Dante's Poison by Lynne Raimondo Read Free Book Online Page A

saying she slipped him one?”
    â€œThat’s what I’m guessing. Jane wouldn’t let them question her—she knows the routine—so she couldn’t tell me anything more than the bare-bones charge—first-degree murder in the death of Rory Gallagher. But how can that kind of drug be used to kill somebody?”
    â€œDepends on the person. The kind of medication we’re talking about is strongly counter-indicated for patients with, or at risk of, heart disease. Do you know what kind of shape Gallagher was in? The papers said he was a heavy drinker.”
    â€œAnd a pack-a-day man. He was still clinging, if barely, to his good looks, but I doubt he was competing in any marathons.”
    â€œFirst thing I’d do is subpoena his medical records, then. A fifty-year-old smoker with a drinking habit is a prime candidate for cardiac arrest.”
    â€œI will, but it won’t help. Legally, if you feed an otherwise-innocuous substance to someone with a special propensity—a peanut allergy, say—it’s the same as putting arsenic in their soup.”
    â€œI take it you’d have to know about the risk beforehand.”
    â€œThat’s right. If you didn’t know it existed, there couldn’t be mens rea . It would just be an accident.”
    â€œAnd the likelihood of him accidentally ingesting a prescription antipsychotic isn’t high. But I still don’t understand why the police have zeroed in on your friend.”
    â€œThat’s easy. The two of them have been an item for years.”
    I raised an eyebrow.
    â€œDon’t look at me like that. Just because a woman sleeps with a man doesn’t give her a reason to kill him.”
    â€œA lot of people, women included, would disagree with you.”
    Hallie laughed. “OK, I get your point. But Jane’s not like that. You’ll see when you meet her.”
    â€œI’m going to meet her?”
    â€œAs soon as I can get her out of Cook County. I’m going to need your help.”
    â€œI’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” I said, thinking of the confession I’d just been on the verge of making.
    â€œPlease? You know all about these medications. What they’re used for, what the warnings say. I’m going to need someone to educate me about them in a hurry. I don’t think it will put much of a dent in your schedule. And I’m going to need at least one guy on the case who isn’t panting after Jane’s good looks.”
    â€œThere are other ways of knowing when a woman is beautiful,” I said resentfully.
    â€œI know that. But I think I’ve guessed what you were trying to tell me a little while ago.”
    â€œYou have ?” I gulped.
    â€œUh-huh,” Hallie said. “And it explains everything. Though I don’t know why you didn’t say something about it before. These days, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.” She sounded, I thought irritably, almost relieved. “But don’t worry. If that’s how you want it, your secret’s safe with me. I’m just glad we can stay friends.”

It was better that way, I told myself. At least for the time being.
    After Hallie roared off, I entered my building and took the elevator up. The condominium stood just north of the Chicago River and was touted as a “luxury property” when I bought my unit. But it was the kind of cheap showpiece thrown up when times were good and developers were drowning in bank loans. Those times had changed. To the east, where yet another hotel complex had been planned, there was now a weed-infested lot. The building’s slipshod construction was revealing itself too, in walls that sprouted cracks where they’d been too hastily taped and floors that rattled underfoot like an O’Hare jetport.
    At nineteen I slipped my cane under my arm and walked the ten steps down the hall to my two-bedroom, unlocking the door and