Alex Harris 00 - Poisoned

John turned his attention to Roberta. “I suggest you throw out anything that’s been opened and your cosmetics and creams as well. And maybe you and Mrs. Platz should dine alone for a while and order out or go out to a restaurant.”
    “It seems a bit extreme, doesn’t it?”
    “No, it most certainly does not, Roberta,” said Lillian. “We’ve already lost Bradley. We will not— will not lose you, too.”
    I went back to my seat and looked down into the empty teacup I brought into the study and thought for a moment that my stomach hurt.
    “We plan to interview everyone again along with anyone else who’s been in the house recently,” John said. “If I’m right, we’re looking for two different people.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

    John warned us to keep this latest bit of information to ourselves. After we left the study he asked Detective Maroni to call everyone. Within an hour, most of the relatives were back. Mrs. Brissart’s two sisters and their friend, Mr. Smit, looked unhappy and threatened several times throughout the morning that “the mayor will hear about this.”
    Kenneth and Lillian retreated. Lillian worked on the death announcements I had never finished, insisting that it was her son who had died and she should be the one to do this most terrible of tasks. I offered to help, but she declined saying she wished to be alone with her thoughts. Her husband seemed at a loss and I spied him out in the back garden several times throughout the morning looking up at the tree house.
    I spent the remainder of the morning making calls for Mrs. Brissart and typing several letters to various credit card companies on Bradley’s behalf.
    Right before noon, a very tired looking John came to talk with me.
    “What’s wrong now?” I asked. When he was tired his handsome features took on a boyish quality and the more tired he became the younger he looked. Right now, I’d place him at about eight.
    “I want to talk with you about something in private.”
    “Go ahead.”
    “I know you want to help Mrs. Brissart, but I want you to be careful.”
    I didn’t like the sound of this. “For goodness sake, why?”
    “Because Mrs. Brissart is still a suspect.”
    I almost jumped out of my chair and would have if he hadn’t firmly rested his hand on my shoulder. “You can’t be serious. Have you lost your mind?”
    “No, I have not. It’s my job to be suspicious of everyone. Mrs. Brissart included. I don’t have a personal history with her like you do.”
    “What, pray tell, has brought you to view her in a suspicious manner?” I folded my arms and eyed John with more than a little anger. We rarely argue so I guess we were due for one. “I thought she was the intended victim?”
    “You heard her, she put extra almonds in the macaroons. Probably to hide the taste of the cyanide. She knew her grandson would be here because he came every Monday evening, and with everyone else around there would be suspects galore. She comes off as being on the eccentric side, but it may just be a game to belie her intelligence. And the discovery of the second poison is highly suspect. I think she may have done it to throw us off.”
    “Yes, she knew Bradley would be here, but so what, and how did she know everyone else would be here?”
    “Because her sister told her earlier in the morning.”
    “But she already started the cookies by then. She told me she bought the ingredients on Saturday, so how did she know then that they would all return on Monday?” I asked. “And that reminds me, have you checked the actual ingredients used, not just the cookies? Maybe someone at the grocery store is randomly dropping poison into flour sacks.”
    “As a matter of fact, the police are not as inept as you seem to think,” John said, his own anger showing. “It’s one of the first things we did.”
    “And?”
    “And nothing. Which means the cyanide came after they were made.”
    “That still doesn’t implicate her, for pity’s sake. You are grabbing at thin air, John Van der Burg. She made the cookies because she loved her grandson. And , she put extra almonds in them because that’s how he liked them. As for the other poison, I don’t buy her trying to throw everyone off. Anyone could have taken a sip of that stuff.”
    “Nothing would happen with one sip. She knew this and just used it as a ruse.”
    “Well, tell me this, Detective, if you’re so smart. Why didn’t she put poison in all the cookies and kill