Chapter 5
Yep, I knew that wasn’t a crazy new dance move, when I heard the shrieking and all that shrieking was coming from just one person who stood in the middle of a group of people. The shrieking started to die down, but it was replaced by yells of bees. By the time I made my way to the woman’s side. She had stopped yelling.
“Are you alright,” I asked.
“Yes,” said the pretty Chinese woman, “I'm sorry I screamed, I was just startled, I think I was stung by a bee.”
“I was too and I’m allergic.” He was moving away from the dance floor toward one of the kitchen islands, Amy was moving towards us at the same time. She had first aid training as part of her job as a dispatcher, so she knew what to do. The man reached his jacket, grabbed a plastic object I later learned was an epi-pen and slammed it into his thigh. Amy continued toward him to make sure he was alright, so I turned back to the woman.
“I’m Laura, let me show you where the restroom is. Where were you stung, do you want me to check if the stinger is still in the wound.”
“No, no, I’m Grace, maybe you could just show me where the bathroom is, I’m afraid I was stung on my bum, I’ll check for the stinger myself.”
So I walked her into the store and showed her where the customer restroom was, then I walked back to the tent, to see how the man was doing. I was more worried about him than the scared woman. Allergies are nothing to sneeze at, but luckily he was prepared for it. I didn’t think that bees flew at night, from what I remember about a documentary I’d seen on bees. It was mainly about colony collapse disorder, but they had about ten or fifteen minutes about bee behavior in general. Now that I thought about it, I think it said that artificial light might confuse the bees and then they might come out at night. But this was dangerous to the bees, as they might not be able to find their way back to the hive and safety.
I had never seen a bee on our property before. I’m sure that they fly through here but if we had a hive somewhere close by wouldn’t I have seen evidence of them in the daylight, when they are normally out of the hive gathering nectar. But maybe the bees weren’t drawn out by the artificial lights and the reason I haven’t seen any bees inside our yard is because we don’t have a hive here. Is there a saboteur here on the grounds that released those bees on the dance floor?
Amy was still with the man, who appeared to have quite a bit more champagne then I had consumed. Maybe that is why he hadn’t yelled when he was stung, the alcohol had dulled the pain. The way Grace had screamed you’d think she had been stabbed. Eve was chatting with Roberta, and waved me over.
“Laura, I think Roberta's laptop has a virus, or else it is haunted, and as I don’t believe in the supernatural, I’m going to have to go with the virus.”
I laughed, “Well tell me why it might be a ghost? I don’t believe in the supernatural either.”
Roberta said, “I saw the cursor moving around the screen on its own, and it opened up the internet. Laura, I swear I wasn’t seeing things nor was I drunk.”
“That’s no ghost, but it might be a rat. Remote Access Trojan, anybody who has physical access to the machine could stick one on there or if you opened up an infected file. Did you get and open any documents from a source that you don’t trust?”
“I’m not sure Laura, should I just buy a new computer?”
“No, no, just bring the machine tomorrow and I’ll check it for you. If you do have a RAT it would explain how stuff was getting canceled and why no one tried to get to Amy, because you don’t have her email address.”
“Someone call nine one one,” Amy yelled. I pulled my phone out and started to dial. Amy yelled to Lucy to run and get the first aid kit from the kitchen as fast as possible. By the time I got to Amy’s side, The large drunken man had nearly dragged her to the ground. Lucy took off like a shot. The drunken man hit the floor, luckily he’d let go of Amy while he was falling, so he hadn’t knocked her over as well.
“Emergency services, what’s your emergency?”
“I’m not sure, a man was stung by a bee. He is allergic, he used his epi pen, he also was quite drunk. Maybe the epi pen didn’t work.”
Amy said, “Laura, tell them we need an ambulance now, we have a suspected opioid overdose.”
Lucy was back with the red first aid kit. Amy tore it open and pulled out eye drops, no nasal spray. She tilted his head back. I didn’t know why she would administer a decongrestant to an unconscious man, but she did. It didn’t look like the man was breathing.
I told the nine one one operator exactly what Amy had told me. He said they were on their way. After a tense minute, Amy sprayed the man’s nostrils again. This time it seemed to work, as his eyes popped open. Amy made him lie flat.
Amy asked, “What did you take? I have to tell the ambulance driver when they arrive.”
“He seemed to have trouble speaking but I clearly heard champagne, Amy.”
“No, Laura, it was an opioid. That’s why the Naloxone revived him.”
“The decongestant you gave him.”
“It’s not a decongestant, it’s a drug that reverses an opioid overdose.”
Then the ambulance was here Faith was one of the firefighters on duty, Amy went right to Faith and outlined everything that had occurred while two other EMT’s got their patient onto a gurney.
“Amy, please come with us, so you can speak to the doctors directly.”
“Sure Faith, no problem.”
“Amy, call me when you are ready to come home, I’ll come pick you up.”
“Alright, Laura, thanks.”
Then the ambulance was whisking its patient away. That was also the end of the party. Was all of this a random event or was this sabotage an order of magnitude more dangerous. Eve and Roberta were still chatting so I went to ask Eve’s legal opinion.
“Eve what should I do? Is this sabotage to the extreme or does this guy have a drug problem, if it is a crime, should I call the police?”
“Yes, Laura. I think you should call them.”
“August, it’s Laura, our saboteur may have just upped his dirty tricks to attempted murder.”
Fifteen minutes later August and four patrol persons walked down the driveway. They left their squad cars with lights flashing out on main street. I went through exactly what had happened with August. I also pointed to Niall Malone’s champagne glass and plate of pastries. Then we went through it all again, from Grace getting stung, to Niall being carried out to the ambulance. Including everything that was said to the nine one one operator. If I believed in a god, I would have thanked him that Jones wasn’t the investigating officer. Then just as I thought that, I remembered how Ben had apologized to me and then installed a new roof on my boathouse, and felt ashamed. But then I pushed the guilt away, yes he had been very nice and he was trying to change no doubt about that. But none of that would have made him a better cop, a smarter investigator. Ben is great to have around for leaky roofs, but for murder or attempted murder, you need someone who could use their heads. I’m just hoping that August can live up to the task. The cops bagged up all the plates, glasses, open bottles of champagne and all the pastries sitting on the counter.
Damn it, I was planning on eating a lot more of those pastries. Then they went around and got everyone’s name and ids before telling everyone they could go. The film crew took off like they had been shot out of a rocket. Bobby called for the limo’s to come back to pick up the contestants. Did they not realize they could probably walk back to the inn faster than getting in a car and driving there. Walking is good for both your body and your brain, most especially brainstorming.
Then the limos arrived and picked up the guests, then the DJ, Bobby and Roberta left. I helped clear up some of the mess in the tent. TThat’s when I found a dead bee close to the center of the wooden stage. I wrapped it in a napkin and put it in my pocket. Then I drove over to the hospital, to keep Amy company.
She gave me a hug when I arrived, in the emergency department. Niall was coming out of it now, but swore that he hadn’t taken any drugs, he had quite a few glasses of champagne but that was it, until the bee sting, then he had used his epi pen on himself.
“After I injected myself with the epi pen, that’s when I began to feel strange, very, very drunk. Maybe the Epinephrine reacted with the alcohol.”
“No, the fact that the Naloxone brought you out of it, proves it was an opioid. Maybe someone tampered with your epi pen. Do you have any enemies?”
August had just arrived to check on the condition of the patient.
August made us stand out in the hallway, which was just stupid. We were able to hear every word uttered, the only barrier was a thin privacy screen made of cloth.
“Mr Malone, can you tell me what kind of drug you've taken?”
“I keep telling everyone, I don’t take drugs, I haven’t even smoked pot in twenty years. I keep telling that idiot doctor it must have been the epi pen mixed with all the champagne I had to drink. I’ve never used the epi pen before, not since I was a baby and my mother found that I was allergic.”
“We have your epi pen, the plate of food you had and your glass, they are all being tested right now. To see if anyone tampered with them. Do you have any enemies, Mister Malone?”
“No, of course not, I’m a college professor, at least I was, I retired. I’m just here for the baking show. Baking it’s something I like to do now that I’ve retired. You have to keep active or the brain atrophies. Wait, there were hippies at that party, maybe they slipped me something.”
“Yes, Mister Malone, we’ve already spoken to them. They are a little old to be drug dealers but we’ll check into their background.”
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Alarm bells started clanging in my head, why had I not thought of this before, I should have gotten Pappy off the property before the cops arrived. If they find out about his warrant for escape, oh no what have I done. Sending an old man to prison, he’ll die in there. Willow and Phoebe will never speak to me again. It was greed, wasn’t it. I wanted to save the writers money. The root of all evil, money. It may be the one line in the bible that I believe heart and soul.
Then the curtain slid back and August stepped out.
“Hi Amy, how is retirement treating you?”
“It’s been great really, up until tonight.”
“I’ll send an officer over to get your statement in the morning. The doctor told me you likely saved the man’s life. You’d get an commendation if you were still on the job, Amy, and you would deserve it to. Look you two might as well get out of here, the staff will keep an eye on him but just as a precaution.”
I wanted to get home, and talk to Eve, I have to try and fix this. I wonder if Pappy even realizes that he might be in danger. I drove a little too fast on the way home but we weren’t stopped. I had Amy call Eve as we were driving, and ask her to stay up for another twenty minutes. But when we got back home it was still all lit up. No one was in bed, the writers were all sitting around the dining table brainstorming storylines, only to be used if Niall made a full recovery.
When Eve saw me come in, I must have looked grave because she just got up from the table and followed me out of the dining room into the living room, where Lucy and Lis were playing video games with Pappy and Phoebe.
“Pappy I’m sorry to interrupt your game but I have something really important I need to speak to you and Phoebe about, let’s all go downstairs to the reading nook.”
So much to Lucy's and Lis’s dismay, they stood up and we all walked downstairs. When everyone was seated I handed Pappy a dollar and asked him to hand it to Eve. Phoebe was starting to look alarmed. Eve took the dollar and looked at me expectantly.
“Pappy, I’m so sorry, but I might have just ruined your life asking you to come here. Amy and I overheard August, the chief of Police and Niall, the man that has overdosed, speaking. Niall claims he doesn’t do drugs but then he said that there were hippies at the party and you might have slipped him something.”
“Of course we didn’t, Laura.” Phoebe said.
“No, I didn’t for one second think that you did, but Pappy’s warrant. We heard August say that you two were a little old to be drug dealers, but he’d check into your background.”
“See, Laura, that is the kind of ageist crap you get when you hit our age. If I can go out and strip down an engine in the junk yard, what makes that guy think I couldn’t be a drug dealer.”
“Pappy, you don’t want him to think you are a drug dealer, he is a cop. Next time you see him tell him the stress of talking to the police is giving you chest pains and call Eve.”
“I’m just saying Laura, ageism is a real thing, the only good thing about it is you won’t have to put up with it for too long, because you’ll be dead. It’s not like being black or a woman or LGBTQ where you had to put up with prejudice and bigotry your whole lives. I should feel lucky but it still sucks.”
“Okay, Okay, how about you fill me in on this warrant.”
“Right, sorry Eve, Pappy was at the nineteen sixty eight police riots during the Democratic convention in Chicago. They beat him and arrested him for rioting and resisting arrest and hauled him off to jail, but they never put him into a cell, just had him sit on a bench in the station and he just walked out the door. So now he probably has a warrant for escape, along with resisting arrest and rioting.”
“You were fifteen Pappy?”
“Yes it was about a week before my sixteenth birthday.”
“What about your parents?”
“I ran away on my fifteenth birthday, so my parents weren’t a part of my life.”
“So where have you been since nineteen sixty eight?”
“In Woodstock, I own a junk yard.”
“You own it in your legal name?”
“Yes, it was left to me by the man who took me in after the concert.”
“So you have lived on your own property and have never been arrested. You didn’t lie to the police about your name or anything tonight did you, Pappy?”
“No, Eve, I didn’t speak to the police. Once I saw them come in I walked down to the lake and sat on the dock until after they had gone.”
I sighed a breath of relief. August didn’t even know about Pappy.
“Pappy, we can talk in private if you wish, I want to talk to you about your movements before the police arrived.”
“No, they can all hear, they know my whole story. Laura tried to make sure I was safe when she visited Woodstock a couple of weeks ago.”
Eve looked at me and smiled. “Yes, Laura doesn’t seem to be happy if she can’t commit a felony before breakfast.”
“In my defense it’s better than the smell of napalm in the morning.”
“Yes, Laura, I agree. Pappy if you want my legal advice, your best course of action is Monday morning at ten am you and I go into the Lake Placid police station and turn yourself in. I’ll have you out by the afternoon. If Chicago is stupid enough to try and extradite a seventy three year old business owner, you’ll make millions on the lawsuit that I file on your behalf. But honestly I’m ninety nine percent sure that they will decline to come to New York to pick you up. It’s a shameful history of the Chicago police department and the whole city and a stain on Daley’s name. But it is entirely up to you, just think how nice it would be to be a free man again."
“Can I think about it and talk it over with Phoebe, Eve?”
“Sure, Pappy, just let me know on Sunday night what you decide.”
“Thank you Eve.”
“I really am saving gas money by living in the same house as you, how did you make it to your sixties without a full time legal team Laura.”
“Honestly Eve, none of this stuff ever happened to me before. It all started when I got knocked off that ladder and went into a coma. Maybe, none of this is real and I’m still in the coma.”
Eve smiled and said to me “Go to bed, Dorothy, you are not in Oz anymore.”
But I wasn’t ready for bed yet, the police had been here and everyone had trampled the scene but I still wanted a look at the tent. It had all started with the bees, I had a feeling that might have something to do with the whole mystery. Obviously the pastries and champagne were all right, someone might have spiked Niall’s drink or dusted his pastry.
I needed more information on this contest and these contestants. I keep welcoming people into our home that are putting us at risk. While I walked up to the tent, I texted Bobby, that I wanted all the information they had on the contestants and the structure and prize money involved. Was the winner of the contest likely to get rich, fame, a book deal? All of those things and more could point to the motive for dosing Niall. If anyone really did dose him. Isn’t it just as likely that Niall is lying, that he has a drug problem and is just trying to push blame onto anyone else.
I texted Bobby again, asking if the contest had been canceled. This got an almost immediate reply.
My mother will make her final decision in the morning, depending on how Mr Malone's prognosis looks. I have to have my mother’s approval before I can send you the information you requested, and she has already gone to bed.
I texted her right back
What is the prize for the winning baker?
One hundred thousand dollars, and a book deal with the network’s publishing company.
Bobby was helpful and nice, but her own mother treated her horribly. Could she be the one who was behind the sabotage? She has physical access to the laptop, making it a lot easier to deploy the malware, if I’m right and with control of her mother’s computer she could have easily done everything, right up to the bees.
Roberta seems determined that this contest be a success, but could all the sabotage be Roberta, trying to grab some free publicity for and create a buzz. What about video footage? Hopefully it’s all digital and they only gave copies to police and we still have footage we can look over ourselves.
I searched through each of the kitchen islands for any clues. I found none, only fully stocked kitchens. Just before I was about to leave I spotted a second dead bee on the floor. The police had deemed it unimportant, or hadn’t seen it. I went to the nearest kitchen and took out a sandwich bag, I reversed the bag inside out and used the bag like a mitten to both pick up the dead bee but also as a place to store it.
Bees, I’m not sure why I fixated on them. It just seems odd, that one person gets stung, and she is perfectly fine and another stung and almost dies. If this were a spy thriller after weeks of hunting through clues and high security tech facilities, our hero would find the tiny bee drones. If the story was written in the past five years, then of course the bee drone would be guided by AI. But these drones aren’t just for surveillance, no this particular drone was an assassin drone. Meant to make the killing look like an accidental overdose.
If it was a Sherlock story, the great detective might have trained a real bee to assassinate Hitler. Thus ending the horrors of the German bombardment of England. If Putin sent the assassin Russian biologists would be coating the stingers of honey bees with dart frog toxin. While at the same time behavioral scientists like Pavlov, would be teaching the bees to pick out specific targets in a room full of people.
With nothing more to find in any of the seven kitchens, I left and went back to my room and wrote up a series of notes on all that had occurred today. The worst of which was that a guest had almost died on the property. The best or at least the potentially best was Eve’s advice and offer to help Pappy clear his warrant. I can’t imagine going to sleep every night with the fear that if I get stopped by the police tomorrow, I’ll be going to prison.
Pappy must have very good impulse control, because I think I would have ripped that bandaid off years ago and turned myself in. Just gotten over the inevitable. Like a form of euthanasia, I’d kill off a life of freedom, but it would really have been freedom if I was constantly thinking that I was about to be caught.
Then I wrote a note about euthanasia, still illegal in most states. But if you look at the states that it is illegal in, they are also the states with death penalties. So these people believe that it is alright to let the government kill you, you just aren’t allowed to do it yourself, no matter how bad you are suffering also these states are the same states where abortion is illegal. So the citizens of those states have no ownership of their own bodies, but those same states are anti-vax. So they have some ownership, they are allowed to weaponize their bodies to get themselves and their children sick then send them out into society and infect the rest of us.
So what is their logic if euthanasia and abortion were allowed control over your own body being the guiding principle it would make sense that anti vaxer’s would have the same right. But you could also argue that the first two aren’t contagious, so less harmful to society as a whole. So how have they come to a backward conclusion?
Well, I wasn’t going to solve that conundrum tonight, and I still have no idea what tomorrow will bring. But isn’t that always the case, we write out our plan of action, our todo list. Then chaos slams into the plan and it is left in pieces.
