Read Online Larkspur by Sheila Simonson - Free Book Online Page B

administered a Valium for which, she
assured Jay, the dancer had a prescription. Jay made no comment, but he looked wry. The
evidence crew had not yet come.
    Bill Huff was still pretending he was a cub reporter with a scoop. Lydia had found his
notebook. She was probably too occupied dealing with Denise's theatrics to take in the personal
significance of Jay's suspicions. She said she had packed her things and Bill's.
    Of the houseguests only Winton D'Angelo seemed to have grasped the likelihood that he
would be considered a murder suspect. He picked at his food and drank a lot of coffee and, when
we began to assemble in the lounge, he paced the floor. I thought he was very much afraid. Janey
just looked bewildered.
    The Peltzes strode up at three minutes past nine. Apparently Angharad had been
appointed spokesperson. She went directly to Jay, who was again standing in front of the stone
fireplace.
    "We called our attorney. We have nothing to say."
    "Fine. Go have nothing to say over there." He jabbed a finger at the vacant leather
couch.
    Everyone watched the exchange. When the Peltzes had sunk into the couch Jay stepped
up onto the raised hearth. Winton D'Angelo stopped pacing and gawked.
    "If you'll all take seats, I'd like to get this over with." Rustles and shufflings. I sat on a
hassock next to Janey. The elder Huffs occupied a wooden settee, and D'Angelo sank onto the
straight-backed chair Llewellyn had used the first evening.
    "Thanks." Jay was frowning. "As you know, Mr. Llewellyn died last night. That is, the
doctors at County Hospital took him off life-support when they got a flat EEG."
    "Brain death," Bill Huff rumbled. He began writing.
    Jay ignored him and went on, eyes roaming impersonally over the room, "I directed the
medical examiner to perform an autopsy. That's standard procedure in any case of sudden,
unexplained death. I also asked the hospital toxicologist to analyze the stomach contents, and
traces of Campari in Mr. Llewellyn's wine glass."
    Bill Huff's hand paused on the paper, and he stared at Jay.
    "The police lab analysis will take a couple of days, but the toxicology report gave the
department enough to act on. The death has been ruled a homicide."
    By that time most of the guests must have anticipated the verdict, but the word homicide
provoked gasps. D'Angelo groaned. He was very pale, and his eyes glistened.
    "You are all too intelligent not to realize that your presence here last night makes you
suspects. At this point I don't know whether the poison was administered in Llewellyn's drink or
in the bottle of Campari. The food is unlikely. Everyone ate it. I secured the bottle last night, and
the contents will be analyzed. The soda was used in Mr. Huff's scotch without effect, so it can be
ruled out."
    "What was the poison?" Bill interjected.
    Jay avoided my eyes. "Aconitine and ..."
    "Aconite?"
    "No, aconitine." Jay drew a breath. "It's the active ingredient in aconite. The poison was
a mixture of aconitine and delphinine in liquid form. A home-made decoction of the annual
delphinium."
    Winton D'Angelo sat up straight.
    "Wait a minute!" Ted Peltz gave a sudden, huge guffaw.
    "But that's just larkspur," Janey said in a puzzled voice. "What's the big deal?"
    Larkspur. My turn to sit up. I went cold, then hot.
    "Miss Dailey's bookstore is called Larkspur Books," Jay was saying. He sounded cool
and detached. "Llewellyn made a point of inviting her, well in advance, to this gathering, though
she's an outsider in what seems to have been a tight little group of old friends. The related plant,
monkshood, would have produced a quicker, more potent poison, so the choice of delphinium
was plainly deliberate. I'd say off-hand that the killer is either mentally unbalanced, or a
sociopath with a sadistic sense of humor. I'm not sure which." He let his gaze move, leisurely,
from one guest to the next, taking them all in.
    Ted Peltz gave another bark of laughter. Har-har.
    Jay regarded him without expression.