Page 96 of Unnatural Death

“Everything all right?” I sip my drink and it warms me to my marrow.

“Everything is all wrong. The pet doors aren’t working. The computer system seems to have gone bonkers. The music is on here and in the house without my doing it,” he answers as I’m listening to the canon’s string quartet. “I also can’t turn it off.”

“Is Merlin okay?” I ask.

“He was locked out. I had to walk around yelling for him, found him huddled under boxwoods behind the carriage house. He was shivering and pretty damn scared. As if something really upset him. I’ve never seen him so spooked …”

“That’s very bad and extremely dangerous,” I reply uneasily, wondering what the hell is going on. “Getting stranded outside in this weather and he could freeze to death. Poor thing …”

“How are you feeling?”

“Like I’ve been in a car wreck. In more ways than one.” I tell him about the swarm of drones and that I recovered a tiny camera from the snow.

“Fruge said you’re pretty skinned up and had a bloody nose. I just got off the phone with her.”

“She’s such a tattletale.”

“I’ll be over shortly.” Benton says he loves me and that we’ll talk later.

CHAPTER 36

HELPING MYSELF TO THE antipasto, I savor the fleshy salty olives, careful of their pits. I wrap paper-thin slices of prosciutto around chunks of sharp Parmigiano Reggiano, and by the time Dorothy returns I’m feeling much better. She unscrews the eyedropper cap from a small blue bottle that has no label.

“I checked on Benton,” I tell her. “He confirms that something’s wrong with the pet doors. There are computer problems. And the music turned on by itself.”

“Well, it’s quite a storm we’re having,” she replies as I wonder what she’d say if she knew about Carrie.

It occurs to me that my not informing my only sibling is no different from Lucy and Benton not telling Marino and me.

“Hold out your hand, sis.” Dorothy hasn’t called me that in a while.

“What is this?” I catch the weedy fragrance as she drips a greenish tincture into my palm.

“A topical solution of emu oil and CBD from hemp. Also, special terpenes and other plant-based magical things that will make you feel ever so much better. I rub it into my face every night before bed, and now you know my secret fountain of youth …”

“Medical cannabis?”

“Don’t worry, it’s perfectly legal and won’t make you high. I avail myself of that lovely dispensary near Belle Haven Country Club. I order various supplies, having done quite the research. You’re not the only one with a brain in her head, just so you know. I’ve realized I have a knack for chemistry and am very pleased with my concoction if I do say so myself. I want you to use it on your face, your wrists, wherever you’re scraped and banged up.”

I gently cover my abrasions, and the tincture is instantly soothing. I ask why the bottle has no label. “In the off chance I might want to know exactly what’s in it,” I add ironically.

“There’s nothing you need to worry about since I mix it up myself. I’m not the scientist you are, but I know a few tricks.”

“You need to stop saying things like that,” I reply as she sets down our salads. “Please stop with the self-disparagements. What’s going on with you? You seem very grim and down on yourself.”

“I think you’ll understand it when I say that ever since Lucy lost Janet and Desi, she’s been different.” Dorothy pulls out a chair and sits. “And there are those who might say she’s not moved on. It’s a jolt when you witness it up close and personal.”

“She lost her family. How could she not be different?” I reply. “All of us are.”

“It’s made Lucy more reckless. A part of her doesn’t seem to care anymore, and look at what happened six weeks ago. She was shot and could have been killed.”

“That wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t because she was careless, Dorothy. Both of us were simply running an errand during a bike ride on a beautiful day …”

“How can she be normal when she spends most of her time in the ether?” My sister takes a swallow of Scotch. “Chasing people through the internet, tracking their signals with her antennas and gizmos. And then she gets into a dogfight with the news helicopter. She has so much pent-up anger.”

“Aggressive is different from reckless.”

“They’re saying she’ll get in trouble with the FAA.” Dorothy’s voice catches as if she might cry.

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