Rachel Alexander 05 - The Wrong Dog by Benjamin Carol Lea

Author:Benjamin, Carol Lea [Benjamin, Carol Lea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-10-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

I Sat There Holding the Phone

I could hear the house phone when I came out of the tunnel that led into my garden. I ran for the door and got it just as the machine was picking up.

“Don’t go away. I’m here.”

I waited for the machine to click off. Whoever was on the other end waited, too. “Rach?”

“Marty. Hey.”

“Listen, I passed on the info you gave me about the iguana.”

“Yeah?”

“Burke said he didn’t know what he’d do without you.“

“Oh, great. Now what? Iguana jokes? Look, Marty, I said it was a slim chance. I knew that. But I think it’s better to have all the information—”

“You did the right thing, Rachel.”

“Only?”

“Only it wasn’t salmonella.”

“You got the ME’s report?”

“We did.”

“And?”

“It wasn’t a seizure either.”

“What?”

“It was something she ingested.”

“I don’t get it. Like what?”

I wondered if it had been something she ate at dinner, if she’d gotten a really bad case of food poisoning.

“It was the pill she took, the capsule.”

No more jokes. His voice serious now.

“You mean the dog brought her the wrong medication?“

“What the hell does the dog have to do with this?”

“She taught the dog to get her medication on command. The older one, Blanche, alerted her when a seizure was coming. Sometimes twenty minutes before, sometimes two minutes before. When she was out of the house, she carried the medication on her, in a little belt pouch or a fanny pack. So it was always available. But at home, shit, she could be in the bathtub or asleep when the dog gave her the word. So she taught the little one, Bianca, to get her the meds and bring them to her.”

“The clone?”

I sighed audibly. “Yeah—the clone. So what are you saying, she should have taught her to read the prescription bottle more carefully?”

“Good thought, but it wouldn’t have helped. It was the right container.”

“I don’t get it.”

“What she ingested—Ms. Gordon—the particular pill she took, it wasn’t her medication.”

“What was it?” I asked, pressing the phone closer. “Vacor.”

“Which is?”

“Rat poison.”

“Jesus.”

“Where are you now?”

“Home. Why?”

“Because if you were at her place, I’d tell you to get the hell out.Now.”

I waited.

“The medication found next to her, the stuff the dog was lying on, the clone.” I could hear him lighting a cigarette, inhaling, blowing the smoke out before he continued. “It was the right stuff, her regular prescription. Burke called her doctor and checked it out.”

“You’re saying Bianca brought her the anticonvulsant?“

“To the best of her knowledge. At least it was the right container. And probably, in the right place, on her night-stand more than likely. Did she mention what she taught the dog to do, Rach, if it was by location? That would have made the most sense.”

“I don’t know how she did it, Marty. It was a friend of hers who told me about this, a woman who worked with her.“

“Name?”

“Ruth Stewart. She’s the receptionist.”

I heard him talking to someone else. Then there was a pause, Marty writing down the name I’d given him.

“That would have been

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