I’m always amazed when one of my books ends up somewhere I don’t suspect it will.
My sister texted me the photo at the left–her husband takes all kinds of sale magazines and was quite surprised to open one and find my book just below Kate Smith’s CD. I’m in good company!
After a week of snow and ice and near-zero temperatures, I am ecstatic to be at 70° today!
Now for last week’s Mystery Question: It’s November 1, 1942, and a man walking his dog in Central Park discovers a woman’s body in the tall grass. The fact she had no purse or money suggested it was a mugging gone bad–except the woman still wore a gold necklace. She’d married a man five months earlier. When he was told of her death, he was unconcerned and glad to be rid of her. He had an airtight alibi–she had met her death while he was at a dance hall where dozens of witnesses could testify to his presence there. And the police couldn’t ignore the alibi. If you were the detective what could the following clues tell you?
- The dance hall was only a few hundred yards from the murder scene.
- Grass seeds were found under the body and also in the husband’s pockets and cuffs, but he claimed he had not been in Central Park for over two years and the seeds had to have been picked up at Tremont Park in the Bronx.
- At one point he changed his story and admitted he’d been in Central Park in September.
- The wife lived with her parents after leaving her husband after only a few weeks of marriage because of his womanizing. The parents showed the police threatening letters he’d written to his wife.
Congratulations! You all picked up on the grass seeds! He claimed the seeds in his pocket came from Trenton Park, but the seeds he had in his pocket were extremely rare and only grew in one location in New York City–Central Park. Also, when the detectives visited the dance hall, they discovered how he could have slipped out and walked the very short distance to the crime scene.
Now for this week’s Mystery Question: The year is 1986 and a forty-year-old woman dies from cyanide poisoning from a bottle of extra-strength Excedrin that had been tampered with. Two more bottles of cyanide-laced Excedrin were found. Then a woman called the FBI, concerned her recently deceased husband may have been a victim of the contaminated pain reliever as she had bought two bottles of the pain reliever for her husband. His autopsy recorded the cause of death as emphysema, but he had been an organ donor so the FBI had a sample of his blood. Tests revealed he had indeed died of cyanide poisoning. What was the wife’s undoing? All of the statements are true. Take the clues below and construct the crime:
- The wife claimed to have bought the two bottles at separate stores. But of the 740,000 capsules sold throughout the area, only five bottles were contaminated and of those five, two had been found at the victim’s home, bought at separate drug stores.
- Traces of algicide used in home fish tanks were found in all of the capsules; a fish tank was found in the victim’s garage.
- The FBI agents canvassed local pet stores with a set of photos of middle-aged women, asking employees if any of them had sold Algae Destroyer to one of the women in the photos. One clerk readily identified the wife because she had a little bell attached to her purse that had jingled all over the store.
- The victim’s insurance policy paid $31,000 for natural death and $176,000 if he had died from an accident.
So these are the clues the FBI had. Can you reconstruct the crime? Leave your answer in the comments and I’ll enter you in a drawing for an ARC of Justice Betrayed. (digital for all addresses outside the US)
[tweet_box design=”default” float=”none”]Cyanide, Excedrin, Algae Destroyer, accidental death policy. What do they all have in common? #bookgiveaway [/tweet_box]And, Kill Zone: Ten Deadly Thrillers is about to go away! It will be taken down at the end of the month. You can still buy the individual books, but each of them is $.99, grab your copy for $.99 for all ten!
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Comments 16
Hmm. Perhaps algicide can come up as traces of cyanide during lab testing? Wife poisoned husband and was going to claim as accident? And the second woman’s death is not related?
Author
Great deductions, Mindy. We’ll see how close you are next Tuesday! Thanks for stopping by.
I’m going to go with #4 but they are all chilling. Not #1 for me because the odds are to great that she would select contaminated bottles in two separate stores. That would be harder to do that choosing the right answer here 🙂
Author
I see that I haven’t been clear, and that is a terrible thing for a writer! 🙂 All of the questions are correct. I want you to be the detective and use the questions to reconstruct the crime that results in the wife’s arrest. And you’re right, Delores, that’s the first thing that occurred to the detectives. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by and alerting me that I needed to be clearer!
Hmm. Tough one. She was a clanging bell in more ways than one. Sounds like she brought attention to herself talking to FBI and then finding her aquarium in the garage and bell on her purse all added up to make them suspicious of her. Plus buying the meds at two drugstores was a giveaway. I would think that they would all be together in one store. But I am confused about the other three. Did she contaminate 5 and leave the others to take suspicion away? Interesting one.
Author
Good reasoning, Gloria. I’ll explain further next week. Thanks for stopping by.
As the caption of this blog intimates, GREED was her undoing. Here’s my take. She bought Excedrin and laced it with cyanide. After he died and was buried, she planted three more bottles in stores so she would have a basis to contact the FBI if someone else died from the contaminated pills. If I read correctly, only one other person died and they found two other bottles. Once someone had died, she called the FBI to express her suspicions about her husband’s death. Her goal was to get evidence that her husband died an “accidental” death so she could collect an extra $145,000 on his insurance. Instead it backfired and the FBI had sufficient reason for a search warrant after finding cyanide in her husband’s blood. That led to finding the fish tank and other evidence. Greed caught up to her.
Author
Excellent, Edward. I may have to create a Super Sleuth Award. If I do, it’ll go to you! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by.
I think her “undoing” was the little bell and also purchasing at two different drug stores! Good mystery. I just finished Justice Buried last night and can’t wait to read Justice Betrayed!
Author
I think you could be right, Jackie. 🙂 And I’m so glad you enjoyed Justice Buried! I’m finishing up the final edits on Justice Betrayed. Thanks for stopping by.
I’m going with #3–I think her undoing was that little bell on her purse. It made her much easier to be remembered!
Author
Rosalyn, can you imagine walking around with a bell tinkling? That should have been enough to get her arrested! Great deduction.
I think she planted the contaminated pills to mimic the ones found in the other stores. The algae destroyer must have a property similar to cyanide. I think the phone call to the FBI was to make them suspect her husband was a random victim. The bell on her purse was calling too much attention to her!
Author
Hi Paula and great reconstruction. We’ll learn the whole story Tuesday! Thanks for stopping by.
WOW! $176,000 is a lot of motivation to kill someone! The wife must not have washed her hands after handling the fish tank before she contaminated the pills. I can’t imagine have a bell constantly jingling on my person. I agree Edward should be awarded the Super Sleuth trophy. 😉
Author
Good observations, Caryl! And I can’t imagine that bell, either! Thanks for stopping by.