Murder in Hum Harbour Read online

I chose to deflect his question. “I know Doc Campbell wasn’t the greatest physician in the world, but he was our Doc and I loved him. He brought most of us here into the world and it’s like we’ve lost a piece of ourselves, of our history. I feel hollow.”

  “We’ll find who did it.”

  He withdrew a folded piece of paper from his suit inside pocket. Sliding his arm along the pew back behind me, he turned to Geoff. “I need to talk to you after the funeral. Have a look at this and tell me what you think?”

  “What was that?” I asked.

  “Lab results just came in. I need Geoff to decipher them for me.”

  “From Doc’s autopsy? That’s fast, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah. From what I hear, the provincial lab usually sits on stuff for months. If this is proof Doc was murdered, we could very well have his killer locked up before the end of the week.”

  A shiver skidded down my spine. The killer was here, among us. One of these good people whom I’d known all my life was a murderer. I knew it, like I knew I was the only black haired MacDonald in four generations or that I was losing my heart to Geoff Grant, the man sitting in the pew behind me. Unwelcome, unwanted truths I could not escape.

  “What does the report say?”

  “It’s all gobbledygook as far as I’m concerned. That’s why I need Geoff to translate.”

  The church was crammed full of mourners and the service was ready to begin. Sam and Sasha finally appeared. I presume they thought by timing their arrival to the last possible moment they’d avoid most of the whispers. However, seeing as the only empty seats were at the front of the church, they had everyone’s attention as they walked up the aisle.

  Sam looked rumpled. His suit was too tight so he left the jacket unbuttoned and his tie, knotted too short, rested like a bib on his prominent tummy. Sasha wore her navy blue pantsuit. It drained the color from her already pale face, and she’d compensated by adding her violet earrings and a bright fuchsia scarf. As they settled into their seats in the front pew, Sasha’s scarf seemed to snag every gaze in the room and everybody had something to say about it. I, however, couldn’t keep my eyes off her seaglass earrings. She’d found the second one.

  Before I could scoot up to her, Andrew placed his hand on my knee and pressed. “Sit still,” he mouthed.

  I mutinously obeyed.

  Doc’s only surviving relative, Marjorie Campbell Murray, took her place and Reverend Innes began the service.

  I regret to confess I did not listen. Instead, I studied the congregation, wondering for the zillionth time, who could Doc’s murderer be? I adamantly refused to believe Sasha was involved, but did it therefore follow Doc’s killer had to be a man? A woman could administer poison as easily as any man. Maybe easier, since who would suspect her of foul intentions? The more I thought the more my gaze slid back to my cousin’s fuzzy red hair. Who in Hum Harbour was more versed in poisons than my cousin Mimi? Who was more trusted? Who was more devious? I was sure Mike had no idea his wife was poisoning him.

  All right, a progesterone stimulant wasn’t poison, but it could never be considered natural.

  My thoughts careened downhill from there. Mimi had access to Sheba’s food. It would be a snap for her to poison my cat. No doubt she ordered her poison through Sasha, which made Sasha the ideal scapegoat. After all, Mimi was very familiar with Sasha’s vulnerabilities. And when I’d overheard Doc accuse Mimi of unethical conduct Mimi had threatened him back. She was not acting like my favorite, mild-mannered cousin then, that’s for sure.

  The more I thought about it and the more I studied her, the more convinced I became. More than anyone else here, Mimi had motive and the means to poison Doc. In fact—the idea dawned on me in a eureka flash-bulb moment—she also had the perfect opportunity with that coconut cream pie she made for Doc’s retirement party. Mimi had insisted the pie was for Doc alone. No one else was allowed a bite.

  And I’d forced him to take that second slice!

  Could Doc’s murderer really be Mimi, with me as her unwitting accomplice?

  I snapped out of my trance as Reverend Innes lifted his arms to pronounce the benediction.

  27

  The funeral procession wound through Hum Harbour. I later heard there were so many cars the entire length of town was clogged with our slow moving vehicles. I drove with Andrew and Geoff, slumped in the back seat of the police cruiser. Another time I might have had fun stuffing things through the grating just to irritate my older brother. Today I was too overcome with grief.

  Mimi, the woman I’d known my whole life, the one who’d encouraged me to start my own business, the woman who babysat me when I was young and whose kids I sometimes watched over even now, was a murderer.

  Andrew and Geoff were too busy talking in the front seat to notice the shudders that wracked me. I buttoned my jacket up to my chin and tapped on the wire grating.

  “Let me out,” I said. “I’ll walk from here.”

  “It’s drizzling,” said Andrew.

  “Scottish mist.”

  The hearse was parked along the path closest to the open grave. Its back stood open as the McKennas maneuvered Doc’s shiny oak coffin out of the car and over to the open ground. Dale nodded his absent-minded greeting. Beyond him, I could see Mimi and Mike talking with Ross and Rickie.

  I hovered on the edge of the crowd watching Mimi, convinced she was Doc’s killer, yet unable to believe it was true.

  Andrew appeared beside me. Unlike Sam, who seldom thought about anything or anyone besides Sam, Andrew could always tell when I was upset. He wasn’t necessarily good at figuring out what was wrong, but he always noticed.

  “Hang in there, kid,” he said. “Doc would hate you crying over him.”

  “It’s not that.” I pushed unhappily at my damp hair, which hung limp and heavy down my back. “I need to tell you something. In confidence. You have to promise you won’t say it was me who told you.”

  Maybe he felt sorry for me, maybe I piqued his curiosity. Whatever his reasons Andrew didn’t brush me off. Instead he nabbed my elbow and led me a few feet from the crowd.

  “OK, what’s so important it can’t wait?”

  I swallowed my doubts and whispered, “It’s Mimi,” as if whispering made my accusation less horrible.

  “What’s Mimi?”

  “Doc’s murderer. He was going to blow the whistle on Mimi, tell Mike what she was doing and she couldn’t allow that to happen so she…” I glanced across the grass to where my cousin stood. She looked right into my eyes, and that’s when I knew for certain. And I knew she knew I knew.

  “She killed Doc.”

  Andrew’s eyes widened. “Mimi? Are you crazy?”

  “Shush! Not so loud. She’ll hear.”

  “You can’t be serious, Gai.”

  “But it fits. And when I started asking questions about Doc, she even poisoned my cat.”

  “Mimi would never poison an animal.”

  “She didn’t mean for it to be deadly, just to make Sheba sick. She only meant to scare me, but I stayed out longer than normal and Sheba almost died.”

  Andrew set his arm around my shoulders and tried to lead me away. “Gailynn, Gailynn,” he said. “You’re overwrought.” He used his professional, soothing cop tone, the one guaranteed to calm the most agitated perps.

  I shook myself free. “Overwrought? Of course I am. Who wouldn’t be?”

  Lori was beside me, now. “Gai, hush, it’s all right.”

  I made the effort to drop my voice. “No it’s not all right. Why are you people so blind? Mimi killed Doc because he knew her secret.”

  “What secret?” demanded Mike, suddenly appearing behind Lori.

  I stared at him in horror, or was it shame? He wasn’t supposed to hear this from me. It was supposed to be Andrew telling him about Mimi’s duplicity. Not me.

  Why, oh why hadn’t I taken Andrew’s lead and let him drag me away? My cheeks felt like fire and I pressed my cold palms against them.

/>   “Nothing, never mind,” I said. I tried to escape, but my cousin’s husband blocked my path.

  “What secret, Gailynn?” Mike asked again.

  The drizzle had thickened to steady rain, chilling me to my bones. I shrank into my jacket, praying the earth would swallow me.

  Instead, Andrew put on his official face and ordered, “Tell him, Gailynn. Tell us all.”

  By now, ‘all’ included Mimi, and she looked so innocent I almost backed down. Except I couldn’t. Doc deserved justice. I loved him, and I loved Mike, and I loved Mimi too. I had to stop her before she hurt anyone else. So I sucked in a deep breath and squared my shoulders and said, “Mike, Mimi’s poisoning your food.”

  Mimi’s cheeks flushed a brilliant red. “It’s not poison.”

  “You don’t deny it?”

  Her auburn curls bristled. “Of course I deny poisoning my husband.”

  Andrew just shook his head sadly. “Gailynn, stop before you say anything else you’re going to regret.”

  “Or what? Mimi’ll shut me up by poisoning me, too?”

  Mimi’s bosom swelled with apparent indignation. “I am not poisoning my husband. I give him herbal supplements.”

  “Then why not tell him?”

  Mimi’s hazel eyes flashed and she folded her arms across her chest, as though trying to hold in her anger. “This is extremely embarrassing, Gailynn. Must we air my dirty laundry in front of half the town?”

  Lori said, “If there’s nothing wrong with what you’ve been doing why not tell us?”

  I could have hugged Lori for standing up for me like that. I could tell by the concern in her lovely violet eyes she thought I was just as crazy as everyone else thought, but she was my friend and she supported me anyway.

  Mike shifted closer. “What’re they talking about, Mimi? Tell me.”

  “It’s about those herbs I give you. Gailynn’s found out.”

  Mike groaned skyward. “And now she’s blabbing this to everyone? Gailynn, why can’t you ever keep your nose out of other people’s business?”

  Lori’s beautiful eyebrows rose. “Your own wife is poisoning you and you want Gailynn to keep quiet about it?”

  I nodded, encouraged. Perhaps Lori did believe me after all.

  Mike stood close to his wife. “That’s right. It’s none of your business. Any of you.”

  “But she poisoned Doc, too!” I practically shouted.

  Mimi gripped my arm. “Gailynn, a lot of people have my medicinals in their cupboards, even you. Anyone could have poisoned Doc.”

  “But you were the one sneaking stuff into Mike’s food. Doc found out, and he told you to stop, and you threatened him. I heard you with my own ears.”

  Andrew shifted closer. “Is that true, Mimi?”

  “That I threatened Doc? Of course not. I might have told him people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones but I never threatened to kill him.”

  “And the stuff you’re giving Mike?” Andrew asked.

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, must I?”

  “Is it poison?”

  “Of course not. It was an anti-aphrodisiac.”

  “A what?” I said.

  “An anti-aphrodisiac. It was to reduce Mike’s—” she hesitated, “libido.”

  Mike stared at his feet.

  “It worked so well on the boys I thought if it keeps Oscar, Meyer and Frank from straying, maybe it would keep Mike home more.”

  “You mean it’s the same the same stuff you feed the dogs?” Andrew sounded incredulous. Well, so was I.

  “I’ve seen the results of a faithless husband and I didn’t want to end up out on my ear like Vi, or despondent like poor Sasha.”

  “So you took matters into your own hands, is that what you’re saying, Mimi?”

  She nodded. “Gailynn, I cannot believe you would humiliate me like this.”

  Andrew elbowed me in the ribs and I glared at him, unable to come up with an adequate response.

  “I apologize on my sister’s behalf,” he said. “And I will take her home before she does anything worse.”

  He dragged me away.

  I wasn’t ready to give up, though. “That’s it? You’re going to let her go? How do you know she didn’t poison Doc, anyway? How can you believe her?”

  “Because Geoff told me what did kill Doc. It was methanol. Plain old wood alcohol and anyone with half a brain coulda stuck it in Doc’s whiskey. Mimi, as you’ve already pointed out, would have been a lot more imaginative.”

  28

  Have you ever been so humiliated you wanted to crawl into a hole and die? It wasn’t the first time I’d been an idiot and it wouldn’t be the last, but some days I even horrified myself. At least people no longer whispered about Sam and Sasha, although under the circumstances that was little comfort.

  Obviously I did not attend the post funeral luncheon in the church basement. Instead I took my office keys and let myself into the clinic. I still wasn’t convinced Mimi’d told all, although what could be more embarrassing than publicly admitting you were emasculating your husband, I didn’t know.

  I shamelessly read Mike’s medical file through from beginning to end. There were the usual childhood ailments, sports injuries in high school and the gall bladder attacks ten years ago. I remembered his attacks inspired Mimi to investigate herbal medicines in the first place.

  Mike’s most recent medical appointments centered on male complaints. According to Doc’s notes, Mike had been helping himself to something called betel nut. Apparently, Mimi kept it on hand for cancer treatment and Mike discovered it also had other properties. Problem was the betel nut did not cure Mike’s condition so he began taking more and more that, unfortunately, lead to some rather unpleasant side effects. Doc convinced Mike to stop self-medicating and treated his side effects, which gave Mike some relief but did nothing for his original complaint.

  That’s when Doc decided a family conference was in order and invited Mimi to one of Mike’s appointments. He discovered Mimi was feeding Mike vitex agnus-castus, better known as Chaste Tree. Apparently, the more Mike had tried to fix his condition, the more Chaste Tree she fed him.

  Doc confronted Mimi—no doubt the argument I overheard—and insisted she stop doping Mike immediately. I gathered from Doc’s last notation, despite her fury, Mimi had complied. Or at least Mike stopped complaining.

  I stuffed Mike’s file back into the cabinet. That might have been the end of his problem, but nothing in Mike’s chart hinted at Doc’s glass house, as Mimi put it. Now what?

  I thought and thought until I remembered my conversation with Vi the other afternoon at the church office.

  “Go through Doc’s old medical files and look up Jack Murray’s cause of death,” she’d told me. “If it’s kosher then I haven’t said anything slanderous,” which implied Jack Murray’s death was anything but.

  The old files were kept in the same room but in a different filing cabinet than the active files. I rolled open the M drawer and fingered my way to Murray, Jack Charles. It was a thick folder. He’d been an old man with a history of poor health.

  At that moment, as I held Jack Murray’s weighty file in my hand, I almost backed down. I almost conceded tracking Doc’s murderer was better left to Andrew and his police cronies. I almost gave up the fight.

  Then I remembered Doc lying motionless on the Medical Convention’s deck. I remembered Sheba’s limp body, like a black ink stain on the clinic’s paper-covered bed, and I remembered the blood red shards of shattered glass smeared across the floor of Dunmaglass, and I got mad. Fury boiled up with the bile at the back of my throat.

  No one was going to hurt the people I loved without being held accountable. No one was going to get away with secrets. Whoever did these crimes must be stopped. Now. Before they killed again. And if I had to endure shame and humiliation to see the truth come out, well, so be it.

  I’d apologize to Mimi and Mike for my shameful conduct, but I wasn’t backing down.

&nbs
p; I would find Doc’s killer or die trying.

  I slammed Jack Murray’s file onto the top of the filing cabinet and flipped open the cover. This was where I’d look next.

  I figured Jack’s early years weren’t relevant so I concentrated on his later illnesses. He’d been hospitalized repeatedly for congestive heart failure, liver sclerosis, high blood pressure and gout. Final cause of death was heart failure resulting from a cerebral hemorrhage, or stroke. It sounded natural enough to me, I mean, how could Ross induce a stroke? If that was what Vi implied Ross had done.

  I took the page listing Jack Murray’s medications to Geoff’s office and started checking them against his giant pharmacology text that details every drug on the face of the earth. I was reading the precautions under the eighth pill listed when Geoff stuck his nose in, scaring me half out of my skin.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Checking Jack Murray’s meds from the time he died.”

  “And why are you doing that?”

  “Because Vi suggested Jack’s death might be questionable. If that’s the case and Doc knew Ross was involved, Ross had a reason to silence Doc.”

  “Gailynn, put the file away.”

  I shook my head. “This afternoon I made a complete fool of myself in front of every last person in Hum Harbour. I admit it. I need to redeem myself.”

  “Leave crime solving to the police, Gailynn.”

  “There’s a murderer running around Hum Harbour and we have to help stop him. Otherwise, if we don’t, we’re no better than those corrupt people in Somalia.”

  Geoff folded his arms across his chest. “How do you figure that?”

  “You said they didn’t stand against evil.”

  “So snooping in people’s confidential medical files is your idea of combating evil?”

  “You told me I could look through Doc’s files.”

  “That’s when you were searching for his golf course contract. I didn’t sanction your violating patient confidentiality.”

  “It’s not like I’m going to blab what I learn all over town,” I said. “I’m simply looking for avenues of investigation.”