Chapter 24

ANNIE

Frank stood up. “Phil was living here when he died. I need to collect evidence.”

“So his herbal formula is here!” Annie’s brain connected the dots.

Everyone looked at Frank. “Yes. Annie, you know what the formulas look like, right?”

“Of course.”

“You and Gabriel, glove and bootie up. I need to collect evidence, and you’re going to help me find the formula. We assume all of it is poisoned, so don’t take any risks. Treat it like poison.”

Lilly, Branwen, wait with Roselynn. Ambulance will be here soon.”

Frank opened the case and handed out gloves and shoe covers.

Annie watched her mom smooth the hair from Roselynn’s forehead, and take her pulse again;

Roselynn began opening her eyes. “I’m Lilly, you passed out a few minutes ago. Just lie back, an ambulance is coming to make sure you’re okay.” She held Roselynn’s hand in hers.

“My Phil…”

Annie could no longer watch the anguish of would be one of the most painful moments of the woman’s life. This was one of those moments that would reappear in nightmares, in quiet moments, spontaneously when reminded of Phil.

She pulled on her second glove with a snap. Frank walked in, making a video of Phil’s cottage before they all entered and moved things. She and Gabriel pulled on booties over their shoes and stepped inside the door.

Annie took in the cottage’s interior, light now coming in as Frank had raised another blind. A dark leather couch, a coffee table, and between the couch and matching chair was an antique tiny table.

As Annie leaned in to look at it, Gabriel said, “That’s a cigar humidor. Phil had stopped smoking, but this was a family heirloom, so he kept it.” Gabriel took a deep breath. “It even smells like Phil. He did an ad campaign for this cologne decades ago, and wore it every day since.”

In the kitchen, Annie turned to take in the space. A bar partially closed the area off from the living room, with cabinets, a small stove and sink looking out the backyard, and a ⅔ size refrigerator.

“What are we looking for?”

“Olivia packages herbal formulas in wax-lined paper bags with a fold-and-clip type closure and her logo stamped on the top. I can’t imagine Phil would bother repackaging them. Olivia’s records say he bought a three-week refill.”

They began at the bottom cabinets, opening doors, rifling around. Finally, Annie opened an upper cabinet, and there, behind the coffee can, were two bags. “Aha!Here’s the uncooked formula bags. So he has some already prepared. Gabriel opened a plastic evidence bag, and Annie slid them in.

Leaning inside the refrigerator, Annie didn’t have to search–a mason jar full of dark brown liquid sat on the top shelf. “Frank!”

Annie stood to the side. “Here’s the cooked herbal formula.”

Frank took a few photos; Gabriel opened an evidence bag and handed it to Frank. “Give me a second one.”

Of course, you double bag poison. Poisonous herbal formula takes precedence over using less plastic. Those bags wouldn’t be reused or recycled.

The ambulance beeped as it backed up. Frank took the evidence bags out to his car and locked them in, then greeted the EMTs.

Checking Roselynn over, they helped her climb onto the gurney. Oxygen mask over her face, she grabbed Lilly’s arm. “He didn’t suffer, did he? Was it quick?”

Lilly patted her hand. “From what I understand, it was over quickly.”

They loaded Roselynn into the ambulance and began hooking her up to an IV.

An EMT looked back at Frank. “She’s a little dehydrated, but it’s mostly shock. We’ll do a cardiac workup, just in case.” They shut the doors and drove off.

Frank shooed everyone off the porch, closed the cottage, sealed the door and wrapped the porch railing with crime scene tape.

Standing close to the parked cars, they all watched as Gabriel walked back to his cottage, his sweater in one hand.

“I feel like I should have gone to the hospital with her,” her mom said.

“You’d be in the waiting room for all of it; I’ll go by after I log the evidence at the station,” Frank said.

Annie bounced on her heels, subtly. She didn’t want to be insensitive, but… “So the mystery fiancee isn’t our killer! I thought she was unreachable for nefarious reasons, not renovating a villa in Italy.”

Gran added, “There’s no way her passing out like that was an act.”

Frank lifted an eyebrow, but said nothing.

Her mom stood, staring at the gravel, and Annie could practically see her mind turning. “What’s up, Mom?”

Her mom wrapped her arms across her chest. “She said something while I waited for the EMTs with her. It makes me feel like I should remember something… She said she had been followed by a private detective hired by her ex-husband. The way she spoke about him, it felt like…I don’t know.”

Everyone stared at her for a moment, then Annie asked, “Frank, without the mystery fiancee, the only suspects are Elaine, or an as yet unidentified jilted lover that never made threats and no one knows about.”

“And Elaine’s finances are coming through clean. I can’t find any evidence of her buying poison, much less getting her hands dirty to plant it. No red flags anywhere. Her cell phone has her at home when Phil died, just like she said,” Frank added.

Lilly gasped, her hand to her heart. “Oh, my gosh.” Her eyes wide, she looked at Frank. “I know what it is. Roselynn’s description of her divorce and ex-husband…it feels like a client at the Spa…”

Frank leaned forward. “Explain, please.”

“He started seeing me at least four months ago, and he doesn’t live close, but that’s not so odd. But he speaks about his ex-wife as someone he can’t let go of; he still loves her, they’re getting back together. He is a corporate bigwig with a personal assistant.”

It was Gran’s turn to gasp. “You don’t mean Joe? I told you he was a dark horse–wait. That weird email stuff going on, where we got CC’d on a weird email? Was that Joe?”

“I don’t know, we’ve been so busy, it was just an email, and I didn’t pay it much attention.”

“And Roselynn seems to be from money, too. A renovation in Italy? Posh,” Annie added.

Frank ran a hand through his hair, looking down. Annie wondered if he regretted including them in the investigation.

“Slow down and fill me in. I’ll need to see his Spa file,” Frank said.

“He gets his herbs at Olivia’s, so she’ll have his retail records,” Annie said.

Her mom added, “He’s seriously ill, and I’ve seen him twice, once for a full work-up over two hours, and one follow-up.”

“Did he ever say his wife’s name? Is his last name Marino?”

“No. He always referred to her as his wife, even after he admitted the divorce had been final for a while. And his last name isn’t Marino.”

“Anything that ties him to this besides your gut feeling?” Frank asked Lilly.

Silence. “Just the feeling that their stories were similar.”

Annie’s stomach rumbled, drawing everyone’s attention.

Frank took a step toward his car. “Let’s all take a break, get some lunch. I have to go to the station, then I’ll call on Olivia to get the information on his herbal formulas,” Frank said. “Also, Elaine trying to sell the golf course while Phil’s body is still in the morgue, moved up the timeline. Mansfield has called an emergency reading of Phil’s estate. Tomorrow.”