Alex Harris 00 - Poisoned

problem. Without knowing who was supposed to die in the first place, we’re not sure where to search. If it was Bradley, then the history seems to be the only logical reason. Though there’s nothing there worth killing over. Now, if it were Mrs. Brissart, then the land would be the reason or maybe her past relationship with Charles. And we have a whole slew of suspects. But like I mentioned to Millie and Sam yesterday, why did they wait so long to kill her?”
    Mary-Beth reached into the container and took a cheese ball. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
    “As far as I can gather, the family started to badger Mrs. Brissart about the land during the summer. She refused to sell right from the first. So why wait until now to do something?”
    “Interest rates are going up,” Sam offered.
    I rolled my eyes. “Seriously. Why wait?”
    “Probably just an act of desperation. The killer never thought about murder before, but as time goes by, realizes it’s a hopeless cause trying to rationalize with Mrs. Brissart and has had enough and voila! Brings a bit of poison to the party,” Mary-Beth said.
    “But if June wanted to kill her over this Charles thing, why all the waiting?” I asked.
    “You don’t forget your one true love,” Meme said wistfully. “I loved my James ’til the day he died, even if he did cheat and we were separated for all those years. If June loved this man like that and her sister pried him away, she wouldn’t forget. Believe me.”
    “Meme, if you loved Grandpa so much why didn’t you go after the other women he went with?” I asked.
    “He always came back. Even when we got separated, he came over every night for dinner and, well, we always had a thing for each other in the bedroom.” Meme gave her little cackle again and we all smiled. “That man was hot!”
    “Mrs. Redmond, why didn’t you ever just divorce after all those years?” Millie asked.
    “Getting separated was just a formality. I wanted to show him I meant business with all his cattin’ around. But divorce? No. He was Irish Catholic and I’m Italian Catholic. Besides, I loved him and he loved me. He couldn’t help himself.”
    “Maybe something new surfaced with regard to Charles or maybe there’s something about him in the history,” Mary-Beth said getting back to June and Charles.
    “No. The history stopped when Mrs. Brissart and her sisters were born,” I said pensively.
    “Going back to Mrs. Brissart as the main suspect, how about if Bradley found out something truly disturbing about his grandmother?” Sam suggested in between bites of carrot and maneuvering the car. “Then that would support John’s theory of her being the killer.”
    “Okay, not that I want to entertain the theory Mrs. Brissart could harm a fly let alone kill someone, I’ll play along,” I conceded. “It would have to be something horrific for a grandmother to kill a grandson. I’m not sure there could be anything that bad. And if it was that bad, wouldn’t it have been brought to light well before this? You can’t keep certain things secret forever.”
    “What does John say about the history?” Sam asked.
    “Nothing to me. And I somehow neglected to tell him I had a copy.”
    “You little devil,” Mary-Beth chuckled from the back. “So the way I understand it is this, if the grandmother did it, the family history must fit in somewhere or else why would she kill her own grandson? And if the family history has nothing whatsoever to do with Bradley’s murder, then Mrs. Brissart must have been the intended victim all along.”
    “Which,” Millie said, “seems to open up a lot more slots for suspects.”
    “How so?” Sam asked.
    “The only reason we can think of for Bradley being killed is his work on the family tree. If Mrs. Brissart was the one the killer was aiming for, well then, we have the whole family after her, don’t we?”
    “True, Millie, but if the poison was meant for Bradley, and the history is the motive, we have all the same suspects,” I corrected. “I haven’t spoken with everyone yet, but I assume most knew about his interest in the history. Any one of those goofy relatives might have good cause not to have something revealed by Bradley’s searching. Though they all seem very forthcoming and proud of their background.”
    Millie sighed. “Yeah, I see. I guess you’re right. So the suspects remain the same no matter who the victim should have been because if Bradley found out something