Broken Flower (Early Spring 1)

"Oh, that damn medicine. Nancy will bring it to you. Now move," she said, and I walked past them as they all started quickly up the stairway.

I returned to the dining room and nibbled on a piece of cold toast and drank some more orange juice. Nancy finally brought me my medicine and I took it. She didn't wait to see if I did it right. She went back upstairs. I was happy she hadn't taken it back. Now I wouldn't have to wait for anyone before I could take it in the morning. I thought. Mama would be pleased.

I brought my dishes and glasses to the kitchen and then I wandered out to the stairway to listen. Felix came down and without even looking at me, went out. I went to the living room window that looked out on the driveway because I thought I heard the sound of a siren. Sure enough, an ambulance was turning into our driveway and right behind it was a police car. Another car, a black sedan, turned in after those two vehicles and all of them sped up to the front of the mansion.

Moments later Felix led two paramedics into the house. They carried bags and followed him up the stairway. Two policemen came in after them and then two men in suits followed, closing the door behind them. They all hurried up the stairway. I waited below, listening. The patrolmen came back down the stairway first. They saw me, but they didn't even smile or nod their heads. I watched them leave the house.

I wondered if I should go up to tell Ian I had gotten my medicine so he wouldn't worry about me, but I was afraid Grandmother Emma would really yell at us both. It didn't matter that all these strangers were in the house. If she was angry, she was any.

What. I wondered, had happened to Miss Harper to cause all this commotion?

Finally, Nancy came slowly down the stairway, her eyes down, shaking her head as she walked. She looked at me. "You know she's dead, don't you?" she asked.

I shrugged. How was I supposed to know anything? "Do you know anything about it?" she asked me. "About what?"

"About how she died?"

I shook my head and then remembered to speak instead of just shaking my head.

"No. I had to go to her room to get my medicine,'" I told her, and showed it to her. "She kept it there and I have to have it in the morning every day. She should have left it in my bathroom and there wouldn't have been all this trouble."

"Believe me," Nancy said, "that's the least of her problems now,"

She walked to the kitchen and I waited at the bottom of the stairway. The front door opened again and Mac, the man in charge of the mansion's grounds, came in with the two patrolmen. They told him to wait in the living room and one of the patrolmen went back upstairs.

No one seemed to notice or pay any attention to me.

Moments later, the patrolman and both of the men in suits came down the stairway and joined Mac and the other patrolman in the living room. I could hear everything they said because I stood just across from the living room door.

"This is Lieutenant Risso and I'm Detective Ryan," one of the men in suits said to Mac. "You look after the property?"

"Yes, sir," Mac said.. "And any odd job around the house itself, plumbing, electrical, whatnot." He glanced through the doorway at me and I thought he smiled.

"Have you been using any rodent poisons of any kind lately?" Lieutenant Risso asked him.

"Oh, yes, sir," Mac said. "We have a little problem in that regard. I use GoRodent Getter,"

"What's the active ingredient?" Detective Ryan asked.

"Strychnine. May I ask why you ask?"

"We have a possible incident that might involve that poison. Are you missing any?"

"Don't know. Hafta check the storage shed," Mac said.

"Let's go check," Detective Ryan said.

Mac shrugged and all of them left the house together. Mac winked at me, but no one else looked my way.

The paramedics came down the stairs next, but much more casually. They turned and went into the kitchen. I followed and saw that Nancy was giving them cups of coffee.

"What happened to her?" Nancy asked them.

"It sure looks like she was poisoned," one of the paramedics said.

"She suffered severe convulsions and were pretty sure it was strychnine. Usually, with strychnine, the victim remains in a convulsed position

like the one she's in, eyes wide open and the face in a look of agony, just like hers," the other said, and then added, "The victim goes into rigor mortis almost