TWENTY-TWO
Tuesday morning, and they were off to Manassas for findings on another autopsy, two weeks in a row. Two businesswomen dead—one confirmed murder and the other likely headed in the same direction. It would surprise Amanda more if Eve Kelley hadn’t been drugged with pentobarbital. Not that she expected to have confirmation today. There would be another toxicology report they’d need to wait on. But the circumstances surrounding Eve’s death and the symptoms she exhibited just before didn’t give Amanda much hope that manner of death was natural.
Amanda and Trent found Rideout in his usual spot, next to a gurney burdened with a cadaver. Eve Kelley’s torso was already wide open.
Rideout greeted them with a smile and “Good morning.” An exuberance only he could pull off in the face of death.
“Hello,” Amanda said, not being able to bring herself to say good morning today. What was with all the murder in Prince William County these days? The stats had to be getting worse.
“There are obviously some questions we can take off the table straight away,” Rideout began. “TOD we know was yesterday at approximately nine AM. Cause of death was the same as Alicia Gordon. Cardiogenic shock, followed by respiratory arrest. Now, whether it was aided along by medication or poisoning, again, we’ll need to wait on the toxicology report to know for sure. Which, of course, I will be requesting the moment I’ve finished the autopsy.”
“Did you happen to hear from the investigators as to whether her coffee was laced with pentobarbital?” Amanda asked.
Rideout shook his head. “No.”
“No? As in you didn’t hear, or no, it wasn’t tampered with?”
“No pentobarbital in the coffee, but I found this.” Rideout pushed a gloved fingertip to the meat of Eve’s upper arm. “See that?”
Amanda leaned in. A pinprick. “She was jabbed with a syringe?”
“Yep, I’d say so.”
“So if we’re looking at pentobarbital again, someone injected her with it,” Amanda said.
“Yes.”
“Could we assume that Eve Kelley was injected with the drug sometime between her arrival at work and seeing us?” Trent raised his eyebrows at Rideout.
“I’d suspect so, and the reaction would have been fairly swift. It wouldn’t have taken the drug long to enter her circulatory system, and that would speed up the metabolizing process. I’d still say we’d be looking at ten minutes, give or take, from the time she was injected. Possibly a little longer, up to twenty minutes. But I don’t see it being longer than that.”
“Whoever injected her wanted her to die quickly. They didn’t want Eve Kelley’s death to take days,” Trent said. “Our killer is getting impatient.”
Amanda turned to Trent. “She could have been injected right at Pixie Winks. We’ve got to go.” She turned to leave but swung back around to ask a quick question. “Were there any signs of struggle or defense?”
“None, but I scraped under her fingernails and will send that to the lab for testing.”
“Okay, is there anything else we should know right now?” she asked.
Rideout shook his head. “I’ll call if anything comes up.”
“Thank you.” Amanda was already hustling from the morgue. She spoke to Trent over a shoulder as they went to the department car. “We need to piece together her last minutes—track every single movement.”
Trent slid behind the wheel and got them on the road to Woodbridge.
It was noon by the time Amanda and Trent were walking into the lobby of Pixie Winks. A somber and dark energetic residue permeated the place. Death. The presence of a PWCPD officer in the lobby watching everyone who came in probably didn’t help dispel the solemn tone. The officer nodded at Amanda and Trent in greeting, which they returned, on their way to the reception desk.
Amanda drew her badge, but the young woman there waved a hand, dismissing her.
“I remember you.” Her eyes were wide, and her lashes were wet. “What can I do for you?”
Amanda put her badge away. “Do you always manage the front counter?”
“I do.”
“And your name?”
“Jasmine.”
“Jasmine, did anyone come to visit Eve Kelley yesterday morning?” It made sense to start at the doors and work their way upstairs.
Jasmine was quick to shake her head. “No one. Well, besides you two.”
“Did she receive any deliveries? Maybe a package that a delivery person insisted on handing over in person?”
“No.” Jasmine slid her bottom lip through her teeth.
“All right, thank you. We both appreciate your help. Could you get Eve Kelley’s assistant for us? Her name’s Joanne…?”
“Yes. Joanne Thomson. One minute.” Jasmine tapped a finger to an earpiece, and a few seconds later, tapped it again. “You can go up to her office. It’s just across the hall from Ms. Kelley’s.”
Amanda thanked Jasmine for her help, even though she already knew where to go. They’d gone to Joanne’s office to collect the threats against Eve. She would likely be the most familiar with her boss’s agenda. And there was another benefit—with Joanne’s office being across from Eve’s, Joanne would likely know if anyone had visited her boss yesterday morning. In fact, Joanne should know a lot about Eve. Including when and how to poison her? But then, what was the motive? And the link to Alicia Gordon? Amanda shook her thoughts aside. She was seeing killers everywhere now.
Eve Kelley’s office door was closed, and Amanda and Trent slipped into Joanne’s office.
She was at her desk, talking on the phone. “I can take a message for her… Yes… Okay.” Joanne’s eyes shot up to them in the doorway. Her eyes pooled with tears, and she looked away.
Amanda stepped back into the hall, giving the young woman some space, Trent too. Joanne sounded like she was barely holding herself together, and take a message?
“Detectives?”