Chapter 23 #2
“Your way had more flair,” I said. “The dead bolt was the tricky part. It had to be drawn or Eleanor’s death would have first been considered a homicide, and the prime suspect would have been Kim, especially since it was her mother’s drugs in Eleanor’s system.
And her desired relationship with Zion would have come out as well. ”
“But that’s not what Mildred wanted,” Ida Belle said.
I shook my head. “I’m sure Mildred is happy for Kim to have some problems to sort because it might teach her a valuable lesson, but it was Zion that Mildred wanted the police focused on.
She was certain he was shady and that Eleanor wasn’t his first and wouldn’t be his last victim.
She wanted justice for her mother and Jasper but also to prevent Zion from taking advantage of another vulnerable woman. ”
Ida Belle shook her head. “I can’t believe she took all that risk. I get why but it’s such a huge gamble.”
“I’m still confused,” Gertie said. “Kim wasn’t missing her pills until that day, so how did Mildred lift them and use them to drug Eleanor that day but manage to get them into Zion’s cabin afterward?
There were eyes on Mildred all day long, and Zion probably didn’t leave his retreat after he heard about Eleanor’s death. Oh! Jasper.”
“That would be my guess. He was probably planting the drugs in Sapphire’s nightstand at the same time Zion was teaching the class at Eleanor’s retreat.”
“And Sapphire had followed him,” Ida Belle said. “So their place was empty.”
I nodded.
“Genius,” Ida Belle said. “And diabolical.”
“Are you going to tell Carter?” Gertie asked.
“Tell him what? A bunch of suspicions that I don’t have any evidence to prove? That would just put a dark cloud above him that he had to carry around and couldn’t do anything about. I don’t want that for him.”
“You have to carry it around,” Ida Belle said.
I shrugged. “I’m not as invested in the justice system as Carter.”
“You really don’t have a problem with what Mildred did?” Gertie asked.
I thought about this for a moment.
“Ultimately, I don’t think that I do. I might have until I heard that Eleanor had already tried to poison Mildred.
She wasn’t going to stop until she had no resistance and all the money.
She’d already killed her own mother and tried to kill her husband—in fact, thought she had.
Even if the lab had gotten back to Jasper, they still couldn’t have proved Eleanor was the one poisoning her mother.
They’d have had to put cameras in the house, hoping to catch her dosing Dora’s food or drink.
If they’d brought the lab report to the cops, Eleanor would have been just as likely to accuse Jasper of doing it. And who would they believe?”
“And with Jasper dead,” Ida Belle said, “if any questions were ever raised about Dora’s death, then it would be easy to shift all the blame to him. I wonder if Eleanor sensed Jasper was onto her and that’s why she moved on him first.”
“It’s all downright evil,” Gertie said. “And Eleanor would have gotten away with all of it if Mildred hadn’t set her up.
I guess you’re right. There’s no point in telling anyone else your theory, although I believe it’s dead-on.
It won’t change anything, and the last thing I want is to see Jasper and Mildred suffer more than they already have. ”
“If the cops could have built a successful case against Eleanor for Dora’s death and Jasper’s attempted murder, it’s highly possible she would have gotten the death penalty,” Ida Belle said. “Maybe that factored into Mildred’s decision.”
“Maybe,” I agreed. “Either way, they have to live with it. And despite appearing happy, I could see the burden of what they’d done weighed on them. Maybe that’s enough.”
I was back in my hammock when Carter got home. He headed out back, plopped into the lawn chair, and gave me a long searching look.
“How was the trip?”
“Productive.”
“Did you find out what you wanted to know?”
“Yes.”
He nodded. “Are you satisfied now?”
“I think so.”
He raised one eyebrow. “Anything you want to tell me?”
Yes was what I wanted to say because I hated keeping something this big from him.
But at the same time, it wasn’t fair to put the burden of that knowledge on him when there was nothing he could do.
Even if by some miracle, Carter could scrape enough evidence together to get the ADA to pursue a case, I had no doubt that when they went to look for Mildred and Jasper in Costa Rica, they’d be long gone.
They’d probably started packing the minute I left.
I rose from the hammock and leaned over to give him a kiss. “I thawed some steaks.”
He smiled and pulled me down into his lap and wrapped his arms around me.
“Good. We can celebrate.”
“What are we celebrating?”
“Zion is up on sixteen charges across six states now, Calahan has been demoted back down to traffic cop, and Marie just had me review permits submitted for a production company. Apparently, they want to film a reality TV show in Sinful. Looks like it’s going to bring in quite a bit of revenue.”
“What kind of reality show?”
“I have no idea. But I bet Gertie tries to be in it, no matter what.”
I laughed. “I’m not taking that bet.”
Another Swamp Team 3 mystery coming this year!