Page 87 of Fifty-Fifty

Blood and organs were tested. These are the results. I’m not obliged to share them with you, but I figure you and Flynn should at least have a fair fight.’

Kate took the document, flicked through to the conclusion.

‘What is Haloperidol?’ she asked. Traces had been found in Frank Avellino’s liver, brain and blood.

‘You have to figure that out for yourself. We’re tearing apart the property now, looking for any trace of it. What you should really be pondering is how Flynn knew to test for it when we didn’t, and why it was present in Avellino’s

system at all. My guess is the answers can’t be good for your client, Miss Brooks.’

Kate handed the report to Bloch as Dreyer walked away.

Bloch flicked through the pages, read the conclusion and handed the document back to Kate in under a minute. In that time, Kate had accessed her phone’s Google search facility and was looking for an academic article on Haloperidol – something, anything more reliable than Wikipedia.

‘You don’t need to search it,’ said Bloch. ‘It’s a pacifier. An old girlfriend of mine used to work in a geriatric care home in Bay City. Said most of her job was cleaning up shit. In Bay City they liked to keep the patients docile. Liquid Haloperidol in their oatmeal did the trick.’

‘It’s an antipsychotic. Jesus, they give that to old people?’

‘They used to in Bay City,’ she said.

‘And they don’t anymore?’

‘Not after I heard about it. I paid a visit to the care manager. Seems like most of their stock of Haloperidol was accidentally poured down a drain in the middle of the night. Same night that the manager had a nasty fall on a torn piece of carpet and broke both of her arms.’

Kate reminded herself how glad she was to count Bloch as a friend. She would never want her as an enemy.

‘Why was Frank Avellino taking it? There’s no mention of it in his medical records?’ said Kate. There was something in that statement that made her think

more. Like she was on the precipice of something key to the whole case. Bloch

got there before her.

‘Maybe Frank didn’t know he was taking it,’ said Bloch.

Alexandra’s head shot up from the desk as soon as Kate returned.

‘What did he want?’ asked Alexandra.

Kate brandished the document, let it fall on the desk dramatically.

‘It’s a toxicology report. It says your father had large amounts of a drug in his system when he was murdered – Haloperidol. You ever heard of it?’

Alexandra’s shoulders relaxed, her expression changed. Where she had been tense and worried before Kate returned, she now had a very different aspect. Her lips set in something like determination – a fire lit behind her eyes – she said, ‘Yes, I’ve heard of it. I’ve known about it for years. My sister used to take it when she was young.’

TWENTY-EIGHT

EDDIE

I found a bathroom in the Center Street Courthouse that didn’t smell like Marlon Brando’s pants in Apocalypse Now. The faucet ran cold after a few seconds, and I splashed water on my face and looked in the cracked mirror above the basin.

It was time to flip the switch.

When you’re a trial attorney, you have people who rely on you. Lots of people. In a trial, there’s one person who has placed their whole life in your hands. You can’t let your own shit get in the way. You have to find a way of turning it off so you can do your job. Your kid is sick – flip the switch. The bank just took away your house – flip the switch. You’re sick, depressed and an alcoholic with a dark grief that’s eating through your bones – flip the goddamn switch.

You have to be able to shut all of that shit out. Get rid of it. Put your head in the game. If you don’t, you’ll never forgive yourself and your client sure as hell won’t forgive you.

I blew out my cheeks, dried my face with a paper towel and flipped the switch.

It was the first day of trial. My priority was to stop it – kick the judge off the case and put the hearing back a few months. I needed some time to get my head