MY PARENTS' TOMB - EPISODE 18
By Lionel Levy
Copyright 2013 Lionel Levy
I motioned toward the front door. The roomies and I went to the porch.
"Who did she email?" I asked. "Who's Rosie?"
Isaac shoved his finger in his nostril. "How should I know?"
"Where's the poison?" I asked.
"In the lab," he said.
"Is it safe there?"
"Safer than anywhere else on the island," he said. "Royston didn't have the time to ask how we obtained it. I kept him entertained with suggestions on how to improve his analytical technique."
Bill looked me firmly in the eye. "I wouldn't trust Jeanette once she turned a corner."
"Earlier this morning I heard Father Hogan give her permission to use the computer," Isaac said. "She went back to him and whined that the modem kept disconnecting while she was typing. He told her to copy the text of the disconnected email and then quickly paste it into a new email once the connection was restored."
I folded my arms. "So?"
"The modem redialed, computer got reconnected, she pasted the text into her new email and sent it," Isaac continued. "After she left the computer, I pasted the contents of the clipboard into an email I pretended I was composing."
I wagged my finger. "You're pathetic."
He wagged his finger back at me. "She's the sneaky one. When people act like the world will end if their email cannot go out, something is amiss."
"That's a non sequitur. There's no logic in your statement."
"The recipient of her email is probably a former Pasture member," he speculated.
"Let's assume this motel owner is a man," I said. "That could make Rosie his daughter or even his pet dog."
"It could also make Jeanette the motel owner's mistress," he calmly remarked.
"The email recipient obviously knows that four roommates are birdwatching in the Pasture," Kofi said. "Why that would matter, I don't know."
Bill chuckled. "Maybe Jeanette is a spy chick for another religious sect."
"She certainly doesn't act like one," Isaac said. "Spies usually make smart mistakes."
"Jeanette inquired about the unknown solution this morning," I remembered aloud.
"She asked Isaac about it also," Bill said.
"Before I got to the table?" I asked.
Bill nodded. "I told her the results were inconclusive."
"I'll draw the truth out of her," I said.
He clapped his hands softly. "You should appreciate what Kofi and I did last night. Saved you from deceptive lips by preventing a kiss on the pier. Would it have been the first kiss?"
"None of your damn business," I answered.
Fou drove into Saint Mary's and parked alongside the Range Rover. He got out of his truck, signaling to us he was going to the school building.
"I'm somewhat skeptical of Theo's story now," I said. "He could have put the poison in the bottle himself."
Isaac glanced at the front door. "Which is why we need credible witnesses who'll talk."
