Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94686 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94686 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
“Well, then make sure you send several boxes of books because it will be a long stay. Now stop avoiding my question. Who was on the phone?”
“It was Troy. He wanted to go over the footage from when the other women were murdered.”
“Interesting. Will you let him?”
“Yes.”
“Did you look at it, too?”
“Yes.” Any calm that had filled my body earlier all evaporated at the thought of the footage.
“What’s on the videos?” she asked.
“There wasn’t anything gruesome. None of the murders were ever caught. The day Vicky died, all you see is her taking pills and swallowing down water.”
“Where were you?”
“Brushing my teeth in the bathroom. This was all before Dawn made the rule that I couldn’t spend the night with everyone. So Vicky and I slept together on her date nights.”
“Did you make love that night?”
I searched her face to make sure my answer wouldn’t get me in trouble. I spotted no indication of that in her eyes. “We had sex. The next morning I woke up and she was dead. Her body had already begun to turn cold. The doctors checked the sleeping pills and confirmed that he’d prescribed them to Vicky a month earlier. That week she’d requested a stronger dosage. He obliged, and she took more than recommended.”
“How much more?”
“If I remember correctly, the report stated that she started with five to ten milligrams. That had been less than a year before, and each month, apparently, the therapist upped the prescription. After the death, my investigator told me that her last prescription was for seventy milligrams. But, none of that made sense. On the video, she only took two pills.”
“Can you overdose on 140mgs?”
“No, but the coroner reported alcohol and way more traces of the drug in her system.”
“So she could’ve taken more away from the house, I guess. Or someone slipped her more.”
“That was a possibility brought up after the third death and we realized these were murders and not accidents. Someone could’ve crushed up the pills. Apparently, Ambien is a biphasic tablet.”
“What?”
“One-half of the tablet is released when swallowed. The other half enters the system three or four hours later. This allows the drug to remain in the body and keep the person asleep. So crushing one and slipping it to a person makes the dosage stronger.”
“Then with a large amount and mixed with alcohol, you would be a goner.”
Vicky’s cold face flashed in my head. She hadn’t started rotting, yet death had lingered in the space, nonetheless. Her body was stiff and unmoving. No breaths or sighs. Just this morbid quiet. Haunted, open eyes that stared at the ceiling. I shook my head to try and get that image out of my mind.
Jasmine shivered against me, or maybe that was my own body, quivering from the memory. “Tell me what you remember about the other two.”
“I’d rather talk about something else.”
“Like the Beatles?”
“Well, that’s better than dead girlfriends.”
“Was there something going on during the time Vicky died?”
Jasmine is worse than a pit bull. Once she’s got her mind set on it, she won’t let it go.
“There wasn’t anything unusual going on when Vicky died.” I ran my fingers through her short hair. She’d cut it. When we dated, I’d had her hair permed and fake tresses thrown in. It was barbaric on my part, and even worse, it covered her up. Now I could truly see her face—the delicate bone structure, those enchanting hazel eyes, full chocolate lips, and the glow all over her skin.
“There had to be something going on between the women, or Vicky would still be here,” she pointed out.
I thought back to that time. For anybody else I wouldn’t, but for Jasmine, I’d do anything. Even trudge through a darkened past that held no light or salvation.
“You have to understand that this arrangement always had a bit of drama,” I said. “The sort of unspoken rule in Willow Park was to never upset Dawn. Any of the rest of us could deal with our problems on our own in silence. Dawn was always a bit spoiled. When she was troubled, the whole house dealt with it.”
“Oh, really? There was no way I would’ve made it for a whole month in the house with Dawn. We couldn’t even talk for more than a few minutes without my going off on her.” Jasmine rolled her eyes, and I laughed. Dawn thought Jasmine would’ve been perfect out of all the prospects. Yet, like me, Dawn never really had a clue of what type of woman Jasmine really was.
“I’ve read her history.” Dawn shut Jasmine’s binder and wiped at her hands as if she’d been holding something distasteful. She’d come up to my condo to make her final decision on whether we pursue Jasmine or not. In her own condo, she kept little decorative boxes of wipes all around to constantly clean her hands from whatever imaginary germs she thought littered the space. That night, she pulled out a red handkerchief from her suit pants and rubbed it over her fingers. “Jasmine’s from a poor background, dealt with a lot of adversity, but always keeps her mouth closed and does what she needs to survive. She’ll do.”