Page 41 of Potion Sickness

“I’ll see you later,” she says, and leaves.

My walk home takes less than twenty minutes. I spend them thinking about who in this town would spend money on a mail-order voice suppressant, but also about who Pru would be meeting at a location specifically chosen to be outside the Duskboro gossip radius.

I don’t know what’s going on, but I know it isn’t nothing, and I know she’ll tell me when she’s ready. I know that if I push, she’ll retreat back into her professional voice and not tell me anything at all.

So I don’t push. I go home, and I brief the cat.

CHAPTER 13

Englebert is on the edge of the counter, where Hannah is currently cutting an apple into thin slices for Lily, who has recently announced that she will only eat apples if they are ‘swords.’ Emma is on the floor with Addie, the two of them bent over Addie’s composition book from the goblet analysis.

Gabe dropped Addie off an hour ago before heading back to lead a funeral — Arthur Dean, the beekeeper. The open-mic portion went ahead over his objections.

Annabel is in the carriage house, prepping for Addie’s lesson after the girls have their snack. Addie keeps craning toward the back door every few minutes, checking whether it’s time yet.

“A croak tonic,” Englebert says, after I’ve laid it out. He’s sitting very tall and very still. “In Prudence’s cup.”

“In Pru’s cup, but not present in Damien.”

Englebert’s tail makes a single pass across the ledge. “So. A croak tonic takes Lady Macbeth’s voice. The understudy goes on. The understudy who has been rehearsing both roles for six weeks and has told everyone, including the press, that she is ready.”

“That’s the theory.”

“It is not a theory. It is a motive, attached to a method, aimed at a specific victim, in service of a specific outcome. The only thing it lacks is proof, and proof is a luxury we can surely acquire.” He looks at me. “Where is Prudence?”

“She has a meeting.”

“After that?”

“She’s busy tonight.”

“Busy with what? We have rehearsal.”

“She’ll be at rehearsal. She’s busy after.”

Englebert pauses for a moment, then apparently decides Pru’s schedule is not the most pressing issue at hand.

“The croak tonic is crime one. Crime two is Damien. What do we know about crime two that we did not know this morning?”

“Not much. Annabel says the layering of residue she can sense in Damien is still too dense to separate. She needs the original sources. His bottles, whatever he’s been taking.”

“Which are at the Carter house,” he says. “With Skye.”

“Englebert…”

“I’m not accusing the girl, but⁠—”

“Annabel said it could be self-inflicted.”

“It could,” he concedes. “But Skye did appear the day after his collapse to collect all his bottles. She’d have no reason to sweep them away unless she knew, or suspected, that what was in them was more than vitamins.”

Hannah sets down the knife. “Or unless someone told her to be scared.”

We both look at her.

“Tiffany,” Hannah says. “At the party. You told us what she said, Mari. She was winding Skye up about Damien and Vivian and Pru. If Tiffany spent weeks getting into Skye’s head, it’s not a stretch that Skye might panic after he collapsed and grab everything she could. Maybe she’s not guilty. Maybe she’s just afraid.”

“That’s a lot of credit to give Tiffany,” I say.