Poison

by Jordyn Redwood

  Keelyn took the button that resembled a miniature Jeopardy buzzer and thumbed the switch.

  “Good. You can do that every ten minutes or so. Don’t worry about giving yourself too much because the machine won’t let you overdose. Now, about Sophia. She wasn’t burned. A little bit of smoke inhalation we’re watching closely, but she’s not requiring oxygen or anything at this point.”

  A flood of heaviness began to wash over her. The pain medicine dulled her senses. Her eyes grew heavy. “Good.”

  Lee had walked around to the other side of the bed. He placed a reassuring hand over hers. Conflict stirred. The need she felt to have him hold her battled against her desire to confront the secrets he hid.

  “That’s probably the morphine you’re feeling. Tell us about the spiders,” Lee said as he rubbed her hand between his.

  There were too many words she needed to say to make them understand. Right now, she’d have to muster the short version. The medication warmed her body and lulled her to sleep. “Someone broke in. Put the spiders there.”

  “Do you know who?”

  “Whoever left the rabbit in the car.”

  The officer stepped closer to the bed. “What rabbit?”

  Keelyn inhaled the cool oxygen flowing through the small tubes in her nose. “It was on the stairs.”

  “It probably burned in the fire,” the captain stated as he neared the bed as well.

  “I’ll catch you up to speed on that issue,” Lee said.

  “This man, did he trap you in the bedroom?” the officer asked.

  Lilly put her hand up. “Guys, she’s not coherent enough to answer all this right now.” She turned back to Keelyn. “Sophia was bitten several times by these spiders. That’s why she was in so much pain.”

  Keelyn nodded. “She’ll be all right?”

  “She’s not out of the woods yet. We need to watch her closely. Right now, she’s on the peds unit. All the nurses are falling over themselves to take care of her.”

  “How many days?” Keelyn pointed to her side.

  “For the chest tube? Depends on how much your lung decides to behave. Once it looks good on a chest film, we have to watch it for a few days on water seal. Then you can have it out if that goes well. It may be only a couple of days. Maybe longer.”

  Her eyes slipped closed. “I want to see—Sophia.”

  “Tomorrow,” Lee whispered through her drug-hazed sleep.

  Chapter 35

  Monday

  ONE WEEK SINCE LUCENT’S visit to Keelyn in the diner, and Lee bent under the knowledge that nothing in his world would ever be the same. Like a body count in a horror movie, his sum of who’d he’d failed was growing large. Most significantly, Keelyn. Conner. Withholding his past may have hindered the case. May have aided and abetted a criminal in the commission of a crime. Should he add Ryan Zurcher to the list? Had he put Sophia’s and Keelyn’s lives on the line in order to shelter his secret? His stomach lurched at the thought, and he clenched his jaw to keep the bile at bay.

  Nathan sat down beside him. He took a small bottle of Tums out of his coat pocket and shook a few into his hand. Lee held his hand out for a few of the chalky discs.

  “This case is turning into one big, sticky mess.”

  “Don’t they all?” Lee crushed the tablets between his teeth.

  “Not like this.”

  Lee dropped his head into his hands. Could he confess to Nathan what was really going on? They watched outside Conner’s room as he worked with the sketch artist. The purpose was to identify the woman who’d given him the “drug” that caused his illness. The medical team had concluded that Ryan’s, Conner’s, and Sophia’s illnesses were the result of envenomation with black widow spider venom. In two cases, their pain had completely resolved shortly after being given the antivenom. Ryan was the outlier who remained critically ill in the ICU.

  Nathan returned the bottle and grabbed a tri-folded piece of paper from his inner coat pocket. “Fingerprint report came back for the prints on the gun we found at the scene of Lucy Freeman’s murder.”

  Lee’s chest tightened. The ripples of his actions were beginning to erode the foundation of his life.

  “They’re Conner’s.”

  Lee nodded, his mind sucked into the black hole threatening to consume everything in his life he held close.

  “I’m going to need to question him.”

  “I know.”

  “He’ll be booked into jail once he’s been medically cleared.”

  “Can I talk to him?”

  Nathan shuffled his hands. “If I’m present and you promise no funny business. Remember, you’ve got a career at stake. Don’t make the chief feel like there’s any collusion going on.”

  The artist shook hands with Conner and exited the room. Lee recognized him as the same officer who had worked with Keelyn.

  “Can I take a look?” Nathan asked.

  It made sense. Nathan was the only one who’d had a close relationship with Raven after her family had fractured at the tip of her father’s knife.

  Nathan smoothed his fingers over the picture with heavy sadness in his eyes. “No need to post it. I can make the ID. It’s Raven Samuals. Let’s get a warrant out for her arrest.”

  Lee walked into Conner’s room, with Nathan following close behind. Lee placed a firm hand on Conner’s shoulder. “Feeling better today?”

  “Yes. That pain was crazy.” He pulled the sheets tight. “I can’t go back to that ever again. I’m giving it all up. The drugs. The crazy life. I wouldn’t have been exposed to the venom if I wasn’t so anxious to get a needle in my arm for a high.”

  Lee swallowed hard. Why did it have to be the moment Conner turned his life around he was going to be placed under arrest for murder?

  Actions have consequences.

  “That makes me one happy big brother.”

  Nathan stepped closer.

  “Conner, this is Nathan. He’s a detective with the police department. He needs to go over a few things with you, all right?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  Lee stepped back.

  “Conner, I’m going to read you your rights. You’re being placed under arrest for the murder of Dr. Lucy Freeman.”

  Conner’s face paled. “What? I didn’t kill anyone!”

  “I understand and you’ll be able to tell your side of the story. The problem is your fingerprints were on the weapon found at the murder scene.”

  “That’s not possible. The gun—”

  “Conner!” Lee held a hand up.

  Nathan lowered his voice as he went through the Miranda warnings. No need to strong-arm a man who was weak and clearly nonthreatening.

  “Do you want an attorney?” Nathan asked.

  Conner looked to Lee like a young boy lost on the street. “I’ll find someone for you. Just don’t say anything until you talk with the lawyer.”

  “No, there is something I want to say.”

  “Conner, please.” Lee stepped closer to the bed. “I know as far as you’re concerned I’ve not been a good influence on you. I’m telling you right now it’s going to be best for you to keep your mouth shut until we get everything sorted out.”

  Conner’s muscles wilted, and he flopped back into the bed. “Please, just let me say this one thing.”

  “He’s an adult, Lee. He can make these choices for himself.”

  The crossroad of Lee’s buried past and his current life careened toward one another like two fast-moving cars. The explosions of these worlds colliding were imminent. Could he save those he loved?

  Conner eyed Lee with tired, lifeless eyes. “I did take the gun from your house. When I was heavy into using, I needed protection.”

  “Okay, Conner. That’s good enough. I’m glad you told me. You don’t need to say anything else.”

  “I didn’t shoot her.”

  “I’m relieved to hear that.”

  “Dr. Donnely asked me for a gun. I brought it to one of our sessions. I h
aven’t seen it since.”

  “How did you meet him?” Nathan asked. Lee could see his eyes ticking, tying loose threads of the case together. It seemed Gavin Donnely was consistently at the center of all these mishaps. Was he the spider at the center of this sticky web?

  “Raven introduced me. She thought he could help me get off drugs.”

  “How long had you been seeing him?”

  “A few months.”

  “Why did he want you to bring the gun?”

  “He said he was going to use it in another person’s therapy.”

  Lee eyed Nathan. “Conner, why did you pose as this character, Lucent, when you met with Keelyn in the diner?”

  Conner smoothed the sheet over his legs.

  Lee could hear Keelyn’s voice in his mind.

  A pacifying gesture.

  “Raven and I wanted to be together, but she didn’t want the kid around. She said her sister owed her and if I acted like this person was real, it would freak Keelyn out enough she wouldn’t turn Sophia away.”

  “Keelyn said you had a weapon.”

  Conner’s hands stilled. “It was a fake. I swear. I would never hurt her.”

  Nathan crossed his arms over his chest. “Did you drive Dr. Freeman’s SUV to the diner?”

  Conner shook his head. “We were just supposed to be there at a certain time. Raven said she’d be sure Sophia was there. I think she called that doctor and set up the meeting.”

  “Raven was with you?” Nathan asked.

  Nathan made eye contact with Lee, his eyebrows slightly raised. It began to gel in Lee’s mind how it played out. Sophia had been in the care of Lucy Freeman. Who would a woman trust to meet? The mother of the child or a complete stranger? There was also evidence in Raven’s home that Clay Timmons had been there. Add to that her DNA on the cap of a syringe that likely introduced venom into Ryan Zurcher and the odd markings on Clay not clearly identified.

  Lee sat on the edge of the bed. “Conner, where is Raven?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Or, he wouldn’t say?

  Nathan motioned to Lee. They stepped out into the hall.

  Lee faced Nathan in the hall. “I know what you’re going to say.”

  “You have to warn her.”

  “That her sister is a budding sociopath?”

  “Past that. She is one. Keelyn shouldn’t put any trust in anything Raven says if she tries to make contact.”

  “I know. I’m going to stop and see Keelyn before I leave.”

  “Do you still want to leave for the Springs and see what we can dig up on John Samuals’s old company?”

  “Give me thirty minutes.”

  Nathan returned to Conner’s bedside, and Lee stopped by the gift shop then took the elevator to Keelyn’s floor. He stood outside her hospital room, a vase of vibrant pink gerbera daisies clutched in one hand. He watched as she played with Sophia. The child was back to her exuberant self. Within fifteen minutes of receiving the antivenom, Sophia’s pain had disappeared. For Conner, the effect had been equally as dramatic, though it had taken a bit longer.

  Unfortunately, Ryan developed blood-borne sepsis. He’d been unstable through the night and died early this morning. Now Lee was determined to prove it was murder . . . and Keelyn’s sister was responsible for it.

  He swallowed into the tight space his throat had become and nudged the door open. At first, Keelyn offered a gentle smile and his heart thumped at the look of tenderness in her eyes.

  It was still there. Her love for him somehow survived. It was a relief, but he knew rough water loomed directly ahead. Keelyn handed Sophia back to the aide and asked if she wouldn’t mind taking her back to her room in pediatrics.

  Lee hugged Sophia on her way out the door. Raven’s crimes would certainly put her behind bars, and Keelyn would become Sophia’s legal guardian.

  His stomach flipped at the implications of instant fatherhood, but his heart loved Sophia more than he ever considered possible and the thought of the three of them as a family eased his apprehension.

  Lee settled the flowers on Keelyn’s bedside table. He leaned over, and she wrapped her hands around his neck, brushing her soft cheek against his whiskers. Her breath against his neck weakened his knees.

  For moments he held her until she pulled away and motioned for him to sit.

  “You look amazing.”

  She blushed and tugged at her hospital gown. “Nothing like a girl in a sack gown to turn a guy on.”

  Something in her voice . . . A steely edge to the usually lilted words.

  “How do you feel?”

  It didn’t take long for the tears to flow. She wiped at her eyes quickly.

  “I’m glad you and Sophia are okay.” Lee gently rubbed the back of his hand across her cheek.

  “Are you?” Her hazel eyes, normally soft and inviting, stared directly into his with cold accusation.

  “Of course. I would have died if anything happened to you.”

  “Something did.”

  “I know, but—”

  “Explain to me right now why you never”—her voice broke—“t-told me it was Conner who came up to me in the diner. Threatened me and my family.”

  “I didn’t know for sure.”

  She shook her head. “Please, I can’t take it. Tell me everything. I can’t be with you if you lie to me.”

  The line in the sand.

  “Keelyn—”

  “What is it?” She shouted. Never before had he heard her voice rise in anger against him. “Why do you never say anything about your brother?”

  The muscles in his neck knotted painfully. “You’re not exactly forthright, either.”

  “This is not about me right now. This is about you and what you’ve hidden and how it almost killed me and Sophia.”

  His hands clenched his legs. “I know Conner didn’t do this.”

  Keelyn eyed the gesture. “How can you be sure?”

  His heart rate skyrocketed. Panic at what Keelyn’s reaction would be. He inhaled and paused, the pressure in his chest like a bomb ready to give way. The words, once out, could never be taken back. “Because I’m pretty sure it was Raven.”

  “What?” Keelyn struggled to sit and move away from him in one movement.

  He leaned back and rubbed his hands to ease his inner turbulence. How could he make her understand the evidence? What he believed in his heart to be true? That Raven was under the influence of an individual who seemed to be using her in some unseemly revenge plot.

  “I don’t necessarily think it’s her fault.”

  Keelyn clenched her eyes and gave her head several shakes to ward off the accusation. “She’s a murderess, but it’s not her fault.” Her voice taut with sarcasm.

  Lee smoothed his palms over his legs. “Something like that.”

  “What are you talking about? My sister could never harm another individual.”

  “That’s not necessarily true.”

  “What are you talking about?” Keelyn’s nostrils flared.

  “The stories you shared with me about when she was younger.”

  Keelyn’s mouth dropped. She splayed her fingers wide on the sheet. “That’s different.”

  “Beheading Barbie dolls?”

  Keelyn’s face reddened. “Lee . . .” A warning.

  “Blowing them up with firecrackers?” Why did he push?

  “That’s enough,” she fumed. “They were hardly live animals.”

  “Let me just say it’s unusual for a girl to have a penchant to do such things.”

  “Girls can be just as destructive as boys. It doesn’t mean they’re psychopaths.”

  “What I mean to say is maybe there was a little something there Gavin Donnely fed on.”

  She couldn’t look at him. “How?”

  “Our psychiatry expert thinks Donnely put Raven under hypnosis and then suggested that using Lucent to seek revenge could solve all of her mental health issues.”

  Keelyn laughed o
ut loud. A mocking outburst of disdain.

  His face flamed at her dismissal. “What’s so funny?”

  “Do you hear yourself?” She swept her hand through the air. “You’re so quick to move suspicion away from your own brother that you’re buying into this story—what, did Nathan invent this? He’s known for being a little out there.”

  “It’s not Nathan. A licensed psychiatrist feels this way.”

  She pressed her fingers over her scalp then winced seemingly forgetting the staples. “Did you tell this psychiatrist about Conner? That he was the one in the vicinity of two dead bodies and a kidnapped child and that in all of this, Raven hasn’t even been seen?”

  “That’s not true.”

  Keelyn’s eyes popped. “It is unless there’s something else you haven’t told me.” His silence drew a daggered question. “What are you hiding now?”

  “You remember Ryan Zurcher?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “I searched his apartment. Found a bag with some IV supplies. I took it to a private lab for DNA testing.”

  “Did they find anything?”

  “Raven’s DNA was on the cap.”

  “How do you know it was hers?”

  “I had it tested against the sample we submitted to them when we were trying to determine if Sophia was your niece.”

  Keelyn folded her arms against her chest. “You did this without asking me?”

  “It wasn’t for you to decide. It’s a police matter.”

  “Then why didn’t you submit it as evidence?” Her talent as a body language expert was going to waste. She should have been a prosecuting attorney.

  He gritted his teeth. Throwing his decisions back in his face was making it hard for him to prove his case—a criminal on the defense stand. “The issue is what was in the syringe.”

  “What?”

  “Spider venom.”

  Keelyn closed her eyes. He could sense the retreat. The anger. The denial. The suggestion that her sister was involved in something as heinous as murder was building a wall between them.