Drop Dead Gorgeous(107)
Relief washes through him visibly, and suddenly, I see the young teen who came to Grandma and Grandpa with a chip on his shoulder and fear in his veins. He’s grown up so much and is an amazing man now, but deep inside, he’s still that boy who doesn’t want to get left again.
“Come here.” I hold my arms out wide, and he falls into me, hugging me tight.
“Zoey, I thought . . .” he whispers into my hair.
“I know, but I’m okay. We’re okay.”
This time he believes me, and the boyish core disappears to be replaced by the cocky swagger I’m used to. “Did they catch the guy who did this? I’m gonna kill him.”
His bluster is appreciated but unneeded as Blake fills Jacob in with zero finesse. “He’s dead. Alver shot him.”
For someone who’s known death, lives it and breathes it, that should be easy to hear. Death is as much a part of life as . . . life. But I’m having a hard time reconciling the Sebastian who played with the dogs at the dog park, ruffling their fur and baby talking them, with the man who backhanded me and poisoned the Hornes. I think it will take me time, and maybe a little therapy, to make that connection stick.
Jacob is still young, at an age where death doesn’t have that same seriousness to him. “Well, let’s do some zombie voodoo shit and bring that fucker back to life so I can kill him again. I want to do it myself.”
Blake seems to agree because he fist-bumps Jacob like they’re old bros planning a night out bowling and not a séance-slash-murder party.
“How’s Yvette?” I ask, attempting to bring us back to the here and now, not a deadly fantasy that brings back flashes of Sebastian lying in a pool of blood in the grass where I thought I was going to be the one to die.
Blake, who’s been handling everything like a pro, asks the nurse, who’s been hovering, probably hoping for some fresh gossip. “Any updates on Yvette?”
The nurse startles like he thought we didn’t know he was there. “I’ll check, but I know the doctor said treatment for the heavy metal poisoning was going to take a while.”
Jacob squeezes my hand suddenly, and I pat his back. “Not me. Sebastian was poisoning both Richard and Yvette. I guess he had some master scheme, planned to kill them both and inherit the dog and the money. He just wanted me to change the cause of death.”
Jacob’s brows jump together. Incredulously, he asks, “That was the grand plan in kidnapping you? Change the cause of death and presto, magic-o, there’d be no more questions? Like no one would notice or care that you’d been kidnapped?”
I shrug. “He didn’t exactly strike me as a master schemer.”
That’s being overly kind. Sebastian seemed like a nice guy with a get-rich-quick scheme that he just couldn’t let go of, no matter how deep the water got or how quickly he was drowning.
Blake adds, “It took Barnes a single phone call to find out that Sebastian bought the heavy metal-laden supplements with his own credit card. The police already searched his place too, and that’s not all they found.”
“What?” I haven’t heard this part yet. Maybe Blake found out when I closed my eyes for a quick medicine-induced nap that had turned into an hour-long snooze?
Blake tells me and Jacob, “Sebastian had a ‘vision board’ with pictures of Rusty, expensive car catalogs, and fancy house listings. Plus, a whole cabinet of vitamins, smoothies, supplements, and more. They had the medical examiner check them out one by one. She didn’t find anything other than the online supplement . . . at first. But then she noticed something. Sebastian’s patio backed up to the neighbor’s patio, and the neighbor had a bunch of plants and flowers. Including oleander. Does that mean anything to you?”
Blake’s question triggers me to search my mental files for something from my classes or even from trivia tidbits I know, but I come up empty. Shaking my head, I’m excited to learn something new, something that might help me better treat the DBs who pass through my morgue.
“Oleander is majorly poisonous, like one leaf or flower can kill a human in minutes.”
“Richard?” I guess.
“Yeah, it’s too late to know for sure, but it seems likely,” Blake postulates. “I guess Sebastian got impatient when the heavy metal wasn’t working fast enough? Either way, Richard’s death will be ruled foul play.”
I swallow thickly. “I guess Everlife got their way after all.”
I know deep down that Blake wasn’t using me. I think I always knew that. But there are also so many doubts and insecurities, from a lifetime of loss and bullying, covering that core of knowledge that it’s hard to stand confident in it.
Blake’s eyes are soft, full of patient kindness as he reassures me. “Zo, I don’t care about Everlife’s payouts, but Yvette will get the claim money because she didn’t kill Richard. The exemptions are suicide and murder by beneficiary.”
“Oh.” That’s good information and will help Yvette deal with her loss, but it’s not what’s looming at the forefront of my mind and Blake knows it.
“I was doing my job, like you were doing your job, and on the stand, I tried to protect you as much as I could.”
“I know,” I say softly, my chin dropping when his brow raises. He doesn’t believe that I trust him, not yet, but I earned that when I ran out of the courtroom and didn’t talk to Blake because I was hurt and mad.