Page 74 of Out to Get Her
What if Paul hadn’t been the only victim? What if they’d rushed to assume Mr. Sonnier died of natural causes because he was an old man with no known enemies? His medical records had shown he suffered from mild arrhythmia, so no one had suspected anything might have caused that cardiac failure other than Father Time.
Samantha’s heart pounded against her rib cage.
She had to find something tying Nathan to Dustin. Something solid. Something he couldn’t weasel out of this time. If they didn’t have irrefutable evidence, he’d make this entire investigation look like she was just a vengeful, unhinged ex-wife.
Samantha vowed to find the evidence they needed and hand it over to Gary. This wasn’t about proving herself to anyone or about the election. It wasn’t about making Nathan pay for what he’d done to her.
This was about getting justice for Paul. And maybe Michael Sonnier as well.
Inside a file folder, she found a paper from the parish lab. The initial toxicology report on Paul.
“When did this get in?”
Gary’s brow furrowed. “I didn’t know it had.”
She checked the date. “Looks like it was just filed yesterday. That was fast.”
But why hadn’t Dustin shown it to either of them?
Probably the same reason he had a bag full of evidence in his desk drawer.
She looked over the lab results while Gary peered over her shoulder. Not much to look at. The right amount of oxycodone for a man with a lingering injury and a painkiller addiction, and not much else.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” said Gary.
Samantha squinted at the other item on the report: pentobarbital. “What’s that?”
“Did Paul have seizures?”
“Not that I know of,” Samantha replied. “No one close to him mentioned it.”
“My mama was epileptic and was on that for a while,” he said. “I don’t remember for sure, but that seems like a lot.”
“Someone gave Paul seizure meds?”
Her brain raced back to Nathan. The man who’d have easy access to something like that.
Gary frowned and grunted. “I remember researching the stuff. That isn’t all it’s used for.”
Samantha’s stomach sank. She had a sickening feeling she wouldn’t like what came next. “What else?”
“Euthanasia. For pets.”
So Nathan wouldn’t be the only person with access to this stuff. A vet’s office would be even more likely than a pharmacy to have it in an injectable form.
No.
No, no, no.
Samantha dropped the file and grabbed her phone. No signal.
“Dang it.”
She rushed toward the door.
“Samantha, wait. We’ll bring them in for questioning after the storm.”
“I don’t think this can wait.”
