Sweet Ginger Poison (19 page)

As Ginger was walking up to Coreyville Coffee Cakes,
her cell phone rang. It was the chief.

“She’s dead.”

“From the poison?”

“What poison? She drove straight into the back of an
18-wheeler that was parked on the side of the highway. She must have been doing
at least eighty.”

She felt sad about Silvy. Ginger was probably the only
person in the entire world who cared that Silvy was dead. She wished the poor
girl could have been helped before she went off the deep end. “Thanks for
letting me know, Chief.”

“No problem. And, by the way, we were able to trace
Danny’s pistol back to a gun dealer in Longview. It wasn’t Danny’s gun. And now
I’m pretty sure I know who killed him.”

“Who?”

“I don’t want to say until after we pick him up. I’ll
let you know.”

“Thanks.”

When Ginger walked into her bakery she saw only two
customers, sitting at a table. Lacey was behind the counter. Ginger motioned
for Lacey to follow her into the kitchen.

“Where have
you
been this morning?” said Addie.

“I slept in. But then I got busy and figured out who
killed Navy.”

“Who?” Lacey and Addie said it in unison.

“Silvy Knox.”

“Who’s that?” said Addie.

“Yeah,” said Lacey, “I don’t know who that is either.”

Ginger looked at Lacey. “You might remember her as
Molly Castorside from high school.”

“Oh, yeah—they called her
Castor Oil.”

“Right,” said Ginger.

“
I
never called her that,” said Lacey. “But I
wanted
to after she tricked Navy into having sex with her.”

“What?” said Addie.

“She fixed herself up real pretty for Navy’s
graduation party,” said Ginger. “The kids didn’t even recognize her. And Navy
liked her new look so much that he took her up to his bedroom. Where were you
that night, Lacey?”

“My stupid, mean parents wouldn’t let me go.”

“Anyway, Molly came up pregnant,” said Ginger.

“You’re kidding?” said Lacey. “I didn’t know about
that.”

“Yeah,” said Ginger. “And Navy wouldn’t even talk to
her. She ended up losing the baby.”

“So, after all these years she killed him for it?”
said Addie.

“I think she would have been okay if her mother hadn’t
died. After that she just kind of went over the edge. She moved here and got a
job working for Cash Crawley. And she had some kind of relationship with Bull
Crawley as well.”

“How did she get the fish oil into the coffee cake?”
said Lacey.

“With a syringe,” said Ginger. “She knew about Navy’s
allergy and the Epi-Pen. She did it while Navy was delivering my stolen recipe
book to Cash Crawley.”

“So, she’s on her way to jail?” said Addie.

“No,” said Ginger. “She’s on her way to the morgue.
She drove her truck into the back of a tractor-trailer rig.”

“Well, I hate to say it,” said Lacey, “but it’s what
she deserved.”

“She may have already been dead when she crashed,”
said Ginger. “Right before she drove away from me, she ate a handful of Castor
beans.”

“What’s that?” said Addie.

“They’re seeds that are produced by the Castor plant.
But they call them beans, because that’s what they look like. If you squeeze
the beans you get Castor oil. It’s used in a lot of different kinds of
products.”

“My momma used to give us kids Castor oil when we
needed a laxative,” said Addie.

“Yeah,” said Ginger. “That’s one of the uses. But
Castor beans also produce something else: ricin.”

“Ricin?” said Addie. “Isn’t that the stuff that
terrorists use?”

“Yes.”

“How did you know all this?” said Lacey.

“I looked it up at the library,” said Ginger. “Silvy
gave both Cash and Bull a Castor plant. She grew them at the nursery in Gilmer
where she had been working. The Crawley brothers didn’t even know what it was
or how dangerous it was. They didn’t know how dangerous
she was
.”

“So, she was planning to kill the Crawley brothers
too?” said Addie.

“No. She just wanted to let them know that she
could
have killed them. Although she did spike their coffee with some kind of
very strong laxative. They’re not feeling too well at the moment. But they’ll
survive.”

“What about Danny?” said Lacey.

“No,” said Ginger, “she didn’t kill him.”

“Who
did?”
said Addie.

“Well, I—”

Ginger’s phone rang.

“Excuse me. It’s the chief.”

“Hello?…So, you picked him up?…Good…Thanks, Chief.”

“Lacey, you can relax now,” said Ginger. “I
thought
it was him.”

“Who?” said Lacey.

“Manny Monet,” said Ginger. “The gun you gave me to
hold onto—it was not Danny’s gun. It belonged to Manny.”

“I knew Danny wasn’t a killer,” said Lacey.

“Well, I’m afraid he
tried
to be one,” said
Ginger. “The chief thinks that Manny had hired him to shoot Navy, but Danny got
cold feet. And then when Navy died, Danny tried to take credit for the murder
so he could still get paid. Apparently that’s what got him killed. I’m sorry to
have to tell you that, Sweetie.” Ginger hugged Lacey.

Lacey was clearly better off without Navy or Danny in
her life. But it might take her a while to fully realize it. In the future,
Ginger would try to steer her toward more promising husband material.

**********

Jane poured the box of dominos out on the table.
“Well, you’ve had quite a week, Ginger.”

“I can’t believe it’s only been a week,” said Ginger.

“Yeah, talk about life in the fast lane,” said Barb.

“We have our very own Jessica Fletcher,” said Ethel.

“Coreyville is no Cabot Cove, Ethel,” said Barb.

“I don’t know,” said Jane, “we do have a dumb
sheriff.”

“Chief of police,” corrected Ginger. “And he’s not
dumb. He’s just a little young and bull-headed. But he’s gonna be okay.”

“Yeah—as long as you help him out,” said Barb.

“Right,” said Jane.

“No,” said Ginger. “This is it for me. I’m hanging it
up. The only reason I got involved this time was because of Lacey.”

“So, what if it’s one of us next time, Ginge?” said
Barb. “Suppose Ethel is suspected of robbing a liquor store?”

“Yeah,” said Ethel, “surely you’d come out of
retirement to save me.”

“Let’s just try to stay out of trouble,” said Jane.
“Ginger has more important things to deal with now.”

“Like what?” said Barb.

“Jane.” Ginger gave her the evil eye.

But Jane couldn’t help herself. “Ginger had a date
with Elijah last night.”

“Ooh,” said Ethel.

“Details,” said Barb.

“See what you’ve done,” said Ginger, glaring at Jane.

“Well, that’s what you get for telling just one of
us,” said Barb. “And why did you pick Jane instead of me?”

“I didn’t pick her,” said Ginger. “She pried it out of
me.”

“So, how was it?” said Ethel.

“Yeah,” said Barb, “did you get any tongue?”

“Barb!” said Ginger.

They laughed at Ginger uncontrollably. Finally, she
joined them.

She looked forward to many more Saturday nights with
the Domino Girls. And many more kisses from Elijah.

THE END

If you enjoyed this free version of Sweet
Ginger Poison, please consider supporting the author by
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Special thanks to

Don Neuman & Lynda Robinson

The story in this book is a
work of fiction. The characters and events described in this story are
imaginary and resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely
coincidental.

Sweet Ginger Poison

THIRD EBOOK EDITION - Sept. 2011

Copyright ©
2008 Robert Burton Robinson

All rights reserved.

Cover
background image:

flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library

Greg
Tenorly Suspense Series:

Bicycle Shop Murder

Hideaway Hospital Murders

Illusion of Luck

Fly the Rain

22 Short Stories

Naked Frame

Amateur Investigator

(and nine
other short stories)