Chapter 16
"I see your talk was more fruitful than ours," Sergeant Bill Hobart said to the Chief Superintendent from his desk as Constable Benson assisted Lisa's sister, Shirley, to an interrogation room.
"Nothing huh?" Matthew asked him.
"No one at the market seemed to know that Mary was staying with Reginald. When we explained that she did not want to get Arnold sick and that Reginald was helping her, they all seemed to agree that it made sense. Reginald would feed stray cats and dogs so they could see him helping someone who was sick. They could also see Mary not wanting to get Arnold any sicker than he already was," Bill admitted.
"So, no help there," Matthew figured.
"Boss, we have something," Charlie said as he and Lucien walked back into the bullpen.
"What?" Matthew asked him.
"Carl Vaughn, who works at the hardware store, was asking Yawen Shen questions as to why Mary wasn't picking up Arnold's order," Lucien stepped into the conversation.
"Well, that is odd, especially since Shirley's last name is Vaughn," the Chief Superintendent said.
"I think we should check up on why her husband was so interested in Mary," Lucien said.
"I agree, but first I need Bill and Charlie to head back to the Wagners. The hospital gave the slug from Reginald's shoulder to Doctor Harvey, who identified it as a thirty-thirty, so that means we're looking for a Winchester Model Ninety-four. I know it's a popular gun but if the Wagners couldn't part with it, then they'll still have it. Danny and Benson, see if the Vaughns have one as well. I have a sneaking suspicion that Shirley and Carl are in this up to their eyeballs as well," Matthew told his officers. They quickly filed out of the station while the doctor and Chief Superintendent caught up for a moment.
"I spoke to Shirley about what was going on at the Beaucaire farm. She denied being a part of anything going on there, but we found pesticide under her kitchen sink. She claims that they have an ant problem in their garden," Matthew told him.
"The instructions on the box don't tell you how to poison a well," Lucien said.
"No, but Shirley works at the pharmacy so she might know what to do with the poison," his friend said.
"Indeed, she could. Shall we?" Lucien asked. The two headed down to the interrogation room, where a female officer, Kim Chambers was keeping Shirley company.
"Mrs. Vaughn, this is our Police Surgeon, Doctor Lucien Blake. Now we have some more questions for you and we're hoping that you'll be straightforward with us," Matthew said.
"I told you before we left my home, I've had nothing to do with everything going on at the Beaucaire farm," Shirley said.
"Then why was your husband so interested to know where Mary was when she didn't show up at the farmer's market? Why cover for Robert? We know that he mistreats your sister. We can't get her to admit it, but I'm guessing he's not very good at covering it up," Matthew pressed the woman.
"I told Lisa that she should leave him, but she won't do it. You can't help someone who doesn't want it," Shirley said, completely ignoring the part about her husband.
"Not very compassionate for a sister. Of course, if you're poisoning the Beaucaire farm you aren't about compassion in the first place, are you?" Lucien gave her a look.
"No matter what I do, Lisa will not leave Robert. I begged her to get out when he first came back from the war. She told me that she was trying to help him. It's been over fifteen years and it's obvious that there is no fix for him. If I was going to harm anyone, it would not be Arnold and his farmhands," Shirley admitted.
"I believe you, problem is, the person who poisoned the main house well at Arnold's farm, knew what they were doing with the chemicals. You see the farmhands' well had arsenic from the runoff of the crop-dusting chemicals. Arnold's well… there was too much arsenic for just runoff. Someone was dosing the well and you work in a pharmacy and had pesticide under your kitchen sink," the Polic Surgeon pressed.
"My husband sells that pesticide at the hardware store. He knows how to use it…" Shirley heaved a sigh. Her life was about to blow up into a million little pieces and there wasn't much that could be done about it. She could not go down for something she didn't do. They still had the death penalty in the state and just because they hadn't used it since nineteen-fifty-one that didn't mean they wouldn't use it.
"What does your husband get out of killing Arnold?" Matthew wanted to know.
"I don't know. All I know is that he and Robert aren't what you call open minded," Shirley didn't know how else to say it.
"So, they disliked Arnold's policy of giving everyone a chance to work on his farm. Why not just shoot Arnold? Why the poison?" Lucien asked.
"I don't know. I do know that Arnold and his farmhands mettled in Robert's affairs more than once. Arnold didn't like what Robert was doing to Lisa and the kids and Robert's reputation suffered. He'd lost a contract to provide vegetables for the local schools and an even bigger contract in Melbourne. Now only the prisons still take his crops," Shirley admitted.
"The poisoning was taking too long, wasn't it? Someone got impatient and beat Arnold to death, even though he was already dying," Matthew said.
"I don't know. I thought Carl was just over speaking to Robert, but he was still gone when I went to bed. I figured they got to drinking," Shirley said.
"You'll be held here until we can verify your story," the Chief Superintendent told her. Lucien and Matthew exited the room while Kim escorted her to the holding cells. As quickly as they could, the two made their way down to the radio in the bullpen. Matthew made a call to Danny and Constable Benson who responded that Carl Vaughn had gone home from the hardware store, so they were heading there next. Matthew told them that they were to wait until he and Lucien met them there. The last thing the Chief Superintendent wanted was one of his men getting hurt. Danny promised they would wait and the two older men left the radio and hopped into Lucien's car.
To Be Continued…