“He confirmed that Norma recently needed an extra refill of her digoxin prescription. It seems Norma somehow misplaced a nearly full bottle. She searched the castle from top to bottom but couldn’t find it anywhere, she told him. Since Norma’s health insurer would only cover one refill per month, the extra one had to come out of her own pocket. So she was real mad at herself. That’s why Tom remembered it-because Norma was so mad at herself.”
Jory let out a soft laugh. “I’ll bet she was. Norma hated wasting so much as a nickel. Why are you telling me this, Des?”
“Because I’m almost positive that’s how Norma was killed-by an overdose of digoxin dissolved in her late-night cocoa. And because, according to Tom, Norma requested this extra refill a full two weeks ago, Jory. That lets out all of the folks who came here for Ada’s tribute. Whoever drugged Norma is someone who is here all of the time. Either you or Les, in other words. It had to be one of you, since I don’t peg Jase as any master schemer.”
Jory said nothing to this. Just sat there, her pink hands folded before her on the table. At her right elbow was the cutting board with the hunks of ham and cheese on it.
“It took me a good long while to arrive at you, if that’s any consolation.” Des studied her from across the table. Jory Hearn did not look at all like a bad girl. She was pretty in a wholesome sort of way, hardworking, capable, agreeable. The truth seemed almost impossible to believe. But Des did believe it. “Mostly, I couldn’t figure your motive,” she went on. “I kept thinking Aaron and Hannah must have cooked up the whole thing. He’s the one with the huge financial upside. She’s the one whose mom is a nurse. That girl knows her first aid-I figured her for the digoxin idea. It all played. Until Les got himself murdered, that is. Then my attention shifted to him and Teddy. Teddy’s strapped for money, as was Les, and Norma had provided for both of them in her will. Being her executor, Les knew all about that. I started thinking that maybe he and Teddy murdered her together, then had themselves a falling-out over Ada. Teddy did appear to have the best opportunity for killing Les. He was downstairs playing the piano when Les and Mitch were out in the woodshed. The rest of you were locked up tight, or so I thought. And Teddy did mention to me that he’d once given Norma a tape of himself playing “More Than You Know.” What if he’d slipped that tape of his into the battery-powered sound system in the dining hall and cranked it up good and loud? I’d be sitting there in the upstairs hallway thinking he was in the Sunset Lounge, playing, when he was actually outside murdering Les. It was plausible. Of course, once I found out about the trapdoors, I realized it could have been any of you. And now that we’ve spoken to Tom Maynard, everyone else is off the hook. Like I said, they weren’t here two weeks ago when you stole Norma’s pills. And that’s where you blew it, girl.”
Jory remained stubbornly silent. She wasn’t giving an inch.
So Des kept going. “I’m figuring you pretty much had to play it the way you did. You couldn’t sneak a few capsules out of the bottle, here and there, because Norma would come up short at the end of the month and notice it. You had to make it look as if she’d misplaced an entire bottle. Also, in fairness to you, you had no way of knowing at the time that you’d need to cover your tracks by killing Ada. The old lady wrecked your whole scheme, didn’t she? You would have gotten away with it if it hadn’t been for her. I certainly bought that Norma died of natural causes. Her doctor would have verified that she had a serious heart condition. The medical examiner would have likely forgone the autopsy. It was all working for you, Jory. Until you went and killed Ada. That meant we had to take a fresh hard look at Norma. That also meant Les had to die because…” Des paused, shoving her heavy horn-rimmed glasses up her nose. “Actually, this part I still don’t get. Was Les going to pin it all on you, is that it?”
Jory lowered her eyes, gazing down at her hands folded there on the table. Slowly, her gaze inched over toward the cutting board at her elbow. And to the carving knife that lay there. It was very long and very sharp.
Des watched Jory’s eyes carefully. Also her hands. Her own hands were stuffed in the pockets of her coat. “The time for kidding ourselves is long past, Jory. Les is dead, you’re alive. That puts it all on you. So start talking. I repeat: Whose idea was it to put the digoxin in the cocoa-was it Les or was it you?”
“Des, I don’t know what you mean,” she responded finally, her hands edging fractionally closer to that knife. “Really, I don’t.”
“Sure you do.” Des shifted her SIG out of her pocket and into her lap. “But you’ve got to get off this story about Spence Sibley being the great love of your life. It’s sweet, but it’s also complete crap. You did rock his world last night. That part’s real. But the rest of it is straight out of a Harlequin Romance. You don’t feel any love for Spence, and we both know it. So show me some respect, Jory. I don’t think you’re a bad person. But something bad has happened here, and you were involved. You can’t get away with it. That’s not going to happen. So get out in front while you have the chance. Work with me. Trust me. If you do, I can help you. If you don’t, I can’t. And, by the way, you should know that my weapon is pointed right at you underneath this table. Move any closer to that carving knife and you’re dead.”
Jory’s froze, her eyes widening. “You’d shoot me?”
“Like a rabid raccoon.” Des reached over and snatched the knife away from Jory, then sat back, her SIG still trained on her under the table. “I actually felt sorry for you this morning, know that? I sat here at this very table listening to you sob about how Norma was like a mother to you, and I felt bad for you.”
“Hey, I feel bad for me, too,” Jory said softly, her eyes puddling with tears. “You can’t imagine just how much I… wish I had… never…” She let out a huge, ragged sob, the tears spilling down her pink cheeks.
Des waited her out in patient silence. The tears often flowed at this point. They signified nothing. Nothing to do with sorrow or regret, that is. They were strictly about fear.
“God, I want to wake up from this nightmare,” Jory sniffled, swiping at her eyes with the back of her hand.
“So wake up and start talking.”
“It was all Les’s idea,” she began, her voice sounding flat and defeated. “He manipulated me, set me up, whatever you want to call it. And I fell for it all the way. I’m a bird-brained fool. I am so stupid.”
“Exactly how did Les set you up?”
“The bastard promised to marry me, that’s how.”
“You and he were lovers?”
“I wouldn’t call it love,” she said bitterly. “But I did lie to you just now about how he was always harassing me. He didn’t have to. I gave myself to him willingly. It was easy, really. All I had to do was close my eyes tight, grit my teeth and think about something, anything else. I let that man have me again and again and again. I… I helped him get rid of Norma, too. All because I believed his promises. I should have known better. I did know better. But I wanted to believe him. It’s all passing me by, Des. I’m closing in on thirty and I’m so miserable. I’m trapped in this place. I’m lonely. I’m poor. And I want more. I want a life for myself. The sad thing is, Les knew all of this. That’s what made me his perfect sucker. Can you understand that?”
“Keep talking. I’m listening.”
“He told me that when Norma died, this place would be all his. That he would inherit Astrid’s Castle. And he would marry me and we’d live happily ever after together. God, talk about a fairy tale. But I went for it. After living my whole life in that grubby caretaker’s cottage, stripping the soiled sheets off other people’s beds, swabbing out their toilets, smiling at them and smiling at them… Think of it, I would be running the castle. It would be my castle. And I wanted that, Des. Not only for me but for Jase.”