"Are you kidding me?" he asked. "You are the one who’s got to watch her step."
I sent a quick message to Ange and jumped into my car.
My next stop was the medical practice. It had a small lab attached at the back, so the doctors wouldn’t have to rely on getting samples tested in the bigger towns.
Ange and Nick were there, waiting for me.
"What’s going on?" he asked.
I glanced around.
"Don’t worry, everybody else has already gone," Nick assured me. "I would have too, had my darling wife not told me to stay put."
"It’s this." I put the bag with the pill dispenser on the table. "I was wondering if you could have the heart medication tested."
"Why?" asked Ange.
"I only just realized that to poison my aunt, the killer would have had to either put something in her food or her drink. Or swap her pills. In which case, they’d need to know exactly what kind of medication she was on."
"That tracks," Ange said.
"Yes, it does, doesn’t it?"
"They all look pretty normal to me," Nick said.
"They would have to, wouldn’t they? Otherwise, my aunt would have never been fooled. The interesting thing is the timing. If we find nothing, it means that there was only one doctored pill, and she was taken out of the way as soon as possible. That can only have been because the killer was afraid she might have seen or figured out something. They didn’t expect her to already have sent a letter to the police anonymously."
"If we find nothing, it could also mean that there was nothing to find," Nick said. “Or the poison was in her food or drink.”
"Have you spoken to the police yet about Pamela?" I asked him while he took out a microscope and put every single pill under it.
"What are you doing?" his wife asked.
"Searching for puncture marks or anything that makes it look as if one of the capsules has been opened and resealed. And then I'll pop them on the scales. If there's a tiny difference, it might mean that there's an added substance in there. It’s unlikely the killer would have managed to keep the weight identical, no matter how many doctored pills there are."
"That's brilliant," she said.
"I know."
They grinned at each other—the kind of smile that made me remember how it had been in the beginning with me and Rick. Who chose that very same moment to send me yet another text message.
"Don't forget, I'm here for you."
"Honestly," I muttered. "What is it with people?"
"What are you talking about?" Ange asked.
I showed her the message.
"Hmm." She frowned. "Either there's trouble in paradise and he realizes that he's been an absolute idiot or he genuinely cares. Not that you should take him back."
"I wouldn’t.”
She pulled me aside while her husband did a thorough examination of the tablets, pills, and capsules.
"This is still good, that he reaches out. Heisthe father of your daughter, after all."
"That's what I've been telling myself all this time. Otherwise, I would have—"
