Read Online Tainted by Ross Pennie - Free Book Online Page B

conviction.
    Letty stopped sobbing, pulled the tissue from her sleeve, and wiped her cheeks. Ermalinda squeezed her friend’s arm and handed her another tissue. Then she looked at Natasha as if asking for permission to restart the questioning. Natasha raised her eyebrows and nodded quickly, glad of any help.
    “Dr. Zol need to know about the meat,” Ermalinda said softly.
    “What meat?” Letty whispered between sobs.
    “Well,” Ermalinda said, “maybe something wrong with the meat Mrs. Vanderven used to buy.”
    Letty placed her palm on her chest. “But I never use bad meat. I never . . .”
    Natasha made her voice sound as soothing as possible. “We don’t mean your cooking, Letty.” She took another cookie from the plate. “We need to know where the meat came from.”
    Ermalinda nuzzled closer to Letty. “She worry something hidden in it.”
    “Hidden?”
    Natasha smiled, glad of Ermalinda’s well-chosen words. “That’s right. Something so tiny that nobody could see it.” She was itching to have a look in the pantry and kitchen cupboards of this impressive mansion, but there was no way she was going to rush Letty. “I’d like you to tell me where the Vandervens bought their groceries.”
    Ermalinda handed Letty a glass of juice. She sipped it slowly.
    Natasha smiled as sweetly as she knew how and added, “Did Mrs. Vanderven do the shopping herself?”
    Letty put down her glass. “Yes. She like shopping.”
    “You can tell Miss Sharma, Letty,” said Ermalinda. “Mrs. V., she like Kelly’s SuperMart.”
    “And Four Corners,” Letty said.
    “The gourmet-foods place on Concession Street?” Natasha asked, looking at Ermalinda. Her pen was poised. “What’s its full name?”
    “Four Corners Fine Foods,” Ermalinda said, her voice confident.“Dr. Zol shop there.” She raised her eyebrows. “Max, he love the sausages and the chocolates.”
    Letty smoothed her apron with her palms. “Mrs. V. say best chocolate anywhere. She only eat the kind with the little bird on the box. It calm her nerves before . . .” She looked to Ermalinda as if asking for permission to carry on. “Before visiting the derm — the dermatologist.”
    Natasha had occasionally seen Joanna Vanderven featured in the society columns of the Hamilton
Spectator
. “She always looked beautiful in her photos,” Natasha said. “I didn’t realize she had skin problems.”
    “Her skin, it perfect,” Letty said proudly, as though she’d had a hand in keeping it that way.
    Natasha shifted in her chair and stretched her shoulders. How strange for a woman with flawless skin to need her nerves calmed before visiting a dermatologist. Did she expect bad news each time she went? The discovery of a tiny wrinkle or a single moustache hair, perhaps? There was no point in being cynical. After all, the poor woman had been right to worry. She had died. In one of the bedrooms upstairs. Natasha shuddered. “Getting back to the food, did she buy all her meat at Kelly’s and Four Corners, or did she have a favourite butcher?”
    “She have account at I and W,” said Letty. “She always phone and they deliver.”
    “I and W?”
    “Yes,” Ermalinda said. “I and W Meats. It a butcher shop on Upper James Street.”
    Letty plucked at her apron. “Yes, that right. You want to see the fridge magnet? It have their phone number in case . . . in case you forget.” A shadow passed across her face. The corners of her eyes filled with tears. “Before, Mrs. V. always remember it. Then, she always forget.” Letty covered her face with her hands. “She forget everything, even my name.”
    When Letty regained her composure, Ermalinda suggested they visit the kitchen so Natasha could look for clues in the cupboards.Natasha noted all the meats in detail, including those in the basement deep-freeze. There were many packets of beef and pork, and a wide selection of sausages from I and W Meats and Four Corners. And, as Bernard Vanderven had said so