But then Mugs woofed at her and sat down and looked up at the croissants. “But they’re certainly working on getting more spoiled,” Doreen noted, with an eye roll. “He really wants part of that croissant.”
“And he can have a part,” Nan agreed. “The tea’s ready.”
They poured tea and proceeded to dig into a plateful of fresh croissants.
“Where did you get the croissants from?”
“Here, in the kitchen.”
Doreen stopped and looked at her grandmother. “So, since I’m not a resident of Rosemoor, I’m not supposed to have any of these, am I?”
“Sure you are. I took four. I’m allowed four,” she replied. “Besides, who’ll say anything?”
At that, Doreen wasn’t so sure. Somebody was always around to say something about whatever. Still, right now, Doreen saw no point in wasting the croissants before her, and she dug in quite nicely. By the time she’d had two, Nan had only eaten one.
Nan pushed her second one toward Doreen. “You know that I only eat one.”
She eyed her suspiciously. “Lots of times you eat two.”
“Not today,” she replied. “I’m too tired.”
And, sure enough, Nan did look tired. “Too much salsaing?”
At that, Nan laughed. “Not even sure that’s a word, my dear, but the dancing was definitely fun.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” she replied warmly. “I always thought old age would be, you know, sitting in a wheelchair, broken down, waiting for life to end.”
“Oh, I don’t think so.” Nan shook her head. “At least not for most of us at the center. A few sticks-in-the-mud are just waiting for life to end for them,” she noted, “but I never did see the sense of that. There’s so much still to live for.”
Doreen smiled. “So now will you tell me about this new information of yours?”
“I already told you where the information came from,” she noted. “But Laura’s granddaughter works at the little grocery store up in Rutland. And that’s where Alan lived. And he worked there too.”
“Alan?”
“He’s the guy who died,” she clarified. “And apparently the day before he died, he wasn’t feeling very good and so people were trying to send him home, but they were short-staffed so he refused to go.”
“Okay.”
“And then as the day went on, he started to get a little crazier, a little more stomach pain, quite bad. And then somebody made a comment about something, and she didn’t know what the comments were, but he got quite agitated. And then he started telling people that he thought he’d been poisoned.”
“So you think somebody put the suggestion in his mind?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.”
“So you know I’ll have to go talk to these people?”
“I know.” She nodded. “That’s why I brought you up here, so I could give you the details of what we do know and what we don’t know and who you can talk to.”
“Have the cops talked to them?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Because nobody knows anything about it, as far as I know.”
Doreen groaned. “And that just means I’ll have to talk to Mack.”
“Yep.” Nan smiled. “You will. But, once you talk to Mack, then you’ll get kicked off the case.”
She sighed. “I know. But, if it’s an active case and if he needs this information …”
“Which is why I wanted you to come, so we could talk to you about it.”
“We?” Then she heard a voice at the doorway. And there was Richie. “Hi, Richie.” Doreen jumped up. “Did you want to sit down?”
He took the seat, with a nod. “Normally I’d let a beautiful lady have the seat,” he explained. “But I am a little shaky today.”
“No problem,” Doreen said, grabbing a kitchen chair to add to the patio set.
Richie looked over at Nan, a twinkle in his eye. “We danced too much last night.”
Nan nodded. “My legs are shaky too.” She chuckled. “I was just telling Doreen what we know.”
Richie nodded. “I would call my grandson, but he gave me a lecture last week.” Richie sniffed. “So I don’t really feel like talking to him today.”
Doreen laughed at that. “I’ll contact Mack then,” she muttered. “You guys don’t happen to know any old cases around town that involved poisoning?”
The two shared a glance, then looked at her and asked, “Why?”
“Well, if there’s a cold case,” she explained, “I could get involved in it, and I could work it without having Mack getting upset at me.”
“Right, right.” Nan nodded, as she turned to Richie. “Richie, what do you think? Do we know anyone who may have been poisoned to death?”
“Well, there was Chrissy, who died recently, who swore to everybody who would listen that she was being poisoned,” he snorted. “But I don’t know that we believed her.”
“Where is she? I should talk to her,” Doreen noted.
“Well, she died.” Richie frowned at Doreen. “I just said that, didn’t I?”
Doreen frowned too. “Okay, so if she died, why wouldn’t there have been an investigation already?”
“Because she was old for one,” he noted. “And I know the family didn’t want an autopsy.”
“Which would also have been maybe suspicious.”
“Not at our age,” Nan replied. “You have to remember that when it comes to being old already, there’s no budget money. I mean, there has to be a reason for that expenditure. We’re all ready to die anyway.”
Doreen frowned at Nan. “I don’t want to hear that talk from you, from either of you.” She stared at both and got noncommittal nods. “But did she not tell anybody that she was being poisoned?”
“I just said she did.” Richie frowned. “Are you feeling all right, dear?”
She stared at Richie, nonplussed. “I’m feeling fine.” She then faced Nan. “Did she tell anybody in law enforcement?” she asked.
“Ah,” Richie replied. “No, I don’t know if she did or not. She’d been spouting off about being poisoned for a long time, so I’m not sure anybody would have cared.”
“When did she die?” she asked.
“I think it was this year, maybe January?” He turned to Nan. She just nodded.
“I don’t know how old a case has to be in order to be considered a cold case,” she muttered.
“Well, it wouldn’t be a cold case anyway,” Nan replied logically. “Her death was deemed to be by natural causes.”
“Right, so in which case, it’s not a cold case. It would just be a no case.” That even confused her. She sighed. “But, of course, if that were the case, then Mack couldn’t get upset with me, could he?”
“Nope, sure couldn’t.” Richie rubbed his hands together. “So how do we start?”
Chapter 4