Page 116 of See You Again
Cami set down her glass and twisted her thick hair into a rope over her shoulder. “Depending on the poison, once enough is in the system, there is nothing that can reverse the damage. I would think, given your father’s age, it might have made his systems more susceptible.”
“But how did they administer it?” Wes asked. “I’ve done some research myself. Most poisons have to be taken orally. Even if the last time he ingested it was a month before, would it take that long for him to…”
“No.” Her voice was calm, though it couldn’t be easy sharing the information, knowing how it made them all feel. “He would have succumbed much sooner than that, and the symptoms would have been much more obvious. My best guess… keeping in mind, I’m not a chemist or biologist, is that it was still being slipped to him close to the time of his death.”
“Is there anything else it could be other than thallium?” Anne asked. “I called some colleagues from my old university, and they said there are a number of poisons that wouldn’t necessarily show up on an initial blood test.”
“You asked them about untraceable poisons?” Siobhan laughed.
“I told them I was writing a murder mystery,” his mother answered primly. “They said most common poisons are tested for and would have shown up on his blood panel. Declan has the medical records that prove tests were run. Correct?”
“Yes. Dr. Keller said the same thing when I spoke to him,” Luke added. “He had ordered more extensive toxin testing and scheduled Dad to go to the hospital the day before he died."
“Declan confirmed that.” James added. “There was a test scheduled at the hospital. It’s why, even though he helped falsify the will, we don’t think he actively took part in the murder.” Cami shifted in her seat next to him. “Cami, what do you think?”
Her eyes lifted to his, then cautiously scanned the table. “I don’t want to upset anyone. It’s hard enough when you lose a loved one. It's even worse when someone takes that person away from you.”
“It can’t be any worse than going in circles, not knowing,” Luke pointed out. “Plus, if we can figure out how she did it, we can come up with a way to prove it.”
Cami began slowly, as if despite their assurances, she wanted to tread lightly. “As your colleagues said, there are a handful of poisons that mimic the symptoms I’ve heard described. Arsenic, ethyl glycol, thallium, and polonium are the ones that first come to mind.” She gave them all an apologetic look. “My experience with poison is limited to the ones that have been used to murder people. The doctors would have tested for arsenic and ethyl glycol because they are pretty common. Polonium is rare but the symptoms fit, upset GI tract, loss of hair, cognitive function issues.” She shook her head. “But you said your dad had been sick for a while?”
“We don’t know for sure.” Cara’s voice was sad, and Wes standing behind her squeezed her shoulder. “None of us were in close contact with him, and when I tried, Courtney ran interference. Her sons, Trey and Matt, were the only other people who had regular access to the house besides staff. When I saw him a couple of weeks before he died, Dad was already very ill.”
“When he showed up on my doorstep in Dublin, he looked as if he could collapse at any second.” Siobhan frowned.
“That was after you saw him, Cara?” Cami asked and waited for them to confirm. “So, he continued to decline even when he was far from home. Did Courtney or any of her family go on the trip with him?”
“Only Vincent Menardi, my father’s head of security,” Luke said.
“Did he have something to gain?” Cami cocked her head.
James frowned. They had been trying to track Vincent down ever since Mrs. Woodson told them their father’s fear—but as a witness not a suspect. Unfortunately, the man seemed to have disappeared.
He met Luke’s eyes and could see his brother was thinking the same thing. “I would have said Vincent was loyal to our father. I thought there was nothing he wouldn’t do…”
“Money talks,” Siobhan spit.
“The new will cut him out, too.” James pointed out.
“Maybe Courtney paid him?” Dahlia suggested.
“If Dad was nervous about his food, would he have taken something from Vincent? He had to eat on the trip, and Mrs. Woodson wasn’t there.” Cara sighed. “I don’t think he would have gone with Vincent if he suspected him, and at that point, he had to have been paranoid about everyone in his circle.”
“Including us, since he never mentioned it,” Luke muttered.
“Polonium has to be ingested, and your timeline is too long for it to be that.” Cami spoke again. “Not to mention it is incredibly difficult to obtain. The tiniest amount can kill you. If someone poisoned him, they must have used something that was easily concealed and distributed. Something that could be given over time and rare enough that it wouldn’t show up on the first toxicology panels. The only thing I can think of that fits that bill is thallium.”
Dahlia nodded. “When Luke first told me what had happened with his father, I thought about the case you covered.”
“Where would Courtney have gotten the thallium from?” Anne asked.
“It was widely used as pest control in the United States in previous decades. Does she have access to industrial pesticides or old rat traps?” Cami looked around the table.
“The only work history we know about Courtney is that for some period she was a dancer before she branched out into running an escort service.”
“We know that for sure?” Anne asked.
Wes nodded. “Once I knew the nature of her business, it wasn’t hard to find her old company on the internet. She was smart and used a couple of different shell companies as fronts, but it points back to her.”