“I hope you know,” Archer said through the door, “I wouldn’t do this for just anyone.”
Without responding, Cordelia slipped out the door. She passed the courier as she was belting up her trench coat, and he gave her a knowing look. Like he knew what kind of outfit she had on underneath. Or maybe that was just her imagination working overtime.
Shame burned her cheeks as she rushed out to her car and peeled out of the parking lot without looking back. There was a solid chance Archer would be hopping mad when he came out of the bathroom and realized he’d been had, but she couldn’t think about that yet. As soon as they got those lab results in hand, they had no choice but to go looking for who had poisoned the pastor before Archer, the sheriff, and the town started looking too closely at the Chickadee.
Chapter Ten
PALYTOXIN. THAT’S WHAT SHOWED UP ON THE LAB REPORT.
Two days ago, while Archer was getting acquainted with a leather thong, the courier had taken a sample of wine from Archer’s outbox down to the FBI’s lab for testing. For two days, Cordelia had been checking the results hourly, worried that Archer would be clued in to the results before she could get to them. And now she could breathe a sigh of relief. She punched in the code to have the results wiped from the system and the sample destroyed.
He would never know she’d used him to find out what had killed his daddy.
Her insides squirmed as she thought about how she’d left him. Thus far, she’d avoided going into town. She wasn’t looking forward to the day when their paths would inevitably cross again. She could only hope he’d be too embarrassed to mention it, though that was unlikely.
“Palytoxin?” Daisy scratched her head and the whole of her hair moved with the motion. It was only then that Cordelia realized she must’ve been wearing a wig. “I’m not sure what that is, but that don’t make no sense. The whole town is saying arsenic.”
“The pastor might’ve had arsenic in his system from who knows what, but the palytoxin is what killed him.” Belinda Sue’s nose scrunched as she brought her tablet close to her face, thenmoved it away again. Trying to find that perfect balance between her near- and farsightedness. “Nasty business, this palytoxin. Can only be found on certain soft corals that grow in saltwater. You can’t buy this stuff on the eBay. Poisoning can mimic a heart attack.”
“Why didn’t they find that on his toxicology report?” Cordelia asked. The results of the autopsy were top-secret police business, so, naturally, the whole town knew.
“They probably weren’t looking for it,” Belinda Sue said. “Arsenic is a much more common poison. They might’ve seen that and quit digging. But make no mistake, the palytoxin in that wine is what ultimately did him in.”
“And we’re the only ones who know it,” Daisy said.
“Should we tell the sheriff’s office?” Cordelia asked. When the three of them looked at her like she had too many cobwebs in her attic, she held her hands out. “I’m not saying we point the finger at ourselves, but we could call in an anonymous tip.”
Belinda Sue shook her head hard enough to crack a nut. “Nope. Out of the question. If we bring up palytoxin in any way, shape, or form, it’s only a matter of time before they link that poison back to the wine he drank in Daisy’s room.”
“I don’t want to go to prison, Miss Cordelia.” Daisy’s timid plea sealed it.
“Fine.” Cordelia crossed her arms. “It was just an idea. I’m not sure if we’re equipped to solve a murder.”
“Two weeks ago you weren’t sure if you were equipped to be a madam,” Belinda Sue said. “But look at you now.”
This did not set Cordelia’s mind at ease, given that she still didn’t consider herself a madam. She longed for the days when she thought the worst thing she’d have to do was chase an unruly client off the property with a shotgun.
“Any ideas on how we go about solving this?” Daisy pulleda folded piece of paper from the back pocket of her hot pants. “Should we add more people to our suspect list?”
Belinda Sue smacked her palms together. “Well, would you look at that? Daisy is turning out to be a regular Sherlock.”
“We ought to do research first,” Cordelia said. “We need to know more about this palytoxin and where it might be found here in Texas. Anyone up for a trip to the library?”
The sky turned the color of a fresh bruise, and the clouds bloated with much-needed rain. The air snapped with the scent of copper and wet rock. Cordelia couldn’t help but think it was a sign of things to come, even if she wasn’t prone to believing in such nonsense.
Belinda Sue didn’t want to be left out of the fun this time around, so only Arline stayed behind while the rest of them piled into Cordelia’s car. They stopped to get gas on the way into town. The pimple-faced kid behind the counter, who couldn’t have been a day over nineteen, wagged his eyebrows at her.
“I didn’t realize the Chickadee had younger ladies now.” He didn’t take his eyes off her as he made change for her twenty. “Might have to stop by sometime.”
“I wouldn’t mess with this one, son. She’s got a real mean streak.” At the sound of Archer’s rough-road, biscuits-and-honey voice, she wanted to collapse in on herself like a dying star. She hadn’t seen him since she slipped out of his office, and hoped she could go on avoiding him until the end of her days. “Rumor has it she likes to string young men up by their toes and laugh at their genitals.”
The tips of the boy’s ears turned red. “That can’t be true.”
“I’m afraid it is,” Cordelia said. “You should’ve seen how much I laughed at Mr. Archer Reed-Smythe just last week. He’s got the funniest little—”
“All right now, that’s enough.” Archer slung an arm over her shoulder and covered her mouth with his hand. “Don’t go scarring the boy before he’s old enough to have his first drink.”
He maneuvered her toward the door, and she bit his palm the minute they stepped outside. Shoving out of his embrace, she whirled on him. “I wasn’t finished making my transaction.”
