Page 82 of Two Kinds of Stranger

The world had fallen on Elly Parker hard.

Bloch led her to the conference room. Kate exchanged a look with me.

We had no choice but to tell Elly what we had learned. We didn’t know how she would react. There was no way to know until it hit her. I didn’t want to lay this on her. Not now. She had been through trauma after trauma, and this just might tip her over the edge. But, at the same time, I had to save her.Wehad to save her. That meant we had to do our jobs, even the parts that are most difficult for our clients.

We piled into the conference room, and sat around the table, Elly at the head of it. Denise brought her some herbal tea, and she made a point of thanking Denise, reaching for her arm and placing her hand gently upon it. When the world is hell, any act of kindness, no matter how small, helps put out some of those fires.

‘Elly, we’ve had some discovery from the prosecution and some results back from our own labs. There’s. . .’ began Kate, and paused.

Elly held her mug with both hands, her red, tortured eyes fixed on Kate. Elly was smart, she knew we were gathered here to tell her hard truths, the battle for her life that she now faced. None of us were smiling. I’m sure it felt to her as if we were there to help her plan her funeral.

‘This isn’t going to be easy to hear, and it’s not easy to say. . .’ said Kate.

Elly’s gaze didn’t waver from Kate.

‘It’s okay, Kate. I can. . .I. . .I. . .can take it. I need to hear this,’ said Elly, her voice breaking, but behind the fear choking her there was something else. I suspected Elly Parker had a great deal of courage.

We were about to find out.

‘I’m just going to say it,’ said Kate. ‘James and Harriet were poisoned.’

At the word ‘poison’, you could almost see it hit Elly physically. Her shoulders bowed, her chest caved and her chin dropped, like she’d taken a punch to the solar plexus.

‘We got the reports from the medical examiner and we analyzed some staining on your bedroom floor. Harriet vomited and it wasn’t cleaned up. We tested it and found a substance called tetrahydrozoline. It was also found in toxicology tests carried out postmortem. This poison is something called a vasoconstrictor. It causes blood vessels to constrict, stopping blood flow and causing other problems. Both Harriet and James died of cardiac arrest. . .’

Elly didn’t move. Didn’t react. She held on to the mug as if her life depended on it and she never broke eye contact with Kate. The only change was the small drip of tears falling into her herbal tea.

‘Elly, we believe you were given the same substance.’

A small tremor began in her shoulders. Elly was shaking.

‘I’ve never heard of this tetra-whatever-you-call-it, before.’

Kate leaned back in her chair, and looked to Harry. He nodded, taking out his cell phone. Harry had a way of speaking that most people found soothing. Something in his deep, baritone voice carried empathy and understanding and compassion.

‘We know you didn’t poison your best friend or your husband. We damn sure know you didn’t poison yourself, but we have a problem, Elly,’ said Harry, flipping round his phone. ‘The prosecutor is going to show this to the jury. It’s one of your videos where you go to the drug store to buy beauty products. See this. . .’ He flicked his finger across the screen, searching for a particular point in time in the video.

‘You bought a bottle of Visine eye drops. The main ingredient in these drops is tetrahydrozoline. It’s a vasoconstrictor–gets rid of those little red blood vessels in the eyeballs. But if youhave more than a few drops of this, and you take it orally, it can be very serious. It can stop the blood flow around the heart. It can cause a heart attack. This video is a problem. Essentially, the prosecutor can show the jury you going out andbuyingthe poison, because you recorded yourself doing it and posted it on social media.’

Elly lifted her hands to her face. The mug tilted over, spilling tea on the conference table. Elly’s eyes were wide with shock. A small pool of tea spread across the table. Denise brought over a napkin and wiped it clean. She put a hand on Elly’s back and told her it was going to be okay, before she went back to her desk and manned the phones.

‘I didn’t. . .I didn’t. . .’ said Elly.

‘We know,’ I said. ‘Now we have a story to tell the jury in your defense. Someone has been watching you, Elly. Our guess is someone saw your viral video–the one where you discovered James in bed with Harriet. They followed the story in the news. Your heartbreak. Your pain. They used that against you. This stranger knew that if anything happened to James or Harriet, then there’s no one on the planet with more motive to do them harm than you. This stranger went through your entire life on social media and they saw this video of you going to the drug store. This individual is very sick and very smart. They knew Visine in high doses was poisonous. Now they know if James and Harriet get tetrahydrozoline poisoning, you are the number-one suspect, and the DA can prove you had access to it. The last part of the plan was to target you. To give you the poison as well and make it look like you poisoned your husband and his mistress in a desperate act of revenge and then took your own life. We think that was his play. Maybe, after you died in that apartment, he would have had access to your cell phone and social media. He could’ve written a suicide note, posted it on your socials. He kills three people, and the police already have a story ready-made forhow it all happened. The police wouldn’t look for anyone else if it’s a murder-suicide pact.’

‘Oh my God, this man was so. . .so convincing. I felt sorry for him at first. And he was so charming. Jesus Christ, what am I going to do?’

‘You have to trust us,’ said Kate. ‘We have a plan. We’re going to find this man. We’re going to find Joe Novak, the man who helped you. We can put a living witness on the stand. . .’

‘What about his apartment?’

Bloch said, ‘We checked with the building supervisor. This apartment was let out on Airbnb. The person paid with a credit card in a false name. They paid for a month and used fake credentials. There are no security cams in the building. We’ve tried to get hold of some of the neighbors. We spoke to the four apartment owners on the third floor and none of them saw this man. I’m trying to get in touch with the owner to see if he can let us take a look inside. Our guess is this man cleaned up well before he left, but we’ll check it all the same.’

‘Elly, this is a difficult question,’ I said, ‘and I don’t want to upset you, but I have to ask. Anything we can do to try and trace this man is important. It’s vital for your defense that we find him. To do that we have to work on what we know, and then think backwards. We know that James and Harriet were poisoned with large amounts of Visine drops. From the medical examiner’s report there are no signs of any kind of violence having occurred. Neither James, nor Harriet, have any bruising of any kind. So they were not held and forced to drink this stuff. Now I know this is an awful thing to have to imagine, but we need to know. How do you suppose he might have gotten the poison into their system?’

Elly wiped the tears from her face, folded her arms and thought about it.

‘I don’t know. I mean, my husband and my best friend had a whole secret life together that I knew nothing about. I just don’t know.’