Picture Perfect Murder (Ryli Sinclair 1) (14 page)

Wednesday was a dedicated office day. I called Paige and
told her to meet me there. I knew she’d been looking up paralytics online, but
now that I knew it was ketamine, I wanted to make sure she was in from the
beginning. I hoped Hank was gone so I didn’t have to make up some lie as to why
I was on the computer and not out “doing my job” as he liked to tell me.

I threw on a pair of black leggings with a gray and white
tunic sweater and my black boots. I pulled my hair back into a high ponytail,
brushed my teeth, and just like every morning ran out the door, blowing Miss
Molly a kiss.

I called Mindy on her cell. “Hey, Ryli, how’s it going?”

“Good. I’m calling to see if Hank is in?”

I heard Mindy tapping a pencil or pen against the desk. A
nervous habit of hers. “Nope, he’s out until this afternoon. He’s covering the
new grand opening of the quilt shop this morning.”

“Oh, my gosh. I forgot I was supposed to go out there and
take pictures this morning.”

Mindy laughed. “He figured you were knee-deep in the murder
and decided to cover for you.”

I was so excited about the opening of the quilt shop in
town. It was supposed to be one of the largest shops in Northwest Missouri, and
the fact it was coming to our little town was exciting news. If I had to guess,
I’d say Mom was ready to run down there and buy material to start on a baby
blanket now that Matt and Paige were getting married.

I picked up Aunt Shirley a few minutes later and headed to
the office. We made a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up some fresh,
homemade donuts to go with the coffee.

The first thing I needed to do was find out all I could
about ketamine. When Paige got to the office, she opened her notebook filled
with scribbles. She said she’d gotten some information on ketamine, but nothing
substantial.

Basically I wanted to know who could get their hands on the
drug? How would they go about getting their hands on the stuff? How was it
administered? And how much of a dose was needed to incapacitate someone?

“In honor of all the marriages and sex that’s being thrown
around in this room,” Aunt Shirley said as she started pulling donuts out of
the grocery bag, “I decided to get commemorative donuts.”

She tossed a small bag to each of us. I looked in and
groaned.

“That’s right. I got you donut
hoes
!” Aunt Shirley
slapped herself on the leg, her body convulsing with laughter. “Get it…donut
hoes
…because
y’all are a bunch of—”

“We get it!” I cried. “You’ve lost your speaking privileges
for the next half hour.”

“Worth it!” she said as she popped a donut hole into her
mouth and chewed.

Paige was going to research who could get ketamine while
Mindy started Googling how it could be administered.

I gave Aunt Shirley the assignment to look over all my notes
of the two crime scenes and start putting pieces together. I figured the former
private eye would be able to see things we couldn’t.

That left me with the task of making a list of all the
people I’d been in contact with over the last week. By the time I’d finished I
had close to forty people.

“How’re you doing over there, Ryli?” Paige asked.

I looked up from my list. “It’s scary to think that one of
these people has already killed two people and is now hell bent on terrorizing
me.”

“Ain’t no one gonna get to you,” Aunt Shirley said, looking
up from her notes. “We’ll make sure of that.”

I hoped she was right.

“Wanna hear what I’ve found?” Paige asked.

Setting my list down on the desk, I gave her my full
attention. “Let’s hear it.”

“Okay. We pretty much know ketamine is a paralytic, a
neuromuscular agent. It can be used on humans and animals. From what I’ve
read,” Paige said, “in order for the killer to have that much control over the
victims, they’d have to have ingested about one hundred twenty-five milligrams
of the ketamine.”

Aunt Shirley whistled. “Sounds like that’s a whole lotta
drug for one person.”

“How do you think they’re ingesting it?” Mindy asked.

Paige nibbled on her lower lip. “I think it’s in a powder
form. From everything I read, it’s the best way to disguise the flavor. The
reports I read said that the liquid form has a very bad taste that’s hard to
cover up. So my guess is it’s in powder form.”

I thought about that for a second. It actually made perfect
sense. “I bet that’s why there’s always food and drink around. The killer is
putting the powder in the drinks or food or something.”

“Can you put it in food?” Mindy asked.

Aunt Shirley and Paige shrugged their shoulders.

I had no idea, either. But I was pretty sure Paige could
find out with a little more research.

“What about people who use this drug or can get their hands
on this drug?” I asked.

Paige’s eyes lit up. “Illegally, there’s no way to
pinpoint…but legally, you’re looking at your doctors, anesthesiologists,
veterinarians, dentists. Maybe even nurses, I don’t know.”

My heart suddenly did double time. “Holy shit…does this mean
we can narrow my list down?” I asked, ruffling the paper in my hand.

Aunt Shirley stood up, pacing back and forth. No one said
anything, we just watched her. I could practically see the wheels turning in
her head as she moved stealthfully across the Berber carpet.

“I don’t know if we can. Even I know in this day and age
everyone from kids to adults can get their hands on illegal drugs. If you know
where to go, it’s not that hard.”

She must have noticed my shocked look. “Hey, I watch Dr.
Phil. I know what’s going on in this world. So, like I was saying, I don’t know
if we can eliminate random drug purchases. Or let’s say it’s stolen. How would
we find that out?” Aunt Shirley said. “I’m not sure we can narrow the list down
because there are too many underlying factors to take into consideration. But
it does help knowing who originally has access to the ketamine.”

It
does?

Seems to me she’d just cut me off at the knees.

“Here’s what I think we should do next. I figure we’re all
going to the memorial service tomorrow. And everyone knows usually the killer
goes to the funeral services—”

“They do?” Paige interrupted.

I was glad she’d said it aloud and not me. I didn’t want to
seem like an idiot.

“They do,” Aunt Shirley assured us. “They like to see the
torture and sadness of the families.”

“Sick,” I said.

“Anyway,” Aunt Shirley continued, “I think we just watch,
look for anything suspicious. Try to surreptitiously look for people who are
watching the reactions of other people. That kind of thing. Maybe if we’re
lucky we’ll see something…or talk with someone that leads to a clue.”

“I like it!” Mindy nodded.

She did? I wasn’t sure I actually followed Aunt Shirley’s
thinking.

“So we people watch in order to find more clues,” Paige
said.

Great, even Paige could follow Aunt Shirley’s ramblings. But
I have to admit, the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. I mean, I
wasn’t ready to abandon my list totally…and I knew exactly which three or four
people I was going to watch.

I told Mom I’d help her with the cooking and baking she
needed to do in order to get ready for Dr. Garver’s memorial the next day. Mom
was on the committee at church that dealt with food preparation.

And, no, I was not on this committee. I was on the committee
that cleaned up
after
the wonderful meal was eaten. But that’s okay,
because it usually meant I got to take home some good leftovers to snack on for
a few days.

Pastor Williams had called off Wednesday night service
because he knew most of the women that attended Wednesday nights would be busy
preparing food, and the men would need to set up tables and chairs.

By the time we finished up at the office and I dropped Aunt
Shirley back off at her place, it was mid-afternoon. I made it to Mom’s house
around three. She was already in the kitchen setting out supplies and
ingredients. My mom usually takes the same thing to every church dinner we
have…corn casserole and some type of fruit crisp, depending on what fruit was
in season.

I learned at an early age the difference between a cobbler
and a crisp. Cobbler had a topping made with a doughy texture, while the crisp
was made up of brown sugar, cinnamon, oats, and other wonderful goodness. I’m
assuming you can tell which topping I preferred.

It looked like today we were doing a mixed berry crisp. I
could see the blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries all thawing in a large
aluminum bowl. When baking in bulk like this, Mom always did frozen fruit to
help speed things along. Next to the fruit sat cinnamon, oats, stick butter,
and brown sugar. I could practically taste the yumminess already!

“Hey, baby,” my mom greeted as she gave me a kiss on the
cheek.

“Hey, Momma,” I said. I know how much she loves when I call
her that. And today I wanted to stay on her good side…because I wanted…no, I
needed
a nice fruit crisp tonight before I went to bed.

“I think we’ll start with three large vats of corn
casserole,” she said as she laid out the massive 18x26 baking pans. My mom was
the only person I knew that had such large cooking containers. I had one 9x12 glass
casserole dish and thought I was doing pretty well just to use it on occasion. “Then
we can start on the crisp after that. Hopefully it’ll still be nice and warm
for you when you head back home,” she added with a knowing smile.

She handed me a pink and black apron with the words
Queen
of Everything
embellished in white rhinestones. Mom was wearing her black
apron that said
This IS My Little Black Dress.
I absolutely loved her
sense of humor.

We spent the next two hours making corn casserole, cooking
it in her monstrosity of an oven. It took me months to even go near the thing
after she bought it…I was too intimidated.

I was very careful about what I said to her about the
murders and how I’d been dragged into the whole mess. She was still kinda put
out that Aunt Shirley was helping me, and that I hadn’t told her everything
from the start.

Once all the corn casseroles were finished, it was dinnertime.
I started clearing off a place on the kitchen island while Mom got out the
fixings for sandwiches. She had just finished making one sandwich when my cell
phone rang.

Be still my heart!
It was
Garrett. I could feel my heart racing as I swiped my finger to answer. I tried
to tell myself to be cool, but I could hear the breathiness in my voice as I
answered.

“Hey there, Sin,” he chuckled.

I smiled. I actually smiled at the nickname. This was so not
good!

“What’s going on?” I asked. I figured there had to be a
pretty good reason for him to call me, during the day, on a day he was working.
This was not like Garrett.

“Not much.” Pause. “Well, that’s not true, we are in the
middle of trying to solve this case as you know.” Pause. “I was wondering if
you were going to be home later tonight…maybe around eight?”

I wasn’t sure if I should be leery or excited…his voice was
giving nothing away. “I’ll be home. I’m at Mom’s right now getting ready to
make the fruit crisp we’re taking to the memorial tomorrow. But I’ll be home by
eight for sure.”

“Good deal. I should have a little time to myself before I
go back on call around nine. Can I drop by?”

Yes, yes, yes!
my mind
screamed. Thankfully my mouth didn’t comply with my brain—a first!

“Sure. And I’ll have warm berry crisp to snack on. How’s
that?”

There was a slight pause. I knew he was thinking about the
last dessert I’d made. I tried not to be offended, but it wasn’t working. I guess
hormones beat out fear of poisoning, because Garrett quickly said, “Ummm…great.
I’ll bring vanilla ice cream. See ya later tonight, Sin.”

He hung up before I could say anything back. Which was a
good thing, because I seemed to be lacking witty comebacks with my tongue tied
as it was.

“So, gonna have a little rendezvous later tonight, huh?” my
mom teased as I turned back around and slid the phone in my pocket.

I felt my face flush. It was always weird hearing my mom
talk about sex…but it was extremely horrifying when it was
my
sex life
she was talking about. There are just some things best left alone.

“Yes, Garrett is stopping by for some—” I almost said
dessert, but realized that might be construed in a twisted manner.

Mom arched a brow then burst out laughing. “Oh, Ryli! Don’t
be such a stick in the mud! It’s okay for you to have a boy over.”

A boy?
Nope, a man. A man who could
single-handedly tear my world and heart apart if I let him. A man who could
make me respond to him in ways that terrified me. I was so worried about
getting hurt…hurt so badly I didn’t know if I could ever recover.

I must’ve had a terrified look on my face, because Mom
suddenly hugged me and kissed my head. “Don’t fret, Ryli. This could be a very
good thing. And even if it doesn’t end how you want it to, just remember…don’t
ever be afraid to take the ride. The ride is always the best part.”