Alex Harris 00 - Poisoned

for goodness sake.” May pointed to a spot somewhere in the entry hall.
    “Who knows who else she lets come into her house? And of course there’s the gardener, Mr. Kaminski,” added June. “He actually lives in this house. Roberta is far too friendly with her staff. She shouldn’t have live-ins, not in this day and age!”
    “Mrs. Estenfelder…May, why would any of these people want to kill Bradley?” I asked hoping that some light might be shed on my newfound suspicions of Mrs. Platz.
    “Well, that’s just something that your Mr. Van der Burg will have to ascertain. He will not get to the real culprit wasting valuable time on us. I would venture to say that the person responsible is probably clear to Mexico by now,” May said, waving her hand in a direction that I knew did not lead to Mexico.
    A smarmy looking man entered the living room and came to where we sat. I recognized him at once from the accurate description Mrs. Brissart gave that this was the infamous Mr. Smit.
    “There you are. I wondered what happened to you,” June said, suddenly acting like a lovesick schoolgirl.
    I envisioned the scenario Mrs. Brissart laid out for John and me yesterday about these two off in one of the rooms upstairs, clawing at each other’s flesh. It had been funny to hear about it but now that I had the two participants right in front of me my visions weren’t as amusing as yesterday.
    “J.T. here has some wonderful ideas for our land. He’s planning a whole new community up there,” June gushed the words out all the while gazing up at this lizard.
    Hard as I might, I just couldn’t fathom what on earth June saw in this man. His eyes were small and red-rimmed, and his hair, what little he had, was a greasy mess plastered on to an egg-shaped head. Crooked teeth filled his mouth. I put him at about forty-five though he looked older. But as unappealing as I found him, I wondered what he saw in June.
    I sat there feeling weighed down by the massive amount of meat I consumed at lunch. I felt sick and wanted to leave but John’s words came flooding back. Mrs. Brissart hasn’t been cleared as a suspect . I had three suspects right here, top ones at that. I couldn’t let a couple pounds of bread and meat digesting in my stomach get me down. With a straightening of my shoulders meant to convey determination to my mind, I told myself I was on a mission, and one that a certain policeman did not share—to clear Mrs. Brissart’s name. I’m sure Winston had to go into battle on more than one occasion with a few too many meat pies sitting in his all too prominent belly and if he could do it so could I.
    So without further ado, I smiled at each one of my suspects and said, “So all of you showed up Monday night,” hoping to catch them off guard.
    “Why, of course we did. We arranged for the meeting in the first place,” both sisters said in unison totally oblivious to my catching-them-off-guard strategy.
    “Yes, that’s right. Roberta is proving to be very difficult. The sale of this land would make her very wealthy indeed, not to mention that house of hers.”
    June and May nodded their agreement to this last profound statement coming from the mouth of J.T.
    “I thought she already had plenty of money,” I voiced, knowing full well adding to Mrs. Brissart’s coffer never entered their minds.
    “Of course Roberta’s a wealthy woman, but you can never have too much money, now can you?” J.T. smirked at me. Did I see a wink? Was he flirting with me? In front of his beloved?
    I turned slightly giving J.T. a glimpse of my back and directed my next question to the twins. “Do you have any idea why someone wanted to kill Bradley?”
    “Of course not!” May said putting her hand close to her heart. “We’ve already told that detective everything that happened that night.”
    “What exactly did happen, Mrs. Estenfelder?”
    May heaved a huge sigh, forcing her bosom to strain the buttons of her dress. “Everyone arrived by five-thirty. Really, we’ve already told the police all of this.”
    “Maybe if we tell it again, someone will finally listen. And she is dating that detective,” June enthused to her sister. This seemed to appease May and June continued. “J.T. made his presentation about his plans for the land. And an excellent presentation it was!” She gushed again at the man who seemed to be a bit embarrassed or was it disgusted, with her attention.
    “Oh, do you have a sketch of what it’ll