Alien in the House

Chapter 23



MY ANNOUNCEMENT engendered lots of gasps of shock from everyone other than Eugene, Mom, and Chuckie. Even Jeff gasped. Enjoyed my Big Reveal moment. Knew everyone’s being impressed with me wouldn’t last long.

“Why do you feel that Representative Brewer was the actual target?” Chuckie asked, speaking quite slowly and distinctly. Reader, Cliff, Andrei, and the others from their table gathered ’round.

“Because Edmund Brewer didn’t drink his water. He gave it to Santiago instead.”

Everyone gave me polite looks that said I was either crazy or making no sense.

“See?” Eugene said, sounding slightly hysterical. “He’s the one who did it! His fingerprints will probably be on the glass.”

“Of course his fingerprints will be on the glass—it was his originally. But you’re the one with the evidence on you, Eugene . . . and the motive.” Was glad Jeff had a firm hold on my hand, because I really wanted to tackle Eugene and throttle him.

“Give us the full explanation, girlfriend, because we need the clarity,” Reader said. Nice to see I was back on his friend, versus formal, speaking mode.

Shot a glance in Nathalie’s direction. She caught my eye and nodded. Hoped that meant she was okay with my spilling the beans.

“Okay, Eugene is jealous of Edmund.”

“Why so?” Cliff asked.

“Because Eugene has been having an affair with Edmund’s wife, Nathalie.”

“It’s in the past,” she said quickly. Really? As always, I was the last to know.

Brewer nodded. “Nathalie told me about the affair months ago, and broke it off. We made some . . . adjustments in our work and private lives.” He took and squeezed her hand. “All’s forgiven between us, and I chose not to confront Gene because it would have hurt Lydia.”

Lydia, who was standing next to Cliff, definitely looked hurt and more than a little surprised. But she rallied. “I still don’t see how Eugene could have done this.”

“Good Stand By Your Man attempt there, Lydia. And, while all might be okay on your side, Edmund, Eugene’s not on your side.” I’d seen how he’d looked at both Nathalie and his wife. “You have one of the women he wants and I’d bet Lydia’s spent a lot of time with you, learning the ropes.”

“Yes, of course. That’s what you do for your friends and associates.” Brewer shot Lydia a warm smile. I’d never realized he was as good a politician as Armstrong, but I was impressed with his ability to give off a completely caring vibe.

Lydia smiled back gratefully. Eugene’s eyes narrowed. Wondered if Eugene was really as stupid as he seemed to me right now. Tabled the decision for later.

“So you’re also monopolizing a lot of his wife’s time.”

“We were out as couples quite a lot,” Nathalie said quickly.

“Fine. Meaning Eugene gets to see his former mistress happily back with her husband and gets to watch his wife look up to his romantic rival at the same time. After a while, he can’t take it any more and he plots his revenge, and it’s dependent on getting close to you in a situation where anyone could be the murderer.”

“This is the first truly big event we’ve gone to in months,” Nathalie confirmed.

“Lucky us. So, we had servers passing around drinks, and lots of them, meaning that someone could have spotted Eugene dropping arsenic in your drink. Dinner would have to do, and it wouldn’t have been a problem only we had a seating arrangement that put him close, but not close enough, to you. So he had to do something to get closer.”

“That’s why he was so obsessed with helping you to sit,” Jeff said.

“Yes. And he did a terrible job with it, too. Knocking into Edmund, slamming me into the table, and sloshing water all over. It was really well done, because no one caught him emptying the contents of that packet of arsenic into Edmund’s glass. Because there were only the ten of us and everyone was more focused on me and what Eugene was doing to me than what he was doing on or over the table.”

“Let’s say all that’s right,” Reader said. “But you need to explain how Santiago ended up drinking that water.”

“I gave it to him,” Brewer said, and he sounded horrified and saddened. Wasn’t sure if it was genuine, but I had a feeling it was. “After he’d almost choked to death and Kitty saved him. He’d drunk all his water and I hadn’t touched mine.”

“Right. And no one could have predicted that Santiago would choke on a crouton, or that you’d give him your water. But Eugene was a double failure, because he put the arsenic in the one thing you wouldn’t touch.”

“I was told to!” Eugene said, then slammed his mouth shut.

“Don’t try for the insanity defense,” Chuckie said. “Your motive seems crystal clear.”

Everyone else nodded, but I didn’t. My impression wasn’t that Eugene was going for the crazy plea. Maybe because of what Hamlin had told me earlier, I wondered if what Eugene meant was that he’d been hired or coerced to perform this assassination.

Raj was standing behind Lydia and he was a tall guy. I could see his face easily. He caught my eye and raised his eyebrow. So he had the same thoughts I did.

“Good work, Kitty,” Cliff said. “Depending on whether or not Centaurion Division will allow the police to take Mister Montgomery or not, you’ve given them, or your own authorities, all they’ll need to make this an open and shut case.”

“Well, Prince had a paw in this, too.”

Upon hearing his name, Prince trotted over from wherever he’d been. While Cliff, Chuckie, Reader, and Mom started to discuss where they were going to take Eugene and who would or wouldn’t be allowed to see him, I gave Prince his well-deserved pets. I also used the time to think.

A lot had gone on today, and that usually indicated the Big Plan was in action somewhere and somehow. I needed to figure out what was going on, but to do that, I needed to run my mouth, and it would be nice to run it with someone who’d listen and add in.

Per Hamlin, Chuckie, Mom, and Cliff were out, and that meant Kevin was out, too. Buchanan was God knew where. If I went with Hamlin’s warnings, frankly, Buchanan could be the Mastermind. Anyone could. At least, anyone who wanted to destroy and control the A-Cs. And if they were good enough, they could be fooling anyone, including me.

That meant there were three people I knew for sure I could and should talk to. Happily, they were the three people I wanted to talk to anyway.

I took Prince’s lead, backed up, and shoved Jeff back gently, then tugged on his hand, while nodding to Raj. “Raj and I need to talk to you,” I said quietly.

“You and the new boyfriend want to share your affair in public, too?”

“Jeff, oh my God, the jealousy crap is so not funny, particularly right now.” I needed to talk to someone who I knew I could trust with everything I’d done and seen and learned today, and who would hopefully listen and not freak out at me. But if Jeff was going into Major Jealousy Mode right now, he wasn’t going to be that someone.

He squeezed my hand. “Sorry, baby, I was teasing you. Bad timing for it, I should have realized.”

“Yes, you should have.” Blocks or no, I was getting worried. Jeff didn’t seem to be picking up anything emotionally, from me or anyone else, and that boded badly.

Raj joined us. “Ambassadors, I think we need to talk, somewhere very secure.” His voice was low but his expression remained very amiable. He was good.

“I agree. I’d like you to get Richard White, and have him join us, please, Raj. And do it as unobtrusively as possible.”

“Unobtrusive is my middle name. Where should we meet?”

Considered our options. They were limited. I heaved a sigh. “Let’s all go to the bathrooms on the second floor.”

“A good choice.” Raj shot us the Troubadour Smile and moved off to where White and some of the other Embassy personnel had congregated.

“Is it?” Jeff asked.

“Well, is Christopher still down there?”

“Yeah, I told him to stay and keep that floor under his guard.”

“Then, yes, the bathrooms are a good choice.”

Jeff sighed. “Only my girl. We’re taking the dog, too?”

“Absolutely. Prince is a hero. Plus Officer Melville is downstairs.”

Jeff took Prince’s lead from me. “Then let’s go walk the dog, baby.”