WHEN JACK GOT HOME A LITTLE AFTER TWO, HE WAS SURPRISED not to see Taylor’s car in the driveway.
“Where’s Mommy?” he asked Beau, whose ears went back at the word Mommy.
Jack pulled out his phone and sent her a text.
Came home early. Where are you?
A minute later she answered. At the playground. Be home soon.
He went upstairs and unpacked his things, then went to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator and Georgia’s book about infidelity from the table.
“Come on, buddy. Let’s go outside.”
Beau followed him and took a seat by his feet as Jack sat down on the porch swing and drank in the view and breathed in the warm spring breeze. He looked at Georgia’s book and thought about Scotty’s infidelity. Taylor was going to be surprised, and happy, when he told her that he had called him, but he would make it clear that Scotty was still on probation as far as he was concerned. There was a part of Jack that was relieved he’d had an excuse to reach out. He hated not seeing his sister and his nieces more often. But there was also that part of him that didn’t want to be hurt again. He’d always been a believer in the old fool me once adage. But it would be good for Evan to see his cousins more often, and it would make Jack’s mother happy to see all her children getting along.
He became absorbed in the book quickly, impressed at how well Georgia had managed to explain the intricacies of brain science in a way that was both interesting and easy to understand. As soon as he finished the second chapter, he pulled out the card she’d left with him the other night and dialed her number. She answered on the first ring.
“Hi, Georgia. It’s Jack Logan. I was hoping I could take you up on your offer to brainstorm about my story.”
“Absolutely! How’s it coming along?”
He told her that meth had been detected in all the cases so far. “I’ve got a copy of one of the toxicology reports that I could email to you.”
“Sure.” She gave him her email address.
“Perfect. Thanks.” Just as he disconnected, Taylor’s car pulled up. He walked down to the driveway, opened the car door, and unlatched a sleeping Evan from his car seat, mouthing a quiet hello to Jeremy who was getting out of the passenger side.
“There goes his afternoon nap,” Taylor whispered. “Maybe we can get him in the house without him waking.” But as the words left her lips, Evan began to cry and rub his eyes.
“Hey, bub, it’s okay. Daddy’s got you.”
They all went in the house and Evan struggled out of Jack’s arms and ran over to Beau.
“Doggy,” he said, patting Beau on the head, and the two of them tromped off to the playroom.
“How was the playground?”
“Fine,” Taylor answered, sounding distracted.
Jack asked, “No word yet, huh?”
She shook her head. “If I don’t hear by four, I’m going to call the office.”
As if on cue, her phone rang. She glanced at the screen, looked up at Jack, and swiped. “Hello?”
Jack’s heart beat like a jackhammer as he waited, watching her face for an indication of the news.
“Dr. Manta, yes?”
Jack held his breath as he waited.
“Okay. . . . Good. What a relief! Yes, I’ll do that. Make the appointment for next week? Okay, thank you.”
A huge smile broke out on her face. “The CBC was normal. Blood counts all good. Iron a little low, but not significant. The thalassemia results will take a few more days, but he thinks it was really just a fluke. He wants us to try some iron supplements, but he doesn’t think it’s anything worrisome.”
“I told you!” Jeremy said.
Jack hadn’t realized just how terrified he’d been until just now. Walking over to Taylor, he pulled her into a hug and she squeezed him back. When she pulled away, he saw tears in her eyes.
“That was the longest twenty-four hours of my life,” she said, shaking her head.
“I know,” Jack answered.
They went into the playroom, where Evan was running around chanting a steady stream of nonsense words, Beau chasing behind him.
“He certainly seems to have regained his energy,” Jack commented.
Taylor nodded. “Yeah. But I still want to know why his iron is so low.”
Jack could see her elation had been short-lived, and until she had a complete answer, her worry wouldn’t be completely abated. Not that he blamed her—they did need to know why.
“I’m going with you when we take him back,” he told her. “In fact, let’s make a list before we go so we make sure we cover everything with the doctor.”
Jeremy laughed. “That poor pediatrician won’t know what hit him, with the two of you interrogating him.”
Taylor gave him a warm smile. “Thank you again for being here. You don’t know how much it means to me.”
Jeremy hugged her. “Where else would I be? I’ll always be there for you.”
“By the way, I spoke with Georgia Lakos just a few minutes ago,” Jack said.
Taylor looked at him in surprise.
“I’m going to send her one of the tox reports and she promised she’d review it.” He turned to Jeremy. “I’d like you to look at it as well.”
Jeremy nodded. “Of course.”
Evan came up to Taylor, arms outstretched. “Up up up up up.” Each word becoming more insistent. She leaned down to pick him up. “That twenty-minute nap in the car didn’t quite do the trick.”
“How about if I take him upstairs and read him a story? Maybe I can get him to fall asleep,” Jeremy suggested.
“That would be great. Thanks,” Taylor said.
She and Jack went into the kitchen.
“Did your segment shoot schedule get finalized?” Jack asked.
“Yes, Karen just emailed me. They want to make sure everything’s ready to go before the Supreme Court decision comes in. We’ll have it taped and ready to preempt anything scheduled then. I’ll finish up with Georgia tomorrow. I’ve already got the first segment recorded. I don’t need to go to Colorado tomorrow. They’re going to do the shoot without me.”
“That’s great. So . . . I called Scotty to look into some of the other deaths.”
She looked at him in surprise. “You called Scotty?”
“Yeah. I’m going over to their house to meet him on Thursday.”
“You’re going to need to tell me more. Why the sudden change of heart?”
He filled her in on the meth connection and his suspicions. “I needed some help getting that information, and I figured he owed me one.”
She put her hand on his. “Jack. Come on. He and Maria are good now. He messed up, yes, but she forgave him, and you need to forgive him too.”
He was grateful that she didn’t throw his own mistake back at him. “I know. I know. He’s going to show me the tox reports on the other deaths and then we’ll come up with a game plan.”
“You still believe they were slipped the drugs without their knowledge?”
He nodded. “I do. These people just don’t fit the profile of your typical meth users. What I can’t figure out is how.”
* * *
That night, they had a quiet dinner with Evan, and later Jack was in his home office going through his notes when his cell phone rang. It was Scotty.
“Hey.”
“Well, you stumbled onto quite the hornet’s nest. This can’t wait. I’m flying to Florida later tonight—three more murder-suicides have been reported there. Meth is indicated in all the tox screens, so now we need to see if the drug mix is all the same. Thought you’d want to know. DEA won’t be far behind, I’m sure. But we got the jump on this. I should be thanking you for the lead.”
Jack let out a low whistle. “Thanks, man. Keep me posted.”
“Will do.”
Jack decided to try Maggie Russell’s widower again. “Dr. Russell? It’s Jack Logan. Do you have a few minutes?”
“Sure. What’s up?”
“I’m not convinced that your wife voluntarily took any drugs.”
There was silence.
“Dr. Russell?”
Jack heard quiet weeping on the other end of the line.
“Sorry. It’s just such a relief to think that maybe she didn’t do this on purpose. I’ve been losing so much sleep over it. What’s led you to this conclusion?”
Jack couldn’t share Scotty’s findings, but he could tell him about the other two cases that had been made public. “She’s not the only person involved in these incidents to have been found to have drugs in her system. And the others had no history of drug abuse either. I think someone gave it to her without her knowledge.”
“How is that possible?”
“Did she order any new products? Diet pills, vitamins, anything like that?”
“I don’t think so. She wasn’t much for online purchases.”
Jack thought a moment, scanning his earlier notes. “You mentioned she’d just been to the doctor for her physical. Did he do any bloodwork?”
“A full work-up and we each got our booster shots for the cold vaccine. That was it.”
Jack stopped writing for minute. Brian Doyle had mentioned his wife getting a physical. He wondered if she’d gotten the vaccine. He’d call Brian and find out. “You and your wife both got the vaccine?”
“Yes, why?”
Jack started to say something, then stopped. Could it be the vaccine? Dread filled his body. He, Taylor, and Evan had all gotten vaccinated a month ago. But millions of people had gotten it. And even Kent Russell had gotten it, and he was fine. I wonder if it could affect some people differently? Jack thought. He’d have to talk to Jeremy about it. “Just wanted to make sure my notes were correct,” he finally answered.
They spoke for a few more minutes, than Jack disconnected, and he called Mrs. Morris, the psychologist’s widow.
After a few pleasantries, he dove in. “When we spoke, you indicated that as far as you knew, your husband had never used drugs. This is turning out to be a common feeling among the families I’ve interviewed. I’m trying to see if there’s a way that maybe your husband was drugged without his knowledge.”
“I would certainly find that more believable. But why? Are you saying someone deliberately gave him something to make him go crazy? Maybe an angry ex-patient or something?”
“Not exactly.” He took a shot. “Has your husband had a physical lately?”
“Yes. The day before he . . . this happened.”
“Do you know if he was on any medication or was given a prescription?” Jack didn’t want to come right out and ask her about the vaccine.
“I don’t think so. He complained of a sore arm, but that was from the vaccine. That cold one. He didn’t get any prescriptions that I know of, though; he was in good health.”
“Okay, thank you. I’ll let you know if I find anything out.”
The cold vaccine was seeming to be a common denominator. Jack looked up the cold vaccine to see who manufactured it—Licentia Labs. The company had been in business only a couple of years, which tracked with the timing of Crosse’s so-called death. The vaccine had made the company billions. Maybe a certain lot had been inadvertently contaminated. He’d call Scotty with the update. Then they’d have to figure out who to tell next. They had to be careful. The last thing they needed to do was start a national panic.