Slow Kill - Michael Mcgarrity [34]
“Not at all,” Kerney said. “Thanks.”
He disconnected before Parker had a chance to get chatty, and the phone rang almost immediately.
“I’ve been trying to ring you,” Ellie Lowrey said.
Kerney chuckled. “Ring me? What a terribly British thing to say.”
“Yeah, well, sometimes I also like to say lorry instead of truck, and knickers instead of underpants.”
“How revealing. What’s up, Sergeant?”
“Can you meet me for coffee?” Ellie asked.
“Tell me where,” Kerney answered.
The diner was, of course, the kind favored by penny-pinching cops, who were always on the lookout for a decent meal and a good cup of coffee at a reasonable price. Kerney sat with Lowrey in a booth and read the prenuptial legal amendment that gave Claudia Spalding the right to seek sexual fulfillment outside her marriage without penalty.
“My, my,” he said as he returned the document to Lowrey.
“It’s valid,” Ellie grumped, “and moreover, the attorney I met with said Claudia Spalding is due to get one-third of her husband’s estate after probate; Alice Spalding, by the terms of her divorce settlement, gets a third; and the rest goes into a trust foundation that Spalding established to do good works.”
Lowrey motioned at the waitress for a coffee refill. “I confirmed Spalding’s operation with the doctor who removed his prostate. He told me it is not uncommon after surgery for men, especially the elderly ones, to become unable to perform in bed.”
“Are you taking Claudia Spalding off your suspect list based on what you’ve learned?” Kerney asked.
Lowrey paused for the waitress to fill her cup and move away before giving Kerney a sour look. “Not necessarily, but it weakens the circumstantial evidence, which is further undermined by the fact that Kim Dean did not fill the prescription for Spalding in Santa Fe. It was handled by a different pharmacy.”
“That’s not what we wanted to hear,” Kerney said. “What about the neighbor’s assertion that Claudia was unhappy in her marriage?”
“Mrs. Spalding said she lied to Deacon and Dean so as not to violate the confidentiality clause in the agreement. But there is some good news. I asked the lab to test first for the presence and levels of thyroid medication in the blood sample that was drawn during the autopsy. The results came back way below what they should have been, given the daily dosage Spalding was supposed to be taking.”
“Would that have killed him?” Kerney asked.
“Over time, quite possibly, according to our pathologist. Too little thyroid hormone would cause a slowing of the heart rate and force the endocrine system to overcompensate. So while the heart struggles to pump blood, the patient could simultaneously have symptoms such as blurry vision, heat intolerance, restlessness, digestive disorders, and the like.”
“Some of which Spalding had been complaining about,” Kerney said.
Ellie nodded. “Exactly. Given Spalding’s already damaged heart muscles, our doc suggests he could have easily gone into cardiac arrhythmia and thrown a clot that blew his pump.”
“What about the pill you found?” Kerney asked.
“It’s under the microscope,” Ellie said, crossing her fingers. “Here’s hoping we find something. But even if the lab does confirm it was altered or duplicated to look like the real thing, I doubt I can get a search warrant approved.”
“What if Dean was acting on his own and somehow managed to switch Spalding’s medication?” Kerney asked.
“Give me the evidence to nail that idea down,” Ellie said, “and I’ll get a warrant signed today.”
Kerney shrugged. “It’s speculation, but worth looking into, nonetheless. Let’s say Dean bought into Claudia’s fairy tale about how unhappy she was with her hubby, and that Dean truly didn’t know about the confidential agreement. Maybe he decided, without Claudia’s knowledge, to set her free from her burden.”
“So he could claim her as his own,” Ellie added. “Good thinking, Chief. Now, tell me how we get from your theory to hard facts.”
Kerney took the check from the waitress and paid the bill. “I’ll have my peelers look into it.”
“Your what?” Lowrey asked