Free Art and Arsenic (Veronica Margreve Mysteries Book 2) by Valerie Murmel

the lethal dose, maybe 20. We didn’t find that much in the sediment in the bottles.”
    “But you did find some?” That was promising. I took a sip of my tea and felt the hot caffeinated liquid revive me a bit.
    “Yes. You know, arsenic can naturally occur in soil, and water, and then from those two in wine, and other stuff, like rice.  So the fact that we found some in the bottle sediment doesn’t mean the bottles were poisoned.”
    “But you can’t really say that they weren’t?”
    “Most likely they weren’t, but no, we are not absolutely sure yet. And remember, Fred was a big guy – if that small pour killed him, it should have killed or made sick about twenty other people who were there.”
    “Are there any other bottles of this wine remaining that you can test? Or any other bottles that Fred could have drunk?”
    “Christopher says none here. There are still a couple of cases at his home in Walla Walla.”
    “Did Christopher himself drink much of the wine? Before, I mean? I saw him drink a bit of it at the reception. Like, did the wine at the party taste OK to him?”
    “He said it tasted fine.”
    Something was nagging me about the wine situation, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I decided to switch topics.
    “Did you talk to Alex? Did he explain what I overheard on Thursday?”
    “We tried to. He insisted that it had nothing to do with Fred Nordqvist's death, that all he was doing was looking for another job. Wouldn’t give us more details. “
     
    OK, Alex may have been mixed up in something unsavory – or just knew that the particulars of the conversation wouldn’t look good for him. But would they look worse than not answering, and making people suspect him of anything up to and including murder? And Alex worked as the “office manager” of the gallery – but from what I saw on Thursday and Friday, hanging up paintings, serving refreshments and cleaning up were among his duties. Maybe among the various chemicals and detergents and industrial pest control agents, there was arsenic?  I thought I read somewhere that old rat poison and some pesticides used to contain it.
    “Did he take out the garbage from the gallery after the party?”
    “Yes. He told us which Dumpster he took it to. We found it, went through everything. Not pleasant, let me tell you.” (“Yeah, I can imagine”, I agreed.) “No arsenic in any of that stuff.”
    Something else occurred to me.
    “How come no-one at Fred’s house noticed he was missing, that he didn’t come home Friday night?” I thought I knew the answer, but was wondering whether the detective paid attention to this circumstance.
    He sighed again.
    “Pauline is living separately, in Capital Hill. And Fred and Connie were apparently having some difficulties. He moved out a couple of months ago.”
    “Right. He told me they were getting a divorce.” It seemed my guess was right.
    “Yeah, we’ll be talking to the Nordqvists’ divorce lawyers, too.”
     

 
     
    12
     
    After hanging up, I ruminated on seeing Alex and Connie together two days ago. It occurred to me that one of them might have season tickets to the Sounders.  If I wanted to talk to them, going to the next home game might be a good way to do it. I looked up the schedule of games on the club’s website – there happened to be a home game that afternoon. That was my chance! I pulled up the seating chart of the stadium and tried to remember where Alex and Connie were sitting Thursday night, when I saw them together. I looked for available tickets in close proximity, or at least in the same section, and didn’t find anything. I placed a quick call to Vinay, asking whether he was planning to attend the game, and if I could make use of a ticket of his. His response was that of course I was welcome to use his tickets, and that he would be delighted to offer them to me.
     
    As I drove to the stadium, I thought that Fred’s business must have been doing well enough to be