Both Gina and Franklin had died of insulin overdoses. Coincidence? No friggin’ way.
She fumbled in her pocket for her phone. She wanted to call Pete, but neither case was in his jurisdiction. Instead, she keyed in Wayne’s number. “Where are you?” she asked when he picked up.
“Still at the hospital.”
The hospital. With his sister. Who’d been admitted with a mystery case of hypoglycemia. Suddenly chilled, Zoe asked, “How’s Abby?”
“Better. We’re waiting on her test results.”
“Stay there. I’m on my way.” She ended the call, cutting off his response, and hit the elevator’s down button.
Fifteen minutes later, Zoe found Wayne and Seth in Abby’s room. Wayne had confiscated the recliner in the corner and was working on his laptop with his feet up. Seth sat at Abby’s side, one arm resting on the edge of the bed as if he wanted to hold her hand. She looked even more like her old self than she had earlier. Zoe wasn’t certain whether the flush in Abby’s cheeks was because of normalized glucose levels, the empty personal-sized pizza box on the bedside tray, or Seth’s presence. However, her hands remained folded in her lap, not reaching toward his.
Zoe greeted the young Vance Township officers briefly before focusing on Wayne. “I need to talk to you.”
He didn’t budge. “Okay.”
“In private.” At Seth’s and Abby’s puzzled frowns, Zoe feigned a smile and added, “It’s about an old case.”
They seemed satisfied.
Wayne set his computer on the marble windowsill and pushed up from the most comfortable seat in the house. He pointed at Seth. “Stay out of my chair,” he said before trailing Zoe into the hall.
She led the way to an empty family waiting room a few doors down, careful to shut the door behind them.
“What the hell’s going on?” he asked. “What old case?”
“I lied. It’s not an old one.” Zoe held the folders out to him. “It’s two current ones.” She watched as he read through the reports. And read each a second time. His eyes clouded as he reached the same conclusion she had.
He met her gaze. “This isn’t a coincidence, is it? Two people who testified at the Landis trial? Dead within days of each other? From the same thing?”
Zoe shook her head. “There’s more.” She told him about the rumored experimental oral insulin. “From what I understand, normal injectable insulin wouldn’t survive the stomach acid.”
Wayne pondered the information. “I’ll have my men look into any clinical trials. Find out if anyone around here is taking the new drug.” He traced his upper lip. “I wonder if Gina and Franklin were poisoned at the same time.”
“As far as I know, the only time they crossed paths recently was at her autopsy.”
“But Franklin was already showing signs of hypoglycemia during that autopsy. Right? That’s when he had the first heart attack. When you saved him.”
She hadn’t considered that. “Crap.”
“What about the day Gina died? I wonder if they could’ve eaten at the same place.”
“I don’t know.” She thought back to last Monday. “Franklin was in the office with me in the morning. He had some funeral home business to deal with while I worked on reports for the coroner’s office. He got tired after lunch and went home. I didn’t see him again until Gina’s autopsy the next morning.”
“He didn’t go with you to the Wagner house?”
“No. He told me to handle it.”
“Do you know where Gina was before she died?”
Zoe remembered the conversation she’d had with Mrs. Wagner. “At work. Her mother said she’d come home afterward and wasn’t feeling well. I meant to go there and ask her coworkers if she’d taken any cold or flu meds that day.” Zoe had been thinking Gina might have died from a bad drug reaction. Not an insulin overdose. “When Franklin died, I never got around to it.”
Wayne scanned the report once more. “I remember reading that Gina worked in a dress shop.”
“Langley’s. Downtown.”
“Not a place where I’d picture Franklin hanging out.”
The same chill that had been haunting Zoe all morning seized her again. “But Loretta would.”
Wayne looked at her. “What?”
“I learned this morning that Franklin and Loretta aren’t legally divorced.” Zoe told him about the missing revised will.
“Franklin writes up a new will, presumably cutting the old ball and chain out of her inheritance. Then she just happens to show up in town…and he just happens to turn up dead.”
“Doesn’t explain Gina though.”
“No, it doesn’t. I think I need to speak with Gina Wagner’s coworkers.”
“I’ll go with you,” Zoe said
He glared at her. “Not your job.”
“I was going to talk to them last week before everything went crazy.”
“Still. Not your job.”
“I’m the one who brought this to you.” She jabbed at the folders in Wayne’s hands.
“Not. Your. Job.”
He wasn’t backing down.
But neither was she. She simply decided to let him think she was. “Fine.” She started to turn away but stopped. “There’s something else.”
“What?” he snapped.
“Your sister.”
“What about my s—” He paled as realization hit. “Oh my God.” Wayne thrust the folders at Zoe and bolted.
She followed him, jogging to keep up with his long strides as he retraced their steps to Abby’s room.
His sister and Seth looked up as they burst through the door. Wayne looked at Seth. “I want you to stay with her until I get back.”
“Okay.” Seth dragged the word out, clearly uncertain why he was being given orders to do what he’d planned all along.
Wayne turned to his sister. “You. Don’t eat or drink anything unless one of us personally brings it to you. Nothing from the hospital. Okay?”
“No problem. What’s this about?”
“I’m not sure yet, but I want to err on the side of caution.”
A memory stirred in Zoe’s brain like the tickle of a feather.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Wayne faced Zoe, his jaw clenched. “You stay here.”
She had other plans, but what Wayne didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. “I
