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“By the way, what was it that Inez said that had you looking so bemused?” Detective Sparks had to drag herself back from her thoughts to answer.
“She said that her husband disappears every night as soon as Bridgette’s shift ends. His explanation doesn’t add up somehow. From what I remember from my stint as a server, the employee is usually there in the office when the manager is doing the cash-out.”
She tried to think of another reason for the man’s bizarre behavior but couldn’t come up with any. A few times could be easily explained away, but every time? No way. And it’s not like they have a large staff that would keep him occupied in the office that long. There were only two servers and a bartender on staff each shift, and even putting the money away in a safe shouldn’t take that long.
“Could he have been having an affair?”
“I don’t think so; when Inez went up to the room, he wasn’t there, and he swears he wasn’t. I don’t know, but there’s something there that I’m missing.” Before she could say more, she saw Dr. Myers and Dr. Stephens, the forensic chemist from the lab, come rushing in. Both men looked harried and like they’d slept in their clothes.
“Detective, may we have a moment of your time? We’ve got a problem.”
“What is it? Did something happen to Mr. Swamp?”
“No-no, it’s nothing like that, but it has to do with his case.” The two men proceeded to tell her about their night and how their meeting had brought about the realization that they had both discovered a fifteenth-century Chinese aphrodisiac in their small town and how she was the one who had brought both cases to them.
“What are you talking about? What drug? What case?” Celia’s eyes and ears were about to bleed from all the scientific jargon the two men had subjected her to thus far and had only got some semblance of understanding when she asked them to speak in layman terms.
“The whiskey concoction you sent to me yesterday.” Answered Stephens.
“And what was found in Mr. Swamp’s blood work.” Myers chimed in.
“You’re telling me that you found some outdated drug in both cases?”
“Cecil… Dr. Myers is the one who told me what it was since I was at a loss. We met for our weekly Mensa night, and Cecil was chomping at the bit to talk about this new drug he’d found; when I mentioned that I too was dealing with something I’d never come across before, we compared notes like we said, and realized we were both dealing with the same thing.”
“How is it that you didn’t know about the drug? Haven’t you been to the hospital to see the patient? He asked to speak with you hours ago, and I sent over my report.” Detective Sparks squeezed the bridge of her nose to alleviate the pressure she felt growing there. Just what she needs, even more confusion. Just what did Ryan have to do with Bridgette?
CHAPTER 15
Connie heard a sound just beyond her bedroom door and rolled over in bed to look at the clock on her nightstand. She listened for the sound again but, with the flushing of the toilet, realized that it was just her mom making a bathroom run. She knew that trying to get back to sleep was going to be almost impossible since she’d had a hard time getting there in the first place, and besides, it was almost time to get up.
Her mom had been crying all last night in her room, making the young girl feel helpless. She’d had to turn off her phone after the fiftieth text message asking her about what was going on since she had no answers. Her phone has never been this busy, and she didn’t know half the people who were trying to contact her or how they even got her number.
Usually, when she was feeling like this, so lost and alone, she’d sneak out of the house and go stand outside the man she knew as her dad’s home. But last night, it had been too late for that, he and his family were no doubt already in bed that time of night, and now it was already daybreak.
On the rare occasion that that hadn’t worked in the last year or so, she’d spun dreams of a happy family with her mom, Ryan, and her, but now those too were tarnished. Her mind went to Marissa, the one who’d started it all, and she felt anger rise up inside her once again at the thought of the other girl. She tried to fight back the anger, knowing that it would serve no purpose.
Her mom knocked on her door and uttered the words she’d been dreading since the day before. “It’s time to get up, Connie; you have to go to school.”
