Page 35 of So Wicked

Foster’s eyes flew open at the word murder. “Murder? You’re kidding me!”

“No, ma’am.”

“But…” She looked at Slade. “You said it was for assault on a law enforcement officer and tampering with evidence!”

“Those charges too,” Slade agreed. “You didn’t even give us a chance to talk before committing those crimes, but we’re going to talk now.”

“But I didn’t kill anyone!”

“As I said,” Faith continued. “You’re suspected of the murder of—”

“Ididn’t kill anyone!”

“You’ll get your chance to talk, Dr. Foster,” Faith replied.

“But…” Foster slumped backwards. “Shit.”

“As I said,” Faith repeated. “You’re suspected of the murders of Dr. Rachel Summers, Dr. Lisa Patel and Dr. Mark Chen.”

Foster flinched. Slade lifted an eyebrow. “You recognize those names?”

She shook her head rapidly.

“Let’s try again,” Slade said. “Only this time, pretend I already know the answer to that question, and I’m just trying to figure out how honest you’re going to be with me.”

Foster released a sound that reminded Faith of Turk whining. “This is fucking bullshit.”

“We get it,” Faith said sternly. “This is unfair. This is wrong. You’re innocent, and you’re suffering for no reason. Now answer our questions.”

“I…” Foster tapped her foot anxiously on the ground. “I know them, but I didn’t kill them.”

“How do you know them?”

Foster rolled her eyes. “We were supposed to be on a panel together last year at the Great Lakes Veterinary Conference. I ended up pulling out of the panel.”

“You pulled out, or you were asked to leave?”

“I pulled out voluntarily. You can check the official records.”

“We have,” Slade replied. “We’ve also dug a little deeper than the official records. You want to tell us about the unethical conduct you engaged in that raised concerns with the other panelists?”

Foster’s lips thinned. “I didn’t engage in any unethical conduct.”

“Really? Because according to some of the organizers, the panelists caught you behaving unethically and asked for you to be removed from the panel.”

“Well, I don’t know what they said. I know that I was asked to leave, and I did.”

Faith leaned back and crossed her arms. “So now we’ve gone from leaving voluntarily to being asked to leave.”

“Yes, I was asked to leave, and I left voluntarily.”

“And you don’t know about any unethical conduct?”

“No.”

“So you didn’t know that they accused you of stealing drugs and trying to resell them during the conference?”

Foster swallowed. “No. The event organizers just told me I could either leave, or they could make my life very hard.”

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