Dos Equis by Anthony Bidulka Read Free Book Online Page B

everything under the
    sun. Especially Bill, Hilda’s husband. And guess what happened? When you give a child everything they want, the only thing
    they want is MORE.
    “Lynette grew up thinking everything should be handed to her on a silver platter. But then she moved to Saskatoon, and found out pretty quickly how the real world works. Then Bill died. Poor Lynette. That was the end of easy street for her. Hilda loved her child, but she knew they’d made a mistake with her. She decided the best way to teach Lynette the value of things was to make her work for them. Do you know they were still paying that full-grown woman an allowance? Shameful. Well, Hilda cut
    that out pretty darn quick. Lynette finally had to get and keep a job if she wanted clothes on her back and food on her table. The only way Hilda would give Lynette any money was if she provided some sort of service for her. Like drive her into Humboldt
    or Saskatoon for a doctor’s appointment, or to pick up groceries. You can imagine Lynette wasn’t very keen about any of this.”
    “So their relationship was not a good one?”
    Millie barked a laugh. The three dogs, none of which had cared to go outside with Barb, looked up from their various resting spots around the room. “Not good is an understatement. You see, even at that, Hilda didn’t really have all that much cash to hand out to the daughter. Like a lot of us out here, our fortune— such as it is—our savings, everything we have, is tied up in land, buildings, and machinery. The only way Lynette was going to get her hands on any real money was if Hilda sold some of
    it. And she swore to me, she had no intentions of selling so much as a hayseed until her last will and testament was read over her dead body.”
    Hilda Kraus had been a headstrong and willful woman. In my experience—and from watching episodes of Murder, She
    Wrote —people like that seldom bulldozed their way to a natural death. Was that the case here?
    “Did the police or RCMP investigate Lynette Kraus?” I asked.
    “They didn’t seem very interested in my ‘theories.’ As far as they were concerned, they had an open and shut case. The
    murderer was botulism.”
    “But Hilda did die from the poisoning?”
    “Yes. But how she got it into her system is another matter.”
    Without knowing the details of the official investigation, I’d have to say that although Millie had some interesting points, I could see where the police would have had doubts.
    “So I did the only thing left for me to do. I called on Jane. She was like a daughter to us, so I knew she’d help if she could.
    Sweet thing drove all the way down here from Regina one Sunday, just to talk to us about it.”
    Sweet? Jane? “And what did Jane say after you told her your story?”
    “She didn’t say much, now that you ask. But she did tell us she would do some snooping around and let us know if she found
    out anything. I was happy with that. It was the only hope I had left to find out how Hilda really died. Like I says, we were neighbours, and neighbours look after one another. Dead or alive.”
    Minutes later, as I was leaving, I saw Barb watching me from around the corner of the house. I waved a goodbye. She didn’t
    wave back, only stared, unsmiling.
    Dead or alive, the one neighbour I knew I could rely on was Sereena Orion Smith. I’d spent a good part of my sojourn away
    with Sereena, at some of the various ports of call around the globe which she treats like home. She knew I was going through a tough time. So she’d made herself, and wherever she happened to be at the time, fully available to me. It was her unobtrusive, yet strong, quiet support, not to mention her willingness to dive into a pitcher of anything at any time of the day or night, that got me through the worst of it.
    That night, however, it was Sereena herself who was having her own resolve tested.
    Having somehow sensed that I was finally home, and wanting to share gossip, a few bons mots,