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Their routine slowly evolved. On her twelve-hour workdays, she had to be up by five in the morning, so her bedtime was no later than nine. Several times over the next months, she’d wake up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, and he’d be gone. He always left a note on her nightstand.Got called out. Be back soon.
In the morning, he was back in bed with his back facing her, and when her alarm went off at five, she’d quickly shut it off so it didn’t bother him. Tiptoeing out of the room, she’d close the door and get dressed in the guest bathroom. Drinking morning coffee alone, she found the loneliness of living there more pronounced lately, with Alan spending more and more time away from home.
“Marriage is like that,” her mother warned Shelly when she confided in her. “Daddy was too busy to be a companion, so I filled my life with friends and interests.”
“We’re not married, though.”
“Well, be forewarned, then.”
It was not advice Shelly had wanted to hear. But she loved Alan and would do what she could to be satisfied and not constantly complain about being unsatisfied.
Chapter 5
Sooner than anticipated, reports began to come back from Lily Porter’s post. The toxicology report stated she had therapeutic levels of Ambien and lorazepam and trace amounts of alcohol in her blood. After sending the documents to police headquarters, Will called and talked to Henry Wong, even though it was Alan Stone’s case. Henry would relay the information to Alan.
“Was it enough to drown her, though?” Henry Wong asked Alan.
“What difference does it make? That’s not how she died,” Alan answered. “You saw the bullet hole between her eyes.”
“Right. I have more information. You want it now?”
“Sure,” Alan said, tapping the desk with a pen he kept weaving through his fingers.
“The vaginal and anal swabs came back positive for male DNA. They’ll have a profile soon.”
“Like a needle in a haystack. Where do I even start?”
“Dan Chua,” Henry said. “Ryan Maddox.”
“No way. That would be harassment. Maddox is incapable of even contemplating murder.”
“I didn’t say he murdered her. He could have just had sex with her.”
“Unlikely. Did you ever see his wife?”
“What does that have to do with it? There are lots of reasons a guy living with a beautiful woman has sex with another woman who might not live up to those standards.”
“Yeah, I got it, Henry. Thanks for the lesson.”
“My pleasure. But there’s one more thing,” Henry said, studying the printout in his hand.
“Hurry up, will you? Thanks to you, I’m investigating this fucking case on my own.”
“Sorry, buddy. I’m helping as much as I can. Don’t forget the Porters. Anyway, Lily was pregnant. Will said there were no overt physical signs, so it must be real early.”
Alan was afraid to look away, so he kept staring into Henry’s eyes.Pregnant.“If you don’t have anything else, I think I’ll get back to work.”
Tipping an imaginary hat, Henry walked back to his desk. He and Stone had never had much rapport working together, but what little they had was becoming less.
***
Holding the documents in his hands, Will reread the toxicology report. The doses of sleep aids and anti-anxiety medication were not life-threatening. The DNA report was back but only to say they’d recovered a male profile. It would be another week to get the complete profile to load up into CODIS. The pregnancy, now that was a shock. He tapped Laura’s number on his phone.
“Hey, babe. What’s going on?” she asked.
“I have information for you. Toxicology, a partial DNA profile, and something even more concerning.”
He read off the drug information to her first.
