehydrated from running. That's why you passed out, and
