The Ginseng Conspiracy (A Kay Driscoll Mystery) (35 page)

He walked into the living room through the kitchen door. “Kay, are you okay?” He came over to the sofa, sat down, and put his arm around my shoulders. “I was so worried when Thom called.” Tension showed in his eyes. A muscle in his jaw twitched.

“I'm fine now. Did Thom tell you about Dr. Anders?”

“Unbelievable. I'm sorry, Kay. It must have been—” He changed the subject. “I heard you say I was right about something?” He gave a half-smirk.

I let out a little laugh. “About Ted being one of the hooded six. Thom was telling me about the interrogations yesterday. What else was on the recorder?” I leaned forward not wanting to miss any of what Thom was about to say.

“Well, everything was. Over thirty hours. The disturbance when you saw Sherman in the vacant store surrounded by the hooded six and they took off after you.”

“And down by the water?” I asked.

“Right. Before that, they moved him to another building, and later you could faintly hear people talking when he was being dragged down the embankment.” I bit my lower lip.

Phil's eyes opened wide. He cleared his throat. “What kind of confessions did you get out of everyone?” He took off his jacket. “Who's being charged in Sherman's murder?”

“At first the only one who talked was Al Stewart. Eventually everyone did. John Stewart showed no remorse—”

“No doubt. A villain to the end.”

“And Dr. Anders almost bragged about what he had done.”

“A complete lack of conscience,” I said, getting up from the sofa and asking Thom and Phil if they wanted any tea or coffee. I was so appreciative of Elizabeth for making tea for Thom and me. It was time for a refill.

Neither wanted any, so I sat back down.

Thom continued, “Bill Murphy, Dr. Anders, Al, and John Stewart will be charged with the murder of Sherman.”

“And Ted and Richard Stewart?” I asked.

“They’ll be charged as accessories. Dr. Anders, from all the evidence, was the mastermind. In the early years, when the ginseng industry was blossoming, he had the idea to genetically manipulate the crops for financial gain. He teamed up with a young Dr. Richard Stewart who conducted experiments in the laboratory genetically altering the ginseng. Dr. Anders gave Alicia Cooke and Margaret lethal injections and falsified their autopsy reports, as he did Sherman's.”

We sat in silence for a few moments. I nodded. “I thought so. Did you find out anything about the students whose names were on the paper Mary Ann and I found in Sherman's office?”

Thom shook his head. “Al said over the years, all three had come upon the modified ginseng in their research and were killed. Your neighbor's being charged with the murder of one of the graduate students, Daniel Fellman, who died in the climbing 'accident'. Did you know Ted was an accomplished climber?”

“I heard him mention something about his climbing bluffs one weekend.” I thought back to Ted at Pete Rudd's pumpkin fest taking pumpkins to the kids in the hospital for Halloween. How could he be so kind and yet kill people?

I shook my head. “Did Ted kill the other students as well?”

“No. Al is going to testify that Bill Murphy murdered Mike Carson, cutting the brake line on his car. John Stewart murdered the other student, Sandra Ploughman when she was out on his land taking samples of the ginseng.” Thom's eye grew dark. He seemed to find it difficult to continue. “He dismembered her body, disposed of it in a wood chipper, and buried the remains in the ginseng field, the very one Sherman Walters had taken samples from.” He looked down frowning and then over at me. “And that's what happened.”

I gasped. “How evil,” I said, my voice breaking up. An uncontrollable shiver ran up and down my spine.

Phil looked at me. “John Stewart sure was a nasty piece of work.”

“John was supposed to destroy the plants he was growing out at his farm. Instead, he continued selling the illegal ginseng in the cities and around town. It was a profitable business. He continued until Sherman was murdered.”

“Thom, are you sure I can’t get you something to drink? It sounds like you could use something.”

Thom looked down at his watch. “Nothing, thank you. Kay, I should be leaving. I have a three o'clock flight.” Thom rose from the sofa.

Phil and I also stood up. “Thom, one last question. Kay saw these people wearing robes. What was the deal with that?' Phil asked.

“I asked Al. A few of the hooded six thought they would go unnoticed since everyone in town would be dressed in costumes the night of the Halloween Ball. Little did they know, Kay
would
notice them,” he concluded.

Thom told me to thank the others when I met with them this afternoon. “Kay, you couldn't have done a more superb job all the way around with everything. You made it so easy for the rest of us. I'm proud of you. Thank you.” He gave me a hug.

Phil and Thom shook hands. “Give our best to Therese,” Phil said. “How is your wife?”

“Busy.” He paused for a moment, his attention seemed to drift somewhere else. Then he looked at Phil and said, “She's a fundraiser for a few charities.”

We walked Thom to the door. “I'm grateful you were here. I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't come.”

“Anytime. Keep in touch. Well, goodbye, Kay, Phil.” He left.

I updated Phil on everything about Dr. Anders. I picked up the yellow mailer Thom had left and went upstairs one step at a time and noticed blood smears at one point on the banister. It must have been from Dr. Anders’ grabbing it when the police tasered him and before he fell. I put the mailer on the bed and went back downstairs, got some disinfectant and started cleaning all traces of Dr. Anders.

Phil came up the stairs. “Let me do that.” He took the cloth from my hand. “There won't be any more Dr. Anders in this house.”

I smiled at Phil. “Thank you.”

“I'm taking a few days off from class. We should get away, spend some quality time...” Phil wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close to him. We remained like that, without talking for a few minutes. He looked at me and smiled. “Now, let me finish this.”

I went back up and took a long, steaming hot shower trying to take the chill out of my body and wash away the nightmare from my mind. I thought of the sign when we moved into town. Sudbury Falls population 10,226. Who would have guessed the population would have decreased so much in a couple of weeks.

I thought about how I felt in Thom's arms, comforted, reassured. Phil was gone so much. And then I thought about how I just felt in Phil's arms...loved.

I came downstairs to clanging sounds coming from the kitchen. “All ready to go?” Phil asked. “Yes. We're meeting in fifteen minutes.”

“I'm planning a fantastic dinner. When you come back from the patisserie, I'll have a glass of wine waiting for you.” Phil smiled. “I love you, Kay.”

I smiled and leaned over and kissed him on the mouth. “I'll see you later.”

I walked to the patisserie thinking about Phil and what had just transpired. He seemed...what was the word for it...cognizant...mindful of our union. I smiled. The world seemed brighter all of a sudden. I found myself humming when I arrived a few minutes after three o'clock. Deirdre, Mary Ann, and Marissa were listening to Elizabeth tell about Dr. Anders being dragged from my home.

Deirdre saw me come into the room. She stood up, came over, and hugged me. “How are you doing? Are you all right?”

“Yes, more than all right. Relieved.”

Marissa closed the room in the back for the five of us. We sat around the main table. Marissa had brought in tea and a plate of lemon curd tarts.

First I told them what happened that morning with Dr. Anders. The table became silent, all eyes focused on me.

“At the cemetery, I saw him pat his coat pocket,” I said, looking over the rim of my teacup and patting my own blouse to imitate his action.

“Perhaps he was telling you what he planned,” Deirdre said.

“I don't know, Deirdre. He might have been.”

“You were so brave,” Deirdre said.

When I told them Al had confessed, Elizabeth jumped in, “I bet he's copping a plea.”

“No one should get a lesser sentence,” an agitated Mary Anne said. “Sherman is still dead because of all of them.”

We all sat around the table in silence for a few moments. This whole business had taken a huge toll on our little town and on those who were closest to the victims, our circle of friends.

When I said I didn’t need to testify, Deirdre looked surprised. “But you were the one who solved the case. You nabbed Dr. Anders at the cemetery. Don’t you want to see it through to the end?”

“Thom knows I want to remain anonymous. Chief of Police Stephen Kirk is receiving the credit for solving the case. Everyone will want a hero, and I’m sure he'll be happy to play that role, especially with all the corruption in his police department.”

Elizabeth seemed unhappy about this and said under her breath, “After all the work we did.”

No one seemed to be paying attention to the lemon curd tarts Marissa had bought for us. They looked delicious, as usual, but no one wanted to miss a word I was saying.

“Kay, what about the recorder?” Deirdre asked.

“That Friday night, when Sherman entered the bar to interview Dr. Anders, he had the recorder turned on and must have had it tucked into the pocket of his coat. It recorded everything for the next thirty hours.”

I helped myself to the lemon tarts and cut into one with my fork but left the piece right on the plate. I was staring at it when Mary Ann said, “Sherman must have forgotten to let Dr. Anders know he would be recording the interview. He always let everyone know so he wouldn’t have to take notes.”

“Good thing he forgot,” Deirdre said. “Perhaps he forgot on purpose.”

“Is the electronic evidence admissible?” Elizabeth asked leaning over the table reaching for the teapot. Her dress was so tight I was surprised it didn't suffocate her. Her napkin fell from her lap, and when she tried to bend over to pick it up, her clothes rendered her immobile. She took another from the table.

“It is.” I smiled. “Thom said digital evidence has increased in cases in recent years. Under the Federal Rules of Evidence, relevant evidence, including digital, is now admissible.”

“They'll all be put away for a very long time,” Mary Ann said with satisfaction. She took a bite of the tart, and for the first time, I saw her smiling. “Yummy,” she said.

“Agreed,” I said, finally tasting the piece I had cut earlier.

“We only saw them take five people away at the cemetery,” Elizabeth said.

“Yes, Kay. Who was the sixth person?” Deirdre asked. “Laska?”

“Richard Laska?” Mary Ann repeated.

“No. I was wrong about him,” I said, looking over at Elizabeth. She smiled an I-knew-it-all-along smile.

“Ted,” I said. “It was Ted.”

“Ted who?” Deirdre and Elizabeth both asked at the same time.

“Ted Michaels.”

“
Our
Ted Michaels?” Deirdre asked with incredulity. “Oh my gosh!”

Elizabeth's hand flew to her chest. “You're kidding?”

Marissa's mouth fell open.

Deirdre abruptly put down her teacup. It made a loud clink against the saucer. “I sensed Ted was too good to be true,” Deirdre said, sounding very off-hand.

“You know, Ted owns the vacant store,” I said.

“And the patisserie,” Marissa reminded us.

“After I ran out of the vacant store, they later broke into Marissa’s and kept Sherman there for a few hours in case the 'intruder' came back.”

“So that's what Angie and her friends saw the night of the Halloween Ball,” Deirdre exclaimed.

“Yes, they told me when they came trick-or-treating,” I said.

I continued, and they could hardly believe it when I said, “The authorities caught up with Ted at his house, loading suitcases into his car after Margaret's funeral. They found the missing calendar page from Sherman's diary on his closet floor. It indicated that Sherman was meeting with Dr. Anders.”

Marissa rose from her chair. I sensed she wanted to get us more tea or something, but she also did not want to miss any of the conversation. She just stood there, attentive to every word.

“Ted must have suspected there was going to be a takedown,” Elizabeth said. “I wonder why he even came to the church. He could have gotten away.”

“They apprehended him before they arrived at the cemetery. They kept him in one of the vehicles while the Police Chief and agents retrieved the others,” I said.

I continued on and told about the college students listed on the hidden sheet of paper in Sherman's office. They had researched the same ginseng and paid for their efforts with their lives. I ended with John Stewart killing Sandra Ploughman.

“Most disturbing,” Marissa said. “Kay, remember how deranged I told you he acted when I climbed over his fence to get that pumpkin. It makes me wonder what might have happened if he’d caught me when there weren’t other people around.” She was still standing by our table without making a move.