Page 123 of Highball and Chain

Shanna

I stood in the hall,eavesdropping and trying to work up the courage to open the door. Enzo needed my strength, but Maggie’s family had all but adopted me when I moved to New Orleans. Rebecca was like a big sister to me. I reminded myself I had a job to do, a job that didn’t include allowing my personal feelings to turn me into a coward.

Some private investigator I’m turning out to be.

“I reported your schedule, told them when your father came in and who he met with. The same for your mother.” Tara could barely speak through her sobbing. “Recently, they had me keeping tabs on Gabe. I didn’t tell them when he brought Maggie Guthrie in on a date.”

The mention of my best friend made my blood boil. I walked into the room and glared. “Thanks for that at least.”

“Maggie was raising Joe’s kids. I couldn’t risk them losing their aunt, too.” Tara stared as if she thought I was the good cop to Enzo’s bad cop routine. Boy, did she have that wrong.

“Too bad you didn’t think about the kids before you told the Abruzzos where to find their parents.” I couldn’t bring myself to feel sorry for her. She might not have cut the brake lines, but she’d played a part in ending their lives.

Enzo turned to face Tara. “You weren’t flirting with me the night of the engagement party—you were scared.”

She looked away.

“You jumped at the chance to take Hazel to the hospital because you needed to get out of there.” His voice rose.

Tara shrank lower in the chair. “I planned to tell you what was going on at the hospital. I thought… I thought I’d be safe there.”

“Safe?” He laughed a humorless laugh that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. “You poisoned the soup.”

I reached for the dryer to remain standing. The kids, Maggie, Gabe, Enzo…me, we all could have died.

Tara dipped her chin. “I didn’t…”

“No? You expect me to believe that?” He clenched and unclenched his hands as if struggling not to strike her.

“I was supposed to, but I couldn’t do it. There were kids at the party.” She wiped her face. “I had a bottle of nail polish remover in my bag. I used it instead. It stank so bad I didn’t think anyone would eat it.”

The incident with the crowd at the wedding had unnerved me, but this…this terrified me. So many innocent people could have been hurt or worse. “Do you know what kind of poison they gave you?”

“No, but Abruzzo’s men warned me not to inhale the soup after I poured it in.”

“How big was the container?” I wasn’t an expert on poison, not by a long shot, but I’d researched common types for a case. Some substances worked through ingestion, others by inhalation, and a few worked both ways.

Tara shrugged. “The size of a lipstick tube.”

Precious few poisons were strong enough that such a small amount would contaminate a commercial-sized stockpot full of minestrone.

I rested my hand on Enzo’s shoulder. “If I had to guess, I’d say botulinum toxins. They occur naturally in improperly prepared foods. It would have looked like an accident.”

“How so?”

“You hear about cases of mass food poisoning on the news from time to time. It would be unusual, but not impossible, for a large crowd of people to become very ill, or even die, from eating the same meal.”

He gave me a curt nod and stared at Tara. “Where is this poison now?”

“It’s buried in my backyard. I hid it in a tampon holder in my purse to get it out of the restaurant.” She raised her chin as if proud of herself.

“Enzo, this is serious. We need to find the poison and go to the police. If it was botulinum, even seemingly small amounts could be fatal. We’re talking about attempted murder of over two hundred people.”

“Two hundred and fifty, plus any of the staff who happened to breathe it in.” He turned for the door. “No police. We don’t know which ones we can trust.”

“Where are you going?” Tara tugged on the handcuff securing her wrist to the wall. “You can’t leave me here! What about my kids?”

“I need some air. You’d do well to keep your voice down. If you wake the housekeeper, I’ll kill you with my bare hands.” His ice-cold expression sent a chill down my spine.

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