Free Diagnosis Murder 7 - The Double LIfe by Lee Goldberg

walkers or canes and were accompanied by caregivers or younger family members.
    Mark went to the front desk and presented himself to the nurse, who sent them right in, motioning them to the doctor's office at the end of the hall.
    The comer office turned out to be a suite shared by five doctors, each of whom had his own built-in desk that faced a window with a view of John Muir Hospital across the street.
    Dr. Dalton was the only doctor present when Mark and Emily came in. He was a large man who seemed well on his way to his own heart attack, his huge gut spilling over his belt.
    The cardiologist rose from his seat, its springs squealing in relief from the burden of his tonnage, and vigorously shook hands with his guests. Mark explained his situation and asked the doctor if he would mind repeating whatever he'd said before.
    "You asked me about Leila Pevney," Dalton said, dropping back into his seat, which let out a screech and seemed to sink a good six inches under his weight. "She was a seventy-eight-year-old woman with a long history of heart disease who also suffered from cancer and senility."
    "You mean Alzheimer's?" Emily said.
    "I mean she was forgetful, scatterbrained, and a little dazed. Some of it was from her chemo. The rest?" Dalton shrugged. "I referred her to a neurologist, but he determined she was simply suffering from old age."
    "How did she die?" Mark asked.
    "That's the really ironic thing. She was a fighter. Over the years she survived two heart attacks, quadruple bypass surgery, and two bouts of lung cancer. Then she died from a common cold."
    "Colds aren't usually fatal," Emily said.
    "They are when you take too many decongestants," Dr. Dalton said. "I found the cold medication on her nightstand. The pills were in a foil packet. I counted eight tablets missing. Whether she took them all at once or in close succession, I don't know."
    It was obvious to Mark what had happened. Many cold medications contained pseudoephedrine, which is a stimulant. For someone with advanced cardiovascular disease, all it would take was as few as three or four pills to cause a rapid increase in heart rate and blood pressure, producing a deadly cardiac arrhythmia such as ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation. Death could occur in seconds.
    "Didn't she know better than to take pseudoephedrine?" Mark said.
    "Like I said, she was forgetful. She probably forgot how many pills she'd taken and when she took them," Dalton said. "All she knew was that her nose was still stuffy and her eyes were watery."
    "What were the cold pills even doing in the house?" Emily asked. "That's like keeping rat poison where a child can reach it."
    "I don't know. One of her kids or grandkids may have had the sniffles last time they visited and left the pills behind," Dalton said. "Maybe even one of her caregivers." 
    "She had nursing help?" Mark said.
    "Not full-time. They were drop-ins. Because she was living alone, they'd check up on her every day, make sure she was taking her pills, eating and drinking enough, that sort of thing. There was also a food service that stopped by three times a week with home-cooked meals she could stick in her freezer and defrost later."
    "Who notified you of her death?"
    "The caregiver. I found Leila sitting in her recliner in front of the TV, balls of used Kleenex all over the floor ground her. It was obvious to me what had happened, and the toxicology tests proved me correct."
    Mark checked his notes. "Tell me about Chadwick Saxelid."
    "Chad was thirty-seven years old and had a history of atherosclerosis and angina. The men in his family died young, and he was no exception. His gardener found him dead in the backyard, in his bathing suit, a few feet from the hot tub. The way I heard it, the cops found his nitro pills in the pocket of his bathrobe, which he was clutching when he died, and a couple of empty beer bottles by the hot tub. I'm not a detective, but it was pretty clear to me what happened." 
    It