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Wonderment in Death

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“The Amazing Dallas sees all, knows all.” – Lieutenant Eve Dallas to Louis Carroll Ravenwood, Wonderment in Death[1]

“Wonderment in Death” is a novella. It was originally part of the Down the Rabbit Hole anthology, published in 2015. Other stories in that anthology are:

  • “Alice and the Earl in Wonderland” by Mary Blayney
  • “iLove” by Elaine Fox
  • “A True Heart” by Mary Kay McComas
  • “Fallen” by R. C. Ryan

Someone is hosting dangerous tea parties in 2061 New York...

Things aren’t what they seem when Lieutenant Eve Dallas investigates what appears to be a routine murder/suicide. When friends of Darlene and Marcus Fitzwilliams insist Darlene would never hurt her brother, Eve digs deeper.

Eve learns that Darlene sought help from sensitivities, psychics, and doctors of paranormal studies in an attempt to contact her dead parents. After clues mimicking Alice in Wonderland repeatedly turns up, the case gets curiouser and curiouser...

Racing against the clock, Eve must travel down the rabbit hole to stop a madman’s murderous tea party.

Spoiler warning!
This article contains plot details about an upcoming episode.

Timeline[]

Story Start Date: mid-January 2061[2]

Day 1[]

Chapter 1[]

  • Darlene Fitzwilliams attended her last session with Dr. Bright, who had become bored with her. She paid him her usual $9,999 in cash, gave him heirlooms from her dead parents, and drank drugged tea to be able to see a meadow and speak with her parents. Dr. Bright then affixed a recorder to her coat and sent her to her brother’s apartment in a town car. He and his assistant, Ms. March, danced a jig and headed to the theater to watch the show.
  • In the car, Darlene reached for the glass of clear liquid marked “Drink Me,” thinking about how she would tell Marcus the dreams she’d been having about their parents, and how they helped her accept their sudden, tragic deaths. After drinking the liquid, she started to reach for her ’link to call her fiancé, Henry Boyle, but stopped when a pain shot up her arm because she wasn’t supposed to call him yet.
  • Darlene arrived at Marcus’s penthouse and tried to hand him what she thought was a red rose, but was actually silver shears that she thrust into him three times, killing him, before walking off his terrace to her death, thinking she was racing across the meadow to greet her parents.

Chapter 2[]

  • Eve pulled rank to be assigned to the case because the Fitzwilliamses were childhood friends of Louise, who found Marcus’s body when she arrived at his apartment to speak with him about his sister, who had been missing appointments and withdrawing from friends and family since their parents’ accidental death in June of the previous year.
  • Louise grew up with Marcus and Darli, even dating Marcus for a while, but they didn’t suit, and the Fitzwilliamses were at Louise and Charles’s wedding.
  • Darlene had been telling Marcus that she needed to talk to their (dead) parents before she could move ahead with closing their estate, and they were planning to stage a mini-intervention that night after Darlene and Henry finished dinner; Henry was going to bring Darlene over to Marcus’s apartment. Louise insisted Darlene would never have killed Marcus, that somebody set it up.
  • Eve asked Louise to make a list of friends, families, exes, coworkers, etc., and she sent Charles and her home.

Chapter 3[]

  • Eve examined Darlene’s body and noticed pieces from a broken lapel recorder. She had the lab tag the body for Morris and flagged it for a tox screen. The doorman and two witnesses who got into the elevator as Darlene got out told Peabody Darlene looked distracted and spacey, like she was in a trance.
  • Darlene’s fiancé arrived, distraught, and after getting some information about Darlene from him and permission to search the townhouse he shared with her, Eve sent him to Louise and Charles’s place. Henry was also skeptical about Darlene killing Marcus, saying they’d never hurt each other. He told Eve Darli was taking some herbal sleep aids, but no other drugs. He also mentioned that he was at the wedding, and that he worked for Roarke as an architectural engineer.
  • Eve and Peabody watched the security feed of Darlene as she approached Marcus’s door and saw that her eyes were glassy and she looked ready to fly. Eve told Peabody to wait for the sweepers, then go into Central and write up the report, while she searched Henry and Darlene’s townhouse, after being a good wife and letting Roarke know her plans and that she would be home late. He told her Henry was a good employee, and had worked for him for a number of years, although he didn’t specify the number. He said Henry was mad about Darlene.

Chapter 4[]

  • Eve parked near the townhouse around midnight, and was delighted to see Roarke waiting for her on the steps. He told her a little more about Henry, saying he was in charge of engineering on the An Dídean project.
  • They searched the house together, with Eve finding a stash of business cards for psychics, sensitives, mediums, tarot readers, and spiritualists hidden at the bottom of her underwear drawer, along with a few brochures with rates for readings and consultations.
  • Roarke joined her, saying Darlene’s web search history showed she was researching the afterlife and how to communicate with the dead. Eve showed him what she found and decided Darlene kept them hidden because her friends and family wouldn’t have approved.
  • They spent another hour searching, but didn’t find anything else useful and headed home at two a.m.

Day 2[]

Chapter 5[]

  • Eve dreamt about being in an interview room with Marcus and Darlene. Darlene said that she loved her brother and could never hurt him. Marcus told Darlene it was all right, and Eve told her she had secrets, and some people kill to protect them. Eve told her mostly killers look like everybody else and that Darlene jammed scissors in her brother’s heart. Darlene said, “I couldn’t” and grabbed the handle of the shears buried in Marcus’s chest, pulling them out, saying, “I’d kill myself first.” Eve pointed out that she killed herself second, saying “Grief can mess you up.” Darlene asked her how she knew, telling her she’d never lost anyone, she didn’t know her grief or sorrow. Darlene said her parents were angels, and Eve’s were monsters, that Eve was surrounded by evil. “How can you see through it to what’s good?” Eve told her “You just have to look hard enough.” Darlene told her “Then look! I just wanted answers.” Eve woke up knowing that Darlene wanted love and connection and continuity, and she and Roarke make love.
  • Eve texted Peabody to meet her at the morgue at nine and sent her half the list of psychics to check, while she researched the other half. She found out Darlene had been withdrawing $9,999 in cash every week for the past eighteen weeks, including the previous morning. She told Roarke, who said if it was $1 more, it would alert the IRS, and they both think somebody had been taking Darlene for a ride, although why would that person want the income to stop?
  • At the morgue, Eve asked Morris which was worse, jumpers or floaters, and he told her it was a sliding scale, based on how long in the water or how big a jump. He told her about a skydiver whose business partner sabotaged his chute after he ran afoul of him: 13,000 feet, and therefore at the top of the scale for Morris.
  • He said Darlene wasn’t a user and showed no signs of abuse or disease. Her stomach contents were tea and sugar cookies, plus about two ounces of white wine. The tea had a chamomile base, but was laced with valerian (a sedative) and peyote (a hallucinogen). Eve told Morris Darlene was smiling when she rang Marcus’s buzzer.
  • Morris said they both talk to the dead all the time, and when Eve asked if they ever talk back, because she didn’t remember Possession in Death, he told her Amaryllis Coltraine picked out his electric blue tie that morning, saying that when he reached for a gray one to match his mood, she told him to wear the bold blue one instead, and it lifted away the gray.

Chapter 6[]

  • Peabody arrived at the morgue as Eve was leaving, and they discussed where Darlene could have gotten the shears, since she didn’t do crafts and they aren’t something people would just happen to have in their home. Peabody thought somebody put the whammy on Darlene, which would be drugs and some sort of brainwashing, but neither of them can figure out to what end.
  • When they visited Henry at Charles and Louise’s house, he told them neither of them had shears, nor did Marcus. Eve showed Henry the business cards and pamphlets from psychics, and Henry admitted suggesting to Darlene it would be more beneficial to resume grief counseling than “tossing time and money at some gypsy with a crystal ball” so he can understand why she didn’t talk to him about it again. Eve told him about the new bank account Darlene set up, and the weekly withdrawals. He thought Marcus must have found out and threatened to go to the police, but Louise says Marcus would have told her.
  • Henry confirmed that Darlene hadn’t traveled for the previous five months, instead sending her assistant. He caught Darlene sleepwalking three times, and each time she was doing or saying something weird: pouring tea for a party, crawling under the bed saying she needed to go down the rabbit hole, waking him with a riddle about a raven and a writing desk. Louise recognized those as Alice in Wonderland references but Henry didn’t know of any attachment Darlene had to the story.
  • Louise walked Eve out and she told her about the drugs Morris found in Darlene’s system, saying she would clear her to talk to Morris and Berenski since she was a doctor. They were sure somebody manipulated her, fed her drugs, and caused her to kill Marcus and herself. Eve told her to find out what she ingested and leave the why to her and Peabody.

Chapter 7[]

  • Considering the herbs and sleep aids, Eve and Peabody started with the psychic nutritionist. Dr. Hester’s pamphlet had said for $1,000 an hour, she would recommends which herbs and berries you should consume in order to open yourself up to messages from the dead.
  • Dr. Hester told Peabody not to “worry so much about your weight. Good nutrition, regular exercise, of course, but you have a very healthy, robust body. Your perception of your body is harsher than the reality.” She then suggested a few natural metabolic boosters but told her she was young, healthy, and active, and it was just the sweet tooth that challenged her.
  • She met with Darlene in August and prescribed her a natural sleep aid, which the clerk confirmed she purchased three times, plus candles and bath salts. She also recommended a nutrition plan and additional sessions to work on emotional healing and acceptance, but Darlene only wanted to contact her parents and Dr. H couldn’t ethically encourage her to continue to see her.
  • Eve and Peabody continued to visit psychics from Darlene’s cards, and hit on another one she saw, but he was a genuine sensitive, and couldn’t give Darlene what she wanted, so she moved on.
  • Morris found traces of peyote, cannabis, phencyclidine (PCP), and mint inside Darlene’s nasal passages, sinuses, meaning she would have been in a euphoric and altered state. Peabody complimented Dickhead on his facial hair and told Eve she should have his results in twenty minutes.
  • Eve tells the family lawyer, Gia Gregg, what happened, and she tells Eve that’s impossible. Eve lists the substances Darlene had in her bloodstream, and Gregg says Darlene would never do illegals, that part of her work she did with the foundation supported rehabilitation and education centers for illegals abuse. She said that the uncle, Sean Fitzwilliams, had arrived in New York to temporarily take over running the company, but that he wa c4 s based in Europe and not inclined to move, i.e., no motive to kill Marcus and Darlene.
  • Darlene left ten million dollars and her share of the townhouse to Henry, but didn’t tell him because he’s a proud man who was raised by a single mother. The lawyer gives Eve a disc with a list of the beneficiaries. Henry had told Gregg about the psychics, mediums, etc., that Darlene consulted, and they agree that somebody took advantage of her, which Eve says she is investigating.

Chapter 8[]

  • Complimenting Dickhead on his goatee worked, and the tox results show that Darlene ingested the same mix as she inhaled. Eve sent the results to Mira and went upstairs to consult with her. The dragon admin was still at lunch, so Eve experienced a slight letdown but go pop t in right away.
  • Mira told Eve that the drug combination, including PCP, the base of Zeus, could cause someone to harm themselves or others, as easily as by mistaking a flame for a flower, or a knife for a bar of soap for instance. She was surprised Darlene was able to get to her brother’s apartment building in the state she was in and suggested looking for someone who was skilled, because this combination took time and practice to perfect. It was a mixture that would have made it easy to hypnotize someone, to relax them, and open them to suggestions.
  • Mira thought it was a sensitive who gained Darlene’s trust, most likely a male, since she would see that person as authoritative and experienced, probably between 40 and 60. He’s a sociopath who exploits his own gift, he’s organized and intelligent, enjoys having control over others, and looks for gain. He liked to live well, and might also be a psychopath, finding pleasure in causing death without having a direct hand in it.
  • Eve told Mira about the broken lapel recorder she found by Darlene’s body, and Mira said he didn’t want to get his hands bloody, and he was a manipulator rather than a physical sort. Eve also told Mira about the sleepwalking and Mira said “Alice in Wonderland,” which was what Louise said. Mira thought it was a test, laying a base for post-hypnotic suggestions.
  • Back at the bullpen, Roarke was waiting for her, so she split the psychic list with Peabody, asking Peabody to take either McNab or Uniform Carmichael with her, and telling her to look for a sociopath with at least some psychic abilities and an interest or obsession with Alice in Wonderland, and to report after each meet.
  • Roarke was familiar with the story, and filled Eve in on their way to the first name on the list. The third one they visit, Madam Dupres, had a thriving psychic business 25 years ago, but lost her fame, fortune, and reputation to her husband/business manager, who ran off with her assistant after she signed over all her money to him. She had a clean record, and had assisted cops numerous times, locating missing children.
  • When Eve asked her if she knew Darlene Fitzwilliams, she said she felt a dark disturbance at the time of Marcus and Darlene’s deaths and got a sudden headache. She excused herself to get a blocker, leaving the room, and then sliced her femoral artery with broken glass and bled out. Before she died she told Eve “Beware the Mad Hatter. Lies, all lies. All his words, even his name. Dark is his truth. Death is his joy. I sent her to him. I sent her to her death. He’ll seek yours now. Beware the Mad Hatter.”

Chapter 9[]

  • Eve was pissed, and called Morris to let him know she’s sending him another body, asking him to look for the same thing – some sort of post-hypnotic trigger. She tags Peabody to update her, asking her and McNab to join them, and then she and Roarke search Dupres’s apartment.
  • She finds a notebook in her underwear drawer, which turns out to be a diary with mentions of bad dreams, headaches, memory blanks, and sleepwalking. “The Mad Hatter and the March Hare hold their tea parties, but the tea is blood. The Dormouse sits in the corner, counting the money.” The last entry is, “Day and night, darkness bright, he has the sight and feeds it on their sorrow. Bright and mad, deceiving sad, take what they had and bring them death tomorrow. WHY CAN’T I REMEMBER?”
  • Eve and Peabody figure the killer used her to solicit rich clients and blocked her memory of it. They gather samples of consumables and call for sweepers. McNab found a memo cube with a recording of Dupres in a trance, from that morning at 3 a.m., talking about blood and blue smoke, ending with weeping and “I found my strength after the lies. These are just more. I didn’t see. I didn’t know. Bright. It hurts to see. It hurts to know. Blood on my hands. So much blood. Bright blood. A lie, see through the lie to truth. Simon. Zacari. Roland. Carroll, and more and more. One truth in the lies. Where is the truth? All are death. That is the truth. Now rest, just rest, mind, body, spirit. Know his truth is death, and don’t follow.”
  • Roarke starts running the names, and Eve has McNab tag Feeney to book the EDD lab to run them faster at Central. Roarke finds Anton Zacari, a spiritual consultant who disappeared. Eve suggests running an image match, which Roarke already thought of, and she asks him “if you’re so damn smart, why aren’t you a cop?” to which Roarke replies, “You’ve just answered your own question.”
  • Once they arrive at Central, they find the rest of the names are the same person, somebody who works as a psychic of some sort for a few years before disappearing, relocating, and becoming someone else with all the millions he fleeced his clients for.
  • He had a sister, Alice, who suffered from depression, and was addicted to meth and LSD. She dosed a pot of tea with sedatives and served it to them; she died, he nearly did. Eve thinks maybe he was the one who laced the tea, not his sister. Eve finds his current name: Carroll Bright, Doctor of Paranormal Studies, and the address.

Chapter 10[]

  • As Ms. March was setting out the tea for Dr. Bright’s next client, he told her the time had come to move on, and asked her how she felt about Budapest (“Hungry for goulash”). They planned to pack up after the last session with their client, Mrs. Melton, who, along with her husband, would be joining her sister in the Wonderland. He mused to himself that he chose Ms. March well, that she has come along with time and patience and the tonic he’s gotten her addicted to. They were excited because they’d never sent two clients down the rabbit hole so close together, but Dr. Bright pointed out how long they waited for the first one. He swallowed the pill that kept the tea from affecting him.
  • Eve set up the op at Central, and they headed over, planning to mentally block him since he could read minds. She suggested Peabody think about sex with McNab, figuring Dr. Bright would stop trying to read her if that was all he saw.
  • When they arrived at Dr. Bright’s townhouse, Dorbert Mouse, with all the telltale signs of being a funky junkie, didn’t want to admit them, but did when Eve threatened to get a warrant. He then kicked her in the shin and ran up the stairs. She had Peabody call the e-team in for backup, and ran after him. She saw a panel slide shut, found it, and propped it open with a white rabbit and oversized pocket watch, before climbing up the stairs and chasing Dormouse into a room with blue light and fog.
  • Ms. March, who was in the room, yelled “off with her head!” and Eve could see that the other woman had glazed and glassy eyes. Eve knocked March down with two quick left jabs, and then saw Dr. Bright fleeing the room. The blue fog was getting to her, making her imagine things, but when Peabody started towards the blue bottle labeled “Drink Me,” Eve shoved her away. She threatened to stun Bright unless he turned off the lights and colors, and Roarke shut off the controls. Callendar took the Mad Hatter away, although later Roarke said she dealt with the little one, meaning Dormouse.
  • Eve, having inhaled a lot of the drug, was pretty out of it, as was Mrs. Melton, so after the MTs examined her, they left the scene for the Illegals detectives and went back to Central.
  • Peabody was asleep and Eve drank water and took a blocker for the headache she got as the drug wore off. Roarke threatened to tell the bullpen Eve giggled unless she allowed Louise to examine her, and she agreed to it as long as she could have coffee.
  • Ms. March was Willow Bateman, who hooked up with Dr. B in New Orleans, around 2054. The mouse was Maurice Xavier, who had a number of bumps and some cage time for aggravated assault. Eve decided to wait on interviewing those two until they sobered up and became desperate for a hit.

Epilogue[]

  • Roarke uncovered three of Bright’s hidden accounts, all under different names, all leading back to his birth name.
  • Peabody and Eve interviewed him, with Eve provoking him by saying his talent was mediocre, and Peabody pretending to be hypnotized into silence by him. Eve read off the list of woman he induced into suicide, including locations. She asked him if he really thought nobody saw him entering Dupres’s apartment to drug her tea and steal names, and he said he didn’t do that - he sent Ms. March, which Eve deduced meant he sent Willow Bateman posing as a client to lace Dupres’s tea.
  • Eve pretended to be psychic, saying she saw the twelve million dollar bequest Darlene made to The Looking Glass Fund. Ravenwood said he wanted his hat, and Eve said his stupid hat wouldn’t keep her from seeing: “The Amazing Dallas sees all, knows all.”
  • Everybody headed home, except for Ravenwood, who was as mad as a hatter, so he will probably end up in a padded room.

Character List[]

List of Main Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Secondary Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Recurring Characters Appearing or Mentioned in this Book[]

List of Minor Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Peripheral Characters Appearing or Mentioned in this Book[]

YANNI[]

Footnotes[]

  1. ↑ Wonderment in Death, Epilogue
  2. ↑ “The frigid January wind whistled around [Darlene’s] ears” (Chapter 1); When Eve sees Roarke sitting on the steps in front of Henry Boyle’s townhouse, she wonders “how many people claim to have a spouse, a partner, a lover sitting out on a cold, windy January night waiting for them” (Chapter 4).
  3. ↑ Wonderment in Death, Chapter 5
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