Dead In The Water (Rebecca Schwartz Mystery #4) (The Rebecca Schwartz Series)

you’re going to eat everything—the liver, the skin, the intestines—all the yummy parts absolutely saturated in the world’s deadliest nerve toxin.”
    The last of the
huevos
were disappearing. The man ate like most people breathe.
    “We’ll all watch our Rebecca fillet the fish, and then chop the onions and garlic—cooking for the people she loves, just a perfect little … What’s the Yiddish word, Rebecca?”
    "
Balabosta
.”
    “And then we’ll smell those delightful smells while it’s cooking. Probably we won’t smell them for long, though, because I bet you all four shit your pants thinking about what’s in store. There are quite a few terrifying symptoms, but in the end, the toxin works by paralysis. You’ll just freeze up, bit by bit, till you can’t move. They say the victims retain acute mental consciousness till the last moment—no coma, no nothing.” He yawned. “Coffee time.”
    I hoped that meant what I thought it did. He went into the kitchen, banged things around, and finally yelled, “Esperanza, can you operate this goddamn coffee machine?”
    He couldn’t see us. I shook my head at her. “No!” she shouted.
    “I can!” I sang out sweetly. To the kids I whispered, “Make noise in about ten minutes.”
    He untied me and we went through the watching routine once more. I had to search for the coffee and then struggle to figure out the damned coffeemaker, but he barely noticed, he was so self-absorbed; back in lecture mode.
    “The whole thing—the thing with Sadie—was a misunderstanding, you see. But a fortuitous error, it turned out. It changed everything.”
    “Right. Now you’re a homicidal maniac.” I palmed another capsule.
    “Homicidal, temporarily. But a maniac, no. Ever since that first delicious moment—the moment that opened up the world—everything I’ve done has been supremely rational. Completely logical. Absolutely necessary. And of course, I’ll stop killing after tonight. I
would
be crazy to think I could keep on getting away with it.”
    He scraped up a glob of salsa with a chip, stashed it, chewed loudly. I absolutely couldn’t believe it. The fat slob was eating again. “It’s interesting how these things happen. It’s like it was meant to be, like a portal opens and says, ‘Warren, step through me.’ The portal was Sadie in this case, of course.”
    There was a nasty thump from the living room. Not looking up, I dumped powder into coffee, tucked away the capsule halves.
    Then I pivoted in the direction of the thump, just in time to see Warren turning back, remembering me too late. He grabbed me and jerked my hair so hard I screamed.
    Over his shoulder I saw what Esperanza had done—tipped the chair to which Warren had tied her. Now on the floor, chair and all, she was working at Julio’s bonds with her teeth.
    “Naughty girl,” said Warren. “You don’t know how I punish naughty girls, do you? I hurt somebody else.” He gave my hair another yank.
    She moved her teeth off the clothesline, but kept her head on Julio’s ankles, that being the closest she could get to a hug, I supposed.
    “It’s going to be Rebecca this time—now, what do you think I should do with her?”
    No answer.
    “Rebecca! Pick that chair up.”
    I obeyed, righting Esperanza, giving her a little squeeze of thanks for what she’d done.
    “Think about it, Esperanza.” And he took me back to finish making the coffee.
    Afterward, sipping it, he said to Esperanza, “You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to let you take the heat for her. That is, if you want to.”
    I shouted, “No, Warren Nowell, she will not! You want to hurt somebody, pick on somebody your own size.”
    “By all means resort to clichés, Rebecca. It’ll help the situation no end. You know, we really do have a killer instinct? I’m going to give Esperanza a chance to develop hers.”
    “Dear God, no!”
    Julio shouted, “You bastard! Leave her alone.”
    “You know what’s in the bathroom, Esperanza?”
    She shook her head.
    “Something I want you to kill.”
    Oh, the fish. Not one of us. My heart slowed to only three times normal speed.
    But Esperanza paled.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
     
    He dropped it for a while, letting the suspense build, sipping and talking, killing cookies while Esperanza probably thought of hapless kittens and bunny rabbits hidden in the bathroom.
    “I never meant to kill Sadie at all. That wasn’t in the cards even for a moment. All I wanted to do was