He Called Every Truth a Lie novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Tonic

Joanna refuses Inez's tonic, a pharmacist reads the imprint on her thyroid pills and says they are a strong sedative, and the pickup log shows Toby collects them every Thursday.

Inez did not raise her voice on the stairs, and that was how she always won.

"I came to apologize," she said. "Tristram was cruel tonight, and I should have stopped him."

Bridget stepped in front of me with her keys held between her fingers.

"It's three in the morning, Mrs. Nordin. You can apologize by leaving."

"Of course." Inez held out the thermos.

"Only take this, Joanna. It's the same tonic you've had every morning. Chamomile and a little honey."

I had never once seen what was in it.

It had arrived at my bedside every day for a year, poured by Inez or by the cook.

I had drunk it because refusing would have gone in the book.

"No, thank you," I said.

Her face softened with so much sorrow that I almost felt sorry for her.

"You're confused, dear. You always are after one of your episodes. I'll leave it at the door."

She set it down on the mat.

Then she went down the stairs with one hand on the rail.

Bridget waited until the street door closed.

She picked up the thermos with two fingers and carried it into her kitchen.

"We're not drinking that," she said.

"I know."

"We're also not pouring it out. It's evidence."

She was a school nurse, and she labeled the thermos with tape and a marker.

Then she put it in the back of her refrigerator behind the yogurt.

I slept on her couch with the Ledger under my pillow.

At eight in the morning she put a cup of plain coffee in my hand and said, "Show me the pills."

I took the orange bottle out of my purse.

It was my thyroid medicine, the one Inez's own doctor had prescribed after the wedding.

Bridget tipped two tablets into her palm and turned them over.

"These are small and white," she said. "Yours were always the pink ones."

"Inez said the pharmacy changed brands."

"Did you ever see the pharmacy change brands?"

I hadn't.

I had never been to that pharmacy.

Toby or Inez always picked up my refills so I wouldn't have to take time off work.

They had been so kind about it.

The pharmacy was open at nine.

The woman behind the counter had gray roots and a name tag with a coffee stain on it.

She took the bottle from my hand without a word.

She looked at the imprint on the tablet.

Then she typed something and looked again.

"Where did you get these?" she asked.

"Here. I think. A refill."

"Ma'am, that's our thyroid label. The tablets inside it aren't levothyroxine."

My mouth went dry.

"What are they?"

"A sedative. A strong one." She said it slowly and clearly.

"It's the kind a doctor gives for a few nights at the most. It makes you foggy and it makes you fall down."

Seven months ago I had woken on my bathroom floor.

Eleven months ago I had been found at the bottom of the back stairs.

I held onto the counter.

"I take one every morning," I said.

"Do you also take something to stay awake?"

"No."

"Then it's a wonder you can drive."

Bridget put her arm around my back.

"Is this the pharmacy that fills her real prescription?" she asked.

The pharmacist pulled up my file and turned the monitor toward us.

There were two lines for every month going back a year.

The first line was my thyroid pills, filled correctly, with the right pink tablet.

The second line was the sedative, filled under a doctor's name I did not know.

Both bottles had been collected every time.

"Someone has been emptying the sedative into the thyroid bottle," the pharmacist said. "The label stays right and the pill is wrong."

"Who picks these up?" Bridget asked.

The pharmacist scrolled to the signature column.

"Same person every Thursday," she said. "Right at four, when my shift changes."

She read the name off the screen.

"Toby Nordin."

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