Alex Harris 00 - Poisoned

about.”
    “The papers I saw you put in your purse back at my grandmother’s house. Where are they?”
    “I gave them to the police.”
    “No, you didn’t. You came straight here after dropping Chantal off.” My face went deathly pale. “That’s right,” he said, wiping sweat from his face with his sleeve. “I followed you. So don’t lie to me. Where are they?”
    He twisted my arm harder this time and I turned my head to bury it in the sofa. The pain was immense and I knew that if he didn’t let up, he would twist it right off my body. Yuk.
    “Where are they!” This time he forgot the sinister whisper. “I’ve already killed Bradley, the dear boy,” he said, his voice full of mockery.
    “Yes, you did. Why didn’t you kill Mr. Kaminski as well?”
    “Kill Ralph?” Stuart asked with a look of pure puzzlement. “Why would I harm Mr. Kaminski? He’s been like a father to me. More than my own ever was.”
    “That’s right. The knock on the back of the head wasn’t all that bad. The fall on the rock knocked him out.”
    “Yeah, I’m sorry for that. I just didn’t want him to see me.” Stuart’s voice took on a child-like tone.
    “You thought he had found the originals. But he didn’t. John has them.”
    “You didn’t have any time to give those papers to anyone. Unless you gave them to your sister.”
    “How did you...?”
    “Who your sister is? You underestimate me. I’ve been keeping an eye on you. Ever since you stopped by to talk with Trish. You nosey types are always trouble. Now give me the papers and let’s get this over with.”
    I cried now, my tears dropping onto my sofa. I had a terrible feeling that this was it—he was going to kill me. If this had been a mystery show on TV, the cops would be pulling up right outside this very minute, but this was real life and the gun that Stuart held contained real bullets not blanks. I would never see my family or John again. Any minute now my life should start to pass before my eyes, I thought.
    “You’ll never get away with it. Chan...” I closed my mouth.
    “Chantal. Yes, Chantal knows all about it. That’s okay. I’ll have to stop by her place on my way home and take care of her, too.”
    “You wouldn’t!” I cried.
    “You knew I killed my brother. I saw it in your eyes at my grandmother’s this afternoon. How did you figure it out?”
    I had no wish to divulge anything to this maniac, but anything to stall him until John could get here. That is, if he was on his way, which I strongly suspected he wasn’t. “Because your grandmother said you called with the news about Mr. Kaminski. No one knew he had been hit. The police were very careful to keep it out of the papers. But then you would know, wouldn’t you?”
    Stuart shrugged.
    “The more I thought about it, I really didn’t think that May and June had it in them.” I wiped my eyes on the sleeve of my robe. “They rant and rave a lot, but I don’t think they would kill.”
    “So you settled on me.”
    “It took some doing,” I said trying to get a glimpse of the clock on the bookshelf. Where the hell was John? “But I’ll bet you have quite a few debts mounted up. Horseracing is not an exact science.”
    “No. No, it is not,” Stuart said, the gun still pointed at me. “And there are quite a few people who would like their money. Hard as I’ve tried, they just don’t want to wait anymore. But I wasn’t there the night Bradley died. You really had to stretch your imagination to come up with me.”
    “It really wasn’t all that difficult once I thought about it. You saw your grandmother at the store buying the ingredients for the cookies, and you were at Bradley’s house before he died. Did he show you the photocopies he made? Is that how you knew what he found?”
    “Had them spread out all over. Quite excited about his little find.”
    “So that Monday night, you watched through the study window to make sure everyone left and then you went in.”
    “Just walked right in. Even had a bit of a chat with my little brother. Then when he left the room to go to the bathroom, I poisoned the cookies and got out of there. Well, as enlightening as this all is, I’d like the papers. Now!”
    I jumped. I couldn’t think of any more stalling tactics. Surely he wouldn’t kill me before he had the papers. Would he risk shooting off a gun? Too many people would hear it. Maybe I could drag this out a bit longer.
    “This should be quick and painless.”