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Adam Mite

Lisa Gray

    Suzy died the day Adam proposed.
    She’d been so happy. She’d called me from her cell-phone from the bathroom of the restaurant.
    “Adam’s proposed!” she said. “It was so romantic! We were having dinner and he offered me a glass of champagne. And there it was. The ring! The very one I wanted. The one I saw. A year ago. In the jeweller’s window. Lying at the bottom of the champagne glass!”
    Romantic? Adam? It was news to me. But I guess everyone can change.
    Suzy had certainly changed from the day she had met Adam.
    And Adam?
    Adam had had a complete metamorphosis.
    I remember that day a year ago when she saw the ring for the first time. Had Adam bought it then for her?
    And kept it?
    Maybe he was more romantic than I’d thought.
    “Do you think Adam might buy it for me?” Suzy had said.
    Like hell he will! I’d thought, watching Adam’s disappearing back slither like a snake into the Armani shop in the mall. Adam only thought of himself. Selfish. A spendthrift. And vain. Suzy had told me how he spent hours in the shower every day pampering himself.
    “For my birthday?”
    She was gazing into the window of an expensive jeweller’s. Pointing at an unusual ring in the window. It wasn’t an engagement ring.
    I guess Suzy’s given up on looking at them, I thought. The fact Adam might propose was as unlikely as him buying that ring in the window.
    Poor Suzy. All she wanted was a ring! A sign of commitment.
     I knew how she loved gems. How she had become addicted to the jewellery shopping channel. How she had every precious and semi-precious stone under the sun. Not for acquisitiveness. Nor greed nor covetousness. But because she had a genuine love for gemstones and their properties.
    “You might have to drop a hint or two,” I’d said, as tactfully as I could.
    “Oh, I have to have it!” said Suzy. “I don’t have that one.”
    She had every other one, I thought. Suzy had built up a considerable collection.
    I’m the jealous type. Scorpios are. But I’m more artistic. That’s why I work in Interior Design. I wasn’t jealous of Suzy’s collection. She couldn’t help it. She was a Cancerian. They collect anything. Besides which, Suzy and I are sisters. Both water signs. Both deep feeling. We love one another.
    “Let’s go in and take a look at it!” she’d enthused.
    I knew Adam wouldn’t even miss us. He’d be too busy spending hundreds.
    “It’s a very unusual stone,” the jeweller had said.
    I didn’t tell Suzy. But it wasn’t my kind of colour. I prefer green.
    “Oh, I love unusual stones,” Suzy had said with her usual infectious laugh. “What is it?”
    “It’s Adamite,” said the jeweller.
    “Did you hear that? It’s meant!” screamed Suzy.
    The couple standing next to us looked shocked at such shouting.
     “You see, my boyfriend’s called Adam,” said Suzy to the jeweller, as if by way of explanation for her unrestrained excitement. “And I’m hoping he might————————.”
    She tailed off. But the jeweller had got the drift.
    “You tell him about it!” he said,” grinning, “Sometimes all a man needs is a little push in the right direction.”
    “Oh, I will. I will,” she’d said.
    And she did.
    But Adam wasn’t convinced. Suzy tried explaining her love of gemstones to Adam. He still wasn’t convinced. That’s why she lent him the book. The gemstone book. I think she thought if he knew a bit more about gemstones he’d come around.
    So he had.
    Too late.
    I didn’t suspect Adam at first. He was so distraught at Suzy’s death. Besides which the coroner had come up with a cause of accidental death. Suzy had apparently ingested arsenic accidentally from the lime she’d been spreading on her garden. Gardening was her second hobby. Gardening and gemstones.
    And yet I found it hard to believe that Suzy wouldn’t have washed her hands after handling any potentially toxic substance.
    It was only after the will was read that I started to have any doubt.
    She’d left her gem collection to Adam.
    Even since that day we’d seen the Adamite ring, Suzy’s collection had grown considerably. Encouraged by Adam who, it seemed, had found a new interest in gemstones.
    And since when had Suzy made a will?
    I guess Adam thought I was jealous. Even though Suzy had left the contents of her house to me.
    “I can’t believe it!” he said. “I don’t want anything. Just my memories of Suzy. I can’t believe Suzy would have done such a thing!”
    I believed him. He looked so distraught. So a considerable fortune was involved. What was money compared to the loss of a sister? And Adam had almost been my brother.
    Maybe it was time I started treating him that way.
    “I want you to have a keepsake to remember Suzy by,” Adam said, a few days after the will had been read. Come round and pick out one of the gemstones.”
    I could see already death had changed Adam.
    So I did. I picked out the Adamite ring. It would always remind me of Suzy.
    I guess I shouldn’t have.
    Adam looked apologetic.
    “Anything but that one,” he said. “It was our engagement ring. It has a sentimental attachment.”
    “Of course,” I said. “It was insensitive of me.”
    So I picked out a large greenish one with pretty markings.
    Adam seemed happy.
    I didn’t see him for a few weeks after that. Not till I summoned up the courage to clear out Suzy’s house. I’d packed up most of her things in boxes for charity when I found it stuffed down the side of the sofa.
    Suzy’s gem book.
    I was leafing through the pages idly wondering why Suzy had found gemstones so fascinating when Adam walked in.
    The smile on his face crumpled like cellophane when he saw what I was holding.
    “My book!” he said, recovering somewhat. “You’ve found it!”
    “Your book!” I said startled.
    I did sound pettish. But Adam’s covetousness annoyed me somehow. He had her whole gemstone collection. What could he want with her book?
     “It’s Suzy’s book!”
    “Yes—————————,” Adam’s voice paused momentarily, as if weighing his words.
    “—————————————but Suzy lent it to me.”
    “But it’s still Suzy’s book,” I said.
    My pettishness showed no pity.
    “Yes. I guess so,” he conceded, somewhat reluctantly.
    “And she did leave the contents of her house to me?”
    His eyes widened in surprise at my assertiveness.
    But I didn’t give him a chance to reply.
    “And, as this book is part of the contents, I’ll be keeping it.”
    He wasn’t about to admit defeat.
    “But you’re not interested in gemstones!” he protested, somewhat too vehemently.
    For God’s sake it’s only a book! I said to myself. Why the hell would he want it?
    “My sister was. And it’ll remind me of my sister,” I replied.
     He seemed to realise he’d gone too far.
    “Sorry!” he said. “Of course it’s yours. We all need something to remember her by.”
    I’d never have read it normally. I’m not into gemstones. Though I do like books. Being the artistic type. I guess I became suspicious after Adam left. Maybe Suzy had left something in it.
    But I didn’t find anything.
    So what was all the fuss about?
    I was about to discard the book but something changed my mind.
    I started reading. It was in alphabetical order.
    I only got as far as A.
    Then I knew why Adam had wanted the book.
    Suzy had died of arsenic poisoning all right. But not from a lime fertiliser.
    From her engagement ring.
    That’s why Adam had put it in her champagne glass. How long had it lain there spreading its toxic substance through the liquid? Or had Adam already scraped some off the stone and added it to her glass? I would never know.
    But Adam knew. That’s why he’d become interested in gemstones. Why he’d taken so long to propose. Why he got Suzy to make a will. While he planned to inherit her gemstones.
    Adam had murdered Suzy. That’s why he’d wanted the gemstone book. He’d been frightened I would find out.
    Ice-cold anger flowed through my veins.
    I’d go to the police. I’d tell them what I’d found out. He wouldn’t get away with it.
    But deep down I knew what they’d say. Jealous older sister.
    And I had no proof. Adam had probably conveniently lost the ring anyhow.
    That’s when I made my plans.
    It involved a lot of reading. And I became quite a collector. Like Suzy. It was my way of remembering her. When everyone else had forgotten.
    That’s how a year passed.
    Adam moved on. Everyone sympathised with him. They said it was right when he sold his small apartment on the seamier side of town and moved into a penthouse apartment downtown. And he had a new partner. Not live-in. But going that way. A fresh start for him, everyone said. No old memories. no one questioned how he’d funded it. But I knew. He’d sold some of Suzy’s gem collection.
    And me. Everyone felt sorry for me. Said I’d never got over the death of my sister. Wasn’t it sad how I became a bit of a recluse and hoarded things?
    It was especially hard on the anniversary of Suzy’s death.
    That’s when I decided I had to get out more. It was my time to move on.
    I offered to design Adam’s apartment for him.
    He looked surprised initially at my offer. I guess he thought I’d be upset over his new partner. But then I think he realised my desire to move on so he agreed.
    Adam and his new partner did not have too many stipulations. She was a compliant, young, inexperienced girl from a well-to-do background used to getting things done for her. It crossed my mind that Adam might————————————.
    Should I warn her?
     I laughed. I could almost hear her reaction. Deranged. Jealous. Vengeful. And would she take any notice?
    I buried myself in the plans for the new apartment. Adam and his new partner had few stipulations.
    “Apart from pink in the bathroom,” he said. “No way.”
    I’d thought more in the regions of green.
    The painters were surprised at my hands-on approach. They were used to designers standing back and supervising. Not me.
     I wanted everything to be perfect. I wanted Adam to appreciate the effort I was putting in.
    “No, not that shade of green,” I said, when they showed me the colour for the bathroom. “I’ll mix it myself. I know what I want.”
    I picked well. Adam and his new partner were delighted with the colour and the rest of the apartment.
    “I just needed a little push in the right direction,” I said when Adam and the girl expressed their thanks.
    I didn’t see Adam again. But I saw the girl. She turned up unexpectedly at my house some little time after.
    I was surprised to see her.
    I hadn’t expected to see either of them again.
    She looked upset. Her face pale. Old even.
    She knew I was surprised.
    “I just thought I’d better tell you,” she said. “in case you don’t see the announcement in the paper.”
    “Announcement?” I queried.
    A tear escaped from the corner of her eye and trickled reluctantly down her face.
    “Adam died yesterday!” she said in a strangled sob.
    “Died!” I repeated, suitably shocked.
    “In the shower!” she said. Like no one should die there. “The day they told him he had cancer. There were traces of arsenic in his blood. They found insecticide under the sink in his apartment. They think he ingested some because he couldn’t deal with the fact he had cancer.”
    “In the shower!” I repeated.
    The girl nodded.
    “Do you think Adam might have wanted to die there? I guess you know how vain he was. He used to spend hours in there.”
    Oh, I knew all right. I’d depended on it. When I mixed the green paint. The paint that had copious amounts of malachite in it. Malachite. I’d spent nights grinding the gem stone down to a fine powder and mixing it into the paint. I knew the copper aceto arsenite in the paint on the bathroom wall of Adam’s apartment would interact with the constantly damp walls from Adam’s extended showers. And Adam would inhale the toxic arsenic. And I had been the one who had left the insecticide under the sink telling Adam it would keep the insects away. Constant exposure to the arsenic would have caused the cancer. And his death.
    It was what I’d planned.
    “Adam might,” I said. “We all want to die happy.”
    “He was always happy in the shower,” she said. “But particularly since you redesigned his bathroom. You could hear his happiness in his singing.”
    I felt guilty.
    She paused and looked up.
    “You’ll be at the funeral on Saturday,” she said.
    “Of course,” I said.
    I wouldn’t miss it.
    “I’d like to give you something. For Adam. Something he really wanted,” I said.
    “Depending what it is, maybe we could arrange for it to go into the coffin,” said the girl. “Particularly if it was something he really wanted.”
    I reached down the side of the sofa and pulled it out.
    “We had a bit of a disagreement about it and I feel really bad about it. He always wanted this. You know how he loved gemstones.”
    “Oh, yes. He’s still got quite a collection. He always joked he’d leave them to me.”
    I’m sure he had. Along with the apartment.
    “But I’d feel really bad if he had,” she added. “After all they were your sister’s collection. If I did inherit them, I’d want you to have them.”
    She’d surprised me. But then people have a habit of doing that. I even surprise myself sometimes.
    “That’s so thoughtful of you,” I said, grasping the girl’s hand warmly, resisting the impulse to hug her.
    The girl smiled.
    “If you do that, I’m going to do something for you,” I said.
    “No, no, I won’t hear of it,” said the girl.
    “I insist,” I said. “I’m sure Adam will have left you his apartment. But you won’t want it as it is. Old memories, you know. I’ll re-design the entire thing for you. I know Suzy would approve.”
    “Do you think Adam might?” said the girl, a tear in her eye.
    I felt sorry for the girl. I knew she’d been spared but she’d obviously been fond of him.
    I handed her Suzy’s gem book. Suzy’s engagement ring on my right hand shone lustrously.
    “Adam Mite,” I said.



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