He eyed her suspiciously. “You’re letting me go without you?”
“Like you said. Not my job. But I’d appreciate it if you’d let me know what you find out.”
He still looked like he didn’t believe her. “I’ll do that.” He left without giving her a chance to change her mind.
Seth was on his feet, and Abby appeared on the verge of jumping out of bed. Zoe flashed what she hoped was a comforting smile. “Can I bring you guys anything before I go?”
Seth closed the space between them and caught Zoe’s arm. “You’re not leaving until you tell me what’s going on.”
Zoe thought about it. If Seth knew, he’d be better prepared to protect Abby. “Out in the hall,” she whispered.
“Don’t you dare,” Abby called. “If you try to keep me out of this conversation by going outside, I swear to God, I’ll yank my IV and follow you.”
Zoe believed her. “Okay.” She moved to Abby’s bedside with Seth on her heels. “I got Franklin Marshall’s toxicology reports back.”
“That was fast,” Abby said.
“It pays to have friends in the lab. I also got back the reports on a young woman who died last Monday evening.” Zoe hit the high points of the results. When both young officers appeared confused, she listed the symptoms. “Sound familiar?”
The pink drained from Abby’s cheeks. “That’s what was going on with me.”
Zoe let her words sit there.
“You think I was poisoned. With insulin.”
“It’s a possibility.”
Abby lost even more color. “You think whoever did it might try again. That’s why my brother doesn’t want me eating hospital food.”
“This is where Franklin died.”
Seth gained the color Abby had lost, his face flushing red. “Someone who works here at the hospital intentionally overdosed him?”
“We don’t know that. Could’ve been a visitor.” She looked at Abby. “Yesterday, did anyone have a chance to tamper with your food?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
Abby’s brow furrowed. “I had breakfast at home alone. I stopped at Brunswick Burger for lunch. Do you think it was an employee there?”
“Maybe. Was there anyone else who had access to your lunch? Did someone stop and chat with you?”
“There could’ve been a team,” Seth said. “Did anyone ask you for directions or drop a plate or something to distract you while a second person slipped the stuff in your drink? You know…like pickpockets working in pairs.”
The furrows deepened. “I did run into an old friend from college. But I can promise you she’s not part of a pickpocket team, and she sure wouldn’t slip something in my drink.”
The feather-soft tickle in Zoe’s brain turned into the beating of vulture wings. “Your drink. The iced tea you brought to my house?”
“Yes.”
Seth had his phone out. “What’s your friend’s name?”
“She wouldn’t—”
“Give me her name.”
Zoe didn’t recognize the friend and knew Seth would track her down. Zoe had another phone call she needed to make. “Keep her safe,” she told him.
His jaw jutted. “You know I will. Where are you going?” he asked as she headed for the door.
“I’m going to talk to Gina Wagner’s mother,” Zoe said and whisked out of the room. But first she had to reach Pete.
Twenty-Nine
Pete pulled on his coat and headed to the front of the station. Nancy looked up from her typing.
“I’m driving out to Rebecca Weaver’s place,” he told her. “I called her office. They told me she’s working from home today.”
“She doesn’t live in Vance Township.”
“Close enough.” The real estate agent owned a lovely home a few miles over the border in Mt. Prospect Township. The drive would give him time to think. “Call if you need me.”
As if on cue, his cell phone rang. He dug it from his pocket and saw Zoe’s name and photo on his screen. “Hey.”
“Not a very professional way to answer the police chief’s phone,” she said, but lacked her usual teasing tone.
“I’ll do better next time. I’m glad you called. I have news you might be interested in.”
“So do I. I need you to go out to the farm.”
He would’ve made a wisecrack about her ordering him to run personal errands while he was on duty, but she sounded too tense. “What’s up?”
“When Abby came to the house yesterday, she had a plastic glass of iced tea with her. In the excitement, I don’t know what happened to it. My mother may have thrown it away. I need you to find it and send the contents to the crime lab.”
He braced one hand against the counter. “Why?”
“I suspect Abby was poisoned.”
“With what?”
“Insulin.”
Zoe told him about the toxicology reports on Franklin Marshall and Gina. About the drug found in their stomach contents. About her Spidey sense regarding Abby’s beverage. And about Seth keeping watch over the younger Baronick so she wouldn’t suffer the same fate as Franklin.
Zoe continued to talk, but few of her words completely sank in. Pete’s brain stalled after the part about insulin poisoning. He turned away from the front door and wandered back toward his office, massaging the throbbing ache building behind his forehead. Her mention of a new will jarred him back to full attention.
“Wait. What?”
Zoe’s exasperated sigh whispered across the microwaves or whatever carried the cell signal. “I think Franklin may have written Loretta out of his will and that’s why she’s trashing the funeral home. To find and destroy the document so she’ll still inherit everything. And…” Her voice grew even tighter. “…if she knew about this will, she had motive to want Franklin dead sooner rather than later.”
It made sense. His health was declining. He was waiting for a transplant that might not come. His possible imminent demise might prompt him to rethink who he wanted to leave his earthly possessions to.
Loretta had been waiting for him to die so she could collect. Only now, not only might a transplant save him, but he was about to give what she felt was rightfully hers to someone else.
“Are you listening to me?”
Pete blinked. “Sorry. I was thinking.”
“I said,
