Page 78 of With a Vengeance

Anna doesn’t—and not just because she’s certain of Dante’s innocence. “He mixed all four martinis in the same shaker.”

“What about after he poured them?”

That’s another no. Anna clearly remembers Dante pouring the drinks into four glasses before spreading his arms wide and saying, “Come and get ’em.” After that, he stood back as the others approached the bar and grabbed a martini of their choice. Sal first, then Herb, Lapsford, and, finally, Judd.

“There you go,” Reggie says. “One of them must have slipped the poison into his glass while they were choosing.”

“But I was watching,” Anna says. “We all were.”

She closes her eyes, replaying the scene in her memory. In her mind’s eye, it looks like a movie. Bright and flickering. She watches it like a movie, too. One she’s seen before. Instead of getting caught up in the plot, she scans the background for details whose importance she missed in the moment. She sees Sal take her glass and Herb grab his. She watches Lapsford reach for one of the remaining glasses, decide against it, pick up the other. Judd takes what’s left.

Anna sits up as a forgotten detail emerges. Lapsford brushing against Judd as he leaves the bar. That touch, while brief, could have been the moment Lapsford dropped poison into Judd’s glass before moving smoothly away.

But it wasn’t, Anna quickly realizes. The contact occurred while Judd was still on his way to the bar, meaning there was noglass in his hand when Lapsford passed. And no one was near Judd after he carried his drink to the center of the car.

Anna keeps mentally replaying the moment, telling Reggie what she sees in her memory. Sal gulping from her drink, her lipstick staining the rim of the glass. Herb taking tiny, nervous sips. Lapsford glaring at her over his glass, probably at that very moment finalizing his plan to fake a heart attack. Judd, off on his own, seemingly so uninterested in his drink that he yawns.

Things get blurry after that. There was so much activity going on in the lounge. First the train that clattered past, followed by Lapsford’s fake emergency and Judd’s sudden, surprising demise. While she might have missed plenty of details in those moments, Anna made sure to note where everyone was located during all of it. At no point while the glass was in Judd’s hand did anyone get close enough to poison him.

But therewaspoison in his drink. She’d seen it with her own eyes. That gritty residue on the inside of the glass, bearing the same smell as the rat poison in the galley. It seems to her that the only person who could have put it there is Judd himself.

Anna gasps as it suddenly hits her.

A missing detail she’d only vaguely noticed, unaware of how important it would turn out to be. Not that she could have known. After all, how can something be considered important if it never even happened?

“He didn’t drink it,” Anna says to Reggie now. “The whole time that martini was in Judd’s hand, he never once took a sip.”

Reggie perks up. “Are you sure?”

Rather than answer, Anna springs to her feet. A signal that she’s certain. Not just about Judd never taking a sip of his martini, but the fact that he wasn’t poisoned at all.

The thought that Judd has been playing dead this whole time rattles through her head, louder than the train itself. And as sherushes to the door, Anna can only think of one reason why he’d do such a thing.

She pushes out of the room, leaving Reggie with no choice but to follow her. Seamus hears them and peeks out from his own room, confused.

“What’s going on?” he says.

“I’ll explain later,” Anna tells him as she moves to the next car. Seamus trails after her, getting in line right behind Reggie. Over her shoulder, Anna says, “When you checked Judd’s pulse, are you sure you didn’t feel one?”

“Yes,” Seamus says. “I’m sure. There was nothing.”

Reggie gives him a brief backward glance. “Do you know the proper way to check someone’s pulse?”

“There’s a proper way?”

“So that’s a no,” Reggie mutters.

Seamus scowls at the back of his head. “Who are you to judge? And where are we going?”

“Judd’s room,” Anna says between cars.

“Why?”

“Because he might be the killer.”

Anna slows once they enter the train’s second-to-last car. An unconscious calming. As if she doesn’t want to wake the dead now resting in its rooms. One of whom, it turns out, might not be dead at all. Another reason Anna remains quiet. If Judd is still alive, she doesn’t want him to know they’re coming.

Outside the door to Room C, she presses an index finger to her lips, signaling to Reggie and Seamus that they also need to be quiet. Because the man inside is assumed to be dead, Anna knows the door is unlocked. She reaches out, slowly grasping the handle. Then, without warning, she flings the door open.

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