There Was an Old Woman

Chapter Fifty-five


By the next morning, Evie could barely hold up her head. Tense and jittery, unable to sleep, she’d spent most of the night up and cleaning the house. Sergeant Corday showed up, as promised, at eight. The younger of the two cops who’d come to investigate the earlier break-in, he had another officer with him this time. A slender African American woman with straight black hair framing her wide-set eyes, she introduced herself as Detective Leslie Johnson. Evie poured them both coffee and sat across the kitchen table from them. The kitchen was still the only room in the house that was back to normal.

“So these are what you found outside in the trash?” Johnson asked, indicating the pill bottles that Evie had left on the table. “Why don’t you start at the beginning. Tell us about your mother’s illness.”

The beginning. What was the beginning? Evie took a breath. “My mother is an alcoholic. Has been for years, so we weren’t surprised when she was rushed to the hospital last Friday.”

“We?” Corday asked.

“My sister, Ginger, and I. We’ve been through this so many times before. My mother falls. Or she collapses. Or she acts like a crazy person. She dries out, goes in for treatment. Says she’ll stop drinking but she never does. But this time it was different. Turns out that on top of excessive drinking, she’d taken an overdose of acetaminophen. I thought it was accidental, because it wouldn’t have taken much with her liver already so compromised. Then I found these.” She pointed to the NaturaPharm containers.

“Vitamins?” Corday said.

“Only they’re not. Both containers have the same pills. Acetaminophen. When you asked me if something more was missing after the break-in, I’d only checked for valuables. But someone took these bottles and more like them from the bathroom and threw them in the trash.”

“How many more?” Detective Johnson asked.

“There was a whole row of them in her medicine cabinet.” Evie tried to visualize it. “Six or seven.”

Detective Johnson picked up a paper napkin and used it to turn over one of the containers. “No price sticker, but there’s a bar code. We may be able to find out what store they came from.” She unscrewed the top and shook a tablet into her palm. “So you’re saying someone was trying to kill her.”

“She was doing a fine job of that all by herself. I think someone was trying to speed up the process. And sabotage her car. And make it look like she’s one of those crazy cat ladies. I’ve thrown out dozens of empty cans of cat food. My mother doesn’t even like cats, and she’s certainly never owned one.” Evie went on, telling them about the money her mother was getting, and that she suspected someone had gotten her to sign away her house.

“Did you find this agreement that you think she signed?” Johnson asked.

Evie admitted she hadn’t. “But Mrs. Yetner—she lives next door—her nephew has been trying to get her to sign away her house, too. I have that agreement.” Then she remembered she’d given the life estate deed to Finn. “I mean, I know where it is. I gave it to someone to look into.”

“But you have the cash?” Corday asked. “There might be prints.”

“I’m sorry, no. I deposited it all in the bank yesterday. That much cash made me very nervous, especially after the break-in.”

“What about the envelopes that the money came in?” Johnson asked.

Evie sank lower in her chair. “I threw them away as I was leaving the bank. There was nothing written on them. Just twenty brand-new one-hundred-dollar bills in each one.”

“Seems like it would have to be someone she knew and trusted,” Johnson said. “Any idea who?”

“My mother’s burned through most of her friends. But the man across the street, Frank Cutler, he’s been spending time with her. He tried to visit her in the hospital, only she’d already been moved to intensive care.” Johnson and Corday exchanged a look, and Evie felt her face flush. “Sounds crazy, I know.”

“These”—Johnson pointed a long, manicured nail at the vitamin containers—“are not figments of your imagination.”

“You said you found these in the garbage bag outside?” Corday asked. “I’ll go see if there’s more out there.” He pushed himself up from the table and went out, closing the front door quietly behind him.

“Why don’t you show me the medicine cabinet these were in,” Johnson said. Evie led her to the bathroom and pointed out the empty bottom shelf. Johnson looked around, speculatively. “We’re investigating another case. Another house—”

“The one that was bulldozed a few days ago?”

“It’s been bulldozed?”

“We’re probably not talking about the same house.” Evie took Johnson back to the kitchen. She took out the map that she’d printed at work and unfolded it on the table. “There,” she said, pointing to the lot where the little house with bright red trim had once stood. “That house is gone.”

“That’s not the one we’re investigating.”

Evie pointed a few doors up. “The house on this lot has been leveled, too.”

“That’s the one,” Johnson said. “An older woman lived there. A widow. Alone. She had emphysema.” She looked up at Evie, as if she was deciding whether to say more. “But that’s not what killed her.”

“Don’t tell me. Acetaminophen overdose,” Evie said as she started to put away the map.

“I can’t say,” Johnson said, “but it’s urgent that we talk to your mother.”

“I’m afraid you can’t. No one can. She’s in a coma at Bronx Metropolitan Hospital.”

Johnson frowned. “Can I see that map again?” Evie pushed it across the table at her.

“Why are those other properties flagged?” Johnson asked.

“They’re all owned by the same company. Soundview Management.” Evie watched as Johnson traced her long finger from one flagged property to the next. Most of them were on the water, including the lot next to Mrs. Yetner on the side opposite Evie’s mother’s house. Frank Cutler’s house was flagged, too. He was young and healthy enough that a life estate deed at least made some financial sense.

“You mind if I take a picture of this map?” Johnson asked. Evie shook her head and Johnson snapped two quick shots with her cell phone.

Corday came back in. He had more vitamin containers, each sealed in its own baggie. He and Johnson exchanged a look.

“Thank you,” Johnson said to Evie, offering her a card. “We’ll be in touch. What’s the best way to reach you?”

Evie gave them her cell-phone number.

She felt dazed as she let them out. Her mother really had been poisoned, and whoever had done it was trying to cover his tracks. She watched from the kitchen window as Detective Johnson and Officer Corday stood in front of the house, their heads bent, talking. The pair split up. Johnson walked up to Mrs. Yetner’s door, Corday to Frank Cutler’s.