Chapter 22
“I have a request,” Theodosia said the minute they were alone.
“That’s fairly presumptuous.” Tidwell didn’t sound happy.
“The halfway house? Yes, I’m aware of her previous affiliation.”
“The thing is,” Theodosia said, “they’ve got a couple of sketchy characters living there.”
“Surprise, surprise,” Tidwell said. “And you want me to investigate. In case one of them graduated with honors from petty crime and added kidnapping to their repertoire.”
“Something like that, yes.” Theodosia shifted from one foot to the other. “Will you do that?”
Tidwell held up a hand. “Please. I’m already on it.”
* * *
When Theodosia returned to the Indigo Tea Shop, Drayton gave her a questioning look and said, “Well, did you manage to avert another crisis?”
“Not even remotely,” Theodosia said. She quickly told Drayton about the missing Amber, the ransom call to Brody, and the go-round with Detective Tidwell.
Drayton listened closely, shook his head, and said, “Unbelievable. Isn’t this just the icing on the cake for the Van Courtland family?”
“They do seem like they’re accident-prone, though accident-prone probably isn’t exactly the right word for it.”
“Disaster-prone?” Drayton said. “Death-prone?”
“Please don’t even think that way. Amber may be a bit of a ditz but I’d never wish anything this awful on her head.”
“And Brody wants you to be the go-between? He wants you to handle the ransom money in exchange for Amber?”
“That’s what he said.”
“Surely you’re not going to do it,” Drayton said. “It’s got danger written all over it.”
“Yes, but if I can help get Amber back…”
Drayton looked horrified. “What if we don’t get you back?”
“I’d be super careful,” Theodosia said.
“No, you wouldn’t. You’re always the first one to rush in where angels fear to tread.”
“Drayton, I…” Theodosia stopped and heaved a deep sigh. “I don’t know what I should do. It feels like I should help, though Tidwell is dead set against my being any kind of intermediary in a ransom exchange.”
“Tidwell being the voice of reason,” Drayton said. “And thank goodness for that.”
“But if I could help get Amber back—then wouldn’t the risk be worth it?”
Drayton shook his head. “No.”
* * *
They finished up the afternoon, Theodosia still on edge, still silently weighing the pluses and minuses of helping Brody as they served tea and scones to their few remaining guests.
By four thirty the tea shop had emptied out and Drayton was ready to leave.
His shoulders sagged and his face looked visibly tired.
“Please take off,” Theodosia begged him. “Let me tidy up.”
“If you don’t mind, I think I will. It turned out to be a longer day than I thought it would.”
“After the hard knocks you took yesterday I’m in awe of your stamina,” Theodosia told him.
“I’m glad someone is,” Drayton said.
Drayton took off then, as did Haley, leaving Theodosia to putter around, putting things right for tomorrow.
Truth be told, she mostly enjoyed this time of day, when the sun spilled its final rays through the front windows and the tea room was redolent with lingering notes of cardamom, hibiscus, and tangy Sencha.
Theodosia was just about to turn out the lights when she got a call from Neela Carter.
“I know I’m not supposed to be doing this,” Neela said. She was whispering into the phone, sounding a little bit frantic.
“Neela, what?” Theodosia asked.
“I think there might be a problem here.”
Oh no, what happened now? “You mean at the Tangled Rose? Neela? What’s going on?”
“You know Mrs. Van Courtland’s sister, the one who’s staying here?”
“Veda Fisher? Yes, I just saw her an hour or so ago.”
“I’m pretty sure there’s something wrong with her.”
Theodosia felt a blip of fear. Something she was feeling a lot lately. “What do you mean, wrong?”
“I knocked on Mrs. Fisher’s door to tell her the dining room was open and she didn’t answer. But the thing is, when she returned here, she made a huge point of letting me know she wanted to eat early. So that’s why I think something is wrong.”
“You think she might be ill?”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“So you knocked on her door? Did you use a passkey to enter her room?”
“Well, no. But I know you’ve been involved with the Van Courtland family lately, so I was hoping you could come over and check on her.”
Theodosia thought for a few seconds and realized Veda might still be terribly upset by the kidnapping and ransom call. “Tell you what, I’ll be right there.”
* * *
Looking subdued and a little afraid, Neela met Theodosia in the lobby of the Tangled Rose.
“Thank you for coming,” she said.
“Veda’s in her suite?” Theodosia asked.
“As far as I know, but I still haven’t been able to rouse her. She doesn’t answer her door when I knock. And I knocked hard.”
“Maybe she stepped out?” Theodosia was trying to remain hopeful.
“And maybe something happened?” Neela said. “I mean, her sister was murdered here.”
And now Amber’s been kidnapped, Theodosia thought to herself. How very strange.
Instead of voicing her fears, she gave Neela a hopeful smile and said, “Let’s go see if we can rouse her.”
Veda Fisher was staying in the Primrose Suite on the second floor, so Theodosia and Neela hurried up the carpeted steps, then down a bright hallway with soft beige carpet and cream-colored walls dotted with floral motifs.
“Right here,” Neela said, stopping in front of the suite.
Theodosia rapped her knuckles hard against the door. “Veda,” she called out. “It’s Theodosia. Are you okay in there?”
When there was no answer, she rapped again. Nothing.
“You have a passkey?”
Neela nodded.
“Use it.”
Neela stuck the key in the lock and turned it with a click.
The door swung open revealing a queen-sized bed with a poufy pink duvet and matching pillows.
A small lamp on a white enamel bedside stand cast a warm glow of light.
The louvered closet doors stood open to reveal clothing hanging inside, so it was clear Veda hadn’t left unexpectedly.
“Maybe Mrs. Fisher really did step out,” Neela said as she glanced around the room.
“We better make sure.” Theodosia took two steps into the room, looked around, then spotted a small sitting room with a chintz love seat and wicker coffee table just to her left.
She started that way, then stopped dead in her tracks.
Because Veda Fisher was lying on the floor, tucked in close to the side of the bed where it would be hard to spot her.
“Dear Lord, she really is ill,” Theodosia cried. “Passed out. Or maybe she’s had a heart attack?”
“She’s not dead, is she?” Neela asked. She looked shaken. “I haven’t seen that many dead people, have you?”
Theodosia had seen her fair share, but that didn’t make her any kind of medical examiner. “She looks like she’s still breathing but we need to call 911 right away.”
Neela pulled out her cell phone and, with shaking hands, dialed.
Theodosia, meanwhile, was on her hands and knees, trying to determine what might have happened to Veda.
The woman was breathing and her eyes seemed to flutter occasionally.
But other than that she was passed out cold.
Maybe the stress of the kidnapping had gotten to her?
Thank goodness two paramedics arrived within a few minutes. One of them touched two fingers to Veda’s neck and said, “Her pulse is thready. We need to get her into the ambulance right away.”
“Is she breathing?” Neela asked.
“Her breath sounds are fairly good,” said the second paramedic, “but her skin feels cold and clammy.”
“What do you think happened?” Theodosia asked them.
There was a slight commotion behind them as two uniformed police officers pushed their way into the room. They nodded to Theodosia and Neela and watched as the paramedics gently lifted Veda and placed her on a gurney.
“She’s still breathing?” asked the older officer.
One of the paramedics nodded. “Yes, but we need to get a move on.”
The other officer, the younger one with curly red hair and cool Oliver Peoples glasses, said, “Don’t quote me on this, but I bet it was something that she ate.
Maybe…” He looked around, hesitated, then said, “I was thinking maybe the cookies from that gift basket?” He focused his gaze on Neela.
“Do you think your guest might have a peanut allergy?”
Theodosia looked at Veda lying on the gurney. And, for the first time, saw that Veda clutched a small half-eaten cookie in a hand that was half-hidden in the folds of her skirt. Then she noticed a small basket sitting on the coffee table in the sitting room.
“Did you leave that basket for her?” Theodosia asked Neela.
Neela looked like she was ready to cry. “We don’t do cookie baskets anymore. We switched to pralines on the pillow.”
“So that might have been…um…a tainted cookie?” Theodosia asked.
“Oh boy,” said the senior officer. “If this was deliberate, we need to call in a detective.”
“Never mind that,” Theodosia said. “I’m going to call Burt Tidwell myself.”
The red-haired officer smiled. “She’s calling the big guy? This oughta be good.”
When Theodosia got Tidwell on the line, she said, “You’re not going to believe this.”
“What?” Tidwell shouted into the phone.
“Do you remember Veda Fisher?”
“Mrs. Van Courtland’s sister. The one I just saw with Brody.”
“I think she’s been poisoned,” Theodosia said.
“What? Where?” Tidwell barked. “Is she dead?”
“No, thank goodness. And she’s over here at the Tangled Rose B and B.”
“I’ll be right there,” Tidwell said.
“Thank you,” Theodosia said.
“What’s going on?” came a sudden high-pitched screech. They all turned to find Payton Van Courtland, a look of pure horror on her face, as she stared after the gurney that was being wheeled away. “Dear Lord, was that Veda? Is she dead?”
“No, but Veda’s very sick,” Theodosia said. “It seems she ate something that didn’t agree with her.” She paused, then added, “You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
Payton’s face bloomed red with anger and her eyes practically crossed. “Are you serious? You think I had something to do with that?” She flung an arm in the direction of the gurney that was no longer there.
“It looks as if she’d been poisoned,” the older officer said.
Payton’s jaw worked back and forth, as if she was chewing on a piece of hard candy. Then she said, “You know what? I’ll bet it was one of those thugs from Honey Badger House, the place that Veda told me about. They probably killed Mrs. V and now they’re trying to kill her sister!”
“That would be kind of a strange coincidence, wouldn’t it?” Theodosia said. “That both women were targeted?”
“Very strange,” Neela said, while the red-haired officer nodded in agreement.
“Don’t you see?” Payton shrilled. “Someone’s trying to kill off my entire family!”
Theodosia, who suspected that Payton’s hysterics were mostly for show, said, “You know, they’re not exactly your family. They’re not blood relatives.”
“How dare you say that!” Payton snapped back.
“You married into the family, then got divorced. That puts you outside the family,” Theodosia said.
Payton acted as if she hadn’t heard Theodosia. She made a big show of plucking an imaginary piece of lint from her navy blazer and said, “I can see I’m definitely going to need police protection if I remain in Charleston. In fact, I’m going to demand it.”
“Excuse me, but did I hear a nasty rumor concerning drug-laced cookies?” came a booming voice behind them. Everyone turned to find Detective Burt Tidwell, huffing slightly from his jaunt up the stairs and looking more than a little put out.
“Thank you for coming,” Theodosia said.
“Officer…” Tidwell squinted at the red-haired officer’s name badge. “Officer Tate. Care to tell me what’s going on?”
Officer Tate did his best to bring Tidwell up to speed. When he’d finished, Tidwell said, “Doesn’t this just beat all. A poisoning on top of a kidnapping and all within a two-hour span. Lucky me.” He rolled his eyes skyward. “Am I going to get dinner this evening? No, I don’t believe so.”
“Neither am I,” Theodosia said. “But here we are, like it or not.”
“Wait,” Payton said. “A kidnapping?” She took a step back. “Who got kidnapped?”
So Theodosia and Tidwell had to patiently explain the situation concerning Amber, which put Payton into even more of a frenzy.
“This is crazy. No, this is insane!” she cried. Her face was growing puffy and red and her black hair seemed to frizz before their very eyes.
“Neela,” Theodosia said, “could you walk Payton downstairs and fix her a nice calming cup of tea? Some chamomile if you have it.”
“Absolutely,” Neela said. She took a stunned Payton by the arm and led her away.
“Officer Tate,” Tidwell said, “get Crime Scene on the horn and have them go over this room with a fine-tooth comb.”
“Right away, sir,” Officer Tate replied. He looked like he was enjoying himself. Fun to be at the scene of something big instead of just writing garden-variety speeding tickets.
Then Tidwell pulled Theodosia out into the hallway. “We need to talk,” he said.
“Sure,” she said. Tidwell looked even more serious than he had a few minutes earlier.
“You asked me to take a second look at the residents of Honey Badger House,” Tidwell said.
“Right,” Theodosia said.
“I was just over there with two of my investigators and we found some rather incriminating evidence.”
“What do you mean? Like what?”
“Stashed on the back porch, behind a stack of lawn chairs, was a butane torch.”
His words took Theodosia’s breath away. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m dead serious.”
“Do you think one of the Honey Badgers could have killed Mrs. Van Courtland?”
“It’s certainly possible.”
“But which one? And why?”
“We have three of their residents in custody right now, being interviewed.”
“You mean grilled?”
Tidwell offered a mild smile. “If that’s what it takes, then yes.”