Page 97 of Bad Seed

He gave her a quick glance and frowned. “That’s not how love works for us. We take care of our own. Brendan Pope never got over losing his little Meg. We know, because after she disappeared, there were few entries made in the journal. He never remarried. He lost the best part of himself when he lost her. That’s how a man thinks, Sunshine. That’s how I think of you. We’regoing to have a long and happy life together because you will always be first in my heart.”

She sighed. “Message received.”

“Good, because we’re home.”

***

The autopsy on Karen Beaumont was confirmation of what the police suspected. She did die from anaphylactic shock due to an allergy to peanuts, which were found in her system.

The lab at the medical examiner’s office traced the peanut issue to the salad croutons recovered from the scene. They’d been fried in peanut oil before finished off in commercial ovens. And they’d recovered a grocery receipt from the trash listing that same product only four days prior to her death. The purchase had been made with her own credit card, within the hour after leaving her job. But Detective Freeman still wasn’t buying the story, so they sent an investigator from the lab to view security footage from the parking lot of the supermarket to see who was driving Karen’s car and who did the shopping on that day.

Based on the timeline from the receipt, they quickly found her on the footage. Karen arrived alone. Came out and loaded her groceries alone and drove away. The daughter was still in the clear.

But it wasn’t until the full background check on Justine Beaumont came through that DetectiveFreeman knew he’d been right and took it to Lieutenant Wakefield, his superior.

“Boss, I need to run something by you.”

Wakefield leaned back at his desk. “What’s up?”

“It’s about Karen Beaumont, the woman who died from the peanut allergy. I just found something in the daughter’s background history that concerns me.”

Wakefield sat up and leaned forward. “Like what?”

“She spent two stints in rehab for alcoholism, and during her last stay, one of the doctors became concerned about her violent outbursts and, with the mother’s consent, ran some psychological tests on her. She scored off the charts as a narcissistic psychopath. I think we need to find out what she did that made her father kick her out before we accept this as an accidental death.”

“Do we have his contact information?” Wakefield asked.

“Yes, sir. She gave it—reluctantly, I might add—but at the time, I attributed it to nothing more than family issues. I’m going to phone him now. I’ll let you know what he has to say.”

“Then do it,” Wakefield said.

Freeman went back to his desk, pulled up the notes he had on Justine’s interview, and then called Larry Beaumont.

***

Larry Beaumont was on his way back to his office when his cell phone began to ring. When he saw Dallas PD come up on caller ID, his gut knotted.

“What now?” he muttered, bolted for the office, then shut himself in. “Hello, Larry Beaumont speaking.”

“Mr. Beaumont, I’m Detective Freeman with the Dallas Police Department. I have some news to share with you, and then I will need to ask you some questions. Are you free to speak?”

Larry’s heart was pounding. “Yes, what’s wrong?”

“Your ex-wife, Karen Beaumont, suffered an allergy attack a few days ago and passed away from anaphylactic shock. Peanuts, I believe.”

Larry felt all the blood draining from his face and, for a moment, thought he was going to pass out. “Oh my God, my God. Where was her EpiPen? She always carried one.”

“I’m afraid it happened during a meal at home. We later recovered the pen in her purse and another in her bathroom.”

“Where was our daughter? Where was Justine?”

“She thought her mother was choking on a bite of food and began performing the Heimlich maneuver. The evidence of that act was left in the bruising on her upper torso, so we have no doubt that did occur.”

Larry’s shock turned to horror and then unexpected grief, and he began to weep. “I can’t imagine… I’m so sorry…so sorry. Why didn’t Justine call me to let me know?”

“She refused our offer to notify you, so we assumed she might have chosen to call you herself, although we had indications there had been a falling-out between you and her before she came to live with her mother.”

Freeman heard Beaumont crying and waited a few moments before proceeding. “I’m sorry, sir. I know this must be difficult for you, but I need to know what happened with Justine when she was with you. What happened that caused the problems?”

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