Chapter 13: Double Dose

I waited until Marshall's breathing went slow, and then I got out of bed and walked to the bathroom with my hand on the wall.

I locked the door and ran the tap.

I knelt on the cold tile and put two fingers down my throat.

It took three tries. The pill came up with everything else I had eaten that day.

Afterward I sat with my back against the tub, shaking, with my forehead on my knees.

Under the door I saw a thin line of light from the hall, and in it, two shadows.

Someone was standing outside, very still.

I held my breath until the shadows went away. A moment later, the guest room door closed with a soft click.

Melanie had heard every minute of it.

Two days later, on Thursday at ten, Frances sat at my kitchen table with a folder.

Marshall was at the office. Melanie had left for campaign headquarters in a yellow dress and a cloud of perfume.

Behind Frances stood Duncan McGowan, holding a cardboard box of files against his chest.

"He's my moving man this morning," Frances said. "A box with a lawyer carrying it gets past any front door."

"I was told to take parking violations until further notice," Duncan said. "I have time."

I almost smiled, and I put it away.

Frances opened the folder. "The lab cut open every tablet you gave me."

"And?"

"They're stamped the way your pharmacy stamps them. Inside, each one holds twenty milligrams of zolpidem."

"My prescription is ten," I said.

"Double the label, all fourteen. And there's a second drug in every one, a heavy sedative nobody ever prescribed you."

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