Pit and Miss Murder by Renee George

Author:Renee George
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Renee George

After dinner, Parker and Greer cleared the table and started the dishes while Reggie and I went out to the front porch to “get some air.”

Reggie kicked her heels off when she sat down on the porch swing. “Antifreeze,” she said.

“What about it?”

“Antifreeze can do a lot of damage to a body.”

“We had a dog poisoned just last night,” I said. “She’s okay. Ryan says she’ll make a full recovery because it was caught within five hours of ingestion.”

“That’s great, Lily.” She crossed her right leg across her knee and turned to me. “It’s awful the things it can do in a body. Hypothetically, it can cause confusion, diarrhea, crystals of calcium oxalate can form in the kidneys causing renal failure, and—”

“--it can cause pulmonary edema,” I guessed. It was clear we were talking about Jock Simmons.

Reggie nodded. “Terrible way to die.”

“Hypothetically,” I added.

She shrugged. “Hypothetically.”

“How long would it take to die, hypothetically?”

“Well, it depends on the amount of antifreeze and the overall health of the individual. Calcium oxalate crystals form in the kidneys in two to three days. That causes acute kidney failure, but even then, if it’s caught early enough, they can live with dialysis, medication, or transplants. Pulmonary edema is rarer, but it can manifest in some victims if they already have the beginnings of lung disease, and they’ve been dosed for a week or so.”

“Wouldn’t the person taste the antifreeze?”

“It’s sweet, so it’s easy to hide in sweet stuff.”

“But this is all just hypothetical,” I added.

“Exactly,” Reggie said.

So, whoever killed Jock had been poisoning him over a short period of time. Who would have had access to his meals or his drinks? A bartender or waitress, for sure. But they risked someone else possibly ingesting the antifreeze. Jock hadn’t spent much time at home lately. The lack of his scent in the house was enough for me to come to that conclusion, but he’d had to stay somewhere. I mean, the guy wouldn’t have slept in his car. Pearl and Opal had said they’d seen him kissing that woman from the courthouse a few weeks ago. Had Jock been staying at her house?”

“I don’t suppose you know an Electa Laverty?” I asked Reggie.

“It’s an odd name,” she said, shaking her head. “Odd enough that I’d remember if I had.”

The screen door opened. “Electa?” Greer asked. “I never liked that woman. She always came off as a bit snooty. Besides, she sent me a zoning code violation for weeds three weeks ago. Apparently, some vigilant citizen complained. There was one tiny patch of extra growth on the side of the garage.”

“Electa sent you the letter?” I would have to double check the letter we received, but I kind of remembered Laverty being the last name of the person who’d signed the citation. “We got a similar letter from the zoning office.”

“Electa is a cog in the machine. Nothing more. She started showing up for pop-in inspections when I turned down Clem Hanley’s offer to buy the place last year.

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