21. Melly

21

MELLY

I texted Sue, and she said she was not going to be admitted to the hospital. When I told her I wanted to stop by, she asked me to wait a day or two, saying she was much too tired for guests.

Worry kept stabbing through me. Was she getting sicker? Her loss would rip me to pieces, but there didn't seem to be much I could do about it.

When I reached the ice cream shop, I discovered Carla's PR firm had come through. They'd reached out to the Mystic Harbor website admin and gotten all the one-star ratings removed. They couldn't take down the reviews, because they could be legitimate, but they agreed that a flash of one-star ratings all at once had come from a troll. This brought Creature Cone's average up to a little over four, which was much better than where it was yesterday.

The PR firm also posted on the town's FaceSpace page and Instaplug, talking up my business with some amazing graphics, and they were not only getting lots of likes, but the comments were also very encouraging. They had a few other strategies they planned to deploy over the next week, such as videos on TickingClock, and I felt like I could relax for a bit. It was lovely having someone who knew what they were doing handling this.

People started to trickle into my shop mid-afternoon. Yay.

Elrik strolled in and sat at a table while we took care of our customers.

"Go hang out with him if you want," Carla said, tilting her head his way. "I can cover this."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded and took the next customer's order while I walked over to stand beside his table.

He stood. "I set up an appointment to speak with Hazel. If you can come with me, great. If not, I'll let you know what I discover, if anything."

"Go," Carla called out with a laugh.

"You're sure?" I asked.

"Go!"

"Alright. Hazel's studio, Boogey Beasts, is right next door." I waved to the brick wall dividing us. "At one point, Hazel wanted to expand her studio into this space as well, but Grannie told her no."

"More pole dancing?" he asked.

"She planned on offering yoga classes here, but Grannie had already promised me this space for my ice cream shop. The location's perfect on Main Street."

Carla grunted, and after the customers left, she walked over to join us.

"You're right. The location's perfect for any business," she said. "There isn't much property available anywhere in town, let alone on Main Street."

"Were you able to secure the location you wanted in Seashell Cove?" I asked, then explained to Elrik. "Carla's an amazing artist. Her paintings of the coast are stunning."

A blush filled Carla's face. "Thank you, Melly. I appreciate you saying that."

"At one point, she thought about renting this space to display her art and run shows."

"That was when I had big dreams of selling my seascapes," Carla said. "But, no, I didn't rent the location in Seashell Cove. I've . . . put that on hold for now."

Cashflow could be the reason why she wasn't setting up a storefront yet.

"My offer for you to put some of your artwork up for sale here still stands." I waved to the blank walls. "You can showcase your work, and as it sells, replace it with more. Anytime. I mean it."

"Thank you, but that's a dream I should give up."

I hated to see her sad, but she had a lot to deal with right now. Maybe selling her artwork could be done at a different time. "Your dream is worth pursuing," I still pointed out.

"I said no," she snapped, a scowl transforming her face. "I'm not going to put my art up here." Her scowl disappeared as fast as it rose.

While I thought her art would sell here, I had no reason to force her into placing it on our walls. "Alright."

Elrik frowned, looking between us, but said nothing .

More customers came in, and Carla stomped over to serve them.

Elrik and I left Creature Cones. Once the door had shut behind us, he stopped me on the sidewalk and drew me over close to the big plate glass window with ice cream cones and other delectable treats painted on the glossy surface.

"Tell me more about Carla's art," Elki said softly.

"She's painted all her life, and it's gorgeous. Like, New York show quality beautiful. She talked to Grannie about renting the space, but I'd already spoken to my grandmother about my dream of opening an ice cream shop, so Grannie told her no."

He frowned.

I tilted my head. "You're looking for a motive in her art?"

"Let's step back a bit. What would Carla gain by pinning the poisoning on Grannie?"

"I can't think of anything other than Walter dating Grannie before Carla. She was mad enough about him considering divorce to make threats. And I'm sure she was pissed off when she discovered he'd sold most of the shares in his company. When I lay it out like that, she has plenty of motive. Anger will make people do things they'd never otherwise consider. But Walter's dead. It's been a long time since all this happened. Why wait until now to act?"

"It has been a long time."

"I guess I can't see her doing something like this."

"She wanted your space."

"So did Hazel. But I'm not sure if wanting this spot on Main Street is a solid enough motive for someone to do such a horrible thing to my grandmother."

He shrugged. "As you said, people do weird things when they're angry. Ginny said everyone believed you'd be making the punch that night."

"Because I'd done it for a while. It wasn't long after Grannie got home from rehab that she started going to the socials and supervising me making the punch." My low laugh rang out. "She couldn't stand long, so she'd sit nearby and direct me." I frowned, thinking. "We need to consider the idea that someone was trying to frame me, not my grandmother." This opened all sorts of new avenues.

Rapid footsteps came our way, and we turned, watching as the nurse who had been caring for Sue at the hospital hurried in our direction.

She stopped beside us and peered around before leaning close and lowering her voice to a bare whisper. "I'm Pauline, but you can't remember my name."

"I'm Melly, and this is Elrik. Why shouldn't we remember your name?"

Elrik shot me a raised-eyebrow look, but I was as puzzled as him.

"I could get into trouble for this, so I didn't see you. I didn't speak with you. You didn't see or speak with me either. Confidentiality and all that."

"I see." Though I truly didn't.

"About your friend, Sue," Pauline said.

My shoulders drooped. "I've known her all my life. She and my grandmother have been best friends since they were in school together. "

"I could tell that you care for her."

I sniffed. "Very much. I'm sad about her prognosis, about what this means for her."

"Yeah, that's just it." Pauline winced through a swallow. "Her kidneys didn't take a hit, though I didn't tell you that."

I blinked slowly. "I don't know what you mean. She was just at her doctor's this morning."

"Was she?" Her eyebrows lifted.

"Why would she lie about something like this?" Elrik asked.

"No idea," Pauline said. "But you might want to ask her. See, when she came into the hospital after drinking the Xylitol-spiked punch, they were worried her kidneys might suffer. Xylitol's mostly excreted by the liver, but it's also hard on the kidneys, so who knows what a big dose of the artificial sweetener might've done if she hadn't come in right away. But she did. We gave her fluids and dextrose, of course, and kept her a few nights for observation. The ER probably would've just run some labs, then discharged her, and they told her that. But after her boyfriend was seen by the doctor, he hurried to her side, and she announced that kidney function had worsened. The ER nurse told me that. After he heard about her supposed prognosis, Dr. Brightmore insisted she be admitted. No one argues with Dr. Brightmore."

"Because he was a pharmacist and is well-known in town?" Elrik asked.

Pauline shook her head. "Because he's on the hospital board. No one messes with board members, not if they want to keep their jobs. "

"You're saying she didn't need to be admitted?" Elrik asked. "I thought her kidney function had worsened, that she'll soon need dialysis."

Pauline shrugged. "Not right now. I'm not saying her kidney won't get worse, but she's nowhere close to needing dialysis and certainly not from the Xylitol poisoning." She glanced around again. "But I didn't tell you that. I did not discuss a patient, certainly not the health of the girlfriend of a board member. I was just casually educating you about kidney disease and using a hypothetical patient while I did it."

"Why tell us this at all?" I asked.

"You were crying, and I felt bad. To me, the whole situation sounded manipulative. I saw you here, and I'm spontaneous. I thought you'd want to know."

With that, she scooted around us and raced down the sidewalk. When she reached the crosswalk, she bolted toward the parking lot on the opposite side.

"Well," I said, leaning against the window. "What do we make of this?"

Elrik leaned close. "It sounds like Sue has been lying about her health. The big question is, why?"

"Do you think Alfred knows? It didn't sound like he does. He was concerned about her and was urging her to consider dialysis."

"Which she isn't because she doesn't need it."

"Not yet. You heard Pauline. Her condition could worsen, and she might one day need it. She'll still refuse, I suspect."

"Maybe she said her condition had worsened to get sympathy. People do odd things for all sorts of reasons. "

"How does this relate to Grannie, if at all?"

"No idea. I'll think about it and see if I can come up with some reasons."

"Sympathy's the only reason I can think of right now. Sue has always been someone who likes to talk about this or that joint aching, even her bowels, and what she takes to stay regular. Her knee that needs replacement. The pink spot on her face that may or may not be early skin cancer. Grannie talks about her health sometimes too. It might be an older person thing and not anything specific to Sue."

"Let me text her and see if I can stop by later today. I want to get to the bottom of this right away."

Did Sue have a reason to put the Xylitol in the punch? If she was looking for sympathy, that would be one way to do it, especially if she knew she'd be treated so well at the hospital. People had done worse things for attention.

He sent the text. After putting his phone away, he frowned at me. We needed to go see Hazel, but we still had a few minutes before she expected us to arrive.

"Let's run through this," I said. "Who are our primary suspects?"

We sat on the iron chairs, and he filled me in on his conversation with Ginny and Bob. Then he pulled out his phone to go through his list.

"Alfred could've done it to harm Sue," I said. "Hoping she'd go into full kidney failure, refuse dialysis and die, and he'd inherit her life insurance payout. He doesn't appear to know she's perfectly fine." That really was a sucky thing to do to someone who cared for you, and I wasn't sure what I thought about it. We'd all been worried about her.

"Sue also has a motive," Elrik said.

I couldn't think of why she'd do something like that to her best friend.

"Jealousy," Elrik offered. "She was winning the local awards until Grannie started knitting mittens."

"There's no way the committee will give the award to Grannie this year if she's on trial for poisoning her friends, let alone in jail."

"And Sue may know that the Xylitol wouldn't cause much harm if she was treated right away. She might've been willing to risk it."

I shook my head. "I still can't believe she'd do something like that. And why lie about her kidney disease?"

"Sympathy could sway the committee into giving the award to her instead of your grandmother."

Perhaps. "Who else could've done it?"

"Bob. He asked Grannie out, and she turned him down."

"My grandmother was quite the catch," I said with a laugh. "It seems like all the eligible bachelors in town asked her out. Bob has very limited mobility, and you said he arrived last."

"He's very low on the list."

"Who else?"

"We still need to talk to Hazel." He frowned at his phone. "Carla's the last suspect." His gaze met mine. "What does she stand to gain if your grandmother goes to jail?"

"I don't think she'd gain anything. "

"What if she thought you'd be accused of putting the Xylitol in the punch?" he asked. "What would she gain if you went to jail?"

"The ice cream place would close. Grannie might let Carla rent the space instead. But she seems to have enough to deal with right now with Walter's properties. I doubt she has the capital to open an art studio even if the space was available. She'd have to renovate, and opening the studio doesn't guarantee sales. It takes time to build clientele and a reputation."

"We'll keep her on the list, however." He stood. "We should go speak with Hazel. Maybe she'll give us more clues."

"Or reveal that she's the one who did it," I said, though I was joking.

He tucked his phone into his back pocket. "What would be her motive?"

"If I went to jail, she could expand into my place and start offering yoga."

"We'll ask her about that."

We walked toward the entrance, and I was grateful we passed two families talking about getting ice cream. There was no mention of poison, no talk of bad reviews. This was going to be okay, thanks to the PR company's efforts. I wasn't even worried about the bill they'd send. They were worth almost any cost.

We stepped inside Boogey Beasts, where the elegance of ballet merged with the gritty strength of pole dancing.

The place was empty, but Hazel's office was in the back.

"No classes going right now," Elrik said softly .

"The place fills up after school and is busy well into the evening. She runs small and private classes in the morning. She has two instructors working with her as well. She's popular; people and monsters come quite a distance just to work with her."

"Going from ballet to stockbroker to pole dancing instructor is quite a switch."

I frowned, trying to remember. "I think her dad worked as a stockbroker. I doubt she started trading right away but with his connections, I bet she was able to land a sweet job that let her work her way up. She's retired from that now, of course. She comes from old money. Her dad owned real estate in New York City. A few buildings, I think."

The polished wooden floors shone under the soft lights recessed into the ceiling. Full-length mirrors covered the left wall from corner to corner, reflecting a row of classical barres worn smooth by countless fingertips and wrapped in tape at intervals for grip.

"Have you ever taken ballet?" Elrik asked, studying the room.

"Nope. Just those few pole classes where I spent more time on my ass than clinging to the pole. It takes time, and I just didn't have the patience." I waved toward the opening in the back of the room. "Hazel's office is that way."

We walked across the big open room, our footsteps echoing around us.

On the right, an arched entry led to the room where Hazel taught pole dancing. Sleek metal poles anchored securely from floor to ceiling at measured distances spanned the room.

A light floral aroma mingled with a hint of old sweat and rosin ballerinas dusted on their slippers for pointe work. Speakers perched in corners would soon vibrate with whatever music fit the class, from classic symphonies for ballet to the pulsing beats Hazel often used for her pole classes.

Exiting the studio, we turned right and started down the hall.

A guttural cry rang out ahead of us.

We shared a wide-eyed look before we rushed in that direction.