Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Natalie’s alarm went off, startling her out of what had been, she realized, a really good sleep. But even better than the fact she’s slept well last night was that she didn’t have to get up and go immediately to work on Lionel’s book.
The relief that the book was done and gone off to the printer gave her a surge of happiness again. So did the knowledge she had a solid hour to enjoy a morning cup of coffee before she had to unlock the shop door.
She stretched, inadvertently letting out a little sound of contentment. Now she knew how Mr. Darcy felt. She’d seen the cat do the same when he awoke from a good nap in the sun on the sill of the shop’s front window.
Next to her, Liam pulled her closer with one strong arm. “Mmm. You sound happy.”
“I am, now that we emailed that damn book off.” Reality began to creep in again, as it always did when the remnants of sleep dissipated. “But now I have to convince Lionel to start on the Mudville article. The mood he was in yesterday, that’s not going to be so easy.”
“He’ll get over it,” Liam grumbled.
“I don’t know. He looked…depressed, I guess, when I told him he hadn’t been murdered.”
Liam let out a snort. “He might be the only person alive—or dead—unhappy they hadn’t been murdered.”
“I just have to figure out a way to cheer him up. Then maybe he’ll be inspired to start writing again.”
“I have an idea. How about you and he go through all those damn boxes we brought home from New Haven so we can get them the hell out of my lab?”
“Grump.”
“Call me a grump all you want but when I start charging you a storage fee, don’t complain.”
“Hey. I’m your girlfriend.”
“You are. Lionel is not.” With a sigh, Liam pressed a kiss to the top of her head, untangled himself from Natalie and the sheets and stood. “Speaking of my lab, I have to get moving. Will you make the coffee so I can jump in the shower?”
“Yes.” She pouted.
She’d been hoping Liam would have offered to make the coffee. No such luck.
But to be fair, he had a point about the boxes. They’d filled up the entire storage room of his lab with Lionel’s stuff.
It wasn’t a bad idea to go through it today as a distraction for Lionel. And maybe seeing all his old research would inspire him to jump into the Mudville project.
Jules was coming in to work that afternoon. When she arrived Natalie would take Lionel over to the lab and they’d get started.
With that plan in mind, and a coffee craving she needed to satisfy, Natalie got up and started her day with renewed energy and enthusiasm.
That energy and enthusiasm lasted through roughly half of the first box. Lionel was as nit-picky about his things as he was about his book. And with so many more boxes to unpack, Natalie’s energy was starting to flag.
The Keep pile was exponentially larger than the Toss pile, which didn’t bode well for Liam ever getting his storage room back. They needed a new plan.
“How about we move on to this box next?” she suggested, eyeing the box she remembered dumping all the bottles of vitamins in.
“Fine,” Lionel agreed, arms crossed. He had the distinct demeanor that said it didn’t matter what box they opened next, he wasn’t changing his mind.
They’d have to see about that. These were open, partially used bottles of over-the-counter vitamins, for goodness sake. Lionel couldn’t possibly want to keep all those. And maybe once he got over the hurdle of parting with some of his things, the rest would be easier to let go of.
Isn’t that what those organizational gurus did with the hoarders on television? They started small with non-emotional decisions. Items that didn’t mean anything to the person. Then they moved up to the harder choices.
She moved toward the box, but as she pulled open the flaps, a memory crept into her mind. Liam saying something about wanting to record what Lionel had been taking, to keep for his files. Crap.
“Liam!” she yelled toward the open door to the lab.
A moment later he appeared in the doorway. “You bellowed, dear?”
She narrowed her eyes at his attitude. “We’re starting on the box with the kitchen stuff. Did you want to write down what vitamins he was taking for your research study?”
“Yes. Actually, I did.” Liam nodded.
“Really? Well, I must say that is an intelligent decision,” Lionel said, sounding impressed for the first time when it came to Liam or his research.
“There should be a study into how a man as health conscious as myself could suddenly die of a heart attack. In fact, this could be the basis of a class action lawsuit. Perhaps these vitamins were fake. I knew I shouldn’t let my TA talk me into ordering them online for less money. ”
Liam returned to the room with a pen and clipboard and stopped just inside the doorway. “Where is he? I don’t want to walk through him.”
“And I do appreciate that. Thank you.” Lionel nodded.
“He’s behind the box. You’re good,” Natalie said looking at the box and realizing exactly how many bottles it contained. “Hey, do you think all these vitamins really do anything?” she asked Liam.
Liam tipped his head. “Depends. In some cases, some can, to a certain extent. But mostly you’re just going to pee most of it out.”
Lionel made a face showing his distaste regarding this conversation. It could have been in reaction to Liam’s mention of urine or his less than glowing opinion of vitamins. Possibly both.
“I have to disagree. As I told you, I was extremely healthy. Surely some of that can be attributed to my regimen of supplements.”
“Lionel disagrees,” Natalie said as she reached inside and grabbed a prescription bottle. She handed it to Liam so he could record the medication and dosage on his growing list.
“Of course he does,” Liam said, focus remaining on the pill bottle and his clipboard.
“I also walked every day and I made it a point of eating lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.” When Natalie didn’t pass along his comment, Lionel said with a glare. “Miss Chase. Please tell him what I said.”
She handed Liam the next prescription bottle and said, “He wants you to know he also walked and ate lots of vegetable.”
“And fresh fruit,” Lionel prompted.
“And fresh fruit,” she added with an eye roll.
That brought Liam’s head up but he didn’t look at her. He focused on a spot off in the corner of the room, before glancing back at his clipboard, then at the vitamins still inside the box.
Finally, Liam looked at Natalie. “Ask him if he eats bananas.”
“I love bananas,” Lionel answered. “I eat at least one every day.”
“Again, Liam. The ghosts can hear you. And yes. He eats them every day.”
“Potassium,” Liam breathed, more to himself than to them. He glanced around the room. Focusing on a spot nowhere near where Lionel stood, Liam asked, “Lionel, do you take potassium supplements?”
“No. The paperwork that comes with my two prescription pills specified not to take potassium with them. Apparently it interacts badly with the medications. And I’m over here,” Lionel said with an attitude.
“No,” Natalie relayed simply.
Liam dropped the clipboard on a nearby box and bent over, pawing through the remaining bottles inside. Finally, he emerged with one of those day-of-the-week pill cases.
Liam opened one of the compartments and dumped the pills out on top of the clipboard. Excited over something, he whipped out his cell phone and began typing on the screen.
“What’s he doing?” Lionel asked.
“No clue,” Natalie answered.
Liam sucked in a sharp breath and turned to Natalie. “We’re going to need to call the New Haven police.”
She frowned. “What? Why?”
He had to be joking, right?
But there was no humor in his expression when Liam looked at her and said, “I think Lionel was murdered.”
“Finally. Thank you!” Lionel said with his hands in the air.
“How? Why do you think that?” Natalie asked trying to wrap her head around this new turn of events.
Liam’s excitement was palpable as he explained, “There are two different high dosage potassium pills in every day of his daily pill case, but no bottles of potassium supplements in the box, and he said he wasn’t taking it.
Lionel was killed by a potassium overdose. That is what caused his heart attack.”
“How do you know?” she asked.
“All pills are marked with a unique code to identify them. I looked up the codes online.”
“Who could have done this?” Natalie asked, still shocked.
“Who had access to his pills? That’s your answer,” Liam said. “And that’s the murderer.”