A TWISTED MIND (Clean Suspense) (Detective Jason Strong Book 21)

by John C. Dalglish

  Ellard stared at the floor.

  “Doctor Ellard, the keys, or I’ll kick the door in. Your choice.”

  He didn’t look up. “Top left drawer in my desk.”

  Jason retrieved them and took the wide stairs two-at-a-time. He returned shortly with the security DVR under his arm. He handed it over to Vanessa, then turned to the officer watching Ellard. “Thank you. We can take it from here.”

  The officer nodded and went outside.

  Ellard stood. “I don’t understand the meaning of this, but you will hear from my attorney.”

  “The search warrant pertains to your wife’s death. That’s all I can say.”

  “You talk like she was murdered or something.”

  Jason stared at him for a long moment. “Good day, sir.”

  He closed the door, leaving Ellard alone with his thoughts.

  Chapter 14

  Back at the precinct, Jason and Vanessa helped Alicia Irvine fill out the paperwork to take legal custody of all the electronic devices. Alicia gestured toward the items laid out on her worktable. “You have a preference where I start?”

  Jason and Vanessa exchanged looks. Vanessa shrugged. “I guess it doesn’t matter. Do you have to sort through the entire history of each machine, or can you do a keyword search?”

  “Once I’ve accessed the unit, I can do keywords. What in particular?”

  “Two things. Express Scripts and Uloric.”

  “I’ll make them a priority.”

  Jason pointed at the laptop. “On second thought, start with the laptop that belonged to Dale Ellard.”

  Alicia scooped up the computer. “On it.”

  Jason and Vanessa left the lab and went back to the third floor. Vanessa stopped at her desk and picked up a manila envelope. “What have we here?”

  Jason dropped into his chair. “You want me to guess, or are you going to open it?”

  She rolled her eyes, pulled back the flap, and removed a thick sheaf of paper. “Oh, good.”

  “You still want me to guess?”

  “It’s from Doctor Emily Lawson.”

  “Ellard’s medical records.”

  “Yeah,” She hefted the stack of paper. “Alot here to sort through.”

  “Too much.” He picked up his phone and dialed. “Let’s try something quicker.”

  A friendly female voice answered. “Doctor Lawson’s office.”

  “Yes, is Doctor Lawson in?”

  “She’s with a patient. Can I take a message?”

  “Please. This is Detective Strong with the San Antonio Police Department. “Will you ask Doctor Lawson to call me as soon as possible?”

  “Sure.”

  Jason gave her the number and hung up.

  Not three minutes later, his phone rang. “Homicide. Detective Strong.”

  “Yes, Detective. This is Emily Lawson.”

  “Thank you for calling me back so quickly.”

  “Of course. I sent the records the warrant specified to your precinct.”

  “Yes, ma’am. We received them and appreciate it, but I wondered if you might answer a question about Dale Ellard that could save us a great deal of time.”

  “As long as it pertains to the things in the warrant, I’d be glad to.”

  “When Mr. Ellard was treated for gout last year, what drug was he prescribed?”

  “All my patients are prescribed Allopurinol.”

  “Could you spell that?”

  She patiently fed him the letters one at a time.

  “Thank you. What about Uloric? Did he take that drug?”

  “No. I only prescribe Uloric when Allopurinol is not effective. Because of side effects, I only use it if absolutely necessary. As I recall, that was not the case with Dale Ellard.”

  Jason let out a sigh of relief. “Okay.”

  “Good news?”

  “Let’s just say you helped keep Pandora’s box closed.”

  “Glad to help.”

  “Thank you so much for calling back.”

  “Goodbye.”

  “Bye.”

  Vanessa was watching him. “Judging by the look on your face, I’m guessing Dale Ellard was never prescribed Uloric.”

  “You’re guessing correctly. If he had been prescriber Uloric, then the pill bottle would not necessarily be the source of Janet’s poison. The script and pill bottle may have been to frame Colton.”

  Jason reached for his phone again and dialed the morgue.

  “Medical Examiner’s office. Hatcher.”

  “Noah, it’s Jason Strong.”

  “Hi, Jason.”

  “I have a drug question for you.”

  “Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.”

  Surprised, Jason let out a laugh. “No, not that.”

  “Oh! Something more in depth?”

  “Slightly.”

  “Okay. Fire away.”

  “Could the drug Allopurinol be confused with Uloric at autopsy?”

  “Wow. That is more in depth. Well, for starters, do you remember I mentioned enzymes were the confirmation for the presence of Uloric in Mrs. Ellard’s body?”

  “Sure…I think.”

  Noah chuckled. “Well, one of the enzymes involved is something called purine. That enzyme was present in Janet Ellard’s liver panel. Allopurinol is a purine inhibitor, thus—”

  “Purine wouldn’t be present.”

  “Exactly. May I ask why the curiosity?”

  “Dale Ellard was treated for gout last year. His doctor gave him Allopurinol, not Uloric.”

  “Ah, I see. Well, that med was not the cause of Mrs. Ellard’s death.”

  “Got it. Thanks.”

  “You bet.”

  Jason hung up. Vanessa cocked her head to one side. “Your expression hasn’t changed from when you talked to Ellard’s doctor.”

  He smiled. “Because the result hasn’t changed. If Dale Ellard poisoned his wife with Uloric, he didn’t get it from his doctor. That means the pill bottle is still our only source.”

  “We need a copy of the actual prescription, which should be coming from Express Scripts.”

  He looked at the clock on the wall. “Not today.”

  “Which means we’re stuck with no leads to follow.”

  He rubbed his neck. “Which also means I probably won’t sleep well tonight.”

  “Gonna play things over and over again in your head?”

  He sighed. “Nature of the beast.”

  “True story.”

  *******

  The next morning, Jason was up with the sun and on his way to the station. As he had predicted, he did not have a good night’s sleep, but at least there weren’t any nightmares. Tossing and turning while he rehashes evidence was always preferable to them.

  As with every detective he’d ever known who worked Homicide, some of what he saw at work would ultimately slip over into his dreams. Crime scenes would haunt his sleep, bolting him upright in the darkened bedroom, terrified. Sandy had learned to accept them, and would rub his shoulder, telling him It’s a nightmare. You’re okay. I’m here.

  Dripping with sweat, he’d get up and go to the kitchen. A glass of milk and several minutes at the table would allow his heartrate to settle, after which he would return to bed, sometimes lying awake for hours.

  Vanessa had her own nightmares, and she’d revealed that the worst had come lately. Taking a bullet had shaken her to the core. Jason had wondered if she might transfer, or even quit, but she had put an end to that speculation at the retirement banquet for Doc Davis.

  When the elevator doors opened on the third floor, he spotted her already at her desk. As he lowered himself into his desk chair, she looked up. “I almost called you.”

  “Almost?”

  “Figured you’d roll in any time. I got the Express Scripts copy of the prescription. Look.”

  She handed it to him. He checked the prescription pad heading—the Ellards’ medical practice. Next, he scanned down to the sign
ature. “Dale Ellard.”

  “Yeah. So what if Dale was conveniently out of town on the day his wife was poisoned, but knew Cole would be at the office. Dale gets Uloric for Cole, then Cole delivers it.”

  Jason cast a skeptical look in her direction. “But Cole passed the polygraph with flying colors.”

  “We’ve seen that before.”

  He gave a reluctant shrug. “True.”

  Vanessa handed a letter-sized piece of paper to him. “That’s a copy of the Express Scripts tracking form. The medicine was delivered by Fed-Ex. The date and time are registered, and the package was signed for by Dale Ellard.”

  Jason studied the signatures on the prescription and the Fed-Ex form. They were identical. “This is significant but not enough. We need to put the pill bottle in one of the two Ellard’s hands.”

  “You have an idea how?”

  He nodded. “I do. Are you prepared to watch some video?”

  “The office security tapes?”

  “Exactly. If we can watch Ellard sign for the drugs, we’ll have him for conspiracy at least!”

  *******

  The dark did little to hide the tension and sense of anticipation in the conference room. Jason had downloaded the security footage to a pair of flash drives so they could watch it on his laptop, away from distractions. He loaded the first drive and the screen lit up, divided into a four angle view, only three of which showed camera shots.

  Using the touchpad, Jason clicked on the front door camera shot and it zoomed out to fill the whole screen. “See the time.”

  Vanessa compared it to the receipt. “That’s ten minutes before the package was signed for.”

  Jason hit play and they watched as the footage rolled steadily forward. Cars appeared along the top of the screen as they passed by on Lexington Avenue. A white Chevy pulled into a parking spot in front of the office, and a middle-aged woman got out. She approached the front door and entered the office.

  They continued watching. Jason had one eye on the playback and one on the time stamp in the corner of the screen. For several minutes, their eyes remained glued to the computer.

  Eventually, Vanessa sat back. “Time has passed.”

  Jason paused the playback. “You think the delivery came through the back door?”

  Vanessa shrugged. “Maybe.”

  Jason hit a couple keys and the picture returned to the four shot angle. He then clicked on the back door camera and restarted the process. They watched for over ten minutes, the nearly unchanging shot only disturbed by a stray cat gliding down the alley.

  Vanessa sighed. “Time’s passed.”

  Jason stopped the tape. “We’re missing something.”

  “Agreed, but what? Could the date on the receipt be wrong?”

  Jason snapped his fingers. “No, but the time on the video could be.”

  He returned to view to the entrance door camera and sped the video forward nearly an hour, then hit play. Not two minutes later, a Fed-Ex truck stopped directly in front of the office. Jason paused the playback gave his partner a look of disgust. “Daylight savings time. In the spring, the clocks are moved forward an hour. We should have known Ellard never bothered to fix the time on the security system.”

  Vanessa smiled. “You should have known. You’re the one in charge of the video.”

  He laughed, buoyed by the fact they may still have their killer on tape. “Watch out. That bus you just threw me under may be backing up for you.”

  She ignored the warning. “Let it play.”

  Jason restarted the video. The driver exited the van carrying a small envelope and went directly inside. “It wasn’t accepted at the door.” Jason hit the necessary keys and changed the view to the reception desk.

  The driver handed over the package and held out his scanner for a signature. Jason turned quickly to look at Vanessa. “Doesn’t the acceptance have Dale Ellard’s signature?”

  Vanessa just nodded, her eyes locked on the screen, her face painted in surprise.

  “Then she signed Dale Ellard’s name to it.”

  Destiny Carter smiled at the Fed-Ex driver before returning the handheld scanner. He nodded and left the shot. Destiny glanced over her shoulder, then moved to the end of the desk. Pulling her purse from a large drawer, she dropped the package inside.

  The whole thing had taken less than sixty seconds, but in that instant, everything had changed everything.

  Jason stopped the video on the shot of Destiny closing the drawer. “Not what I expected to see.”

  Vanessa slumped back in her chair. “It doesn’t make sense. Why would she want to kill Janet Ellard?”

  Jason leaned back and stared at the ceiling. “Maybe she and Ellard had something going. They wanted Janet out of the way.”

  “Seriously?” Skepticism oozed out of her.

  “You know—what do they call it—a May-September romance?”

  “More like January-December! There’s more than thirty years between them.”

  “Okay, I admit it’s a stretch.”

  “It’s a quantum leap, and besides, Destiny dated Colt. A romance with his father would just be weird.”

  “Then why? Assuming we don’t see her pass the drug on.”

  Vanessa shrugged. “I don’t know, but let’s watch the rest of the day. Maybe she did have an accomplice.”

  Jason restarted the video. They watched the entire rest of the day, always checking to see the purse was removed from the drawer or if someone else opened the drawer and stole the pills. Not once did they find evidence that the purse, and the pills inside, had been handled by anyone other than Destiny. Eventually, she left for home, the purse on her shoulder.

  Jason shut off video. “I’m no expert, but the signature on the prescription pad and the one on the Fed-Ex delivery appear to be the same. Do we have anything with Dale Ellard’s known signature on it?”

  Vanessa thought about it for a moment, then bolted upright. “Wait here.”

  She turned on the light, left the room, and returned in less than a minute with a manila envelope. “I bet we can find something he signed in his medical records.”

  “Good idea. Pass me some of that pile.”

  Vanessa divided the package roughly in half and they both started scanning one sheet after another.

  Nearly twenty minutes later and half way into her pile, Vanessa stopped. “I’ve got it, and you’ll never guess on what?”

  “Then I won’t try.”

  “A DNR.” She slid the sheet to Jason. “What do you think?”

  Jason held the signature from the Fed-Ex receipt side to side with the Do Not Resuscitate form. “Like I said, I’m no expert, but there are definite differences.”

  “So Destiny ordered the drug and signed for it. That still leaves us without a motive.”

  “Then perhaps we should ask her.”

  Jason called over to the medical office.

  “Ellard Mental Health.”

  “Destiny?”

  “Yes.”

  “This is Detective Strong.”

  “Oh, hello Detective.”

  “Has the office reopened?”

  “No, not until after the funeral.”

  “So you’re just watching the phones in the meantime?”

  “Yes.”

  “I have some questions for you. Can you come by after work?”

  “Uh, sure, I guess. I’ll be closing in a half hour or so.”

  “Great. See you soon.”

  “Okay. Bye.”

  Jason hung up and looked at Vanessa. “She’s coming.”

  “What tactic should we use?”

  “How about good cop-bad cop.”

  “Who will be the bad cop?”

  “You.”

  Vanessa rolled her eyes. “Me? I’m always the bad cop!”

  Jason shrugged. “And it always seems to work. Why mess with success?”

  “Fine.”

  Jason’s phone rang. “Homicide. Detective Strong.” />
  “Yes. This is Alicia Irvine.”

  “Hey, Alicia. I’m putting you on speaker.” Jason punched the button. “Go ahead.”

  “I’m done with Dale Ellard’s laptop.”

  “Find anything?”

  “Nothing that stands out. I can tell you he never did a search for Uloric.”

  Jason bobbed his head, even though she couldn’t see it. “We’re not surprised.”

  “Oh? Why not?”

  “Kind of long story. Let’s just say we have moved the Doctor to the back burner.”

  “Okay. Anyway, I started on the front desk tower, and after getting access, I ran the same search.”

  “For Uloric?”

  “Yes, but also for the keyword poison.”

  “And?”

  “I found a huge cache of searches and articles on both—Uloric and poison. There were some different drugs researched as well.”

  “Could you tell who did the searches?”

  “Sort of.”

  Vanessa’s eyes grew wide. “Sort of?”

  “I can tell you that the log-in used belonged to Destiny Carter. What I can’t be sure of is if the searches were done by her or someone else using her log-in.”

  Jason sighed. “Understood, Alicia. Anything else?”

  “Not at this time.”

  “Okay. Can you print out the search history pertaining to Uloric?”

  “Sure.”

  “Great. I’ll retrieve it here in a bit.”

  “Okay. Bye.”

  Jason hit disconnect. “Why don’t we use the searches as a way to confront her.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “Let’s get the interview room ready, then we’ll go after the print-outs.”

  Vanessa glanced at her watch. “Destiny should be getting off in about ten minutes.”

  “We’ll be ready.”

  Chapter 15

  Vanessa was waiting in the lobby of the precinct when Destiny arrived. “Miss Carter, thank you for coming down. Will you follow me please?”

  “Uh…sure.”

  Vanessa led her to a pair of doors and hesitated, waiting for them to get buzzed in. Destiny’s expression, a mixture of confusion and consternation, was exactly what Vanessa and Jason were hoping for. The goal—keep Destiny off balance at the beginning—then let Jason right the ship.