Free First Born by Tricia Zoeller

been singing with a cat in the shower earlier.
    The retired officer put the dogs in a down-stay position as Seth climbed into his truck.
    Seth turned the truck around so he could drive forward down the long, winding driveway. Once headed in the right direction, he glanced in his rearview mirror, noting Mr. Liu sitting on the front porch stroking one of the shepherd’s behemoth heads while talking on his cell phone. As Seth exited the driveway, a dark SUV pulled away from the shoulder in front of Mr. Liu’s property, headed in the opposite direction.
    Weird.
    It wasn’t the hangover. Seth’s gut was telling him Mr. Liu knew things. He knew things that weren’t being said. Seth tried, but just couldn’t trust the fatherly warmth. It made him squirm, maybe because it had been so long since he had experienced it.

Chapter 8
Family Dynamics
    Caldwell set his soft drink on the edge of the table while Lake donned his reading glasses. They sat in Lake’s office on the third floor of the APD headquarters on Peachtree Street with the various agencies’ lab reports spread out before them.
    Ms. Sinclair’s lab results suggested an overdose of Inderal, a beta-blocker used to address stage fright, high blood pressure, cardiac arrhythmias, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD.
    Sinclair’s primary doctor had prescribed thirty-milligram tablets of Inderal to be taken twice daily to address her severe PTSD. He couldn’t explain the injectable form found at the home. Inderal was not typically injected. However, in an emergency such as during a surgical procedure, a medical team may administer it via an IV bolus or continuous drip. People didn’t inject it directly into a vein otherwise there was a chance they would suffer significant heart complications.
    “Why would she procure the injectable form and from where?” Lake asked peering over his glasses.
    Caldwell couldn’t resist, “I don’t know, professor. What’s your hypothesis?”
    “Piss off Simms,” Lake said, adjusting the readers. “Generally Inderal is prescribed in oral tablets, capsules, or liquid. The sharps container indicates she was injecting herself frequently.”
    “Taking the pills and injecting herself,” Caldwell added. “That’s overkill.”
    “The number of pills missing from the container indicates she was taking the oral dose sporadically.”
    “ME found only one injection site. If she was using the injectable regularly as the container suggests, wouldn’t she have track marks or some bruising?”
    Lake shook his head. “Not adding up. She has no history of swallowing difficulty; there’s no logical reason for her to need the injectable.”
    Caldwell drummed his fingers on the table. “If it was suicide, why not just toss back the whole container of pills?”
    “Wanted to be certain she didn’t purge the drug,” Lake offered. “And she did not mix the oral and injectable the night she died. ME only found Inderal in her bloodstream, not her stomach.”
    “But why have all those syringes if it was a one-shot attempt?”
    “You said Sinclair’s sister didn’t shed any light on her situation. Neither did her literary agent, Susan Beck, who was the last person to have seen her?” Lake said.
    “No. Beck flew in two days prior to Sinclair’s death to have lunch with her. They strategized about the development of her next book and the agent returned to her home in New York. I checked all of her records to substantiate her story. Beck mentioned that she’s never been in Sinclair’s home and admitted that Sinclair came across as a bit of a loner. The woman was not familiar with Sinclair’s medical history.”
    “What did Clemens say about the scenario?” asked the lieutenant.
    “She insisted that her sister would never intentionally overdose and she was floored by the syringes.” Caldwell shook his head. “Lady was genuinely shaken up. Thinks her sister’s anxiety disorder was getting worse which made her more