Free Black Diamond Death by Cheryl Bradshaw Page B

side.
    “I’m sorry,” I said. “That must have hurt.”
    “I thought he was the one. We planned our life together—kids, the whole bit.”
    “Did you tell anyone?”
    She shook her head.
    “I wanted to, but I was embarrassed,” she said. “I didn’t want my family to find out what happened so I left for a couple weeks and visited a friend while I tried to sort it all out in my head. I know what you think—how could I go back to that monster after what happened? He called me every day and for a long time I didn’t answer, but the messages he left me were so sweet. Even with all we’d been through in the past, it was hard not to see him again.”
    She lifted her finger and pointed out the window.
    “Take a left at the stop sign.”
    I turned.
    “You can pull over right here,” she said.
    She opened the car door and punched in a code that opened the gates into a long drive.
    “Nice place,” I said.
    “It’s my Uncle’s winter home. We only use it a few months out of the year during ski season.”
    It looked like a smaller version of the Hearst mansion. I couldn’t imagine what his summer home must be like.
    “I’ll walk from here.”
    “Can I call you if I have any other questions?” I said.
    “All I want right now is to get away from him and to put this behind me, for good this time.”
    “At least let me give you my card so you can call me if you need to,” I said.
    She took the card and turned toward the gate.
    “Thanks for the ride.”

CHAPTER 20

    “Monkshood.”
    “Monkshood?”
    “Yep.”
    “What is it?” I said.
    “That would be our cause of death,” Maddie said.
    “It hardly sounds dangerous.”
    “The Greek’s didn’t call it the Queen of Poisons for nothing,” she said.
    The light from the sun blinded me. I yawned and reached out to adjust my curtains and then closed them all together. I wasn’t ready to get up yet.
    “So does that mean Charlotte was—”
    “Poisoned,” she said.
    “How?”
    “It’s ingested or absorbed into the system, and in this case, she ingested it, a lot of it,” Maddie said.
    Audrey was right.
    “I can’t believe it.”
    “It’s possible someone gave it to her before she went skiing,” she said.
    “Why do you say that?”
    “Because this stuff has nasty side effects.”
    “Such as?”
    “Paralysis of the facial muscles and the heart,” she said.
    “Wow.”
    “It also dulls vision and my guess is that at some point she couldn’t see where she was going.”
    “That explains a lot.”
    “It’s nasty stuff, and the sad thing is, when her body started to break down she was probably still with it and conscious right up to the end,” she said.
    “Any chance she came across it on accident?”
    “I don’t see how,” she said.
    “It was premeditated then.”
    “And the killer never thought they would get caught,” she said. “Whoever did this assumed her death would be ruled an accident and didn’t take time to consider there might be a toxicology report.”
    “Their world of disillusionment is about to change.”
    “The drug works fast, and based on the amount I found in her system, death probably came within a few hours from the time she ingested it, maybe less.”
    “That gives me a good place to start.”
    “Go get him, sister,” Maddie said. “And jack his shit up.”

CHAPTER 21

    In light of what happened to Daniela and the fact Charlotte was poisoned, I decided the time had come for my big reveal.
    I knocked on door 312.
    No answer.
    I tried again.
    Still no answer.
    Maybe last night’s antics turned him off women for the moment. Then again, for a womanizer such as himself, that didn’t seem logical.
    After the third try I gave up and went back down the hall. A door opened behind me.
    “Sloane, hold up.”
    Jackpot .
    I casually turned my head.
    “Oh, I’m sorry,” he said, “I thought you were someone else.”
    “It’s me.”
    I gave it a minute to sink in. It didn’t.
    “It’s the hair,” I said,