Page 167 of Trust No One

“I went out for drinks with Maria and several nurses about two months ago. A coworker’s birthday. We all had a few too many drinks. The Hale estate came up.”

“Why?”

“Raine’s husband, Ken, had visited the property with a developer.”

“Really? How’d you know?”

She shrugged. “Small town. Word gets around.”

Ken hadn’t bothered to share. And I’d bet money he hadn’t told Raine. “And this got back to Maria?”

“I asked her about it. A big project like that could mean real jobs in the area. I thought she might know. She didn’t. And it made her mad. She never understood how Raine could walk away from the Hale estate. Said the trust was wasted on the wrong cousin.”

“Did Maria say anything else about Raine?”

“No. She regretted sharing what she had. She said as much the next time we saw each other at work.” Mrs. Brown shook her head. “Maria was one of my best nurses. She was a great mother. And I know she cared about her husband. She wasn’t a bad person.”

Good people did bad things. Bad people did good things. “Thank you for your thoughts.”

“Sure.”

As I left the hospital, I called Meg.

“Agent Blackwood.” Clipped, businesslike.

“You collected all the medications in the Durant and Stocker houses, correct?”

“All bagged and tagged. Ibuprofen, cold medicine, children’s aspirin, and supplements—nothing unusual.”

“Have you tested any of them?”

“We’ve dusted all the bottles and pulled prints. No prints that shouldn’t be there.”

“All three of our victims died within five days of each other.”

Who had poisoned them? “Were there a lot of pills left in each bottle?”

“A few. Most were nearly empty. Three to five pills each.”

“Tell the lab to test every tablet.”

A beat. “Cyanide in the medicine bottles—quiet, patient. The perfect way to kill.”

Gabe had motive. A wife pressuring him to end an affair. A girlfriend who’d set fire to the attic while his daughter was present.

“I have another bit of information,” Meg said.

“Okay.”

“Remember me mentioning I had to collect evidence on a burned-out car in Albemarle County?”

“Vaguely.”

“It belonged to Amy Stocker.”

“Really?”

“It was abandoned in a field and set on fire.”