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“Everything’s fine. We got the final payment from your client today. I put it in the firm’s account, since you weren’t here to deposit it yourself.”
“Good. That’s good.” God, she sounded like an idiot. “Anything else going on?”
“Yeah, a couple of things.” Sierra cleared her throat. “First of all, and most important, your divorce is final. I went to Judge Allen with the petition and the results of the lab work on your coffee. That convinced her to fast-track it. The process server never got hold of Jerry, but she said that didn’t matter. Not when you appeared to be in immediate jeopardy.”
To Alex’s surprise, the relief she felt at the news she was no longer married to Jerry was tinged with grief. For the failure of her marriage. For her poor judgment in marrying him in the first place. For the life she’d led before this week, which was stupid, because it wasn’t really a life at all. She’d been consumed with work, and nothing else had mattered. Because she couldn’t bear to look closely at her personal life.
“So you got the lab results back on the coffee in my mug?” she managed to say.
“I did. There was convallatoxin in your coffee. Not a huge amount, but more than enough to cause the symptoms you were experiencing.”
Alex frowned. “What’s convallatoxin?”
“It’s the poison in lily-of-the-valley.”
“What?” Alex’s hand tightened on her phone. “Lily-of-the-valley? Are you sure?”
“Positive. I asked the tech, and he assured me there was no doubt. And it causes the symptoms you’d been having. The nausea. The headaches. The clammy skin. The stomach pains.”
“Oh, my God. I kept lily-of-the-valley on my kitchen island.”
“The tech asked if you kept a vase of the flowers near the kitchen. I had no idea, but he said someone might have added some of the water to your coffee. The bitterness of the coffee would have masked the toxin’s taste.”
She’d loved looking at and smelling those fragrant white flowers. Every day, she’d cut new stems to replace the ones that had wilted. And Jerry had used her pleasure in that tiny vase of flowers to try and kill her. “That son of a bitch.”
Alex slid off the bed and paced the small room. She needed to move. Needed to work off some of this rage. “You’re on all my bank accounts, Sierra. I gave you a list of the account numbers, and I know you put them in your safe. Would you move my money to new accounts? In different banks? I don’t think Jerry got hold of any of the account numbers, but I don’t want to take any chances.”
“It’s already done. As soon as I got the lab reports, I moved all your money. Left fifty dollars in all the accounts and asked the banks to flag them and let me know if anyone removed the money. Nothing yet, but I’m betting Jerry will try.”
“I’m sure he will,” Alex said, curling her fingers into the phone. “According to… to someone in a position to know, Jerry’s in trouble with some very bad guys. He stole money from them. I’ll fill you in on all the details when I see you again.”
“Do you know when that will be? I know you’re not coming home right now. Any sign of that hit man Jerry hired?”
Alex flicked her gaze to Gideon, sitting on the other bed. Yeah, she and the hit man were cozy. “I think I’m safe for now. I suspect Jerry is after me, but if he is, the storm stopped him, too. I’ll be able to take off tomorrow morning. I’ll keep you posted. Let you know when I’m somewhere safe.”
She heard her partner breathing on the phone. Finally she said, “Don’t you think you should go to the police?”
“I tried that the night I overheard Jerry and the hit man. They didn’t believe me.”
“What about the FBI?”
“I might get the FBI involved.” Alex’s gaze touched on Gideon again, and found him watching her. She looked away quickly. “But right now, my only goal is to get somewhere safe. I’ll call you when I can, okay?”
“That’s fine.” Alex heard the worry in her friend’s voice. The fear. “Send me a text every day, will you? So I know you’re okay?”
“I will,” Alex promised. She turned toward the window and lowered her voice. “Thanks for all you’ve done, Sierra. I love you.”
“Love you too, partner. Stay safe.”
“I’ll try.” Swallowing, staring at the ring on her finger, Alex ended the call and tossed the phone onto the bed. Tugging the ring off her finger, she looked around the room for the garbage can. That was where this ring belonged.
Gideon touched her hand. “You can’t leave it here,” he said, his voice soft. “We can’t leave behind anything that could identify us. Is that ring engraved?”
She nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat.
He held out her hand. “Want me to hold onto it so you don’t have to think about it?”
She shook her head slowly. “No. It’s my mistake. My mess. My job to clean it up.” She uncurled her fingers and stared at the ring for a long moment. It was a symbol of her failure. Of ignoring her misgivings. Ignoring her intuition. She shouldn’t have married Jerry, but it had been easy. She hadn’t had to put any effort into the relationship, because he hadn’t, either. They’d drifted along, living separate lives, for a long time.
She opened her purse and dropped the ring into a pocket. Pulled the zipper.
Her marriage had been safe. But maybe safe wasn’t the way to go in a relationship. Maybe you had to take risks. Take chances. Maybe you had to be all in if you wanted a relationship to last.
Because what she’d done with Jerry sure as hell hadn’t worked.
She stared at the pocket that held her wedding ring, unaware that tears dripped down her face until Gideon caught one on his finger.
