Chapter 8 - The Toxicologist’s Midnight Phone Call That Confirmed Their Worst Nightmare
As they sped through the rain-drenched Chicago streets toward Bellweather, Elena Cross’s number flashed on Ethan’s phone.
"Ethan, pick up!" Elena’s voice was breathless.
"I’m here, Elena. What did you find?"
"I ran a trace comparison on the chemical composition of the digitoxin from your steak against the state medical examiner’s archived toxicological database from four years ago," Elena said quickly. "The fatal crash that killed Mia's father?"
Mia leaned in, her breath catching. "What about my dad?"
"David Carter didn't lose control of his car because of wet roads, Mia," Elena said, her voice heavy with grief and anger. "The emergency room tox screen four years ago showed trace levels of the exact same synthetic digitoxin in his blood. They wrote it off as a sudden cardiac event that caused the crash. It's the identical signature. Daniel Reed didn't just sabotage the vehicle—he poisoned David before he ever got behind the wheel."
Mia let out a choked cry, pressing her face into her hands. Ethan reached out and pulled her gently against his chest, wrapping his arm around her as she wept tears of four years of unresolved grief.
"I promise you, Mia," Ethan whispered into her hair, his voice vibrating with absolute fury. "Daniel Reed will spend the rest of his miserable life inside a maximum-security cell. Your father will have justice before the sun rises."
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Mia pulled back, wiped the tears from her face with the back of her sleeve, and looked at Ethan with iron in her spine.
"Give me the radio," she said. "I know how to get into the mezzanine without Pike seeing us on the hallway sensors."
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