Mom.
“They were probably capped,” said Bernice.
“Do you know what caused her to die so suddenly?” Alice Tjarks inquired.
Margi fired her hand into the air, wrist flopping, fingers flying. “I know! It happens to patients at the clinic all the time.” She paused for effect. “Her heart stopped.”
Even from my table at the back of the room, I could see Wally’s eyes begin to glaze over. “That’s true, Ms. Swanson, but in this instance, there might have been a trigger that precipitated the event.”
Helen Teig gasped. “She was shot?”
“No!” Wally choked out. “Her son confirmed our suspicions that she was allergic to wasp and bee stings, so the medical examiner is theorizing that she might have been stung and suffered a fatal reaction. He’ll know more after the postmortem.”
“Is this going to have any effect on the contest?” Bill Gordon demanded. “Because I don’t think it should. My heart’s bleeding about Isobel kicking off, but it wasn’t our fault, so why should the rest of us be made to suffer because of it?”
Scattered applause. A subdued, “Here, here.”
Gee, it was heartening to see how broken up Bill was about a death in our midst.
Wally’s expression grew pinched, his voice tight. “Since the local authorities are in charge now, there’s little more we can do, so they’ve encouraged us to continue our schedule as planned. But I expect each of you will want to remember Isobel in some small way today, either with a moment of silence, or in some other way that’ll be meaningful to you.”
“I remember her, all right,” griped Bill. “I remember how she tried to screw the rest of us and cheat her way to a win.”
“That’s water over the dam now,” Alex Hart pointed out, his emotional stability and calm making him sound even more reasonable than Doctor Phil. “She can’t ever do it again, so why don’t we just forget about it and move on? Besides, she wasn’t a very adept cheat. She stole the wrong thing. Remember?”
Bill smashed his fist on the table, giving us all a start. “Her team should be punished! How do we know they weren’t in cahoots with each other?”
“Because we weren’t!” Cameron Dasher protested. “She admitted to everyone last night that she acted on her own. Did you miss that part of the conversation?”
“And you expected us to believe her?” Bill snorted.
“I believed her,” said Alice Tjarks, raising her hand in support.
“So did I,” admitted Mom.
“Me, too,” said George.
Osmond popped out of his chair. “Show of hands. How many folks think Isobel was telling the truth about acting on her own?”
I watched heads turn left and right as people tried to gauge how everyone else was going to vote before they cast their own.
“It doesn’t matter if you think Isobel acted alone or not.” Wally boomed out his pronouncement as if he were channeling the Great Oz. He motioned Osmond to sit down. “We started the contest with five teams, and we’ll end with five teams. I’ve spoken to the Micelis about this, and we’re all in agreement. There was no harm done yesterday, no matter how outraged you are about what Isobel did, so as far as we’re concerned, the issue is resolved. However, I’m troubled by another issue.”
He paused meaningfully to scan the faces in the room. “Isobel left her medical form blank, so we didn’t know about her allergy. Maybe if we had known, we might have been able to help her. So if, when you were filling out your medical histories, it slipped your mind that you have a life-threatening condition, I’d encourage you to get your information up to speed. I always have the forms handy, so if you remember anything you’d like to add, or delete, speak to me in private, and we’ll get it taken care of. The important thing is for the information to be as accurate as possible in case of medical emergency.”
Spines stiffened. Eyes shifted. Guilt marched with heavy feet across the suddenly self-conscious faces of everyone at my table—Dick Teig, Margi, Osmond, Dad.
Dad? I stared at him in disbelief. Oh, my God! Dad had lied on his medical history?
Stella and Bill Gordon, on the other hand, sat rigidly stone-faced, apparently convinced that nothing Wally was saying applied to them.
“I want to go on record as opposing your radical secular socialist decision not to disqualify Isobel’s team from the contest,” Bill protested.
“Opposition duly noted,” said Wally. “But instead of dwelling on Isobel’s misconduct, maybe you should all start gearing up