A Quandary in Quarantine

Chapter Nineteen

The Elsewhere Police Department had sent half a dozen officers in response to my call. 

“You’re pretty smart to try that trick, Libby!” Steph told me, as she took my vitals.

We had moved down out of the attic and she had set up shop in Sally’s kitchen. Carson’s cousin, Steph, had been dispatched along with the officers in case anyone on the scene had needed medical attention. They had had no way of knowing what they were walking into, since I had not been able to give them any detail. All they had heard over the line was that there were at least two suspects, and me. They had known Drew was there, too, because he had radioed in before going into Sally’s house.

Once we had backup, the threatening feeling of impending danger I had felt inside the attic room at Sally’s began to dissipate, but Drew insisted Steph check me out as well as him.

I realized that Sally hadn’t answered my most important question. How had they ensured Irene would drink the poison? I was still certain that she wouldn’t have taken it herself, at least not knowingly. I was confident she had not killed herself.

“Drew,” I put my hand on his arm and pulled him aside. “I need to talk to Sally again.”


“Why?” He asked.

“Well, I still don't know how she got Irene to actually take the poison - and I know my mind won’t let this all go until I know that part, too.”

“Well, she’s already in the police car, but if we go outside quickly, I’m sure we can catch them before the officers take her to the station for processing. We know she was behind it.”

“But we don’t know HOW she did it."

“Okay,” he acquiesced.

We got up from the table and left the kitchen. Then we walked back up the hallway that connected the front and the back of the house, and exited the front door. The police cruiser was parked in the drive right in front of Sally’s house. I saw Sally sitting in the back, her arms pulled behind her in very uncomfortable looking pose.

The door was still open, and one of the officers was standing just to the side.

“Officer Kaye, please give us a moment with Sally,” Drew said, then motioned for me to go ahead.

“Sally,” I started, worried that she would again verbally lash out at me the way she had in the attic. “I wanted to ask you a question, please.”

She looked at me with hollow eyes, but nodded slightly.


“Go ahead.”

“Well, I wanted to ask - how did you get Irene to take the poison? Eliisa tried to get me to believe Irene drank the poison on purpose, that she killed herself. But, I don’t think that’s true.”

Sally opened her mouth to reply, but before she could, Susan who had only just regained consciousness, spoke first.

“That was all me, chickadee.”



“What, Susan - I thought…” I started.

“Sally thought that I was a good-for-nothing gopher, I know she did. She would give me stupid meaningless jobs, like following Anne Beatrice Carmichael around for half the day. What a waste of my time; like I couldn’t do anything more complicated. So, I took matters into my own hands. I put the poison into her purse, next to a reusable tube of powder to flavor water. I knew that old bat would eventually reach for it instead of the real stuff. I just had to bide my time. And, as you can see - it worked!”



“Oh, Susan,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper in the early evening air. “How could you?”

“Yes, you idiot,” Sally sputtered. “You would have gotten away with it, and still been free. But you just had to go run your mouth off, didn’t you?”

Sally’s words were cut short as Officer Kaye moved to close the door.

The officer who had been guarding Susan now moved to place her under arrest, too.