“Did you get the same message I got,” asked Bart with a puzzled look on his face.
“Don’t keep us in suspense,” said Chad, “what happened to Jerry?”
“Well Jerry dies about 25 minutes ago,” said Wilson, “they couldn’t resuscitate him and the preliminary cause they say, is a snake bite.”
“A snake bite?” Did you say a snake bite?” Repeated Chad.
“Yeah, snake bite, that is the weirdest damn thing I have ever heard of,” said Bart.
“What do you and Shelly think? Amelia asked Sophie?”
“We only saw him for a few minutes,” said Shelly, what do you think Sophie? You have probably seen snake bites in the emergency department before, I haven’t.”
Sophie said, “Yes I have seen snakebites before, mostly from the zoo in Washington DC, and come to think of it he was twitching and had the burning pain and a problem with his vision, as other patients describe, but without him being undressed and not seeing fang marks, I would be hard pressed to guess that.”
“Well they probably are going to arrange for an autopsy ASAP to see what really happened. I guess the trail is really over with Jerry dead,” said Chad.
Amelia and Chad went over to Roger, Deana, and Matt they all hugged, “I think we are finally free of him. It still hurts to think a brother of ours went so wrong. I hope I can find it in my heart to forgive him one day,” said Amelia.
“Amelia,” said Roger, “I don’t know how you can even think that, up to the very moment that he died he tried to discredit you and make you look like a whore on the stand.”
“I know, the thing is Roger, when I looked over at Jerry, he had no one except his attorney and his staff. I had all of you sitting there knowing the truth, that’s what allowed me to get through that, all I had to do was look at my husband here,” she said holding Chad’s hand, “and I got the strength.”
Chad bent down and gave her a peck.
“At least we won’t have to worry anymore and can lead a normal life again. Chad won’t have to follow me around and take me to work and pick me up.”
“I didn’t mind that at all Babe.”
[ Chapter 63 ]
In the next weeks everything settled down and got back to normal. It was Friday and Chad drove Amelia to work because her car needed some work and he would drop it off at the repair shop later. Amelia picked up yesterday’s mail and took it with her to work. She stayed late last night because they had to finished running a test for a stabbing case, she would open it on her lunch break. Buzz showed her Jerry’s autopsy report earlier that morning and it confirmed Jerry was killed by a massive amount of snake venom in his body. After she ate her lunch, she opened a large envelope and saw a card addressed to her inside the larger envelope. Deana wrote on the card. This card came for you at the farm. There was no return address and it had your maiden name on it so I thought I would send it to you. Love you, Deana.
Amelia opened the card, it said, you always took good care of children, no more worry the devil is dead. There was a picture with the card. It was Rosalie, Antonio, and Damita. Oh my, thought Amelia they are all grown up now. She noticed the sun was glaring off something on Antonio’s shirt pocket. She got her magnifier, it said, Skyline Laboratories. It must be where he works, thought Amelia. That was nice of Rosalie to send the picture she thought. Sitting at her desk and doing researching for a paper she and Buzz were planning to write, out of curiosity she Googled, Skyline Laboratories. She almost fell off her chair when she read, they were the leading producers of snake venom in the northern part of Mexico.
Secret thoughts: (Oh my God this is such a freaky happening. I’m certain that Antonio had something to do with Jerry’s bizarre death by snake bite. But what? How? The only person I will share this with is Chad we can’t trust anyone else knowing as Antonio could be in grave trouble.)
That evening Amelia planned to get carry out for dinner and watch a movie at home. When Chad came to pick her up, she told him she ordered Chinese to go and they needed to stop to pick it up. Chad went in to get the food and came out with two large bags. He put the bags in the back on the floor, got in, and began driving.
“Babe, there were two large bags did you invite anyone over. It’s a lot of food.”
“No, I didn’t invite anyone over, we get so famished after we make love.”
He looked at her. She moved closer and put her hand on his leg.
Chad said, “Babe you shouldn’t say things like that when I’m driving you have me all stirred up now.”
“I’m going to ravish you when we get home,” Amelia said with a grin.
“Ravish Babe! It’s a good thing I’m wearing sweats, is this one of your experiments honey?”
Amelia laughed out loud, “no,” she said, “I don’t have to run many tests now I know you pretty well. She moved her hand to touch his crouch, see what I mean?” She said.
“I know exactly what you mean,” he said. Picking up her hand and kissing it.
They got home and Chad and Amelia carried the food in the kitchen. He picked her up, took her to the bathroom, and undressed her and himself and they took a nice long shower. They went to the kitchen, ate their fill, and put the leftover food in the refrigerator.
They were in the overstuffed chair and she was sitting close to him.
Amelia said, “Excuse me a minute I’ll be right back.” She went and got her purse.
She opened the purse and took out the card and picture Rosalie sent her and crawled into his lap. She showed the card and the picture to Chad.
“Wow that says it all, “No more worry the devil is dead,” Chad paraphrased, “I’d say she was happy to be rid of Jerry.”
“That was nice of her to send you the picture Babe and say you took good care of her kids,” said Chad, “at least she knows you weren’t like him.”
“Here’s the thing, Honey,” said Amelia, “pointing to the picture, you see how the sun sort of shines on the logo on Antonio’s shirt and makes it stand out?”
“What about it?”
“I was curious to see where Antonio worked so I Googled the logo today at work. It’s Skyline Laboratories, they are the largest producer of, get this, snake venom in the northern part of Mexico.”
“Chad nearly choked on his drink. Babe, you’re kidding.”
“No, Chad I’m not.”
Then Jerry really died from a snakebite? But how?
“Buzz got a copy of the autopsy, it said that Jerry had enough venom in his body to equate the bites of at least four large poisonous snakes. There was no way he could have survived. He did have what they thought were fang marks on his left leg.” said Amelia. “When I read that, I didn’t know what to think, how could that be?
What do you think?” Chad. Where did the snake come from and where did it go?”
“Let’s go over what we know,” said Chad. We think Rosalie probably endured years of punishment from own husband, because we know he literally sold her and her two kids to Jerry to pose as his wife. We know what Jerry thought of women and how he treated his own sister. You didn’t think much of her when they were at the farm, maybe Jerry controlled her every move with threats, if she ever got friendly with you or Deana, and slipped and told you something Jerry didn’t want you to know, he probably would hurt her. You said she certainly was a changed woman when we saw her in court, then the one you knew at the farm.”
“I agree with that,” said Amelia. “I think that’s why I wanted you so much today, I was thinking of the wonderful way we live and how happy we are together, and I feel so lucky and happy we share so much together.”
“I love you my sweet,” Said Chad, he kissed her gently.
“Babe, I will go along with whatever you think we should say or do, my opinion is that we leave it alone. If we are asked, we could answer truthfully, but we shouldn’t volunteer anythi
ng. Even if they could prove something, Rosalie and Antonio are in Mexico.”
“We won’t be able to tell Bart or Wilson not even Roger or anybody. It would put them all at risk. This has to be our secret right?” Asked Amelia.
“Right,” Answered Chad.
“How do you think he did it, honey?” Asked Amelia.
“Let’s think about this for a minute, going back over what happened in the courtroom I think the closest Antonio got to Jerry is when he knocked over the water pitcher, that must have been deliberate,” Chad said excitedly.
“And then Antonio stooped to get the pen that rolled or was thrown under the table,” Amelia remembered.
Wait a minute, wait a minute, that’s it! The ink pen, Babe, it has to be. It must have been rigged up to look like snake fangs and Antonio injected the venom with it when he went under the table to pick up the pen. It all fits especially with his job.”
“That means that Jerry really had a snake bite but not from a snake. Do you think Rosalie knew what he was doing?”
“I don’t think so,” said Amelia, “she probably had many opportunities to kill Jerry especially when he and Roberto got drunk and passed out, but she was too scared.”
After they return to Mexico, Antonio went out to the shed he used as a workshop and began cleaning what looked like a ballpoint pen. This was a special pen he made himself. When the cap of the pen was taken off, in place of the pen’s point, were two snake fangs. The pen’s cartridge which was normally filled with ink, was filled with snake venom. If you took the cap off the pen, pushed the fangs into a person’s flesh, and depressed the end of the pen that made the cartridge come out, it emitted the venom, the poison would then be injected into the victim. This could be done in a few seconds. The person would sustain a fatal snakebite without the snake. Antonio hoped he never had to use the pen again, but he felt relieved knowing his mother would never have to fear Jerry again She was so happy she smiled all the time now, and both his father and Uncle Juan deaths were avenged.
“Funny isn’t it, we are exactly in the same spot we were before all this happened,” said Amelia, “knowing someone was murdered and knowing who did it and not being able to tell anyone.”
“True, only this time we don’t have a mad man running around trying to kill you. I’m OK with that,” Chad said smiling.
THE END
Secrets of Amelia Page 40
