St Kilda Consulting 01 - Always Time to Die

back on the tray in its place. Then she folded her hands in prayer. Alma went to the governor and gestured toward the next row of the diamond. He looked warily at the small cups, then followed Winifred’s actions and took one. The taste must have been terrible, because he visibly fought not to spit it back out. Grimacing, he swallowed, upended the cup, and put it facedown in its place on the tray.
    Alma worked her way through the small group, following the pattern decreed by Sylvia’s closest kin, handing out cups and waiting for them to be emptied and put upside down to re-create the diamond. Carly braced herself for her own turn.
    “Don’t taste it,” Dan said very quietly in her ear. “Just throw it to the back of your throat and swallow.”
    “Have you done this before?”
    “No, but I’ve sat around some strange campfires.”
    And then Alma was in front of them. There were three untouched cups left, forming a triangle. Out of old habit, Dan reached across the bottom of the triangle and chose his own cup rather than take what was handed out. Alma started to object that the diamond was supposed to be taken in order, following the governor’s choice.
    It was too late. Dan had already tossed back the contents, turned the cup upside down to show that it was empty, replaced it, and closed his eyes.
    Alma looked at Winifred, who had coached her in the correct ritual. The old curandera’s eyes were still closed. Melissa, who had repeated Winifred’s coaching, was still struggling with the bitter brew and hadn’t noticed anything amiss. With a sigh of relief that the breach of ritual hadn’t been noticed, Alma offered the tray to Carly.
    Two cups left.
    Pretend it’s a raw oyster, Carly told herself. If you can swallow a mouthful of cold snot, you can do this.
    Carly took the next to last cup and managed to get the contents down without choking.
    Alma took the final cup, drained it, shuddered violently, and sat down again.
    The room was so quiet Carly was certain everyone could hear her tongue scraping against her teeth as she tried to get rid of the taste. Thank God stirrup cups went out of vogue. She couldn’t have managed a second swallow.
    The sound of the helicopter revving up signaled an end to the gathering, at least as far as the governor was concerned. He shook hands all around—even Carly and Dan this time—and left.
    The two of them went to Winifred, saw that she was still praying for her sister, and waited.
    They waited for a long time. When the old woman finally raised her head, Dr. Sands and the minister had already gone. Only the household staff remained.
    The tears in Winifred’s eyes made Carly understand how futile words were. Yet they had to be said anyway, heard anyway, while everyone knew that words couldn’t describe the emptiness death left behind.
    “I’m sorry,” Carly said gently.
    Winifred nodded. “Tomorrow.”
    Carly understood that Winifred didn’t want to talk now. Carly hadn’t expected her to.
    “I’ll walk you to your car,” Dan said to Carly.
    He didn’t say anything until they were out of the suite. He bent, picked up the cartons of photos they’d left outside Sylvia’s room, and faced Carly.
    “I don’t want you staying here alone,” he said.
    She didn’t answer for the simple reason that she wasn’t wild about the idea herself. “Nobody knew my car was fixed until I showed up here, so…” She shrugged.
    “So nobody had enough lead time to get fancy with rats and paint, is that it?”
    She nodded.
    “Bullshit,” he said.
    “Hey, you checked my room out and found nothing.”
    “That was almost two hours ago.”
    “Everyone was here for the service. Anyway, I already told Melissa that I was going to drive back to town tonight. I don’t feel right about staying here when the household has had so much sorrow.”
    Dan knew Carly was right. He also knew he didn’t want to leave her alone, even just to drive her little SUV down the mountain. The part of his mind that kept adding up things was heading toward a bottom line that he couldn’t read yet but already knew he didn’t like.
    With a muttered curse, he followed her toward the outside door.
    “You know what I’d like?” Carly asked after a minute.
    “A toothbrush?”
    “There isn’t one big enough.” She grimaced and swallowed while something acid tried to crawl back up her throat. Whatever the potion had been, her stomach wasn’t thrilled with it.
    “I’ve got water in the