The Girl in the Woods (14 page)

“A
nd you say she’s a widow once before?”

It was the incredulous voice of Percy Smith of the state crime lab.

“That’s what I said, Percy. Two times a widow.”

Birdy took off a silver hoop earring that was starting to irritate her phone ear. “A young widow at that.”

She swiveled in her chair and looked over at the computer screen as Percy discussed his findings. Pages from his fax were falling onto the ratty green carpet that covered the floor of the old house, the soon-to-be abandoned Kitsap County coroner’s office.

“The first death was in Arizona,” she said.

“You’re going to have to tell the authorities down there,” he said. “Hey, I might be able to do that for you. Kind of like a mini vacation. Love the sun.”

“We’ve had three beautiful days in a row,” Birdy said. The printer stopped dropping pages, signaling that the job was done.

“Which means that we’re about to have rain for a month. Hang on. Getting a hard copy of the report.”

It might not have been Jennifer Roberts’s lucky day, but it was shaping up to be a better one for Birdy. She managed to scoop up the pages of the report in the correct order—that was a good thing. Sometimes it took five minutes to figure out what went where. For some unknown reason Percy’s reports never had page numbers.

“Ethylene glycol poisoning,” she repeated from the report. “How often do you see that?”

“Once before, but other places have more than their share of antifreeze poisonings,” Percy said. “Georgia had a good case a few years back.”

“Any chance that it was accidental?” she asked. “Suicide? He’d been ill.”

“If you think Prestone is a good mixer, I guess so,” Percy said in that oddly upbeat voice he had for everything. “Suicide is possible. I looked it up. It has happened. But from what you told me, I’d say highly unlikely. Jessica Roberts is probably the killer.”

“Jennifer,” Birdy said, correcting him.

Percy let out a little laugh. “Whatever. I always screw up on those J names. Anyway, I’m one hundred percent certain that there was enough of the stuff in his body to keep cars running in a Dakota blizzard.”

“If she’d been poisoning him, how was it that he just let her?” she asked.

Percy let out a short, clipped laugh. “I wasn’t kidding when I said it could be a mixer. Seriously. The stuff is actually kind of sweet and hard to detect when served up to someone. You know, as a mix in. Heck, pets manage to find a pool of it under the family car every now and then. That’s without it even hidden in food or drink. Straight. They lick it because it tastes good and pretty soon, bam, kitty’s dead.”

As Birdy listened to Percy on the phone, she reached for her own report.

“His lungs, heart, looked good,” she said, scanning its pages. “His kidneys were shot.”

“Yup, that’s what killed him,” he said.

 

 

Kendall was on the phone in her dark little office when Birdy found her. Kendall caught Birdy’s intense gaze and abruptly ended her call.

“Ted Roberts died of renal failure,” Birdy said.

“Right,” she said. “You said that in your report.”

“Kendall, the Roberts samples were analyzed by the crime lab. Percy said that the poor guy’s tissues were practically ‘marinated’ in ethylene glycol.”

“Antifreeze?”

Birdy handed her the papers that Percy had faxed. “Right. Barring suicide and accidental poisoning, manner of death is homicide.”

“You’re missing an earring.”

Birdy touched her right lobe. “Thanks. Just in a hurry.”

“Me too. Let’s see what Jennifer Roberts has to say.”

Kendall picked up her phone. “Tell her you have some important news about her husband’s death.”

“Well, I do,” Birdy said. “Are you going to arrest her?”

“Let’s see how it plays out,” Kendall said.

She handed Birdy the phone and looked at her notes with the phone number Jennifer had given for her cell and started dialing.

“You tell her to meet at your office at her earliest convenience.”

Birdy listened and then passed the phone back. “No answer.”

“Keep trying. Don’t leave a message. In the meantime, I’ll do a little more digging into Jennifer’s background in Arizona.”

 

 

Jennifer Roberts arrived at the coroner’s office in a force field of perfume and wearing a skirt that was so short it had to have been borrowed from her daughter’s closet. She teetered on five-inch heels. Her eyes were obscured by sunglasses. She apologized for not picking up her phone the first three times Birdy had tried, but she said she’d had her nails done and they were still wet when the calls came through.

“You said you had some important news about Teddy?”

Kendall appeared, right on time.

“Oh, detective, I didn’t know you’d be here,” Jennifer said.

“No worries,” she said. “Just doing my job.”

Birdy spoke up, answering Jennifer’s original question. “I do. I’m glad you’re both here. Let’s go in my office. I have some very upsetting news, Ms. Roberts.”

The three women took their places. Birdy behind her desk with the copy of the report that Percy had faxed her, fanned out. Kendall and Jennifer facing her. Kendall adjusted her chair so that it angled a little in Jennifer’s direction.

“I’m afraid that your husband died of poisoning,” Birdy said, holding the last word an extra beat.

Jennifer looked over at Kendall, then back at the forensic pathologist. She took off her glasses. Her eyes appeared puffy and red.

“That can’t be. Poisoning? That’s horrendous!”

“Yes it is,” Birdy said. “I’m afraid it is.”

Kendall just watched, observing every tic and movement. Jennifer stood up and reached for the report.

“I don’t believe you,” she said. “Teddy never would have taken any poison. Except for his drinking he was a complete health nut. For God’s sake he even ate quinoa. Who eats that? There’s no way he could have been poisoned.”

Birdy persisted. “But, Jennifer, he was.”

“Let me see,” Jennifer said, stretching her hand outward. “I don’t believe you.”

Birdy handed her the report. She tapped her finger on the words
ethylene glycol
.

Jennifer looked up. “What’s that?” she asked. “I don’t know what that is.”

This time Kendall answered. “Antifreeze. But you already know that.”

“That’s crazy! Why would he take antifreeze? That’s for cars, isn’t it?”

“So you’re familiar with it?” Kendall asked.

Jennifer stared at Kendall. “Are you accusing me of something?”

“No. Just asking a question, that’s all.”

“I resent your tone,” Jennifer said. “I had a very loving relationship with my husband. I adored him. He was my everything and you’re . . . you’re accusing me of doing something terrible. I would never, ever. Ever.” She stopped to catch her breath. Tears had filled her eyes and her hands were trembling.

Jennifer looked over at Birdy.

“And you, are you the grim reaper? You invite me over here to tell me about my husband and you treat me like this? What kind of people are you? I have lost something very, very precious to me. My children are orphans again. This is one of the worst—maybe
the
worst—thing that has ever happened to me and I’ve had my share of hardships. Life has not been a bed of roses.”

“I’m sorry about your loss,” Birdy said, finding her voice in the spectacle that was swarming in front of her. Jennifer Roberts was on a very defensive rant.

“You should be,” Jennifer said. “If you had a heart you would be. But I think that people like you and the detective here get all warm and fuzzy by delivering such hateful news.”

“The fact of the matter, Ms. Roberts, is that your husband was murdered. We want to find out who did it,” Kendall said.

“Blame me,” Jennifer said. “Blame me for not taking better care of him. Maybe it is my fault, but I did not poison him. I loved him. I don’t know how I’m going to survive. I don’t even have any insurance money.”

“How much insurance did Mr. Roberts have?” Kendall asked. As long as Jennifer was going to talk, the detective was going to ask her. She hadn’t been charged and she wasn’t officially a suspect. No Miranda applied.

Yet
.

“I don’t know. A couple hundred thousand. Through the military.”

“That’s a lot for a government policy,” Kendall said.

“We had some supplemental. He wanted to make sure that Ruby and Micah could go to college, you know, if anything ever happened to him.”

“And now something has,” Kendall said.

“You are so out of line, detective. I’m going now. I’m going home and am trying to put all of this harassment behind me.”

With that Jennifer Roberts spun around on her five-inch heels, like a pair of compasses stuck into the floor. She scurried toward the door and slammed it shut.

“What in the world was that all about?” Birdy said. “I’ve never seen anything like that in my life. Grim reaper, indeed.”

Kendall got up. “It’ll tell you what that is. That’s a guilty woman trying to make a run for it.”

“Why don’t you get an arrest warrant?” Birdy asked.

“There isn’t enough evidence, Birdy.”

Birdy looked at her friend. It didn’t completely compute. “She practically confessed, Kendall. She said this might have been all her fault.”

“We’re not there yet. She’s not going anywhere anytime soon.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because of the motive. She killed the supposed love of her life for money. She needs to make the claim. In order to do that she’ll need a death certificate. How long does it take you to have one of those recorded?”

“Five days, sometimes longer with the county workers’ furlough.”

“When will you put it in?”

Birdy understood where the detective was going and it made her feel a little uncomfortable.

“How long do you want me to delay it?” she asked.

“A week?”

Birdy nodded. “Doable. Any longer and I’d feel funny about it.”

“Good. In the meantime, I’ll contact the sheriff down in Maricopa County. We need to file some paperwork on an exhumation. You’ll be going to Arizona.”

P
ort Orchard, a town of under ten thousand, didn’t have many strip malls, but among the few, it did manage to have four tanning salons. After her meltdown with the Kitsap County detective and forensic pathologist, Jennifer Roberts parked in front of the Desert Enchantment location on Mile Hill Road. She held her phone to her ear for a minute or two, listening. After hanging up, she went inside. She lingered in the waiting area while her daughter, Ruby, finished upselling a customer a one-year “Guaranteed Gorgeous” tanning package (a package that workers there called “Guaranteed Cancerous”).

“You can come in any time, five times a day if you want,” Ruby said. “We don’t really recommend that, but I just want you to know.”

The woman, white as a porcelain platter, burbled something about an upcoming Mexican vacation and thanked Ruby.

“Room six,” Ruby said, as the woman started down the hallway, past the airbrushed posters of the most beautiful human bodies ever committed to paper.

Ruby acknowledged her mom with a sympathetic look.

“New bulbs in there,” Ruby called out to the new customer. “I’m only giving you six minutes.”

“Mom,” Ruby said, reaching for her mother, “you look terrible.”

“I know,” Jennifer said.

“Let’s go in the dryer room so we can talk.” She turned toward a semi-orange girl named Lucerne who’d appeared with a sanitizing spray bottle from one of the rooms. “Lu, watch the counter. Mom and I need some privacy.”

The girl took the spray bottle and went to the front desk. “Sorry about your loss, Ms. Roberts,” she said.

Jennifer started to cry behind her dark glasses, mouthed a thank-you, and followed her daughter down the corridor past the pretty posters to a small room outfitted with four large LG red-enameled dryers. It looked like an appliance dealership. All but one was on the tumble cycle.

Ruby had her long blond hair in a messy bun. Silver and turquoise earrings that she had made herself from looking at a magazine photograph dangled. She was tanned, but not overly so. The seventeen-year-old wore a pretty pink, almost nude shade of lip color. She probably looked exactly like her mother did when she was a teenager. She didn’t have her mother’s figure, of course. She’d been saving up for that.

Ruby shut the door and put her arms around her mom.

“Mom, you’re not doing okay. What happened?”

Jennifer looked away and then started to sob. It started slowly, like a kettle just beginning to simmer. A moment later, it was a roiling boil. The sound of the spinning dryers muffled her outburst.

“It’ll be okay, Mom,” Ruby said. “Everything will work out.”

Jennifer pulled back and took off her glasses.

“Can I?” she said, looking at one of the white towels.

“Here,” Ruby said, getting her one. “It’s still warm.” She dabbed at her mother’s eyes.

Jennifer acknowledged the gesture with a slight smile. “Thank you. I’ve just come from the authorities. They think that this is my fault. They think that I poisoned Ted.”

Ruby put the towel down. It was tear- and mascara-stained and would need to go back in the wash.

“They don’t,” she said.

Jennifer held her daughter. “Yes, honey. They do.”

“Why?”

Their embrace was short-lived. Jennifer stepped back and started to pace. “I don’t know. Because of what happened to your dad, I guess. Maybe they are jealous. It could be anything. The people are so suspicious up here. I loved Teddy. He was my dream come true. Now that he’s gone they are trying to turn it into something very ugly.”

“You don’t deserve this, Mom. What are you going to do? What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know. I mean, I didn’t do anything to Teddy. I loved him.”

“I know, Mom. I know. What do you want me to do?”

“Nothing,” Jennifer said. “There’s nothing you can do.”

“They aren’t going to arrest you. Are they?”

Jennifer stopped moving about the small room and looked at her daughter, dead-eyed.

“No,” she said. “I don’t see how. I didn’t do anything.”

“Do you want me to talk to them? Tell them they are all wrong? That Molly next door could have poisoned him? She gave him that stupid cake. I got sick eating some of that. So did Micah.”

Jennifer pondered that. “I don’t think so. Molly is a stupid girl, but she’s not a murderer. I can’t think of any reason why she would want to hurt him.”

“She was in love with him,” Ruby said.

“Let me think. I don’t know if I should get a lawyer or what.”

“Why would you need a lawyer?”

“Honey, they are looking for someone to blame. I just talked to your aunt Stacy. She said that the detective called down there asking all kinds of inappropriate and cruel questions. Her friend who works at the sheriff’s office told her. I just talked to Stacy right now.”

Ruby’s eyes widened. “About Daddy? Why are they asking about him, Mom?”

“I think they think I killed him,” Jennifer said.

Lucerne poked her head into the dryer room. She looked concerned.

“What is it, Lu?” Ruby said. Her voice carried a snap.

“Sorry to bug you, Ruby and Ms. Roberts. I know you have a lot going on. But a sheriff’s detective is here. She wants to talk to you.”

“I’m not talking to her,” Jennifer said. “I’ve said everything I’m going to say.”

Lu shook her head. “Not you, Ms. Roberts. She’s here for Ruby.”

 

 

Kendall Stark had only been in a tanning salon once in her life. Three years prior she reluctantly agreed to be in her cousin’s December wedding in Spokane. Someone suggested the hideous pale purple dress she’d been forced into wearing would look better if she had a little color added to her winter-white body. She ended up getting a spray tan that made her look like an orange and grape Popsicle.

Never again.

“Why are you harassing my family?” Jennifer said as she and Ruby faced Kendall in the lobby of Desert Enchantment.

“Lu, go fold some towels,” Ruby said.

Lu, miffed about missing out on some family drama, left.

“I’m not harassing anyone, Ms. Roberts. I’m investigating the case.”

“I want you to leave my family alone.”

“Your daughter can talk to me,” Kendall said. “She’s free to do so.”

“I don’t—I
won’t
—and neither will my brother,” Ruby said. “We love our mother and you’ve got her all wrong. We loved our father. He was a good man and you are making this worse.”

“Stepfather, Ruby,” Kendall said. “He was your stepfather.”

“He adopted us,” Ruby said. “He loved us. We were a happy family.”

The detective turned to Jennifer. “It would really help the investigation if your daughter and son came in for a statement. It’ll be all over the news tomorrow.”

“What will?” she asked.

“That Ted Roberts was the victim of a homicide.”

“Why are you putting that on the news?”

“I don’t put anything on the news,” Kendall said. “The
Kitsap Sun
has already talked to the coroner’s office.”

Ruby looked at her mother. “Mom, shouldn’t Micah and I make some kind of statement?”

“Absolutely not. We have nothing to hide, but it’s obvious that I’m being blamed for all of this. I know what you think. I still have friends in Arizona.”

“Mom?” Ruby asked. “What’s going on?”

Jennifer kept her eyes on Kendall. “She thinks I killed your father too.”

Ruby’s face went a shade darker on the spray-on tan scale. “He died of a heart attack, you bitch!” she said to Kendall.

Kendall took a step back. “Look, I know you’re upset. I understand. But real life is messy. Things aren’t always what they seem.” She glanced at one of the posters. It showed a woman in a retro bikini standing at the edge of a pool, a forest of saguaro cactus marching into the background of a flawless blue sky. There was nary a wrinkle on her face, a bulge or ripple on her lithe figure. She noticed the sloppy edge of the Photoshopper’s handiwork.

“No thing and no one is perfect,” she said. “Mistakes can always be found.”