Page 51 of Wanted by the Lawman

One corner of her mouth danced with a smile. “I was disappointed, but not angry. I understand you have a job…an important job.”

“Cases like this can suck the life right out of a person.” He tightened his hold on the steering wheel.

“Any closer to finding the killer?”

He gave his head a shake. “There’s an element that we’re missing. I can’t put my finger on it, but it’s there.”

“Maybe it’s like a puzzle. All the pieces fit together, but first they must be found. And how does a person find each piece? They first start with all the edges which builds the base. Then, they find all the obvious pieces and bring them together and what’s left are those bits that all appear to be the same, but they’re not. I know…that doesn’t make any sense.”

“No, it makes a lot of sense. If I compare these cases to a puzzle, we’re at the stage where the edges are in place, we’ve found all the obvious bits, but we’re missing a handful of pieces to complete it. Much like digging through a hay stack for a needle.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure things out. I’m sure it’s staring you in the face.”

He nodded. “You’re not having trouble with your asthma, are you?”

“Surprisingly, not much. The country is doing me justice.”

“More reason to stay and settle here in Crooked Creek.” Her face paled and he felt like he’d been socked in the gut. “Did I say something wrong?”

“I’m just tired. I had a rough night sleeping. How about you?”

“Huh?”

“Sleeping?”

He internally jerked himself out of a cloud. “Sorry. Can I ask you a question? Do you always carry your inhaler with you?”

She nodded. “Yes. Although I have a mild case, I wouldn’t leave home without it.”

“Would there ever be a reason why you wouldn’t?”

“Sure. If I forgot it. When I was younger I did a lot.” She pointed to a doorway as they drove into the parking lot of the hospital. “You can drop me off at the corner by the lab.”

“I’ll take you to the door, sweetheart. A gentleman never drops a woman off far from her destination. I can go in with you if you’d like,” he offered.

“There’s no reason for you to go with me. I’ll be done shortly.”

“I’ll park in the lot. Text me when you’re finished and I’ll pick you up at the door. Okay?”

“Thank you, Zander. It won’t take long.” She offered him a small smile and he watched her until she disappeared inside the double glass doors. He found a parking place and shut off the engine just as his phone rang. Grabbing it from the console, he saw that it was Rudy. “Hey.”

“I just received a few more results from the examiner’s testing. There’s a small connection—”

“Let me guess. Our last victim had asthma just like Sabrina.”

“Yeah. How’d you know?”

“Good guess.”

“And want to know something else…they both had a high dose of scopolamine in their blood.”

“Isn’t that a drug to help people with motion sickness?” Zander asked.

“That’s the prescribed usage, but back in ninety-five, dealers were putting scopolamine poisoning in heroine. It can slow their heart and breathing down significantly and—”

“Could kill an asthmatic fast because their breathing is already hindered.” He struck the heel of his palm against the steering wheel. “I bet if we went back and looked in the medical records of our overdose victims we’ll find that every single one of them had asthma and had large amounts of scopolamine in their blood at the time of death.”

“I’ll put one of my deputies on the case.”

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