“Yes. And don’t touch the needle end. If it was the one that injected the poison, it might still have some on it.” He grabbed Darby’s arm as she started to go into the back room.
“Hey.” She turned to him. “What’s the matter?”
He held up a hand. “Give me a second before you go in. Rarity, do you have a box we can put that in? Then I’ll walk it over to the station. Order lunch and I’ll pick it up on my way back.”
“Sounds good. Hold on a second, Darby. We need to get something out of there before you can go inside.” Rarity didn’t want to mention the needle or Mason since Darby had been one of the last people, besides the killer, to see Mason alive that night. She handed her a menu from Carole’s. “Pick out your lunch while you’re waiting.”
Rarity found a box under the cabinet behind the register. She handed it to Jonathon with some bubble wrap. “So hopefully it won’t poke through the box.”
He raised his eyebrows, then took the packing material and disappeared into the back room.
Rarity watched from the door as he used a glove to move the needle onto the bubble wrap, then into the box. He closed the box, put some tape on the top, then let out a long breath.
“There, it should be safe, but just in case, I’m putting it into a bag and carrying that. Not the box. I’ve got stuff I still want to do with my one and precious life. Like see Drew get married.”
Rarity took the lunch order, and after adding her and Jonathon’s order to the list, she called it in as Jonathon left the building. Now that she knew what it was, she was glad it was out of the store and safely on its way to the police station. Let them deal with the potential poisoning issue. She hung up the phone and then noticed that Darby hadn’t left the spot where she’d been since Jonathon stopped her. “Lunch will be here soon.”
“That’s what killed Pike, right? That syringe and whatever was inside it? That’s why you didn’t want Jonathon touching it and why you kept me out of the room. I’m not that sensitive. I know Pike was poisoned. I didn’t kill him.”
“Oh, dear. I don’t think you killed him. I just didn’t want you upset. You’ve had a lot going on the last couple weeks.”
“I’m an adult, Rarity. You need to treat me that way.” Darby went off with a box of books to shelve.
Rarity wanted to apologize, but she wasn’t sure which sin in Darby’s eyes was the bigger one: trying to save her from Marc or not letting her go into the back room because of the syringe?
* * *
Darby was still upset with Rarity when book club started, but she hid it well—almost. Rarity saw the questioning looks the others gave Darby, then Rarity, whenever Darby spoke directly to her. Which wasn’t often.
“Jonathon? Since you’re hanging out at Drew’s and keeping us from getting into trouble, do you want to run the meeting tonight?” Rarity held out the whiteboard pen. She’d specifically chosen purple to see if he’d change to his regular black or use the purple. It was the little things that made her smile. Like messing with Jonathon.
“I can do that,” Jonathon said, then switched the pen out to a black on the tray under the board. He saw Rarity’s smile and shook the pen at her. “Anyway, what have we found out since last week? Who wants to go first?”
Rarity raised her hand. “I’ll go first since my answer is not much. I checked out Mason’s social media along with Talia’s, his ex-girlfriend, and there’s not a lot there. They’ve been broken up for a while, according to Talia’s posts. Mason’s doesn’t mention Talia since the breakup. And it looks like he hired a professional to make his posts. Comparing those to Marc Billings, his look almost like a machine did them. No humor, no emotion, no life.” Rarity saw the look Darby gave her. “And the reason I looked at Marc’s was for the second question we had last time, who was stalking Darby. Marc’s social media is open and seems to be a lot like him. Nothing came out of any of the digging, except for one creepy comment on Marc’s and that has now been explained.”
“And…” Jonathon prompted her. When Rarity shrugged, unsure of what he was leading her toward, he added, “You found today…”
“Oh, yeah, we found what might be the murder weapon in the back room. I thought it was from the EMTs, but Jonathon thinks it might be veterinarian grade. Or bought from a vet store.” She saw that everyone was looking expectantly at her. “It was a syringe. Sorry, I thought I said that. Anyway, Jonathon took it to Drew for testing. And now that’s all I know.”
“I doubt that, but we’ll go on. Who else has a report?” Jonathon looked around the room.
Holly raised her hand. “I’ve been looking into Talia. After she broke up with Mason, she started dating Bret Black. I talked to him one night at the Garnet. He was drinking hard at the bar when I went to walk Malia home from her shift. She was scared to be alone.”
“I was not scared, I was cautious. That’s not the same thing.” Malia looked around the room. “There was a lot going on in town, and I thought a friend might not quibble about walking with me home.”
“Okay, fine, she was cautious. Anyway, Bret’s a mess. He’s in love with Talia but the girl runs hot and cold. And right now, it’s icy in Bret’s world. He said anytime they were around Mason, Talia would be all over him. But now that Mason’s dead, she won’t even return Bret’s calls. Weird, huh?” Holly stood to get another cookie.
Rarity thought it was really strange. “You don’t think Talia was just using him to get Mason back, do you?”
“From the way he responded to Darby, I think Mason had a type. Talia. I wonder why they broke up in the first place.” Holly pointed to the board. “We know when they broke up, but maybe the answer is in the why.”
“And do any of these people have a pet?” Rarity asked, motioning for Jonathon to write down the question. “After what we found today, maybe someone’s like Edith and likes to save money on vet bills by giving their own meds.”
“There are other reasons that someone would be administering meds to pets than being cheap,” Jonathon said, but he wrote down the question.
“Oh, is Romeo sick?” Rarity stared him down. Finally, he laughed.
“No, he’s fine. Edith’s just cheap.” He looked around the room. “More reports or questions?”
