A Quandary in Quarantine

Chapter Twelve

The ‘authorities’ did not seem to be in much of a rush, though. Deputy Drew finally arrived about twenty minutes later. I supposed it was not really a real emergency, but still - in a town the size of Elsewhere, it’s not like there was a lot of other police matters taking up his time. When Deputy James did pull up, it sounded like he had parked in my driveway - rather than Luce’s. Odd. Sure enough, moments later I heard my own doorbell chime and there he was standing on my front stoop.

“Um, hello Deputy James. I thought you were on your way to Luce’s house.”

“Well, see I figured, since there were already two people on her side of the fence, if I joined you on your side, then we could more easily distance ourselves,” he said. “And, please - Libby, call me Drew."

It sounded to me like he had quickly thought up that explanation as he was saying it, but I shrugged, and led him through the house and back outside. I pulled two of my patio chairs over to the shoveled spot, leaving about four feet between them, but both right next to the fence show we could be more comfortable. Luckily, they had been under the overhang on my porch, so they had been dry and snow-free.

“Alrighty,” said Deputy Drew, as he sat down. “Tell me what happened today.” He looked at me as he said it, but I quickly jerked my head to Luce and Annie Bea’s side of the fence.

“Err, Annie Bea?” He said, recovering quickly and taking my hint.

“Oh okay, well, like I told the girls - it might not have really been anything to worry about, but I believe Susan was following me.”

“Susan? Do you mean Susan Taylor, from the Library Board?”

“Yes, Susan began following me right as I completed my route for Meals on Wheels. I was headed back here, when I first noticed her. I purposely drove around for a bit, trying to either figure out if she was really following me, or to lose her, I guess - that’s why I was so late getting home. I know Lucy here called you to have you put your people on it, so I need to apologize for taking up your time, too.”

“Not at all,” Deputy Drew said, “We are always happy to help, especially in these strange times.”

“Well in any case - nothing really happened. She followed me, until I slowed to turn into our driveway and then sped off around me. I think that she realized I had seen her maybe, and could identify it was her following me.”

“That’s possible. I will swing by her house after we’re done here and see what she has to say for herself. Was there anything else?”

“Yes,” I interjected. “Annie Bea told us that Susan and Sally had both been threatening towards her recently. This might be connected.”

“Threatening? How?” The Deputy asked, directing his question to Annie Bea.

She recounted the events at the library, and Luce and I chimed in with our theories.

“I can’t say anything officially, of course, but, I have to tell you as friends, I agree with you that this is an inappropriate display of perceived power on their part,” Deputy Drew sighed. I decided to take a chance while we seemed to be on his good side.

“I also think you need to question Eliisa in connection with Irene’s death again. I can’t quite put my finger the connection yet - but I followed Eliisa out of town today, and she was poking around the old Morton Farm property. I -“

“Wait a minute, Libby,” Deputy Drew cut me off, “Lucy calls me because she’s freaked out Annie Bea might be missing or in danger, and someone was following her and I have all my officers out trying to find her - and here you are, following people too? Don’t you think that might have been a bad idea? What if you’d freaked Eliisa out, just like Annie Bea was? I can’t believe you!”

He leaned forward in his chair, clearly upset with me and what I had done, he looked like he was a lion ready to pounce.

“Well, that’s different,” I said, “She wouldn't answer my questions…”

“Your questions? About what, exactly? Some connection to Irene’s death? Libby, I can’t impress this upon you enough - you need to leave the policing to us - the police! Please keep your research skills and you helpful nature contained to your patrons at the library!” He stood, pushing the patio chair back slightly with the speed of his movement. “Annie Bea, Lucy - I’ll follow up with Susan Taylor. I’ll be in touch with you, soon. And you -“ his eyes were on mine again, but I refused to look away, “stay out of this.”

With that, he turned and walked back into my house, walking straight through to the front door and let himself out.

“Ugh. Well, that did not go very well, huh?” I could hear Luce stage whisper to her mom. I could only imagine the look they were sharing at my fantastic flop.

“No comments from the peanut gallery, you two,” I said. “We've still got work to do!”

“Oh I sorta forgot about that,” Luce said. I heard her give Annie Bea a recap of what I’d found when I followed Eliisa.

“So, Libby wants to call Carson’s cousin, Stephanie, now. She’s a paramedic and should be able to help us identify the berries Libby found.”

“That is a good idea, Libby,” Annie Bea called over the fence.

“Yes, hello. May I please speak with Stephanie Brown?” I said, when the operator at the police station’s non-emergency line picked up. “Yes, I’ll wait.”

A moment or two later, Stephanie’s voice came on down the line.

“This is Steph,” she said.

“Hi Stephanie. You might not remember me - this is Libby Keene, I’m the librarian who found Irene Savela’s body last week? You helped our director Maggie Gillan recover from her mild shock after the event.”

“Yes, of course, Libby! How is Maggie doing?” Steph’s voice was filed with concern.

“Oh, she’s as well as can be expected, as are we all. No lasting effects of the actual shock though - so that’s good.”

“That is good to hear. How can I help you, Libby?”

“Well, I was hoping you could help me identify a plant I found - can I send you a quick picture of it?”

“Sure,” she said, and recited her phone number.

I put the phone on speaker and opened up the camera app. I sent her a quick photo, then asked, “So, what do you think it is?”

“It’s just coming through. Oh, yikes!” she said, “where did you find that?”

“Um, it was… in the field behind the library.”

Oh boy, I was racking up those white lies lately, wasn’t I?

“Well, you should be very careful. I think that’s red baneberry. The juice from those berries in your hand is very poisonous. Even if someone only ingests a few, they can get very sick.”

“What if they ingested a lot of them?”

“Well, quite honestly, they could die. The poison attacks the nervous system, and could cause heart failure. They’re pretty fast acting though, so people do not usually eat enough to do serious harm before realizing their mistake. We were called out to a rental property outside of town last summer when someone’s five year old kid accidentally ate a few. The baneberry bush was next to a raspberry bush, and the kid was too young to notice the difference. They ate maybe two or three and started hallucinating. Dangerous stuff.”

“Okay, thank you so much Steph. Hey, while I’ve got you on the phone, one more quick question.”

“Shoot,” she said.

“If you have any connections in the crime lab, I think you should have them test the glass bottle they found on my desk for traces of a concentrated version of this baneberry juice.”

I hung up with Steph, then, and even over the fence, I could tell Luce and Annie Bea were wondering where I’d pulled that from.

“Ladies, stick with me here - I helped a patron with some research on baneberries not too long ago. I actually knew they were poisonous, but I’m glad Steph confirmed it. I found these berries on a bush on the old Morton Farms’ property. I had just seen Eliisa leave that very same property. I suspect that Eliisa was harvesting the baneberries, and distilled the juice from a lot of them down into a super potent concentrated version. And then used it to kill Irene.”

The two other woman shared a glance, and then looked back at me. I could see it in their eyes, they thought I had just identified the cause of Irene’s death.