Amaz'n Murder. William Maltese

      “Assure its success, or assure its failure?” He allowed her no more than her what an absurd notion gasp. “The last thing you want is more accolades for Melanie’s father. Cornelius Ditherson had way too many while he was alive, didn’t he? Had way too many after he married Margaret instead of you, yes?” Her look of drop jawed surprise didn’t fool him. “Did you think none of us saw what was going on when you pulled out, claiming an offer you couldn’t resist from JanEx Pharmaceuticals?”

      “It was simply a career move.” She wasn’t hot to discuss this, especially with Felix, especially here.

      “Expected him to beg you to stay, didn’t you, Carolyne?” It was a challenge. “Counted yourself chiefly responsible for all the successes of Ditherson/Santire, right? Didn’t you locate Habernia Carolyne-cornelius in the Begum’s garden; no matter Cornelius had put three years into cutting the legalities and red tape that put you two there at the right time? Didn’t you find the illusive Boletus Carolyne-cornelius; no matter that Cornelius’ friend of a friend of a friend got you access to that restricted Indian territory? You always figured Cornelius just a tag-along to be tolerated because he was such prime husband material.”

      “Don’t be ridiculous!” How many, besides Felix, saw things that way?

      “Surprised you, didn’t he?” Momentarily his headache, still pounding beneath the wispy strands of his almost bald head, was forgotten. “Not only made do without you but proved himself more the plant-hunter than you ever were. Where were you when he found Anemone cornelius from which Crystin Companies developed their breakthrough arthritis pill, or when he discovered Nymphaea cornelius to give Crystin its active ingredient for Pelincidrinal-Z14? You were so far faded into the backdrop that it must have been hard, after all your years of imagining yourself the key ingredient of that relationship, to take in the reality.”

      Carolyne was too stunned by his vindictiveness to offer any immediate rebuttal.

      “As for Charles, so long the ignored brother,” Felix continued, “he could only gain his bit of the limelight once Cornelius was dead. How frustrating it must be for him to have some plant that Cornelius stumbled upon two decades ago suddenly come into prominence as a possible cure for cancer, just because Melanie experimented with the properties of a musty flora specimen pressed for years in the dusty basement of the University of Washington? You think Charles wants us to find enough Lygodium cornelius to confirm something in it destroys malignant cells in rats and may do the same for people?”

      “He’s here to do just that!”

      “Except, we’re scooting on out of here, our supposed objective not met.”

      “You think we won’t be back to try again?”

      “Back to what? Whatever the potential of our illusive Lygodium cornelius, it will likely be the victim of Kyle Georni’s own personal slash and burn definition of progress. You think the authorities are going to renew our present permits, what with a possible murderer, let alone a man-eating jaguar, on the loose? This country is too indebted to U.S. banks, too hopeful that American aid is going to bail it out of its impossible financial predicaments, to ever risk the bad publicity that would attend the murder of prominent American scientists by man or beast. Melanie had trouble getting the permits in the first place.”

      Carolyne had quite enough and was finally recovered sufficiently to prove it. “People living in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones!”

      “Meaning?” He didn’t seem threatened; she’d soon fix that.

      “Whose name do you think was whispered to me as the ‘other’ man to whom Margaret was headed on that rainy night her car skidded off the road?” Carolyne had always wanted to believe Cornelius’ wife was the slut Carolyne had always imagined her to be, but she had, at the time, resisted and laughed in Charles’ face when he’d suggested Felix, this little nobody selected by Cornelius to fill the void left by Carolyne’s departure, was ever Margaret’s paramour.

      “What an obscene, filthy-minded, ludicrous suggestion!” Felix had taken way too long to formulate his response; even if he hadn’t (look how long it had taken Carolyne to muster any response during his verbal attack on her), she refused to grant him even the shadow of a doubt; bad-mouthing was a two-way street. Felix wasn’t finished: “Margaret was the finest woman I ever knew, and I resent your attempts to tar her reputation when she’s not alive to defend herself.”

      After all the bilge his sewer mouth had just spewed, did he really expect her to stop now? “Just the response I’d expect from the man who bedded Margaret because he was so jealous of Cornelius with whom he couldn’t compete in any way, shape, or form. The last thing you want is Cornelius to one-up you, once again, especially now, from the grave.”

      “You’re eaten by jealousy toward a woman whose only sin in living was to love and marry the man you’d laid claim to for yourself.”

      “And you’re a weak, no-chinned, no-account bastard who was too afraid to come out in the open about your sordid part in Margaret’s death for fear Cornelius would sack you on the spot and no one else would ever take you on.”

      For just a second, she thought she sensed something about him ready to scream, “Yes, by God, yes!” right in her face. She was disappointed and a little frightened by his, “If I did kill Gordon, I suggest you watch your tail, from here on out!” said just before he got up and stormed off to the other side of the campsite, everyone else not hearing his threat but wondering what in the hell he and Carolyne were up to.