Death Drops Page 23

  Burning Gut

  Dear Burning Gut,

  As you’ve noticed, heartburn is aggravated by certain foods, especially those with a high fat or acid content. So you’ll want to avoid them. But herbs like dandelion can ease digestion as well, along with probiotics, which populate the intestinal tract with friendly bacteria. Probiotic “pearls” work best, because they dissolve in the gut, where the friendly bacteria are needed, not the stomach.

  Signed,

  Willow McQuade, ND

  I woke up a few hours later. Although Jackson lay on his back and slept soundly, a thought niggled at the back of my mind, keeping me from sleeping. I’d forgotten something. Something important. I pulled on my robe, slid out of bed, and headed downstairs, with Qigong trailing after me. In the office I flicked on the light. But as I stepped in, my foot rolled on Qigong’s red ball and I hit the floor with an oomph! Qigong grabbed the ball and brought it to me. Play catch at 2 a.m.? Why not? But as I picked up the ball, something registered. I thought about our game of catch this afternoon and the fact that the ball had landed in the recycling bin. A light went on in my brain. Could it really be that simple?

  I hurried over to the desk and wakened the computer from its slumber; then I clicked on the desktop recycling bin. The computer chose this exact moment to run at the speed of a turtle, so I had time to think. If I was right, and I believed I was, Aunt Claire had left the formula in plain sight for someone who had the intuition to find it. I felt a warm swelling in my chest as I suddenly knew she had trusted me to find her treasure. I waited as the seconds ticked by, and finally, the application opened. At first I felt discouraged, because the bin contained more than 250 items. But I knew what would help to show me the way. Before I started, I lit a lavender candle, Claire’s favorite scent.

  I sat quietly for a moment to center myself, and then I began scrolling through the folder. I found discarded documents and e-mails, all of which I checked but which yielded nothing. Finally, I spotted it at the bottom of the bin, a file named “Fresh Face Formula Final,” dated Friday, June 10, the day of her death. I sucked in a breath. Leave it to Aunt Claire to put her back-up copy in the most unlikely of places. But knowing her and how her mind worked, I realized it had been the safest place to put it.

  I clicked it open as my heart thudded in my chest and quickly scanned the document. Yes, this was it. There was an introduction by Claire, and then the list of ingredients and how it was to be manufactured.

  Wanting to know more about the development process, because I thought it might give me a clue as to who had killed Claire, I saved it to the desktop, activated Track Changes, and set the document in the Original Showing Markup view. This meant I could see all the comments and suggestions from the development executive, Randy McCarty, and there were plenty. The development process had indeed been tortuous and time consuming, covering everything from the consistency of the cream to its scent.

  Next, I turned my attention to the ingredients, hoping to find a clue there. These included organic shea butter, sunflower oil, sesame oil, beeswax, willow bark extract, rosemary extract, borage oil, and not surprisingly, lavender oil. I’d seen several of these ingredients recently, and all in one place, but where? Then I remembered.

  “This is crazy,” I said as I slowly pulled into the parking lot of Helen’s Organics. “You’ve just been shot.” I flipped on the wipers as raindrops pelted the windshield.

  “What’s crazy is you thinking I was going to let you come out here by yourself,” Jackson said. Qigong, who sat on Jackson’s lap, remained neutral. “Now that we’re here, what do you want to do?”

  “Go into that greenhouse and see if the formula ingredients match the ingredients she has. I have a hunch it just might.”

  “I’m not trying to rain on your parade, so to speak, but would that really be so unusual? I mean, this is an herb farm, Willow. Helen also has admitted that she worked with Claire on the formula.”

  “That was months ago,” I said.

  “I know you want answers, Willow, but I think you’re grasping at straws.”

  “There is organic beeswax in the formula,” I said. “I noticed new beehives when I came here to pay her, and I saw on the honey labels that it was certified organic.”

  Jackson shrugged. “Maybe she likes honey.”

  “No, she told me she just installed them. That was after the formula was stolen. She must have realized that she would need organic beeswax, so she set up the hives.”

  “So she likes really healthy honey.”

  I stuck my tongue out at him. “That isn’t helping.”

  “I’m just saying.” Jackson shrugged.

  “Okay, but there were other unusual ingredients on that list, like lady’s mantle leaf extract and plantain leaf extract. People don’t just have that stuff lying around. There’s no call for it. You have it only if you need it specifically to make something. I just have to check it out.” I got out of the car and immediately wished I had brought a jacket. It was raining harder now. Jackson got out with Qigong and followed me.

  When I’d visited before, Helen had been in the third greenhouse, and the hives had been directly across from it, so I headed in that direction. The farmhouse on the hill was dark. The moon was hidden behind a cloud, so we used flashlights to pick our way along the path and then entered the greenhouse. As we did, I turned and pointed my flashlight at the hives. Jackson nodded.

  Wiping the rain off my face, I went to the spot where Helen had been working and shone the flashlight on the row of bottles on the potting table. The rain thundered on the roof. I pulled out the list and handed it to Jackson. “I’ll read them off and you see if they’re included on the list of ingredients.” I pulled a pen out of my pocket and handed it to him. “If they are, check them off, okay?”

  “Got it,” Jackson said. “Let’s do this.”

  I picked up the first bottle, which was lavender oil, and read the label.

  “So far, so good.” Jackson checked it off.

  “Plantain oil,” I said.

  Jackson ran his finger down the list. “Check.”

  I picked up the next two bottles. “Willow bark extract and borage oil.”

  “Yes,” Jackson said, marking it on the list.

  I rattled off the next dozen bottles, everything from sunflower oil to peppermint extract, and they were all there, every one.

  “We just need lady’s mantle leaf extract,” Jackson said.

  I picked up the last bottle and smiled. “Lady’s mantle leaf extract.”

  “Spot on,” Jackson said, putting the list in his pocket and pulling me into a hug. “Congratulations. I’m proud of you.”

  It felt good to be right. I beamed at him. “Helen stole Aunt Claire’s formula for Fresh Face and was testing it here. We got her.”

  Suddenly, the overhead lights came on. “Not so fast,” Helen said, entering the greenhouse with a shotgun under her arm. “Hands up, you two.”

  Jackson and I put our hands in the air. “Helen, we don’t want any trouble,” I said. “Tell me what happened. I just want the truth. We don’t have to involve the police.” This was a lie but I needed to get her talking.

  Helen came over to the worktable and picked up one of the bottles. “I told you what happened. I helped Claire until she decided she no longer needed me. And you know, that made me really mad. So I formulated a plan to take back what was mine. This formula,” she said, pulling a piece of paper out of her jeans pocket, “will be worth a fortune to the right company.”

  “I can’t let you do that,” I said. “That was Aunt Claire’s life’s work!”

  She motioned the shotgun toward us. “I don’t think you have much choice. As you can see, I’ve got all the ingredients here to make the formula a success. It wasn’t easy assembling all of them, but I did. I’m just putting the finishing touches on it now. A prospective buyer is flying in from Japan tomorrow to meet with me. We’re talking serious bucks.” She motioned around the greenho
use. “With what he’s paying me, I’ll be able to sell all this and move to Hawaii. I’ll be living a life of leisure after over thirty years of tending this farm, first for my old man, then to put my kids through school.” She took a few steps toward the door and yelled, “Stephen! They’re in here!”

  Stephen, my erstwhile assistant and Helen’s nephew, ran in. “Hey, boss,” he said, giving me a sly and knowing look.

  Qigong, recognizing Stephen, started barking. “Shut up,” Helen said, and pointed the gun at him.

  “No!” I yelled. “Qigong, come here.” He came over to me and crawled between my legs.

  Helen handed Stephen the gun. “My nephew Stephen is quite a good shot, as you know, Mr. Spade.”

  “You shot me?” Jackson said to Stephen.

  “It was easy,” Stephen said, sounding cocky. “I went on the bread run, got the gun from my car, and bang. Done. You went down like a sack of potatoes.”

  Jackson’s face clenched in anger. “You little bastard.”

  “So you killed Aunt Claire,” I said, also simmering with anger.

  “Oh, no, Aunt Helen did that.” Stephen smiled, keeping the gun trained on us.

  Helen moved over to the potting table and pulled out a bottle of flower essences like the one Aunt Claire had taken. “It was easy. I went to visit her, supposedly to make amends. When she stepped out of the office to attend to a customer, I switched the bottles. You know what happened next.”

  I lunged for her. “You heartless bitch!” The rain pounded on the roof of the greenhouse, and thunder rumbled in the distance.

  Stephen pointed the shotgun at my chest. “You don’t want to do that. Tell her, Spade.”

  “Everybody just take it easy,” Jackson said, giving me a look I couldn’t interpret.

  I tried to process what was happening. “So who broke into the shop? You, Stephen?”

  “Nichols did that. I hired him, told him to do lawn work to get close to Claire, and then killed him when he was no longer useful. Then you hired me and I had the inside track. Kept us one step ahead.”

  “And the sabotage? The brick with the note, the AC, and that fish? You stole the money from the cash register and slashed the tires, too? Was it you who tried to run me off the road? Was it all you two?”

  “I handled the sabotage,” Stephen said, sounding proud. “And both of us slashed the tires on your van.”

  “But why? Just to make trouble?”

  “I’d heard Gavin talking about doing stuff like that to run you out of business, and it just seemed like a good way to keep you on your toes and off the trail of Claire’s murderer.”

  “So who was in the truck?”

  He pointed at Helen. “That was my dear, sweet auntie.”

  “You’re not going to get away with this,” I said, feeling powerless in spite of my words.

  “I believe we will.” He swung the gun toward us again and smirked. “We’ll go out back and do some digging. No one will ever look for you there.”

  I hesitated, but Stephen came up behind me and nudged me with the shotgun and we all started walking toward the open door of the greenhouse, Stephen and Helen a few paces behind us. Outside, the rain continued unabated, making the ground a muddy mess. Ahead were the beehives and, beyond that, the fields that stretched all the way to the Sound, where I was sure Stephen planned to dispose of our bodies. I shivered with fear. But Jackson had a look of fierce determination on his face. When we got near the door, he whispered to me, “Get ready.”

  “Hey, no talking,” Stephen said, gesturing with the shotgun. “Move.”

  We went through the door together, and in the split second before Stephen followed, Jackson pushed me out of the way.

  “Go!” he said as I hit the wet ground with a crash. I rolled onto my sprained left arm and groaned in pain. But I was out of the line of fire.

  “What the hell?” Stephen stepped through the door and Jackson tackled him to the ground. The gun skittered across the slick ground and lodged underneath a tractor.

  Helen lunged for the gun, but I knocked her down and pushed her face into the mud. “How’s that for a natural remedy? Mud is great for the skin.” She sputtered, but I kept a firm hold on her.

  Stephen and Jackson wrestled on the ground for a few moments before Jackson got the upper hand and punched Stephen in the face. He went down only momentarily. Jackson reached for a large yellow flowerpot on the ground and brought it down on Stephen’s skull. It split open and blood oozed out of his skull, bright red against his blond hair. Stephen groaned and staggered.

  Helen raised her head from the mud and cried, “Stop being such a wuss! Get the gun!”

  Blood running down his face, Stephen made a dash for the gun but didn’t get very far. Qigong grabbed onto the leg of his jeans and he toppled to the ground. Jackson staggered over toward the tractor and the gun, but after a few steps he fell, hard, onto the ground. I could see that the wound on his shoulder had opened. His T-shirt was now soaked with blood.

  I knew I had to get that gun. I rolled off Helen’s back at the same time Stephen managed to shake off Qigong, and we both raced toward the tractor. Scampering over the slick ground as fast as I could, I picked my steps carefully, not wanting to go down. But Stephen was right behind me. I had just reached the tractor when I heard a loud groan, and when I looked behind me, Stephen was on the ground with Jackson on top of him. Helen had pulled herself off the ground and was sprinting toward me, her face full of mud, looking like a crazy woman.

  “Get the gun, McQuade!” Jackson yelled.

  Helen slammed into me, ramming my injured left arm. It hurt, yes, but not enough to distract me. Using all my strength, I elbowed her out of the way, reached next to the wheel base, and plucked out the muddy shotgun, training it on her and Stephen. Rain streamed down my face, but I felt satisfied all the same. “Got it.” Jackson gave me a thumbs-up and Qigong barked, both in their own way saying well done.

  Once Koren and Coyle arrived at the scene, things moved pretty fast. After taking Helen and Stephen into custody, they confiscated the ingredients for the Fresh Face formula, and yes, they found cyanide in the greenhouse, too. Detective Koren was sure that testing would confirm that it was the same cyanide that he’d found in the vial in my office. All the evidence was there. Add that to my and Jackson’s eye-witness report and a conviction would stick.

  As soon as I could, I rushed Jackson to the ER. Yes, the doctor said, the wound had opened, but after he stitched it back up and gave Jackson more antibiotics, he said he was good to go. The doctor attending to me x-rayed my arm and told me it was not broken, but he replaced the muddy, ruined cast. When we checked out of the ER, the sun was rising over the bay.

  When we got home, I put a note on the door that we were closed, left messages for Merrily, Allie, Nick, my mother, and my sister, and the two of us crawled into Aunt Claire’s bed with Qigong, Ginger, and Ginkgo and slept until noon.

  When we woke up, feeling battered and bruised, and made our way downstairs, we were greeted by Merrily, Allie, and Hector, who of course wanted to know absolutely everything. During a scrummy breakfast, as Aunt Claire would say, of fresh fruit salad with melon, strawberries, kiwi fruit, and blueberries and whole wheat pancakes that Merrily had made, we told them the entire story.

  As we were finishing up, my cell phone rang. It was my sister, telling me that Mother had had her checkup yesterday and everything went well. I didn’t even know she was scheduled for one or I would have been there, but I let it go. “Thanks for letting me know.”

  “Oh, and Willow?”

  “Yes, Natasha?”

  “We got your message about last night. You were very brave to do what you did. Mother and I have talked, and we’ve decided that you were right about the whole situation with Aunt Claire’s death and your ownership of Nature’s Way. I’m sorry we doubted you.”

  Wow, an apology from my sister. This was a first. I decided to accept it. Who knew when it would happen again? “Than
ks, Nat, I appreciate it,” I replied as there was a knock on the shop door. “I’ve got to go now, okay?”

  “I’ll have you over for dinner next week. Wednesday? Put it on your calendar.”

  “Will do.” I ended the call. Whoever it was knocked again.

  Merrily looked at me. “But you put the sign up that says we’re closed.” She gulped down her energy drink. Her sugar addiction was something we’d have to work on, in baby steps. First, she needed to get off energy drinks and switch to soda or vitamin water made with Truvia, not sugar. To boost energy, I knew she’d benefit from a special sugar called ribose that had zero impact on blood glucose levels. That, along with a good vitamin powder to build up her immunity, ought to provide a good start.

  Whoever it was knocked a third time, jolting me out of my prescriptive thoughts. “I’ll get it,” I said, and went to the door. I looked through the panes and saw Simon. Oh, boy. I opened the door. “Simon? What can I do for you?”

  He pulled me into a hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I heard all about it. It’s big news in town.”

  I stepped away. “I couldn’t have done it without Jackson.”

  “Oh, right. Hey, man,” he said, and threw Jackson a wave. “Listen, I also wanted to tell you that I’m headed back to the left coast, but I’ll be back in August.” He motioned to himself and then to me. “To be continued,” he said, and left.

  I gave Jackson a look. “He’s a slow learner.”

  “I can teach him real good,” Jackson said, smiling. “Don’t worry about Simon.”

  I was about to close the door when Nick came in and also pulled me into a hug. “Thank God you’re okay.”

  I hugged him back. For the first time in over a week there was no smell of liquor on his breath.

  He looked at me with kind eyes. “I was sleeping and then at my meeting. My phone was off, but when I heard the news I came right over.”

  “Your meeting? You mean . . .”

  “You are looking at the newest member of AA. I did a meeting last night in Mattituck and one this morning. I’ve even got a sponsor.”

  I hugged him again. “That’s wonderful news.” I looked at Jackson, who nodded. “Come join us for breakfast.”