Within a few minutes, Annie sent Charles a text: All in. Four o’clock. Dinner at six, please.
Myra returned to the kitchen with a tray of empty plates. “Our girl has a very good appetite. She said she hasn’t eaten this well in months.”
“It’s those pills they were giving her. Nausea is another side effect.” Charles grimaced at the thought of Charlotte being poisoned by those creeps.
“Well, that part is over for Charlotte. But we need to stop these men from doing it to others. And I would love to get some of Charlotte’s money back.” Myra was contemplating how that would happen, but they still needed to gather more intel.
“Oh, I am sure you and the sisters will come up with a very fine plan.”
“What plan?” Charlotte asked, startling both of them as she entered the kitchen.
Myra took a deep inhale and fiddled with her pearls. “Charlotte, dear, please sit down.”
“Myra? What’s wrong? Is everything all right?” Charlotte grabbed the back of one of the kitchen chairs to steady herself.
“Well, yes and no.” Myra looked to Charles for assistance.
Charles took Charlotte’s arm and assisted her into a chair. He patted her hand. “Now, now. Don’t fret. Everything is all right—”
“At least for the moment,” Myra interrupted.
Charlotte had a worried look on her face. “Please tell me. What is going on?”
Myra pulled her chair around and gently turned Charlotte’s shoulders so they could sit face-to-face, knee to knee. Myra began, “First, I want to apologize.”
“Apologize for what?” Charlotte burst out, causing Lady to yelp, which started a short howling session among the dogs.
“Please, it’s okay.” Myra took Charlotte’s hands in hers, again glancing up at Charles.
“Charlotte,” Charles began again, “we have been doing a little research on your Drs. Marcus and Steinwood. Concerning the vitamins and medications they’ve been prescribing.”
“But how?” Charlotte implored.
“That’s what I wanted to apologize for,” Myra continued. “You know we love you very much, and when we received your letter, we were very concerned.”
“Oh yes. You have been wonderful hosts.” Charlotte sighed.
Myra was beginning to vacillate between feeling guilty for invading her friend’s privacy and being energized by the idea of fixing the situation. “Charlotte, I breached your trust.” There. It was finally out.
“What on earth are you talking about?” Charlotte was almost pleading.
“When you were at the spa, I went into your room and took samples of your drugs, vitamins, or whatever it was that Dr. Marcus was calling them.” And there was the rest of it.
Charlotte was taken aback, but not in a disturbed way. “My goodness. Myra, why didn’t you just ask me?”
“Because that was before you told me what was going on, and I know this is going to sound totally ridiculous, but I didn’t want to pry! Well, at least not to your face!” Myra and Charlotte howled with laughter at the contradiction. Then the dogs joined in. It was a cacophony of yaps and laughs.
The room vibrated from the barking of the dogs responding to the arrival of Fergus and Annie.
“What have we here?” Fergus reached into his pockets to reward each dog with a treat. Mostly to quiet them down. “What is so hilariously funny?”
“Care to share?” Annie asked, chuckling.
Myra inhaled slightly. “I was trying to explain to Charlotte that I stole some of her meds because I didn’t want to pry”—she paused—“to her face!”
Hysterics broke out again.
“That is a bit ironic, wouldn’t you say?” Fergus added.
“Yes.” Myra caught her breath. “We were going to wait for you to get here, but Charlotte overheard me and Charles talking about plans and asked us what it was about. And here we are.”
“How far into the explanation have you gotten?” Annie inquired.
“That was it. You walked in just as I was about to explain.” Myra gestured for everyone to sit down. “Let’s continue.”
“Charlotte, while the humorous aspect of this has come to light, there is a much more serious issue at hand.” Charles needed to steer the conversation to the nuts and bolts of the scheme the doctors had concocted. “We had the pills tested, and what we discovered is very disturbing.”
Charlotte began to go pale. “What . . . What do you mean?”
“Some of them were relatively harmless herbs, but every other bottle in the sequence contained low dosages of a drug that works like phenobarbital. It’s a narcotic. Probably why you were getting foggy, as you said. The next day you would take a low dose of Adderall, which is in the same class of drugs as cocaine.”