“To add the nothing we now have to the one already there?”
“Exactly. And we have a little more than before. We can now include Suzie and Isabelle to the darkness we’re currently traipsing in.”
It doesn’t make any sense.” Andi stared at the whiteboard as if doing so would force the material to yield results despite having failed to do so in the last hour.
“No, it doesn’t.” George’s frustration was clear in his tone. “We have the judge and Trevor as well as Jagger, who died under circumstances that were only clear-cut on first inspection, but so far don’t seem to be related except for being suspicious. Then we have Suzie and Isabelle, which we had ruled out because their deaths fit with what one would expect, only to find out they, at least, share a connection, flimsy as it may be.” He stepped forward with an orange marker in hand. “What if we assume their deaths are like the other three? Then we would have something that ties them all together.”
Andi hesitated for a moment. Then he nodded. “As a working theory, it might help us. Otherwise, we’d have to treat them separately, which I think would be unwise at the moment. But make the lines dotted.”
George dutifully made dotted orange lines connecting the two women with the three males. “Is there any chance of the fire ants or termites still being there?”
Andi shook his head. “I doubt it. The termites were in the structure of the house. They needed to be fumigated to protect it. And fire ants in a garden? You can bet they were nothing but tiny corpses after Suzie’s body was found.” Andi couldn’t suppress the hint of anger in his voice.
“You’re upset.” Even though he didn’t have tiny spies to help him decipher Andi’s moods, George was scarily good at reading him.
“A bit. Not really. It’s just not fair. The termites and ants can’t help their instincts. It’s the blob’s fault for being so inconsiderate and careless. If Suzie had worn trousers instead of something short and socks and shoes, her chances of survival would have been almost a hundred percent. And if Isabelle had kept a close eye on her house, maintaining it the way she was supposed to, the termites wouldn’t have destroyed her porch.”
“But they would have been fumigated anyway.”
Andi closed his eyes because George was right. As a blob, he really shouldn’t care so much about what happened to arthropods that were dangerous to humans. Not everybody was attuned to them like he was, able to sense them before they became a problem and take countermeasures. Well, nobody was like him, so his view was probably only his.
Before he could elaborate on his complicated feelings regarding the matter, George’s cell rang. He looked at the screen and put it on speaker. It was Evangeline.
“Manuia le taeao, George.”
“Good morning, Evangeline. Andi is here as well.”
“Manuia le taeao, Andi.”
“Good morning, Evangeline. Do you have news for us?”
“No, I’m just calling to hear your grumpy voice.” She laughed. “Of course I have news. Well, I’m not sure if it’s news for you, but I have finished the autopsy of Jagger Thomasin.”
“What have you found?” Andi hoped against hope that she might have stumbled upon something that would help them with this case.
“As you asked, I didn’t look at the report that came with the body, and I assume you want to hear that it is wrong, but I have to disappoint you. Mr. Thomasin died of asphyxiation, caused by muscle paralysis, which in turn was caused by alpha-latrotoxin, a venom black widows produce. I found the place on his hand where he’d been bitten, and I was able to verify traces of the venom in the blood samples I took.”
Andi and George shared a look. “There was nothing else? Nothing strange with his blood?”
“Leai. Nothing aside from traces of pain medication and alcohol. Though he wasn’t completely drunk when the spider bit him.”
Andi started tapping his chin. This was indeed strange. The spider’s memories had been unusual to begin with, and he had hoped it was caused by something on Jagger. Normal intoxication usually didn’t provoke harsh reactions like this from the arthropods unless they saw what the blob was doing as a direct attack. And he hadn’t felt anything either, certainly not from the black widow, and if it had driven her to attack, he would have sensed something. “Thank you, Evangeline. It’s not what we wanted to hear, but you did great work as always.”
“Le afaina. You’ll find the culprits. You always do.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Evangeline. Have a good day.” George was reaching for the red icon to end the call but waited till Evangeline and Andi had said their goodbyes. When it was only the two of them again, he sighed. “I’d say we’re back to square one, only we never left it. What now?”
Andi glanced at the whiteboard and then back at his partner. “Staring at the damn thing won’t help us one bit. Let’s take a break, meditate a bit, and then we have to call Luke. Perhaps he decides to call the whole thing off.” Andi doubted it but hope always died last.
“Hmph. As if. He wants to see us interacting with a major agency, and he’s gotten his wish. He’ll drag this out as long as possible.”
“Then we can’t be blamed for the collateral.” And there would be collateral, Andi could practically taste it in the air.
CHAPTER 11
SINKING INTO THE BEES
George was in his yoga shorts, sitting on his mat, across from Andi who was adjusting his position. “Let’s start with just breathing,” he suggested once Andi seemed to be comfortable.
