So he was here to receive information, possible evidence on Nic’s father’s death, without Nic by his side.Bowers had seen to it this afternoon that Nic was punished and distracted.They’d been on a solid trail, tying evidence to motives for both Vaughn and Bowers when Nic had been yanked off it for an emergency motion—to do Bowers’s job for him.Cam felt sorry for whoever was on the other side of that case and for the judge.It was Nic being sidelined in the van all over again, except this time it was Bowers Nic was pissed at instead of him.Small blessings, though waiting at the morgue counter for an attendant was starting to feel like a curse.
Finally, Coroner Jong herself appeared through the swinging steel doors, snapped off her gloves, and extended her hand.“Agent Byrne, I’m sorry for the wait.I went ahead and let everyone go for the day.”
Cam barely hid his shiver at her cold hand slipping into his.“Cam, please.”
“Elizabeth, then.”She smiled, tired yet friendly, then nodded toward the back.“Please, this way.”
“Nic sends his apologies for not making it,” Cam said as they walked down the hallway.“He’s stuck in court.”
“That’s what his text said.”Instead of entering the examination room, she walked another ten or so feet and turned into an office.Cam let out a relieved sigh, then sucked it back in at seeing two syringes on her desk.“Nic said to only give you this in person.”
“Give me what?”
She pulled out her desk chair and Cam moved his hand over his sidearm, ready to draw.He dropped it as she righted herself with two folders in hand, covering his motion with an adjustment of his jacket.
“What’ve you found?”
“This is the file on Harris Kincaid.”She held the top one out to him.“I rushed the toxicology.”
“Okay, what am I looking—” Cam paused at the third drug listed after the acid reflux OTC and allergy meds.It was a drug he recognized from kidnap and sexual assault cases.Cases where a victim went “willingly” with their attacker.Or so it appeared.
Scopolamine.
Legal when prescribed by a physician.On the street, when not, it was known as Devil’s Breath.A powerful, dangerous drug that could open a person to suggestions.Victims were often described as walking zombies.In too high a dose, it was deadly.
He studied the tox results again.“He didn’t technically die from the scopolamine, did he?”
“No, he died of strangulation.No question, he hung himself.”
“Because someone planted that suggestion in his head.”
“And with that drug in his system, it wouldn’t take much.”
Add in the other bargaining chip Vaughn had been holding over Harris—the house, lien free, to Beth—it had no doubt been plenty.
Jong tapped the other folder against her hand.“These are the toxicology results on Curtis Price.”
He traded with Jong and flipped open Curtis’s file, looking for scopolamine and finding calcium gluconate and potassium phosphate instead.“I’m not familiar with these.”
“Individually, in small doses, neither is deadly.Calcium gluconate is used to counteract too much potassium in a body and regulate heart arrhythmias.”
“But together in what does not look like small doses?”He’d read enough tox screens, seen enough syringes to know the one that had injected Curtis must have been full to the brim.
“Together, they mimic the symptoms of a heart attack.Severe hypertension and heart failure.The potassium phosphate speeds up the effects of the calcium gluconate.”
So why was the killer in a hurry?A question for him to consider for Nic.
He had another one for Jong.“Were they injected together?”
“No, they actually can’t be mixed.Let me show you.”She grabbed a petri dish off the counter behind them, set it on her desk, and picked up the syringes.
Cam took a step back, still not over every horror movie he’d seen as a kid nor the creepy vibe of the place.But when Jong added the second liquid, he peered over her shoulder, intrigued by the reaction that was happening on the plate.Unlike oil and vinegar, these two liquids combined to form a solid.“That’s what happens in the body?”
She set the syringes aside.“In the heart.We found one twice that size in Curtis’s.”
Cam whistled.No wonder it looked like a damn heart attack.“So that’s why there were multiple puncture marks?”
She nodded.“Side-by-side, in the mouth.”
