Page 34 of So Bleak

Michael jogged to her and handcuffed her. The crowd reacted with equal parts alarm and fascination, prompting Howard to once more warn them to back off or face arrest.

“Let’s get her out of here,” Faith said. “I don’t want to do this here. Especially with the boyfriend watching.”

“So camera guy was her boyfriend too, huh?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah, all right, then. Let’s take her to the precinct.”

They quickly escorted the weeping suspect to the car and pulled smoothly out into traffic. The woman whimpered and kept her eyes locked on Turk, who, as with Marcus Delaney before, stared daggers at the suspect.

“Don’t worry,” Faith assured her. She gave the woman a smile that stopped well before her eyes. “He only bites if I tell him to.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Faith paused the tape and looked back at their suspect. Tanya Blanchard worked at the bistro, and, as nearly as Faith could tell, was the last person to interact with Lila Vance other than Henri and the last person to touch Lila’s food. Those interactions were the subject of some interest to the agents, and it was those interactions they now reviewed with Tanya.

“You want to tell us what that was?” Faith asked her.

“That” was what looked on camera like Tanya pressing something into Lila’s hand, a something that Lila then popped into her mouth.”

Tanya swallowed and said nothing.

“Yeah, the silent act isn’t going to work here,” Michael told her. “The woman you just gave that to died less than five minutes later. So you’re going to need to tell us what that is, or we’re going to be thinking about charging you with murder. Three of them, to be exact.”

Tanya’s eyes snapped toward her. “Three of them?”

“Oh, so it’s only Lila you murdered?”

“No! I didn’t murder anyone, I just… how do you know about the others?” Seeing the agents’ expressions, she quickly said, “I didn’t kill anyone, I mean other… people I’ve interacted with.”

“We’re going to need a little more than your shitty attempt at hiding things,” Faith told her, “but maybe if we answer your question, it’ll help you answer a little more honestly. Michael, you want to show her the other video we found?”

Michael turned the laptop toward himself and tapped the keys. Tanya trembled and looked nervously at Faith, who returned a stony glance. After a moment, Michael turned the keyboard around and showed Tanya the other video.

This one was at the same bistro two days ago. Harold Grimes had stopped there for lunch. The video showed Tanya talking to Grimes and pressing something into his hand. Grimes didn’t consume whatever it was right then, but Faith had a guess when he might have taken it.

“That’s Harold Grimes,” Faith explained. “He’s dead too. Died about… six hours after you saw him. Six hours after you gave him… what was it you gave him?”

“I want a lawyer,” Tanya said, her voice thready.

“That’s fine,” Faith replied, “but just so you know, we are going to charge you with all three murders.”

“That’s only two,” Tanya protested.

Faith looked at Michael, who turned the laptop around again and tapped the keys. Tanya paled and reiterated, “I want a lawyer.”

Faith ignored her. A moment later, Michael turned the laptop around to show a video from nine days ago. Eleanor Crestwood was wearing jean shorts and a t-shirt rather than her usual evening dress. She wore sneakers instead of heels, and her face was obscured by large dark sunglasses, but there was no mistaking that the woman taking something from Tanya and kissing her on the cheek was the tenacious food critic who only hours later would be convulsing on the floor of Cucina Toscana.

Tanya stared at the screen with a mixture of horror and despair in her eyes. Faith let her marinate in that emotion for a while, then said, “See what I mean? Three victims. All of them had food at your workplace. You put something in all of their hands—on camera—and within hours, they were dead. All except Lila, who was dead within minutes.”

Tanya swallowed but said nothing.

“We can get you a lawyer,” Faith said. “That’s your right. But you should know that once you lawyer up, your chance to talk to us and come clean ends.”

“I’m innocent, though.”

"Then you'll have to convince a jury. Because right now, I think you're guilty. And I'm very confident we can get you convicted of murder in the first three times. Philadelphia doesn't have the death penalty, but they're perfectly fine with life without parole. The consecutive part doesn't really matter in that case, does it?"

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