Laced with Poison Read Online Free

began reeling off the facts she’d
     memorized about the piece ina silvery blue floral fabric. “There are attached waist ties”—she reached inside the
     robe and pulled them taut—“that you can tighten for a perfect fit.”
    Jessica turned around and admired herself in the mirror. “I rather do like it,” she
     announced to the small group that had gathered around her. “What do you think?”
    “I think it’s positively lovely,” one of the women gushed. She looked to be in her
     mid-thirties and had mousy blond hair teased into a style that seemed too old considering
     her age.
    “This is Crystal Davis,” Jessica said, frowning at the woman. “She’s my secretary.”
    “And distant cousin,” Crystal piped up. She pulled the sleeves of her blue cardigan
     down over her hands.
    Jessica renewed her appraisal of herself in the mirror. “I think you’re wrong, Crystal.
     It makes me look short and slightly dumpy.”
    Emma noticed Crystal’s face fall and wondered whether Jessica was always so blunt,
     or did she dislike Crystal for some reason?
    Jessica stuck her hand into one of the robe pockets and turned this way and that in
     front of the glass. She pulled her hand from the pocket and held something up. “What
     is this?”
    The others strained to see. Emma held out her hand, and Jessica placed the object
     in her palm. It was a small blue bead with the capital letter
P
on it. She held it up for the others to see.
    Conversation around the room had fallen silent, and the other women gathered around
     to examine the tiny item.
    “It looks like a bead from one of those hospital identification bracelets they used
     to make years ago,” said a woman in an elegant pantsuit who also had teased gray hair.
     “My mother saved mine, and it was made with beads like that,only in pink, of course. It was,” she cleared her throat, “sometime in the 1950s.
     I refuse to say exactly when.”
    The other women laughed obligingly. Emma wasn’t particularly sensitive about her age—she
     was only twenty-nine, but she realized that it was merely a matter of time before
     people would begin reminding her of her ticking biological clock.
    “That reminds me of an amazing story I just heard,” Jessica said in the kind of loud,
     commanding voice that made everyone stop talking and turn in her direction. “I heard
     it from one of the residents on our nursing floor. She had been a nurse herself at
     one time and worked in the Henry County Hospital here in Paris. The hospital was even
     smaller then, this was around 1954, and on this particular night, there was a terrible
     storm and accidents all over the roads. People on stretchers were lined up in the
     halls of the emergency room, and the doctors could barely keep up. Fortunately, the
     maternity ward was empty except for two women in labor. Rose took care of both of
     them.”
    Jessica paused as Emma helped her out of the vintage robe, and Deirdre handed her
     a glass of punch. She took a sip before continuing.
    “One of the women was very poor, married to a farmer and having her tenth child or
     something like that.” Jessica scowled, and it was obvious she disapproved. “According
     to Rose, they could ill afford the other nine, let alone a new baby. I don’t know
     why people do that, but…” She shrugged. “The other laboring woman was very wealthy.
     Rose referred to her as ‘Cat.’ She was either forty, or nearing it, I don’t quite
     remember what Rose said, but this was her first child. She and her husband had been
     married since their twenties, but she had been unable to get pregnant. Finally, the
     long-awaited heir was about to arrive. But,” Jessica tookanother sip of her punch, and the room was completely silent as they waited for her
     to continue, “the baby was stillborn.”
    Several women gasped, and they all looked at one another.
    “Go on,” Crystal said, and Jessica scowled at her again.
    “As I said, it was a stormy night, and