CHAPTER 2 Someone Had Been Changing the Pills for Weeks
Natalie stared at Margaret in disbelief.
"You've known for weeks?"
Margaret nodded.
"The first bottle disappeared twelve days ago."
"I thought the pharmacy had made a mistake."
"So I ordered another one."
She walked to a nearby cabinet.
Reached behind a stack of serving trays.
Then removed a small locked metal box.
Inside...
Were two more medicine bottles.
Both labeled with Arthur Ashford's name.
Natalie frowned.
"You kept them?"
"I keep everything."
Margaret answered calmly.
"I've worked in this house too long not to."
She placed the bottles beside the others.
Now four nearly identical bottles sat on the marble countertop.
Natalie slowly whispered,
"I only brought one."
Margaret looked at her.
"I know."
Silence settled over the kitchen.
Margaret finally asked the question that mattered.
"Who gave you those pills?"
Natalie hesitated.
"I can't tell you."
"You'd better."
"It wasn't for Arthur."
Margaret frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Natalie lowered her voice.
"Three days ago I received an anonymous package."
"There was no return address."
"Only a note."
Margaret waited.
Natalie swallowed.
"The note said..."
'If Arthur takes one more pill from his current bottle, he'll be dead before the end of the month.'
Margaret's face changed.
"So you believed it?"
"I didn't."
"At first."
Natalie reached into her robe pocket again.
This time...
She removed a folded laboratory report.
"I had both medicines tested."
Margaret unfolded the papers.
Her eyes widened.
One bottle contained Arthur's prescribed heart medication.
The other...
Contained harmless vitamin tablets made to look almost identical.
Margaret looked confused.
"Why would someone replace life-saving medicine with vitamins?"
Natalie quietly answered,
"So an old man slowly gets weaker."
"No poison."
"No overdose."
"No obvious crime."
"Everyone simply believes..."
"...his heart finally gave out."
Margaret looked back at the medicine bottles.
For the first time in years...
She felt genuinely afraid.
Just then...
The old grandfather clock struck midnight.
Both women instinctively looked toward the hallway.
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
Someone else...
Was awake.
Neither Natalie nor Margaret realized...
A third person had been standing in the darkness outside the kitchen long enough to hear every word.
Only one shadow moved silently away from the doorway.
👇 Chapter 3
