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Though it seemed obvious, Celia still took her time with the body before going over the room, collecting anything she thought might be of interest. Her mind went to the two drugging incidents that she knew of, and she realized she might have to talk to Niall Davis at some point to find out why he’d let Bridgette go and what else he knew about the nanny. She still had notes on the younger woman from the first case that she’d have a look at once back at the station.
“You don’t think Gil or Robbie…” Pete started to ask as he, too, walked around the room, looking for anything that might be of use.
“I’d hate to think it, but we’re going to have to question them when we’re done here. Call Andy; he needs to look at Branson’s computer. I want that done first thing so we can square it away. I need to go talk to Mrs. West.”
Celia found the woman in her husband’s office downstairs, still looking like she’d seen a ghost. “Mrs. West, how are you feeling? I need to ask you a few questions about what happened here this evening.” The woman’s hand shook as she ran it through her salt and pepper hair. Her husband sat on the arm of her chair, trying to console her as best he could, but it was no use.
“I went up there to see if my ass of a husband was there, with her.” She glared at the man in question, who huffed.
“I keep telling you…”
“Why did you think your husband was in her room?”
“Because every night, as soon she finishes her shift, he disappears.”
“I told you, Inez, I have to do the checkout after each shift.”
“That’s not how you used to do it before. Always you’d take care of that in the office while they were there, and it never took you that long. Now, you seem to be gone for at least an hour, and it’s always as soon as she leaves to go upstairs.”
Mr. West’s face had gone beet red, and he seemed exasperated with his wife’s accusations.
“And was he there when you went up?”
“No, no, he wasn’t. The door was slightly open, so I put my ear against it to see if I could hear anything, hear them talking so I could catch them in the act. Instead, I heard what sounded like gurgling. I couldn’t place the sound; then I thought maybe it was some kind of sex thing. That’s when I pushed the door and saw her…” She started breathing hard and clutching at her throat, her eyes staring as if seeing it again.
Ryan sat up in the hospital bed, trying to make sense of what the doctor was asking him. The older gentleman had entered the room less than five minutes ago and asked the cop on watch to step out of the room while he talked with his patient. “Have you traveled outside of the country in the last year or so?”
“No, why are you asking me that?”
Ryan was starting to think that maybe he had indeed caught the bug though he didn’t have any of the symptoms, other than passing out, that is. He felt a bit strange, but it was more like the way he felt when he tried giving up caffeine that one time, nothing too serious. “Well, I did go out of state a few weeks ago, but that was just a few states over.”
The doctor shook his head, looking bemused. “What about online ordering? Have you ordered any exotic foods or spices lately?” Now it was Ryan’s turn to look confused since he didn’t see what any of that had to do with what was going on with him. “What’re you getting at, doc?” Doctor Myers sighed and rubbed his forehead at a loss for words. It’s been a hell of a year, and things just seem to keep getting stranger and stranger.
“We found a drug in your system.” Ryan sat up, ready to blast the man for lying. He’d never done anything stronger than a painkiller in his life, not even weed. It would mean the death of his career, and he was ready to go to bat against anyone who tried pinning that shit on him. “The hell you say, I don’t…”
Doc Myers held up his hand, “calm down; it’s not that type of drug. It’s…” Doc shook his head again and wondered if maybe the lab was wrong. “The drug we found is not legal in this country; in fact, I don’t think it’s been legal anywhere for a few hundred years.”
“What? What’re you talking about?” Ryan was completely lost at this point, but what’s new? After the pedo accusation, he was expecting anything.
“It’s so strange that at first, we thought maybe we were dealing with a new strain of the bug, so we had your blood work sent out with a note to rush; that’s why they got back to me so quickly. Who have you been seeing lately that might’ve traveled to the Orient?”
