Page 86 of A Rose of Steel
I had to come clean to Auntie. Sneaking around behind her back made me feel guilty. We were supposed to be in this together.
I got back home after one o’clock and Auntie was busy up front. I grabbed a baked chicken out of the fridge and a knife. A chicken sandwich sounded good for lunch.
“What you up to, Sugarplum?” Auntie said. She came into the kitchen just as I was finishing up lunch.
“It’s what I’vebeenup to,” I said. “Thought, I should tell you.”
“And what have you been up to?” She got the teapot, filled it up with water and put it on the stove. “Want a cup of tea?”
“Don’t need any of your truth serum,” I said. “I plan on confessing.”
“I was just going to make a little lavender tea. I feel a headache coming on.”
“I went to see Mark and Leonard Wilson this morning,” I said.
“You did?” she said and went to her spice cabinet.
“But you knew that, right?”
“Yes. And I know that you went to see Delphine Griffith,” she said. “If you were planning on telling me that next.”
I laughed. “So I didn’t need to feel bad about not telling you?” I said.
“It’s nice that you thought you should.” She smiled. “So what did you learn?”
“Delphine Griffith made several batches of ricin.”
“Did she now?” Auntie said. She poured a purple powder into her steeper and placed it inside a cup.
“Yes, she did,” I said. “And she gave at least one to Doc Westin.”
“What did she do with the other batches?”
“I don’t know, although she told me that she has some in her cabinet.”
“Cabinet?”
“Kitchen cabinet.”
“Oh dear,” Auntie said. “She has a lot of people going in and out of her house with the classes she teaches.”
“Yeah, so she told me.”
“Someone could have taken it.”
“A lot of ‘someones’ could have taken it,” I said. “Maybe even some people we hadn’t considered.”
“So our suspect list just grew?”
“Exponentially.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Auntie and I pulled into her reserve parking space at Angel’s Grace. We were there for the homecoming dinner and awards. That night’s annual activity was going to be a little different though—they were going to do a tribute to Bumper.
Jorianne, I’d heard, was going to speak and Boone Alouette and LaJay Reid were going to speak. Mrs. Hackett was going to receive the award for her son. According to Auntie Zanne, it wasn’t going to be a somber event, everyone would have on festive mums, smiles on their faces and love in their heart for their friend and loved one.”
“I thought you said you made new, less festive ones for this,” I said, remember her and Josephine Gail covering the kitchen table, practically kicking me out of the kitchen to redo them.
