Миранда Джеймс - Twelve Angry Librarians

“Next, all he had to do was get the right people to his suite, and he did that by having a party. One that he basically stuck the conference with the bill for, incidentally, but that’s another issue. He knew he could force people to come, all people he’d worked with before, ones who knew what he was capable of if he was crossed. He needed a number of people there so that it wouldn’t look like, later on, he had singled anyone out.

“Now, this devotion to one brand of bottled water wasn’t a new thing, and I reckon that most of his guests knew that little idiosyncrasy of his. He was counting on that, in fact, because it was an important part of his plan. He would be able to say, after his intended victims died from the water he’d doctored, that the killer brought the bottles to the party and managed somehow to put them with the others, the ones that weren’t doctored. Gavin would have been relieved at his lucky escape and wasn’t it terrible, blah blah blah. And the whole time, he’d be congratulating himself on how smart he was and what idiots the rest of us were. He always thought he was the smartest person in the room. Hubris, because he outsmarted himself in the end.”

“Why was he determined to kill two people in this scenario of yours?” Kanesha asked, her tone bland. “Maxine Muller apparently was one of them, but who was the other?”

“Harlan Crais,” I said. “Do you remember what you told me about Gavin’s attempts to find another job? How two places scheduled phone interviews with him and then canceled at the last minute? According to what Maxine Muller told you, he knew who blackballed him. He was sure it was Harlan Crais.”

“Why was he so sure?” Kanesha asked.

“Because he’d done the same thing to Crais, and more than once, I suspect.” I told her what I’d heard from Marisue and Randi and about the conversation between Crais and Bob Coben that I’d overheard. “I think Gavin, out of sheer spite, kept him from at least two good jobs. Crais must have taken some satisfaction in returning the favor.

“Now, back to the party. Last night, in talking with Cathleen Matera and Nancy Dunlap, both of whom had been at Gavin’s party, I learned that Gavin had behaved in uncharacteristic fashion. They told me that he’d held these little gatherings before, and when the party was over, he’d made sure to keep any leftovers for himself. He never offered any of them to his guests. At the last party, though, he suddenly became generous, insisting that people help themselves. He even offered bottles of his precious water to them. Cathleen Matera took one, and she drank it and lived, so it was obviously fine. Nancy Dunlap turned it down, but both Harlan Crais and Maxine Muller left with a bottle apiece.”

“After you found that out, that was when you texted me about Crais last night, correct?” Kanesha said.

“Yes, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. Up until then I was sure he was the murderer, and I didn’t want to give anything away by talking to him about bottled water. If he were innocent, however, and still had that bottle unopened, then he might be in danger if the killer had poisoned more than two.”

“So you passed the buck to me.”

I nodded. “Under the circumstances, I figured it was the only thing I could do.”

“I see. Well, continue. Tell me why Fong wanted to kill Maxine Muller, and then you can explain how Fong ended up with a poisoned bottle himself.” Kanesha drained her mug and set it on the table.

“More coffee? No?” I asked. “All right. Maxine knew too much about Gavin’s sideline in extorting money out of people, I think. He couldn’t trust her not to turn on him after he’d committed murder. Once Harlan Crais was dead, Maxine might be frightened enough to talk, because she knew Gavin well enough to figure out what he’d done. I’m guessing at that, but I think it’s probably the reason.”

Diesel had remained remarkably quiet during all this, but he chose now to demand attention. I felt that large paw on my thigh, and when I looked down at him, he meowed loudly. I patted his head, hoping that would quiet him, but it didn’t. He meowed again, and I recognized the tone. He wanted food.

“I’m sorry,” I told Kanesha. “He’s hungry, and he’ll keep this up till he’s been fed. It won’t take a minute.”

“Sure,” Kanesha said. “Think I’ll help myself to a little more coffee after all while you do that.”

I followed Diesel to the utility room and added more dry food to his not-empty bowl. I gave him fresh water and opened a can of wet food. “Starvation averted,” I said. He was too busy eating to pay any attention to my smart comment. I went back to join Kanesha at the table.

“Where was I?” I thought for a moment. “Oh, yes, how did Gavin end up with the bottle instead of Crais? The problem with Gavin was that he was never that subtle. He was always so sure he could outsmart anyone that he continually underestimated a person’s intelligence. I think Crais is a sharp guy, and he became suspicious over Gavin’s sudden burst of generosity at the party. I think he probably examined that water bottle closely when he got back to his room, instead of just sticking it in his bag and leaving it there. He found evidence of tampering and then decided to effect a switch somehow with Gavin. Let Gavin have the bottle and see what happened. I don’t know whether he suspected Gavin was trying to kill him, or maybe only make him sick.

“The luncheon on Friday was the best time for Crais to switch the bottles. He was introducing Gavin for the keynote speech, and he would be sitting at the table with him. All he had to do was act clumsy, knock over a few things, and then wait for Gavin to leave the table. He figured Gavin would have at least one bottle of water with him. After Gavin left the table, Crais got clumsy again and knocked that bottle off the table. He switched bottles when he bent down to pick up the one on the floor.”

“How do you know about this? I thought you told me you sat at the back of the room by the doors. You couldn’t see it, surely.”

“I did sit at the back, and I couldn’t see Gavin’s table clearly from there.” I reminded her about the two retired librarians, Ada Lou and Virginia, whose last names I didn’t know. “I overheard them last night discussing Crais and his clumsiness. They were sitting at a nearby table and saw it all.” I paused. “Well, I don’t think they saw him actually switch bottles, but they saw him knock a bottle off the table. I’m sure if you talk to them, they’ll tell you all about it. It might take a while, but they’ll talk.”

I glimpsed a brief smile before Kanesha raised her mug to her lips. She had already talked to Virginia and Ada Lou. They were eccentric enough to make even Kanesha smile.

“After the switch, all Crais had to do was wait. Gavin would open that bottle and drink, never suspecting that it was the bottle he’d poisoned and given to Crais. He went up to the podium without it, started talking, then realized he’d left the bottle at the table. He gestured at Lisa to hand it to him. He opened it, drank, and then of course realized he was going to die. Lisa was watching him, and she told me she thought he looked shocked in the split second or two before the cyanide hit him and he collapsed behind the podium.”

“Where did he get the cyanide?” Kanesha asked.

I shrugged. “That I don’t know. He might have gotten it through Bob Coben. Coben had access to chemicals at the lab. I told you he’s working on a master’s degree in chemistry. Gavin could have blackmailed Bob to get it for him, or he could have ordered it himself online from overseas. Stewart told me it was obtainable that way.”

“Have you figured out how the cyanide was put into the bottles?”