Instead of turning the car toward home, I had to drive in another direction, toward the town square. Milton Harville’s pharmacy occupied space across the square from Helen Louise’s bistro and the independent bookstore, the Athenaeum. After a short drive, I counted myself lucky to find an open parking space directly in front of the pharmacy. Unlike many other small towns around the country, Athena had a thriving downtown area, and parking was often at a premium at this hour.
Two people waited in line ahead of me at the pharmacy counter, and the first of them, an elderly man, querulously demanded to know why the price of his medication had gone up. Jenny Harville, Milton’s daughter, patiently explained the reason for the change—a matter of seventy-five cents, from what I managed to overhear. Finally, the man paid and left. The person right in front of me made no objection about the price of her several prescriptions and paid quickly. I stood at the counter next.
“Mr. Harris, how are you?” Jenny smiled. “And how is that gorgeous kitty of yours?”
“I’m doing fine, Jenny,” I replied. “Diesel is doing fine, too, spoiled as ever.”
“As he should be,” Jenny said. “Why else do we exist, other than to serve our feline masters?” She laughed. Jenny, I knew, had a couple of cats of her own, both Siamese, and she doted on them.
“You have one to pick up,” Jenny said, and I nodded.
While she retrieved my prescription, I looked around for her father. He appeared from behind a shelf in the dispensing area, staring at a bottle in his hand. When he looked up, he happened to glance my way. He came toward the counter.
“Charlie, have you got a minute? I really need to talk to you.” Milton looked even more stressed than usual, and I wondered if Tammy had been in the store within the last hour. She always had this effect on him.
He obviously needed to talk, and though I was eager to get home, I knew I couldn’t put him off. “Sure,” I said. “Let me pay for my drugs, and we can talk.”
Jenny shot a glance filled with suspicion at her father as she returned to the counter. From this I guessed that she didn’t know what was worrying him. She rang me up, I paid, and then Milton motioned for me to come around the counter. He led me through the shelves to the small office he shared with Jenny at the back of the store.
As soon as we were in the room, I asked him what was going on. “I can tell you’re worried about something.”
Milton leaned against his desk and rubbed a hand across his eyes. He took a deep breath before he spoke. Then his words came out in a rush.
“I’m terrified, Charlie, so sick I don’t know what to do.”
“Why? What happened?”
He looked me in the eye, and I could see the fear.
“When we got home the other night after the party, I shut myself up in my den to try to cool off. Stayed in there a couple of hours before I felt like I could talk to Tammy without wringing her neck.” He paused for another deep breath. “I couldn’t find her anywhere in the house. I’m afraid she went back to the party and killed Gerry Albritton.”
TWENTY-THREE
I nearly dropped my bag, I was so shocked by Milton’s revelation. Could Tammy have come back into Gerry’s house without anyone seeing her? If she had, surely someone would have informed Gerry, if Gerry hadn’t seen Tammy for herself.
I had seen Milton often enough worried about, or angry with, his wife, but this was far more serious. He stared at me with such fear and agony in his expression, I wasn’t sure I could do or say anything to help him.
Taking him by the arm, I led him around the desk to his chair. “Sit,” I said gently, and he obeyed. He now seemed to be in a near-catatonic state as his gaze focused on the desk.
I perched on a corner of the desk after I pushed a wire inbox out of the way.
“Milton.” He looked up at me. “Did you ask Tammy where she went?”
He nodded. “She refused to tell me.”
“Do you have any idea when she left the house or how long she was gone?”
“Don’t know when she left,” he said. “Didn’t come back for about half an hour after I came out of the den.”
If Tammy had left immediately after Milton took refuge in his den, she could have been gone nearly two and a half hours.
“Why do you think she went back to Gerry’s house?” I asked. “Maybe she went for a drive or to a bar until she thought you had cooled off. Maybe to a friend’s house.”
Milton shook his head. “She doesn’t have that kind of friend. When she came back, she was wearing one of her wigs. Brown hair. And she’d changed her dress.”
Another shock. That sounded really bad. If Tammy had taken the time to disguise herself, she might have been intent on getting back into the house, hoping no one would recognize her.
“She refused to tell you where she’d been?” I said.
“Yes.”
“Did you ask her if she had gone back to the party?”
“Yes,” he replied. “She still wouldn’t answer. She just went to the bedroom and locked herself in. We haven’t talked since. The last I saw of her, she yelled at me to get the hell out of the house and stay out.”
“Does Jenny know any of this?” I asked.
Milton shook his head. “She knows I’m upset with her mother, but that’s nothing unusual. I don’t think she suspects how bad it is.”
Poor Jenny. I couldn’t imagine what it was like having to deal with her parents’ contentious relationship.
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
“Besides talk to a divorce lawyer?” Milton said bitterly. “I meant it, you know, what I said to her after she attacked Gerry. She can’t go on this way. She’s got to get help, or I’m going to leave her.”
“Is she an addict?” I asked, knowing that it was a horribly intrusive question. But Milton needed a friend. Looked like I had been elected.
Milton didn’t appear offended by my question. “Yes, she is. Painkillers, mostly, but sometimes she drinks along with it. She hurt her back pretty bad doing yard work a few years ago, and ever since, she’s been taking painkillers.” His eyes met mine. “She’s not getting the pills here, Charlie. Neither Jenny nor I would let her have any. She’s not stealing them, either.”
“I’m sorry that you and Jenny are dealing with this,” I said. “Tammy has refused to get help?”
“Yes, no matter what Jenny and I do or say,” Milton said. “She’s been taking the pills so long, I think she’s terrified of trying to live without them.” He snorted derisively. “As if she has any kind of life living like this. I sure as hell don’t.”
Milton was a good man for sticking by Tammy this long, I supposed. I knew it was hard to get self-destructive people to change, and sometimes all you could do was walk away, if you wanted to preserve your own health and peace of mind. I thought Milton had reached that point, though he might not have fully realized it yet. I wished I knew what to say to him about this. Stating it outright would come across as brutal at the moment, and I hesitated to do it. I didn’t think he was wanting that kind of advice from me.
I addressed another point instead. “Are you going to tell the authorities about this?”
“It’s my duty, isn’t it?” he said. “Even if she is my wife.” He rubbed his eyes. “Maybe this is what it will take to get her to do something about those damn pills.”
I didn’t envy him the decision he had to make. I knew that he should tell Kanesha. I could do it for him, but I felt uncomfortable even at the thought. This was Milton’s battle, and I suspected he would talk, or else force Tammy into admitting it to Kanesha herself.
“It might,” I said. “There’s another point, though, that could affect all this. You weren’t there when Gerry collapsed, of course, but from the little bit I’ve been able to glean from Kanesha Berry—and my own observations—Gerry was poisoned by something that killed her almost instantly. If Tammy killed her, how did she obtain anything that lethal?”