Missing Pieces(38)
“I’ve got it,” she said, shoving the items back into her purse and trying to memorize the words from the toxicology report—sodium fluoroacetate. She vaguely remembered coming across them somewhere else, but couldn’t quite recall where.
She got to her feet and offered a rushed goodbye to the sheriff. She hurried down the hallway, back to the lobby, eager to process the information she had uncovered. Why would the medical examiner order a toxicology report for Julia, who supposedly died due to a blow to the head? The questions that Gilmore had asked her had very little to do with the events that led up to Julia’s fall. Which in hindsight made sense. Sarah and Jack weren’t even in the state when Julia fell, so it was logical for the sheriff to focus on what happened at the hospital after they had arrived.
Sarah had a pesky feeling that something more may have occurred in the hospital room the day Julia died. In her limited worldview based on Forensic Files and Dateline, toxicology reports usually meant poison. Did Amy poison Julia? It also meant that everyone who had stepped inside Julia’s hospital room was a suspect. Including Jack.
9
SARAH RETURNED TO the lobby to find Dean flicking through an outdated Field and Stream magazine and Hal dozing. Celia was standing, arms crossed, looking out the window. Jack still hadn’t returned from his walk.
“The sheriff wants to talk to you next, Dean,” Sarah said.
“What did he ask you about?” Dean questioned.
Sarah wasn’t sure how she should respond. Whether Gilmore said it out loud or not, they were now all suspects in Julia’s death. On the other hand, Gilmore hadn’t instructed Sarah to keep the questions he asked her quiet. “He just asked me about what happened at the hospital. He wanted to know if I was aware of any family quarrels. I told him I wasn’t.”
“But you told him about how crazy Amy was acting at the hospital, right?” Dean asked, glaring up at her.
“I told him that Amy was upset,” Sarah explained, taken aback by Dean’s irritation with her.
“Upset?” Dean came to his feet and angrily tossed his magazine aside. “Amy wasn’t upset, she was out of her mind.”
Sarah held back a sharp retort. She tried to remember that Dean had just lost his mother unexpectedly and violently. Of course he wanted everyone to cooperate with the investigation and answer all questions as thoroughly as possible.
“I’ll tell him myself,” Dean snapped before stalking back to the sheriff’s office.
Sarah was anxious to learn more about the drug mentioned in the toxicology report—sodium fluoroacetate. Could Amy really have poisoned her aunt? Sarah knew she should just step back and let the sheriff do his job, but she was tired of all the secrets that were floating around Jack and his family. She felt as if all these secrets had settled into the bones of her marriage, eroding what she knew to be true and good into something almost unrecognizable.
“I’m going to go outside and get some fresh air for a few minutes. Wait for Jack,” Sarah told Celia, who nodded distractedly and turned back to the window. Hal was still dozing in his chair, snoring softly.
Sarah pushed through the glass doors that led to the parking lot. The sky was clear and the midmorning sun felt good on her skin. She shielded her eyes from the glare of the rays and surveyed the street for any sign of Jack. He was nowhere to be seen. She settled onto a wrought-iron bench situated beneath a beech tree.
Sarah pulled out her phone, searched sodium fluoroacetate and quickly learned it was nasty stuff. The rodenticide, also known as 1080, was outlawed in the late ’80s in all but a handful of western states. Sarah felt a chill run through her; 1080 was a term she was familiar with from growing up in Montana. Sarah knew that 1080 was tightly regulated in her home state and only allowed for use in livestock collars that protected sheep and goats from coyotes.
Sarah jumped to where the symptoms of poisoning were listed: vomiting, abdominal pain, seizures, ventricular arrhythmia. Sarah wished she would have gotten a better look at the toxicology report in the sheriff’s office. Did the sheriff find the substance at the hospital or at Amy’s house?
It was clear to Sarah that this was no longer the case of an elderly woman accidentally falling down the stairs or even a crime where in anger someone caused Julia’s fall. This, if the sheriff’s suspicions were correct, was cold-blooded murder.
A shadow passed over Sarah and she glanced up from her phone to find Margaret Dooley standing over her. Her bland brown sheriff’s department uniform was incongruous with her teased red hair and bright makeup. “Sarah,” she said, “what are you doing out here?”
“The sheriff wanted to talk to all of us about Julia. I’m done with my interview and just waiting for everyone else.”
Margaret squeezed in next to Sarah on the bench, setting her large leopard-print purse between the two of them. “Is Amy still here?”
“As far as I’m aware. Do you know if she’s been formally charged with anything? We haven’t been able to talk to her yet and from what I’ve heard she’s refusing a lawyer.”
Margaret pursed her lips together and shook her head. “That Amy. She doesn’t make things easy for herself, does she?”
“Were Jack and Amy as serious when they were little as they are now?” Sarah asked wistfully.
“Oh, no. They were silly just like all kids. Probably because Mrs. Tierney was so much fun. She was always singing and playing with the kids. I’d come over and she’d be sitting at the kitchen table coloring with them or playing Chutes and Ladders. She’d create these scavenger hunts for them—they’d go outside with a list of things to find, things like a bird’s feather or robin egg’s shell or spider’s web.