Page 29 of So Bleak

“Aaaand… now.”

“Oh. My God, girls. This looks delicious. Let’s see if it tastes as good as it looks.”

She bit into the sandwich and immediately rolled her eyes back in her head and moaned. That’s for you, boys. “Oh… my goodness, this is so… so…”

Henri looked at her over the camera. What’s wrong? he mouthed.

“Um…” she waved her hand in front of her throat, and Henri cut the camera.

“What’s wrong? Are you all right.”

“Yeah, I… I just got dizzy for a moment.”

Her heart pounded in her chest, and her ears began to buzz. “Holy…”

She didn't finish the epithet. She tried to stand, but her legs went slack, and she fell to the floor instead. The buzzing in her ears became a roar, drowning out Henri's panicked cries. She never felt his arms come around her shoulders, and though her eyes were open, her vision had faded already, so she was spared the look of terror in his eyes.

Her last coherent thought was, Thank God we’re not live streaming this.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Michael sighed and nodded. “All right. Thank you. Let me know if something pops up on the lab report.”

He hung up and looked at Faith. “That was CSI. Security footage confirms Delaney’s alibi. He’s not our guy.”

The two of them had returned to Faith’s apartment after interviewing Delaney. With no immediate leads, they had gotten lunch, then spent the afternoon brainstorming. More accurately, they had spent the afternoon thinking in circles and coming up with nothing helpful.

“Why are they bothering with the lab report then?” she asked.

“Just in case one of the other staff or customers is responsible. So far, that’s the most recent connection between our two victims.”

“Right. Good point.”

She sighed and let her chin sink into her hands. “So what do we do now?”

Michael shook his head. “I don’t know. We’ve got… actually we have no daylight left. It’s already evening? Where the hell did the day go?”

“Sounds like you answered your own question,” she quipped. She sighed again and lifted her head. “Well, I say we grab some dinner, and then we look through the victims again and see if we have any more connections.”

“You said you wanted to figure out how the poison was delivered. Should we look into that?”

She bit her lip softly. “I just don’t know what it could be besides the food. There’s no trace of it on their skin, and there are no needle marks. Their bronchial tubes are clear, so they didn’t breathe it in. The only way it gets into their bodies is if they eat it. Unless I’m completely missing something here.”

“It just doesn’t make sense,” Michael said. “How do two people die at different restaurants from the same poison? How do they exhibit different symptoms? How do they show none of those symptoms right up until the moment they died?”

“If it’s a fast-acting poison, then it wouldn’t take long to kill them.”

“If it’s a fast-acting poison, then where is it? Why can’t CSI find a trace of it?”

“They’re cleaning the scene before police get there?”

“Then where is that on the camera? Security feeds show nothing but the usual panic. No one touches the victims except the brave guy who tries to save Grimes from choking, and no one touches the dishes except the server at the sushi place. She could have wiped prints off the outside, but the camera makes it clear she never touches the inside of the water glass or the edamame bowl.” He shook his head. “No, I don’t see any sign of the staff tampering.”

“What about before the meal?”

“I haven’t reviewed the tapes personally, but the cops didn’t say anything. You think we should look at it ourselves?”

She sighed. “No, I think it’d be pretty clear if someone slipped something. If we run out of things to do, we can review the tapes, but otherwise, let’s not waste our time.”

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