Chapter 3
The next morning Andrew requested Elena’s medical records.
Not through family channels.
Not through Marcus.
He called the hospital directly and followed the process his attorney told him to follow.
The records did not produce an instant revelation.
They produced something worse.
Questions.
Elena had arrived at the emergency department unconscious after falling down eleven service stairs at the radio archive.
Her bloodwork showed alcohol.
Not much.
She had consumed one glass of wine.
It also showed the presence of a sedating medication.
Andrew remembered the doctor mentioning it.
At the time, Marcus had explained that Elena occasionally took something for anxiety.
Andrew had been too shattered to challenge him.
Now Andrew called Elena’s longtime physician.
“She was never prescribed a liquid sedative by me,” Dr. Harris said.
Andrew gripped the phone.
“Did she take anything for anxiety?”
“Very occasionally. Tablets. Low dose. She disliked them.”
“Could that explain what was in her blood?”
“I’d need the complete toxicology report.”
Andrew sent it.
Two hours later Harris called back.
“I can't tell you why it was present. But this is not consistent with the medication I prescribed.”
Andrew sat alone in Elena’s old bedroom.
Eight months of certainty disappeared in one conversation.
He called Lucinda.
She answered immediately.
“What did you give Elena?”
Silence.
Then:
“Andrew, we should discuss this in person.”
“What did you give my wife?”
“She was upset.”
Andrew stopped breathing for a second.
That was not a denial.
Lucinda continued rapidly.
“She had been nervous for weeks. She couldn’t sleep. She was emotional.”
“What did you put in her drink?”
“It was something to calm her down.”
Andrew closed his eyes.
“Did she ask you to?”
Another silence.
Then Lucinda said, “She needed it.”
Andrew hung up.
He did not remember crossing the room.
He only remembered stopping when he reached the dresser because Alex’s rabbit was reflected in the mirror behind him.
Andrew forced himself to unclench his fist.
He called Rachel Stein, the family’s outside attorney, and told her everything.
Rachel’s first instruction was simple.
“Do not go to Lucinda’s house.”
“She drugged my wife.”
“We don't know precisely what she gave Elena yet.”
“She admitted—”
“She admitted giving her something. That is important. Preserve the call details. Write down exactly what you remember. And do not go threaten her.”
Andrew stared at the wall.
In another year, he might have ignored that.
Instead he said, “Fine.”
Rachel paused.
“You sound disappointed.”
“I am.”
“That may keep you out of jail.”
Before hanging up, Andrew asked one more question.
“If Lucinda gave Elena something and Elena fell because of it…”
Rachel interrupted.
“Do not jump to the legal ending before we establish the factual beginning.”
Andrew hated lawyers.
At that moment, he hated good lawyers most.
But she was right.
So he went back to the beginning.
The radio archive.
The reception.
May you like
The glass.
And everyone who had been there the night Elena died.
