I nodded. “That’s a good idea.”
Avery blew in the back door then, her cranberry-hued hair windblown and her gray-and-black jacket hanging open. She stood in the doorway, held up a piece of paper and grinned from ear to ear. “I am a mathematical genius!” she proclaimed.
I leaned over to look at her math test—that was what she was holding up. Then I grinned back at her. “Avery! That’s a ninety-two. Wonderful!”
“Yes, it is,” she said, squaring her shoulders with pride. She held up her hand and I high-fived her.
Charlotte and Rose were both smiling. Rose clapped.
Liz got out of her seat and came over to Avery. “Good work,” she said. “I’m proud of you.”
“Really?” Avery asked.
“Really,” Liz said, wrapping her in a hug. She turned her head to look over her shoulder at Rose. “Rose, we’re going to need a cake.”
“Well, yes,” Rose said. She leaned forward in her chair and looked at Avery. “What kind of cake would you like?”
“Chocolate with that topping stuff that has brown sugar and coconut,” Avery said, as Liz let go of her and took the test from her hand.
“German chocolate,” Rose said.
Avery nodded enthusiastically. “That’s it.” Then, like a little kid, she added, “Please and thank you.” She noticed Alfred Peterson then. “Hey, Mr. P.,” she said.
He looked up from the keyboard. “Hello, Avery,” he said. “Good job on the math test.”
She grinned again. “Thanks. I bet you were good at math because you’re good with computers.”
How did she know that? I’d found out about his alleged computer skills only about an hour ago.
Mr. Peterson smoothed a veiny hand back over the top of his mostly smooth head. “I’m afraid not,” he said. “I was a bit of a bad boy in my high school days.”
Liz suddenly had a coughing fit. I thumped her on the back. “Avery, get your grandmother’s tea,” I said. “It’s dry in here.” I’d caught a glimpse of Liz’s face and I knew her sudden coughing spell had nothing to do with dry air and everything to do with Alfred Peterson’s declaration that he’d been a bad boy back in his high school days.
Liz took a sip of her probably cold tea and sat down again. I noticed she avoided looking me in the eye—just as well because I was a bit afraid that if she did I’d be the one having a sudden coughing jag.
“What are you all doing out here, anyway?” Avery asked.
“It’s our office,” Rose said.
“You mean for helping Mrs. H.”
Charlotte nodded. “Mr. Peterson is helping us.”
“Very cool, Mr. P.,” Avery said. She held up her hand and the old man high-fived her, which made me like him just a little bit more. “Hey, Nonna, you know what you are?” Avery asked.
“The world’s best grandmother?” Liz said.
Avery rolled her eyes. “You’re so funny,” she said. “You guys are Charlie’s Angels.” She looked at Charlotte. “You’re Lucy Liu. Nonna is Cameron Diaz and Rose is Drew Barrymore.”
Liz looked over at me. “Not a word, Sarah,” she warned, but her eyes were sparkling with amusement.
I mimicked zipping my mouth, locking it and putting the key in my shirt pocket.
“Does that mean I’m Bernie Mac?” Mr. P. asked.
“Uh, yeah,” Avery said, as though that was obvious.
“I’d like to be Farrah,” Liz said, patting her blond hair.
Avery shook her head. “Well, whoever that is, she’s not one of Charlie’s Angels, so you can’t.”
Charlotte smiled. “Farrah Fawcett was one of the original Charlie’s Angels,” she said. “On TV.”
“Are you serious?” Avery asked. She glanced over at me.
I nodded.
“I have to see that. Can we download it?” she said to Liz.
“When your homework is done,” Liz said, reaching for her tea and frowning at the empty cup.
“You should be Jaclyn Smith,” Rose said to Liz.
“Why?” Liz asked.
“She had the nicest clothes.”
“So that would make you Farrah.”
Rose nodded. “I know. I have the best hair so I should be Farrah.” She tossed her gray curls.
“Maybe I should be Farrah,” Charlotte said.
Rose and Liz both turned to look at her.
“You’re Kate Jackson,” Liz said.
Rose nodded her agreement. “No doubt about it. You’re the smartest of all of us.”
I waved a hand at them. “What about me?” I asked. “Who am I?”
“Napthathion,” Mr. P. said.
I looked at him. “Excuse me?”
“I’m sorry, Sarah,” he said. “That’s the name of the poison that killed Arthur Fenety.”
“Naptha what?” Liz asked.
“Napthathion. It’s a pesticide. It was banned just over two years ago.”
“This helps, doesn’t it?” Rose said. “How on earth could Maddie have gotten her hands on a chemical that was banned two years ago? What was it used for?”
Mr. P. glanced at the computer screen again. “Before it was banned it was used to control—”
“Earwigs,” Charlotte said, slowly. “Not slugs. Earwigs.” All the color had drained from her face.
“How did you know that?” I asked. This was the second time I’d seen Charlotte react to a conversation about what had killed Arthur Fenety.
She had to swallow a couple of times before she answered me. “I have a bottle of it in my garage,” she said.
Chapter 13
“I thought you cleaned everything out of the garage last year,” Rose said.
“I did,” Charlotte said. “All I kept was the napthathion and something to get rid of the ants. But Maddie didn’t know I had it. Nobody knew.”
I turned to Avery. “Go help Mac, please. Now.”
“You don’t want me to hear stuff,” she said.
“No, I don’t.”
She nodded, her expression serious. “Okay.” She leaned down and gave Liz a hug and then left.
I looked at Mr. P. and gestured toward his laptop. “What can you tell me about napthathion?”
His fingers moved over the keyboard. “It was on a long list of herbicides and pesticides that the state banned two years ago,” Mr. P. said after a moment. He scrolled down the screen. “Where is that?” he muttered.
I waited.
“Here it is,” he said. He looked up at me. “Sarah, it wasn’t until napthathion was taken off the shelves that anyone figured out that it had any effect on people. It messes up electrical signals in the heart, but only in someone who already has some kind of heart problem and who’s taking a couple of different medications.”
“The perfect storm,” I said, softly.
Mr. P. nodded. “Exactly.”
“Whoever poisoned Arthur would have to have known that,” Liz said. “And they would have to have known that he had a heart condition and what drugs he was taking.”
“Maddie didn’t know,” Charlotte said. Her color was better now. “She told me that she liked the fact that he didn’t talk about his ailments, and then she said because he was so healthy he didn’t actually have any.”
“Well, that’s good, isn’t it?” Rose said.
“It’s not bad,” I said.
“But that pesticide in my garage is.” Charlotte fiddled with her teacup.
I nodded. “Yes, it is. The police will say Maddie had motive. They’ll say she found out that Arthur was scamming her.”
“But she said that she hadn’t given him any money,” Rose said. “So she doesn’t have a motive after all.”
Liz shook her head. “Even if she can prove that, it doesn’t mean Maddie didn’t have a motive. The man had what? Four wives and at least that many girlfriends. That kind of humiliation is a pretty good motive.”
“So, who could have known that Arthur Fenety had a heart condition and also known what medications he was taking?”
“It sounds like the kind of things a wife would know,” Mr. P. said.
“Alfred’s right,” Liz said. “It’s a lot harder to hide something like that when you’re living in the same house.”