Free Provoked by Angela Ford Page A

now. You’d have to check with him. But he hasn’t been here long. He just bought the place.”
                  “When did this happen?” Riley asked.
                  “Two weeks ago, I think.”
                  “All new hires? Or is there anyone here that worked for the old owner?” Kennedy added in.
                  Riley was impressed Kennedy began to pick up on the little things. Riley told him the day before that the little things always mattered and could take you to new leads. He felt like he’d been Kennedy’s teacher the past couple of days.
                  “We’re all new hires. Lucky for me, I heard the girls that were with the previous owner had been here a very long time.”
                  The waitress excused herself when she heard a customer call out for a refill.
                  “Interesting.” Riley looked at Kennedy. He wondered why someone would buy this shit hole and not keep waitresses that worked here so long and knew the customers.
                  “Let’s come back tomorrow and talk to the new owner. I want to run a report to find out who the old owner was and where to find him or her.”
                  “Do you think she’s dead?” Kennedy asked after they got in the car.
                  “Beth?” Riley asked and Kennedy nodded.
                  “I think she’s been dead since that night. It would be better if we had a body, then we could check her blood for poison. If she had it in her blood...”
                  “What poison?” Kennedy stopped him mid-sentence.
                  “I thought Beth might have been sick that day from insecticide poisoning. Since Adam seems to have a supply and a pump. In my research, I found a poison that can make it look like someone had a heart attack or respiratory failure. The other two deaths were reported with those symptoms. This thallium poison is colorless, odorless, and can be easily put in a drink, food, or maybe even a syringe with your choice of drug. It makes you sick, like the flu, and then causes respiratory failure and heart failure.”
                  “Wouldn’t they have found that in an autopsy?”
    Kennedy’s cockiness was quickly knocked down a notch with Riley’s answer.
                  “It’s usually not found in the first run of blood tests; another reason for it being the perfect poison.”
                  “Think they could trace it after this long?”
                  “Not sure. They seem to be able to trace anything these days. As long as you know what you’re looking for.”
                  “Wait a minute, isn’t that Adam’s book title; something about the perfect poison.”
    Riley laughed, as the light bulb seemed to shine above Kennedy’s head. “Yes, Kennedy; the reason I researched it.”
                  “Clever. Where are we headed now?”
    Kennedy’s grin told Riley the young detective was beginning to get excited to work a case.
                  “I put in a call to a friend at the medical examiner’s office and asked if we could stop by. I want confirmation about this poison, and its effects, from an expert in the field. We need to find out if it was the murder weapon, and if these murders are connected. Something doesn’t sit right with me.”
     
                  Kennedy followed Riley inside the city morgue as he called out to a woman.
                  “Lynette?”
                  Kennedy shivered. “Always so cold in here?”
                  Riley laughed at the remark, “Haven’t you been in a morgue before?”
                 Kennedy nodded. “Not usually a place of choice. Deskman, remember?” 
                  Riley then explained to him that the area must be kept at