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I didn’t know that, but I murmured words of sympathy.
He stared down into his drink for a moment.
“Life’s a bitch,” he said.
This was my chance. “It sure is. A few months ago I had to deal with a woman who tried to destroy me.”
Long grunted. “You shoulda come to me-I know how to handle problems like that.” Long swallowed the rest of the scotch in his glass and got up for a refill. He wasn’t entirely steady on his feet, but he wasn’t stumbling. I was astonished at how much that man could drink and still walk and talk.
He came back with his fresh glass and one for me. As I still held one in my right hand, I reached for the other with my left.
Laughing, he called me a two-fisted drinker.
Long flopped down on the couch and rested his head against the back of it. I put the new drink down on the coffee table and leaned closer to him.
“What did you mean, about knowing how to handle an enemy?”
He chuckled, winked at me, and then stared into space.
“Won’t you tell me, Gene? I went through a really terrible time with her.”
“Couldn’ta been worse than what that rotten snake-bastard-writer did to my baby doll. But I was go
At last I was getting somewhere-or at the edge of somewhere. I knew I had to dig before the distress in my stomach got worse, so I took a chance and pushed a bit.
Faking awe in my voice, I leaned close to him again and asked, “So Keith was going to help you get back at Roland Gray? That’s wonderful.”
“Woulda been… Jeez, we had a perfect plan…”
I widened my eyes to signal fascination. “What was it?”
“Our plan was why I put together the big charity deal. All that work blew up in my face ’cause some scumbag hadda kill Keith that night. He couldn’ta waited.” Long muttered a curse.
“To organize that spectacular evening as a cover for your plan-Oh! It must have been brilliant,” I said breathlessly.
Long nodded agreement. And swallowed more scotch.
“What was it? The plan. I’m dying to know.”
He stared off into the distance and smiled. “We were go
“Wow!”
“Yeah, a big wow. A wow an’ a half. We were go
Helpfully, I said, “Plagiarized?”
“Yep. I was go
“Roland Gray must be a terrible man,” I said. “What were you and Keith going to do?”
Long chortled. “I had the idea an’ Keith came up with the way. Ya know the three dishes the contestants were go
“Yes?”
“Keith crushed up nutmegs to slip into the pudding Gray was go
“Keith was going to use nutmegs?”
“He said it was a poison.”
I knew that three whole nutmegs shaved or ground up made a lethal dose for a human being, but I never imagined that information would be useful to me. As a nationally syndicated food critic I wasn’t surprised that Keith Ingram knew that morsel of trivia. I grated fresh nutmeg into a lot of dishes, but only a few grains at a time. One whole nutmeg would last me for at least half a year. Was Long telling the truth? Had Keith Ingram really ground up whole nutmegs with the intention of stirring them into Roland Gray’s pudding? If he had…
Movement behind the door across from me, the one that was slightly ajar, caught my attention. I saw a flash of red hair and pale skin. I was sure it was Yvette Dupree. Had she been eavesdropping on us?
Long expelled air with an unhappy groan. “Beautiful plan… But we never got to do it ’cause somebody killed Keith before it was time to taste the dishes.”
No more movement in the crack of the open door. She was gone.
I forced myself to concentrate on Long. “That’s a wild story,” I said.
“You don’ believe me?”
“Well…”
Rising to my implied challenge, he said, “I can prove it.”
“How? Keith is dead.”
“Ask the police, or whoever has his clothes. Just ask ’em wha’ they found in Keith’s pocket.” He let out another long, heavy breath. “A beautiful plan-Keith was go
“It was brilliant, but there was an obvious hole in the plan. What if Gray had been making a baked chicken, or a meat dish like Tornados Rossini-Keith couldn’t have stirred nutmeg into those.”
Long gri
My stomach had begun to roil, and talking about food wasn’t helping. I shifted in my seat, trying to ease the discomfort. Didn’t work. Trying to will the nausea away, I focused on Long. Although I thought his scheme was ridiculous, I said, “That was clever. Unfortunately, a good defense attorney would have cleared Gray.”
“In time, sure. But it woulda cost Gray big-time. Big, big-time. Tha’s what I wanted, to make the bastard suffer.”
The battle between the scotch and my breakfast was reaching a climax. There was a bitter taste on my tongue and what was in my stomach felt as if it was trying to come up. My scalp was suddenly damp with perspiration. If I didn’t get out of that room quickly I was afraid that I was going to throw up all over Eugene Long’s living room.
I stood. “It’s late. I’ve got to go.” My voice sounded breathy in my ears. My stomach seemed about to explode. I started toward the elevator, although I had no idea how I would open it.
Long got up, took a few long strides, and was beside me in the hall. He pressed a button and the elevator doors parted.
“I’ll talk to Tina,” he said. “ ’Bout your show.”
I nodded. The only word I could manage to get out was, “Good.”
Suddenly the elevator began to descend-fast. I leaned against one wall and clapped my hands over my mouth as gorge rose into my chest.
Silently, I pleaded, Please, God, don’t let me throw up in this elevator!
As soon as my stomach and I landed on the lobby floor I practically flew into the ladies’ lounge.
I just made it to the nearest stall, where I knelt over the toilet bowl and heaved. And heaved…
When I was finally able to flush, I got up off my knees and staggered to the nearest of the sinks. I’d just scooped a handful of cold water into my mouth to rinse it out when I heard a soft voice behind me.
“Are you all right?”
Nodding, I spit into the sink, splashed more water into my mouth, and spit again.
“I was just coming in and saw you rush in here. You were all bent over and looked sick. There’s a doctor in the hotel-can I get her for you?”
I shook my head. “No, but thanks.” I glanced up into the mirror above the sink and realized that the woman who was concerned about me was Tina Long.
“Sit down,” she said, indicating an upholstered chair between the stalls and the sinks.
Still a little shaky, I did as she suggested and watched in surprise as she pulled paper towels from the dispenser, wet them in cold water, and came over to me.