I grinned at my cat. “You love having that dog to torment, don’t you?”
Diesel gave me one of those feline-trademarked supercilious looks and started cleaning his right front paw. The doorbell rang moments later, though, and he abandoned his pose of indifference to follow me to the front door.
Kanesha looked as if she hadn’t slept in two days, but her manner was as brusque as ever.
“Come on in, coffee’s ready,” I said.
“Thanks, I could use a gallon or two right about now.” She headed past me to the kitchen, Diesel ambling alongside her, meowing the whole time.
While Kanesha chose a seat at the table, I poured coffee and gave it to her. She gave Diesel a couple of absentminded pats before downing about half her coffee at one go.
“Oh dear Lord, that is good,” she said. “Stewart must have made it. He’s the only one I know can make coffee as good as my mama.”
“Yes, he did. Let me know when you want a refill.”
In response she drained her mug and held it out to me. “Thanks, Charlie, I appreciate it.”
I returned the mug full, and she took a couple of sips. She looked better now for having caffeine coursing through her system. I waited, though, for her to initiate our conversation about the case.
I didn’t have to wait all that long. A few more sips of coffee, and she appeared to be ready to talk. “You think you’ve got it all figured out. Go ahead and tell me your solution.”
“I will, but first I have at least one question,” I said. She nodded, and I continued. “Did you find any evidence of the threats Gavin alleged to have received?”
“We did,” Kanesha replied. “Several in his e-mail inbox, and he had a folder with seven printed ones in his laptop case. And, before you ask, the printed ones weren’t copies of the e-mail messages. They were different.”
“I’m willing to bet you’ll find that Gavin wrote them himself,” I said. “I don’t suppose you’ve been able to trace any of them yet.”
“Not yet,” Kanesha said. “I’ve turned them over to the MBI. They have people who can do the necessary electronic forensics on the e-mails. They’re also looking at the printed ones.”
“There were no envelopes with the printed ones, were there?” I asked.
Kanesha shook her head. “If he kept them, he didn’t bring them with him.”
“I assume the police in Alabama, or their bureau of investigation, will be searching his house for evidence.”
“Naturally. Already done,” Kanesha said. “After you’ve told me your solution, I’ll tell you what they found. We’ll see if it corroborates what you’re going to tell me.”
“Okay, fair enough.” I paused for a sip of coffee and a deep breath or two. I was preparing myself for being laughed at.
Kanesha sipped her coffee and regarded me with that laser stare of hers. I hesitated, because all of a sudden I was certain I’d gotten it all wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time you’ve made a fool of yourself. I told my inner voice to shut up. Not aloud, of course.
“Well, go on,” Kanesha said. “I’m listening.”
“Here goes,” I replied. “Gavin was the poisoner. He killed himself accidentally, but Maxine Muller deliberately.”
THIRTY-FOUR
Kanesha didn’t laugh. Didn’t even blink, in fact.
I wasn’t sure how to interpret that lack of response. I found it unnerving, but I couldn’t let it rattle me or I wouldn’t remain coherent enough to explain my theory.
“Okay, well.” I cleared my throat. “Gavin didn’t intend to die, of course. He wanted to kill two people but make it look like they died accidentally while he himself was the actual target. He’d set it up so that his victims accidentally got the water bottles that were poisoned instead of him.”
If Kanesha’s eyes hadn’t been open I’d have thought she’d gone to sleep on me. Then she drank more coffee.
“I think he probably prepared the two bottles—and I’m guessing that there were only two—with poison back home in Alabama. Maybe the investigators there found evidence of that in his home, but I guess you’re not going to tell me that right now.”
Kanesha shook her head. “Go on.”
“So Gavin brings the poisoned bottles to Athena with him. He told Lisa Krause, the chair of the local arrangements committee for the conference, that he had to have a certain kind of bottled water in his suite. He demanded it as a keynote speaker. Lisa got the water bottles for him. They were his cover, so to speak, for the doctored ones.” I paused for a sip of coffee.
“Next, all he had to do was get the right people to his suite, and he did that by having a party. One that he basically stuck the conference with the bill for, incidentally, but that’s another issue. He knew he could force people to come, all people he’d worked with before, ones who knew what he was capable of if he was crossed. He needed a number of people there so that it wouldn’t look like, later on, he had singled anyone out.
“Now, this devotion to one brand of bottled water wasn’t a new thing, and I reckon that most of his guests knew that little idiosyncrasy of his. He was counting on that, in fact, because it was an important part of his plan. He would be able to say, after his intended victims died from the water he’d doctored, that the killer brought the bottles to the party and managed somehow to put them with the others, the ones that weren’t doctored. Gavin would have been relieved at his lucky escape and wasn’t it terrible, blah blah blah. And the whole time, he’d be congratulating himself on how smart he was and what idiots the rest of us were. He always thought he was the smartest person in the room. Hubris, because he outsmarted himself in the end.”
“Why was he determined to kill two people in this scenario of yours?” Kanesha asked, her tone bland. “Maxine Muller apparently was one of them, but who was the other?”
“Harlan Crais,” I said. “Do you remember what you told me about Gavin’s attempts to find another job? How two places scheduled phone interviews with him and then canceled at the last minute? According to what Maxine Muller told you, he knew who blackballed him. He was sure it was Harlan Crais.”
“Why was he so sure?” Kanesha asked.
“Because he’d done the same thing to Crais, and more than once, I suspect.” I told her what I’d heard from Marisue and Randi and about the conversation between Crais and Bob Coben that I’d overheard. “I think Gavin, out of sheer spite, kept him from at least two good jobs. Crais must have taken some satisfaction in returning the favor.
“Now, back to the party. Last night, in talking with Cathleen Matera and Nancy Dunlap, both of whom had been at Gavin’s party, I learned that Gavin had behaved in uncharacteristic fashion. They told me that he’d held these little gatherings before, and when the party was over, he’d made sure to keep any leftovers for himself. He never offered any of them to his guests. At the last party, though, he suddenly became generous, insisting that people help themselves. He even offered bottles of his precious water to them. Cathleen Matera took one, and she drank it and lived, so it was obviously fine. Nancy Dunlap turned it down, but both Harlan Crais and Maxine Muller left with a bottle apiece.”
“After you found that out, that was when you texted me about Crais last night, correct?” Kanesha said.
“Yes, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. Up until then I was sure he was the murderer, and I didn’t want to give anything away by talking to him about bottled water. If he were innocent, however, and still had that bottle unopened, then he might be in danger if the killer had poisoned more than two.”
“So you passed the buck to me.”
I nodded. “Under the circumstances, I figured it was the only thing I could do.”