Chapter 6: The Tea

Nobody spoke until the door closed behind my husband.

Whitney's heels went away down the hall, quick and light.

Teo laid the knife on the desk and kept his hand near it.

"Boss," he said. "I fill that box every Friday. I've done it for two years. I never put anything in it but your pills."

"I know," Luca said.

"Do you?"

"If you'd wanted me dead, Teo, you've had two years and a clear shot."

Teo breathed out through his nose.

"Thank you for the compliment."

"Doctor," Luca said, without looking at me. "Is he lying?"

"About Teo? I think he wants us staring at Teo."

"Why?"

"Because every minute we spend on Teo is a minute we aren't looking at the right door."

I took the pill box from the desk and tipped the rest into an envelope.

"Have your chemist test these, and the ones in your silver box. I'd bet my license they're clean."

Luca's mouth went flat.

"You have no license."

"Then I'll bet something else."

An hour later the chemist's answer came up the stairs on a slip of paper.

Every tablet was clean.

Luca read it twice and put it on the blotter.

"So the pills are safe."

"They're only pills," I said. "Which means the dose gets in another way, and it's not Teo's kitchen, and it's not the pharmacy box."

"Then where?"

"You tell me. Everything. From the moment you open your eyes."

He thought about it, and I let him.

"Water. Coffee. The cigar I'm not supposed to have. The dinner Teo cooked." He stopped. "A cup of tea at the end of the day."

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