Page 85 - Effable Encounters

The Formic Solution

Many people came and went during that period. They were served a
hot meal and given a cot to sleep on. None could stay more than a
day or two, so the reappearance of one person on virtually every
Friday cannot be by chance. When that woman happens to have died
in the shelter on the day your cousin disappeared, the inevitable
deduction is that this individual, whose name—probably false—is
Melissa Forthott, murdered Margaret Pye, assumed her identity, and
fled the country.”
Ann and the old lady gasped.
“But—but—how could she get away with it?” Ann blurted.
“Margaret Pye, naive and trusting, did not realize that the idle
chatter she was sharing with the inmates of the shelter stimulated one
of them to hatch a diabolical scheme. That woman, Melissa Forthott,
must have resembled the victim sufficiently to fool casual observers
once she switched clothes with her. It would not take long to master
her signature; perhaps she had already practiced it, having obtained a
sample on some pretext. She would have known about the travel
plans and could easily guess that money and credit cards would
provide enough capital to leave the cruise at its first port of call. The
killer could count on a very cold trail by the time anyone realized
something was amiss.”
Ann shook her head.
“I still don’t get it. The shelter has basically a dining room, a large
dormitory, and a bathroom. How could anyone hide a body in
there?”
Gill smiled sadly, perhaps with genuine emotion.
“The body was not hidden. The murderess found a way to
administer poison orally. I would guess it occurred during the meal,
when everyone was in the dining room. Perhaps she conned the
victim into sampling a sweet beverage, something that would hide the
taste of, say, a tainted street drug of known toxicity. Then the killer
announced loudly that she felt very ill; the kindly volunteer offered to
help, leading her into the bathroom. There the effects of the poison
began to be felt; your cousin probably fell into a terminal coma.
Melissa Forthott then switched clothing, dragged Ms. Pye to a cot
and laid her out. Then she picked up the dead woman’s purse and
quickly left the premises. The management later found a corpse in
one of its beds, not an uncommon occurrence, and called the city

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