Party Perils by Patti Benning (the chimp paradox TXT) 📕

“I won’t waste your time,” she said. “We’ll get right to it. The other day, I found an empty bottle of peanut oil in my garbage bin. I took it to the police so they could check for prints. It’s not a brand you can buy anywhere in town, and it came from a store that neither Dean nor I shop at. I think someone took it to my house and used it to contaminate the soup, then left it there. Either they just weren’t thinking when they threw it away, or they were trying to plant evidence to get me in trouble. “

Lacey sat down heavily in one of the stools at the breakfast bar. “It wasn't an accident? Someone really killed my husband on purpose?”

“I'm not sure, but it’s the only thing that seems to make sense,” Caroline said.

“I know who it was,” Lacey said suddenly, narrowing her eyes. “Rebecca.”

Hannah’s eyebrows raised. “Why do you say that? I honestly don't know anything about Rebecca.”

“She’s always been just on the edge of rude to me,” Lacey said, sniffing. “I’ve never understood why, but she dislikes me. She wasn't particularly close to Edward either, and she was sitting right across from him. She could have easily slipped something into his soup while no one was looking. If someone there killed him, it was her.”

“Do you have any idea why she would want to?” Caroline asked a little bit desperately. “Would she gain anything from his death?”

“Other than my suffering?” Lacey sighed, deflating. “No. I don’t know why she dislikes me so much. She always seemed like the odd woman out. Rich and Edward went fishing together, and looked at old cars together. Bucky is just a nice guy in general, and was also a good friend to both of us. And Caroline… I don’t think you or Dean could ever do something like this. Hannah…” She looked over at Hannah and shrugged. “Well, I don’t know her, but she had never met us before and wouldn’t have any reason to want Edward dead. She probably didn’t even know about our allergies until he started having a reaction.”

“I didn’t,” Hannah said.

Caroline sighed. “Well, thank you for your input. This is why I wanted to talk to you. You know more about Edward's relationship with the others than I do. Rich, for example – do you know if he had any business deals going on with Edward?”

“Nothing I can think of,” Lacey said, frowning. “Why?”

“Just something I thought I overheard,” Hannah put in. “We’ve been trying to figure this out ourselves over the past couple of days, but we just end up talking in circles.”

“If we’re being honest, Bucky was the only one we could figure out a motive for, and like you said, he seems like he’s a genuinely good person.” Caroline sighed. “Of course, none of them seemed like terrible people, or else we wouldn’t have been friends with them.”

“You think Bucky had a motive to hurt Edward?”

Hannah hesitated, but Caroline gave her an encouraging nod. “Lacey… He asked me not to tell you this, but I think I should for your own safety. Bucky’s in love with you.”

Lacey blinked. Eventually she managed to sputter, “What?”

“He admitted it to me the other day when I ran into him at the restaurant. He didn’t want you to know. I’m only telling you because out of everyone who was at the dinner party, he seems like the only one who might have had any sort of reason to see Edward gone.”

“Bucky…” Lacey shook her head. “Hannah, you don’t know him very well, but he’s a good person. He’s probably one of the nicest people I know, and that’s saying a lot since I know Caroline.”

“We’re not saying that he did it for sure, Lacey,” Caroline said soothingly. “We just want to let you know what we’ve found out so far. Think about it, all right? And be careful. Edward wasn't the only one there that night who was allergic to peanuts. It’s possible he wasn’t the target at all. It could’ve been you. Or even both of you.”

Lacey nodded, looking pale. “Thank you both. I… I have a lot to think about. Bucky was supposed to come over this afternoon and help me get some things organized. I’m going to cancel that for now. I won’t tell him why, but I’ll take your advice. I’ll be careful.”

“Good,” Caroline said. “I’m sorry you have to deal with all of this. One way or another, the truth will come out. Do you want us to stay and help you with anything?”

Lacey shook her head. “No offense, but I want to be alone right now. I just need some time to process everything, and figure out where exactly my life went so wrong.”

Chapter Ten

Hannah followed Caroline back to her and Dean’s house. There was a car in the driveway, and when they walked inside, they heard laughter coming from the living room. The two of them peaked around the corner curiously to see a pair of pizza boxes set up on the table, surrounded by papers and a couple of empty beer bottles. Rich and Dean were both pouring over some of the papers.

“What on earth is going on?” Caroline asked.

“We are going over some old articles from the news site,” Dean said, turning around to greet his wife. Rich nodded to both of them as well. “We’re thinking of running a throwback page featuring highly rated articles from the past, including some from before the company moved its articles online and away from print. Rich came over to see if I could help him find some that are still relevant and might boost traffic to the site.”

“Ah, a working evening,” Caroline said.

“It’s not too bad,” Dean said, shrugging. “How did your visit with Lacey go?”

“About as well as expected,” Caroline said. She glanced at Rich, then said, “We'll tell you more about it later. I’m going to go with Hannah to