Chapter 2

The crime scene took place in one of the rooms at Hill House Inn. Though the inn was just as quaint and historic as the rest of the buildings in town, there was something foreboding about it.

It was Emily Beth, the assistant manager, who met Seth and Jessica in front on the sidewalk. She looked agitated as she directed them towards the correct room.

Walking down the corridor, they noted the deputy interviewing some of the people in the neighboring rooms. Sheriff Metzger was also standing in the hallway and he had obviously been expecting them. When they arrived at the door of the room, he tipped his hat.

"Doc; Mrs. F," he greeted them.

Jessica tilted her head, "Is there a reason you're out here in the hallway, Sheriff?" Jessica asked, thinking that was unusual.

"The reason will be made very clear to you in a sec, Mrs. F," he gestured towards the open door, "Go ahead and enter. Just be very careful you don't touch anything."

Looking puzzled, Jessica and Seth entered, followed by the sheriff.

The room was simply furnished with basically a bed, dresser, tv, table and two chairs.

Slumped over in one of the two chairs was the lifeless body of a man in his late 40's. His left cheek was touching the surface of the table while his empty eyes staring into nothingness. Strangely, surrounding his dropped head on the table, were several stacks of money, everything from fives to tens to twenties.

Mort explained, "Seems the victim here had earlier dialed 911 complaining of nausea, dizziness and seizures. They couldn't reach the Doc, so they dispatched the call to me, but as you can see, we were too late."

Jessica went around to get a better view of the face.

"Oh dear," she ruefully stated as she shook her head back and forth in a tsk-tsk gesture.

"What is it, Mrs. F?" Mort asked, "You know the guy?"

She nodded, "That's Zachariah Henshaw. He came into town a couple of weeks ago. Told me he was an electrician looking for work, so I let him re-work the wirings in one of my guest rooms. He did an excellent job."

"He musta charged a bundle!" Seth commented, as he gestured towards the piles of money, "too bad he won't be able to spend any of it!"

Then clasping his hands behind his back to make sure he didn't touch anything, Seth bent over the dead body to examine it.

"Dilated pupils, massive sweating, no wounds," Seth diagnosed, "and along with the other symptoms the sheriff had noted, my preliminary guess is that this man died of poisoning."

Mort nodded knowingly. He thought as much, "so you're saying this man was definitely murdered."

"'Appears so, Sheriff," Seth confirmed, "and it seems the poison of choice was atropine, but I won't know for sure until I get him on the table." He then straightened up and looked right at Mort, "any idea how Mr. Henshaw could have ingested the poison?"

"I haven't had time to start gathering the evidence just yet," Mort explained, "I first needed verification that it had been poison that did him in."

"That's right, Mort," Jessica recalled, "you were going to explain why you had been standing in the hallway before we arrived."

"Oh, yeah, about that," Mort acknowledged, "before you two came up, the darnest thing happened."

Seth asked sarcastically, "a dead man, surrounded by oodles of money, isn't the darnest thing?"

"The next part is even stranger!" Mort warned them.

Jessica was very curious, "Go on, Sheriff."

"It was Emily Beth's husband, Joe, who initially found the body," Mort explained, "and according to Emily Beth, after ten minutes of her husband being in the room, he began to exhibit the same symptoms as the dead man and had to be rushed by ambulance to emergency!"

"What?!" Seth looked incredulous, "You're just telling us that now? Do you realize, Sheriff, that if the manager also took ill in the same manner, the poison could be airborne! That means at this very moment, WE could be exposed to poisonous fumes! Let's go, Jess!"

But Mort immediately called them back.

"Don't worry," Mort assured them, "I thought of that already." He pointed to a corner of the room, "I made sure that wasn't the case."

Positioned against one corner were two canaries in a cage, happily cooing to one another. Occasionally one or the other of the two would momentarily flap their wings and then they would continue their mating ritual.

"I see what you mean," Jessica said, as she viewed the bird cage, "the old proverbial canaries in a coal mine test. If the poison were airborne, the canaries would both be dead. That's brilliant, Mort."

"Reading a lot of Adele's books helps," Mort said, looking very proud of himself, "she knows all about poisons and birds. Yeah, I know, any other time, that would be strange, but in this case, it was a big help!"

"And where did these two lovebirds come from?" Jessica inquired.

Mort answered, "it just so happened that Emily Beth keeps a birdcage in the lobby of the inn."

"Then the poison had to have been topical!" Seth concluded, "It somehow must have been applied to the surface of Mr. Henshaw's skin and then Joe the innkeeper somehow touched the body."

Mort wasn't convinced, "But Emily Beth swore Joe didn't lay a hand on the body. I tend to believe her. Joe doesn't seem the type to want to touch a dead body. He makes his wife get rid of any rodents on the premises."

"Well, Joe had to have gotten the poison from somewhere!" Seth was getting impatient, "he had to have touched somethin' bad, and if the poison wasn't on the body, it had to have been on somethin' that he would want to touch!"

Jessica looked back at the table and the body, along with all the money surrounding the victim.

Something that someone would want to touch.

"Money!" she suddenly stated out loud.

Mort scowled, "What?"

Jessica was positive now.

"The poison is on the money!" she emphasized.

TBC


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