Read Online Until the Final Verdict by Christine McGuire - Free Book Online Page A

know you.”
    He studied his friend, who sipped silently at his coffee.
    Nelson stroked his chin with his fingers, started to say something, but stopped.
    â€œSomething’s on your mind, Doc—spit it out.”
    â€œYou and Katie being married makes it harder.”
    â€œWhat does that mean?”
    â€œI don’t know how to say it, so why don’t I let this do the talking for me.” Nelson slid a folded sheet of paper out from under his sweatshirt, hesitated, then held it out wordlessly.
    Granz read it quickly, looked up, and reread it carefully. “This says Simmons died of a drug overdose.”
    â€œDigitalis, to be exact.”
    â€œSimmons murdered Hal Benton with digitalis to make it look like a routine heart attack.”
    â€œAnd it did, if any heart attack can be called ‘routine.’ Digitalis is one of the most potent heart medications ever developed, and one of the most lethal. It’s a fine line between a therapeutic dose that restores a heart to normal functions, and a fatal dose that induces palpitations, arrhythmia, and tachycardia, then total cardiac arrest and death within minutes.”
    â€œHeart attack symptoms.”
    â€œYes, symptoms a physician might misdiagnose, like I did with Benton—if someone he trusted intentionally misled him.”
    â€œSomeone like Simmons.”
    â€œSimmons was a damn fine physician. When he said Benton died of a heart attack, like a fool I didn’t question it.”
    â€œYou had no reason to question it.”
    â€œLike hell! I didn’t even run a tox screen on Benton’s blood until I suspected that Simmons—someone I trusted—was lying to conceal his crime.”
    â€œWhy would you have thought he was concealing something?”
    â€œBecause it’s my job to suspect everything and everybody. I didn’t make the same mistake this time.”
    â€œWe searched Simmons before he boarded the plane. He had no drugs on him, much less a stash of digitalis.”
    â€œThat’s my point, Dave. He didn’t kill himself.”
    â€œSo, you’re saying someone murdered him. But who? And how?”
    â€œFigure out how, you’ll know who.”
    Granz paused. “I don’t think I like where this conversation seems to be going, Doc.”
    Nelson shook his head and sighed. “Me, neither. Let’s go over the sequence of events again. You said the only time Simmons was alone was when Kate brought you the camera. How long did that take?”
    â€œMaybe ten minutes. She was anxious to get back to Simmons.”
    â€œHow far was it from the first-class lavatory to your seats?”
    â€œWe were in row six at the front of the coach section. There’s a partition between first class and coach . . . twelve or fifteen feet.”
    â€œWhere was Simmons seated?”
    â€œThe middle seat in our row.”
    â€œCould you see him from the lavatory?”
    â€œNo.”
    Nelson set his coffee on the table in front of the sofa and leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
    â€œIngested digitalis is absorbed into the bloodstream quickly.” His voice was soft, like he was thinking aloud, not talking to Granz. “That’s about right.”
    â€œWhat’s about right?”
    â€œThe only time you, Kate, and Simmons weren’t together was when you were securing the lavatory. It takes about ten minutes for a massive digitalis overdose to induce symptoms that mimic a heart attack. Ten minutes after you leave Kate alone with Simmons, he collapses and dies from an apparent heart attack.”
    Granz froze, coffee cup halfway to his mouth. “You’re implying Kathryn murdered Robert Simmons. Jesus Christ, she’s my wife!”
    â€œI know, and except for you, the only friend I have in the world.”
    â€œThen what the fuck are you doing?”
    â€œRestating the facts, hoping one of us will come up with another explanation. Help me