Chapter 10 – A Second Crime
Detective Sarah Monroe arrived at the Medical Examiner’s Office less than twenty minutes after receiving the call. The building was quiet, its sterile white hallways carrying the faint scent of antiseptic.
Dr. Alan Pierce was waiting outside his office with a thick file tucked beneath his arm.
“You sounded urgent,” Monroe said.
“I am.”
He closed the door behind them and spread several photographs and laboratory reports across his desk.
“At first, we believed the baby died solely because of the fall.”
Monroe frowned.
“And now?”
“There’s more.”
He pointed to a toxicology report.
“We routinely test maternal blood in cases involving fetal death. Emily’s samples came back with traces of a sedative.”
Monroe looked up.
“A sedative?”
Dr. Pierce nodded.
“A prescription-strength benzodiazepine. The concentration wasn’t high enough to kill her, but it would have caused dizziness, slowed reflexes, and muscle weakness.”
“So if she seemed unsteady…”
“People would assume she simply lost her balance.”
Monroe’s expression hardened.
“Could the medication have contributed to the miscarriage?”
“It certainly made her less able to protect herself during the fall.”
Silence settled over the room.
Finally, Monroe asked the question neither of them wanted to consider.
“Could someone have given it to her without her knowledge?”
Dr. Pierce slid another document across the desk.
“The drug was mixed with alcohol.”
Emily had attended the Carter Foundation charity gala.
Champagne had been served all evening.
Monroe’s pulse quickened.
“You’re saying someone may have drugged her before she was pushed.”
“I’m saying the evidence strongly suggests it.”
An hour later, Monroe met Ethan in the hospital cafeteria.
He looked exhausted, his shirt wrinkled from another sleepless night.
“What is it?” he asked.
Monroe hesitated before speaking.
“There’s evidence Emily was drugged before the incident.”
Ethan stared at her.
“That’s impossible.”
“Was anyone serving her drinks?”
He thought back to the gala.
Emily had accepted a single glass of sparkling wine before switching to sparkling water.
Then his face changed.
“There was a toast.”
Monroe leaned forward.
“Who handed her the glass?”
Ethan’s eyes widened as the memory came rushing back.
“My cousin... Victoria.”
He whispered the name as if saying it aloud made it real.
“She insisted on bringing Emily a fresh drink because she said the waiter was taking too long.”
Monroe wrote the name in her notebook.
May you like
The case had just taken a dangerous turn.
If Emily had been drugged before the push, then Margaret might not have acted alone.
