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“Why did you think an attempt had been made?”
“Have you ever heard of a beach apple?” When all three shook their heads, she continued.
“It’s the street name for manchineel. It tastes like a sweet crab apple, but it’s deadly. With only one bite, your throat swells up and you literally die gasping for air. It’s not an easy death.”
“And one of those was in the fruit basket,” Ivy assumed.
“Yes. If I hadn’t known what it was, I would’ve eaten the fruit and died within minutes.”
“What made you think Carter was behind this, aside from his card?” Ghost asked.
“He never left Mexico for one, and two, he knew I was a fruit junkie. Many times, he’d toss an apple or orange in my bag because I’d get so wrapped up in my work that I’d forget to eat. Then there was the card. It was his signature.”
“Did you ever confront him?”
“No. Instead, I began testing any food or drink that I’d not personally prepared or watched being made. I know firsthand how easy it is to kill someone without them suspecting something is wrong. Remember Nakamura in Japan.”
“I remember,” Ivy replied. She’d been tracking down a buyer in the child trafficking ring her stepfather ran. Ivy had run into Voodoo in Japan and consulted with her on how best to take out the buyer with little to no fanfare. Voodoo worked her magic and within ten minutes of his first sip of Sake, he was dead.
“So I was paranoid. If new groceries arrived at the house, I’d open every can, bag, or box and test for poison.”
“Did you find anything?”
“No. Which was why I chalked up the incident to the cartel or a random error by some teenager.”
“That’s not like you,” Byte added.
“No, but there wasn’t any proof other than the niggling at the back of my neck.”
“What else happened? You said there were three.”
“I’m a runner, always have been. It’s a great stress reliever for me. When Carter and I were both in the same city, at the same time, we acted like it was our first time together. We had a good marriage, and I guess if he’d not tried to kill me, we would’ve had children and lived happily ever after. But that didn’t happen. After a morning of great sex—”
“You can skip that part,” Ghost stated.
Smiling, Voodoo continued. “Anyway, I decided to go for a run while Carter took a shower. He pulled me close, kissed me like he’d never see me again, and told me to be careful. In fact, he demanded I stay on my usual route. He said there’d been random crimes in the area, and he wanted to make sure I was safe. He handed me a canister of mace. At the time, I thought he was trying to keep me safe.”
“Sounds like you had a good reason for that assumption,” Ivy agreed.
“So I ran my usual route. I typically run with earbuds, but Carter’s warning made me put them in my pocket. I wanted to be alert to any problems I might incur. If I’d had my earbuds in, I wouldn’t have heard the squealing tires as the car turned the corner. I had to jump out of the way, but I saw the car clearly. It was Carter’s work sedan. It had been in our driveway when I left.”
“Did you see the driver?”
“No, but I know it was him. He had the worst taste in sweaters, especially those Christmas ones with lights. The driver was wearing one of those sweaters, and this was in July, so nobody else would be wearing one. The driver also wore the same baseball cap he wore when he didn’t want to be recognized. It had the Yankee’s A on it.”
“There’s hundreds of thousands of those caps,” Ghost reasoned.
“Except this one was his. I know it.”
“Okay, let’s say that it was. Did you confront him?”
“I didn’t have to. When I arrived home, I felt the hood and it was hot, and the baseball cap was sitting on the passenger side, as if he’d tossed it over when he was leaving the car. It was him.”
“Or his car. Maybe someone stole it.”
She knew Ghost was trying to give Carter the benefit of doubt, but she had no such doubts.
Shaking her head no, she continued with the last attempt that proved it all.
