InSight

we’re pretty sure it’s not Stewart. So whoever’s doing this has watched you long enough to know everything about you, including your association with me. There’s something I haven’t told you. The pills Stewart left in the cabin aren’t anti-psychotic medication.”
    “I…I don’t understand. What are they then?”
    “Just the opposite. A psychedelic drug that causes hallucinations. A form of DMT, or dimethyltryptamine . It’s related to LSD, only more powerful. There’s no test to determine if it’s in a person’s system, and it’s naturally produced in the brain. Now, here’s the interesting part: accelerated levels of DMT have been found in persons suffering from schizophrenia. The composition in Stewart’s pill has been altered, though. The chemist who did the analysis said he’s never seen anything like it but heard of a similar drug being distributed in Europe and recently in the States.”
    Abby shook her head. “I still don’t understand. Are you saying Stewart has been taking a drug that triggers schizophrenic symptoms?”
    “That’s what it looks like, if we could prove the pills are Stewart’s. There’s no label or distinguishing marks on them.”
    Abby felt as if the air had been sucked out of the room. What the hell was going on? “Stewart never took drugs. He drank, sometimes heavily, but he never smoked pot or took drugs. Why would he take a drug that made him psychotic?”
    “My guess is he didn’t know what he was taking.”
    Abby leaned back in her chair and inadvertently fingered the round scar on her temple. “You’re saying someone gave him those drugs? But why?”
    “Is there any reason your ex-husband’s family would want to silence him? To keep him out of the public eye?”
    She dug into her mental archives, her repository of all things Gentry. Those thoughts she’d neatly labeled Places I Never Want to Go . Resting her head back on the sofa pillow, she covered her face with her hands.
    Luke pulled them away. “I’m sorry, Abby. I know how hard this is for you. I wouldn’t prod if I didn’t think it was important.”
    “I know.” God, I don’t want to go there. “Besides his erratic behavior and the unwanted notoriety he inflicted on his family? No, none. Of course, I wasn’t privy to the inner workings of the Gentrys . I married into that family an outsider and remained one.” Luke asked her to repeat, and she answered with a shake of her head.
    “Anything unusual happen before Stewart started losing it? Any family catastrophe besides his father’s plane crash?”
    Again, she shook her head.
    “Think back. When Stewart started saying weird things, what were they?”
    “I can’t remember, exactly.”
    “Try.”
    Abby forced her thoughts back to that time she wanted most to forget and how crazy it all sounded, then and now. “He kept saying he had to protect us, Macy and me. That we were in danger, the whole world was in danger. I assumed it was the paranoia talking.” Stewart’s face, twisted in fear, rose in her darkness. Her stomach clenched. “I can’t do this, Luke.” She felt his hand on her arm.
    “Just a few more questions. How did he act when his father’s plane crashed?”
    “Distraught, but almost like he wasn’t surprised. I recall thinking his reaction was strange. Stewart loved his father. Actually, I liked him. He was always nice to me. The difference between old money and new, I guess.”
    “What else?”
    Thinking about that time of her life was like being sucked into a whirlpool, spinning out of control. “I’m trying to place the chronology.”
    “Take all the time you need, as long as you think fast. While you’re thinking, let’s pack a few things.” He took her by the arm and coaxed her to a standing position. “You’re coming with me.”
    “Do you really think that’s necessary?”
    “I do. No arguments.”
    Abby took her cane, and Luke helped her pack enough for a few days. They gathered up Daisy’s food and bowls, took the dog, and left. She hated leaving the safety of her own home to go where the layout was as alien as the moon’s surface. But her home wasn’t as safe anymore.
    Within an hour, she entered Luke’s world—a two-bedroom house in Duncan Park, with a screened-in porch that was his favorite place to relax in good weather. Daisy made herself at home.
    For the second time in a few days, a man walked her through his house to familiarize her with the layout: a living-dining room