Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

S id Quill gave me the creeps. He was one of those guys that never looked you in the eye, always shifting about and twitching, as if he had lots of smaller Sids inside him all going in different directions. The fact that he was courting Rose didn't help. She thought it was because she bought lube and condoms from him and then inherited Oz's building. I thought it was because he wanted Rose. Either way, I was against him.

Also, he was the most likely poisoner in town. Pharmacy. Chemist. General weird guy. We could spare Sid if we had to take somebody down for this.

He was nowhere in sight as I entered the pharmacy, but there was a sign on the counter that said "RING THE BELL FOR SERVICE" and a small button in front of it. Before I did that, I grabbed a bottle of Tylenol off a shelf. I had a feeling I was going to need more than Rose had before this mess was over. I considered getting some stuff for my scrapes, but I knew Poppy had plenty of first aid supplies stockpiled for the animals she rescued. She'd done a great job on Maggs' paw; she could fix me up, too.

The place smelled like a cheap rearview-mirror air freshener. You'd think a guy who'd been a professional chemist could do better than that.

I pinged the bell, which didn't ping. Instead, it was hooked up to a circuit and a ring tone echoed out of cheap speakers, playing Celine Dion singing "My Heart Will Go On." I fought the urge to rip the bell off the desk, mainly because I didn't think that would stop the music. Fortunately, it only did one chorus and then silence reigned once more.

Sid came out from behind a curtain and peered at me over smeared half-lens reading glasses. He was wearing a lab coat that had numerous stains on it. From what, I really didn't want to know.

"Mister Reddy," he said, which seemed a bit formal, but we'd never been properly introduced, so I played at his level.

"Mister Quill. Have you had a chance to check Melissa's corpse?"

"I have." He looked at me quizzically. "What happened to your face?"

"I fell in the river."

"Why did you do that?"

I ignored that and waited, but he wasn't filling me in about Melissa. He just stood there, perhaps waiting for backup from Igor. Who knows who or what he had in that basement. "About Melissa?"

"Come on," he said.

I went around the counter, and he unlocked a metal door covered in peeling paint. A set of metal stairs led down into darkness. Sid turned on a light, and we went down into a deeper layer of Sid. The most immediate thing I noticed was the foul odor. Sid multiplied. And it was chilly as we went down.

The basement was his lair. It was dug out of the solid bedrock of the Smoky Mountains like the other basements in Rocky Start. Three walls were lined with grubby wooden work benches covered in scattered gear that looked like a high school chemistry classroom with inattentive students and a terrible teacher. The fourth side was a wide set of concrete steps that went up to angled steel folding doors that led to the back alley, right by Rose's back steps. Luke had brought Melissa's body in that way, out of sight of State Street. One of the benches was covered with a stained tarp, hiding whatever Sid's latest experiment was. I had no desire to find out.

I did notice a framed anatomy chart on one wall was slightly ajar and took a slight step to the left. There was a line of gray metal behind the chart. That was interesting because it meant Sid had a safe hidden there.

Sloppy, but that was Sid.

In the center of the lab was a stainless steel table on which Melissa's body rested. Her clothes were off, and no one looks good naked in death. Add in the fact he'd cracked open her chest and the spreader was still in place. And the top of her skull was missing. Her brain was in a tray to the side of the head. The tools he'd used, including the bone saw, were on a rolling cart; not cleaned up.

Sid was a pig. When I kicked the bucket, I was definitely going for a version of Oz's Viking funeral, courtesy of the Weed Brothers, with whatever didn't go up in smoke becoming ashes at the bottom of the lake on Pike's property.

I wanted to cover my mouth and nose, but I was a manly man and wouldn't give Sid the pleasure. "Cause of death?"

"She was poisoned."

"Poisoned," I said. "You can tell that fast?" Not that that's not suspicious on its own.

"Ran the bloodwork," Sid said, nodding toward one of the benches.

"Then why am I looking at her?"

"Thought you'd want to see," Sid said.

"See what?"

Sid seemed puzzled at the question as if it were perfectly logical, if not desirable, to see Melissa's body in this shape. "Well. I did an autopsy."

"Do you want me to look at anything in particular?" I pressed. If I remembered rightly, this was the moment when the detective found something that the well-trained expert, the coroner, missed on those crime shows. But all I saw was a mess.

"No," Sid said, still befuddled.

"Then can we finish this upstairs?"

Sid was disappointed in me, but I didn't give a shit anymore.

We trooped back upstairs and Sid locked the door behind us.

"What kind of poison?" Outside the pharmacy window, I saw that same weird pickup truck, the Cybertruck, pull up next door at Oddities, and some guy got out. He was dressed sharply, much better than me. Which was a low bar to start with. His hair wasn't wet, and he definitely wasn't wearing squishy boots.

"Cyanide," Sid was saying. "One of the first fatals a chemist learns. It simulates a heart attack so unless one suspects foul play, it passes most cursory autopsies."

I watched the guy from the fancy truck go into Oddities.

What the hell was the guy in the Cybertruck doing going into Oddities?

"Injected?" I asked, keeping my eye on the window. Cybertruck guy better be looking for a teacup.

"I haven't found a needle mark yet," Sid said. "That doesn't mean there isn't one. I just got the body."

He'd already cracked the chest and cut off the top her head; he'd had plenty of time to do that.

"It's more likely someone put it in a drink or soup or something liquid she wouldn't suspect," Sid said.

"She wouldn't have tasted that?"

"Not if you cover it right and do a good mix."

"So a pro?"

Sid shrugged. "Possibly. Anyone who can google can learn about cyanide."

"But not do it covertly," I pointed out. "Or make the mix." That would be you, Sid.

"True," Sid allowed, not meeting my eyes. Then again, he hardly ever looked anyone in the eyes.

"Anything that might help me figure out who did it?"

"Well, it was a mixture, as I said. Cyanide poisoning is actually a painful death, but there was a powerful sedative, so Melissa was unconscious before the cyanide did its work. And it's kind of a messy death. The body convulses. The mouth fills with saliva, blood, and vomit. She was cleaned up postmortem and there isn't any bruising, so I don't think there was much convulsing, which means there was also some sort of muscle relaxer in the mix. Actually, a pretty humane way to go. Some states with the death penalty have looked into it. I'm running tests to determine exactly all the ingredients. A bit sophisticated."

"So a pro?" I asked again.

"Could be or just could be someone who can read instructions. Really, it's not the method I would choose."

I was starting to think it was exactly the method he'd chosen.

"Where did she die?"

Sid shrugged. "Wherever she drank the mixture."

"How many other chemists are in town?"

Sid frowned. "What?"

"How many other people who could have done this are in town?" I asked. "Former chemists. Former players, Sid."

"Harvey Ware," Sid said. "He was one." He snickered. "Now he's an exterminator."

"And you."

Sid blinked, which came off as an ugly twitch. "What?" He held up a hand. "Now, hold on. Why would I kill Melissa?"

"I don't know," I said. "Why did you?"

"Fuck you, Reddy." He gestured at the floor. "I did the damn autopsy for you. Why would I incriminate myself by telling you the cause of death if I did it?"

To prove your innocence? Actually, I doubted that Sid was that crafty. I held up the Tylenol. "Can I pay for these?"

"On the house," Sid said. "I hear you're leaving soon."

He sounded a little too eager on that. "Not soon."

"But you are leaving?"

I leaned forward, pushing against the counter. "Why, Sid? Do you want me to leave?"

He backed up a step. "Well, no. It's just. Well. There's really nothing here in Rocky Start for you, is there? A man as young as you? With your talents?"

"There's a murderer in town." I could see why Sid thought I was young—he was pushing seventy—but the reality was that in my profession, I was old. Not just in terms of years, but also the fact that it was a miracle I was still alive.

"It's most likely an Outsider," Sid said.

He verbally capitalized the O like other residents of Rocky Start, and I thought of Cybertruck Guy. Definitely a capital-O Outsider. And he'd parked in front of Oddities and gone in.

"And whoever it was is probably long gone," Sid went on. "Nobody in town would do this. Not with Oz . . ." he trailed off as he realized Oz was no longer with us, but I was standing right in front of him.

"I hope whoever did it is long gone," I said. "But I'm hanging around just in case."

"Sure," Sid said. "How's Rose's search going?"

"We found all the money, Sid. Ozzie had four thousand dollars in two-dollar bills. I guess the joke is on us."

Sid frowned as if trying to figure out if I was serious. "Really? Because Barry said—" he stopped abruptly.

"Barry said what?"

"Nothing?"

Just great. Barry, Oz's crooked lawyer, was blabbing. Now Rose was really in trouble.

And then there was Cybertruck Guy.

"I need to go," I told Sid. "Keep me updated, please."

He pointed down. "I don't have the facilities to store a body. And we can't take her to Geoffrey Nice's place. He'll ask questions. Can I smoke her?"

I blinked, then realized he was asking if he could cremate the body. "Once you're finished checking it. Yeah."

He nodded. "All right."

"But double-check for a needle puncture. Just in case." I had no clue how that could help us, but I felt I needed to say something.

He appeared insulted that I questioned his professional judgement, but I didn't wait for an answer because I needed to get to Oddities to see what Cybertruck Guy was up to.

Stranger in town.

Melissa dead.

And I'd fallen into the river, and that hadn't been an accident.

My life was just full of shit at the moment, and I knew the superior entity looking over me was enthralled.