Rachel Alexander 03 - A Hell of a Dog

with them. “You don’t know the half of it,” I told him.
    My cell phone rang, and I took it out of my pocket and flipped it open.
    “Hello?”
    “It’s me, Sam. I’ve been looking all over for you. Detective Flowers called.” I grabbed Chip’s arm and pulled him closer, holding the phone away from my ear so that he could hear. “The ME has results on Rick. He didn’t choke, Rachel. He died from anaphylactic shock, from an aspirin allergy. Flowers said she’d spoken to his wife, and she said Rick knew he was highly allergic to aspirin. It’s not uncommon for asthmatics. She said he was very careful—he only took Tylenol, brand-name stuff, none of that generic stuff, because he figured, you never know for sure that way.”
    “There was Tylenol on his nightstand,” I told her. “But I didn’t find a bee sting kit. The only other meds were those asthma inhalers he used, two besides the one he had with him.”
    “Flowers said something about a bee sting kit. They took it, she said, when they checked his room. I don’t get it Was he worried about bees in Central Park? What does that have to do—”
    “It’s for any allergy that causes severe anaphylaxis. It’s got injectable epinephrine in it,” I said, keenly aware that one of the men who’d tried to rescue him was standing next to me, “which would have saved his life. But, of course, none of us knew about his allergy.”
    And as I said it, I realized that it wasn’t true. Anyone of us could have known, with all the times aspirin had been passed around the table to alleviate hangovers after a night of heavy drinking. Anyone could have noticed Rick turning it down and taking two Tylenol instead. In fact, he might easily have explained why he was doing that
    And what about the person who had stood by so patiently while Rick spread out a towel to prevent soiling the hotel sheets? Couldn’t she know, too? She might have even seen the anaphylaxis emergency treatment kit. She might have asked what it was he’d been so allergic to.
    “What are the detectives going to do about this, did Flowers say?”
    “They’ll be here in the morning, early, and they want to talk to everyone. They want to rule out foul play.”
    “I’m not so sure they’re going to be able to do that, Sam. You ought to prepare yourself for another possibility.”
    “You mean that someone did this on purpose?”
    “Yes. But the big question is—”
    “Who?” she asked.
    I didn’t say anything.
    “And the others?”
    “I don’t think any of them were accidents, Sam.”
    Now she didn’t say anything.
    “I’m working on this. I don’t have it yet, but I will. I wish it were neater. I wish it were easier. I wish I could have—”
    Chip stepped back and shook his head.
    “I’ll see you in the morning, Sam. I’ll talk to you then.”
    “It’s not your fault.” He put his warm hand on my face for a second. “These things always get solved after people have lost their lives. Think of all those interviews with the neighbors of serial killers, people who saw them every day, watched them grow up, and never had a clue. ‘He was the nicest boy,’ they say, ‘quiet, polite, and good to his mother. We had no idea.’ It’s the same way people are with their aggressive dogs, saying that the biting started out of the blue, because they’d missed a year and a half of warning signs.”
    “Thanks for saying that.”
    I put the phone back into my pocket.
    “Listen to me,” I told him. “There’s something I’ve got to do. I’m going to put you in a cab now.” I ignored the amazed look on his face. “I need you to take the dogs and go to the cottage.“
    „Rachel, it’s late. Everyone’s gone to bed by now. The hotel is only three blocks from here. I’ll have a German shepherd and a pit bull with me. What could possibly—?”
    “Electrocution.Anaphylaxis. A lethal push from a high place. We were guessing before. Now we know. It’s not safe at the hotel.” I was holding his arms now, looking into his eyes. “Please do this. Do it for yourself. Do it for your kids. Do it for me, Chip. I don’t care why, just do it.”
    “This is ridiculous. Where will you be?”
    “I can’t say just yet. But it’s some place I thought I could get to tomorrow morning. I no longer think it can wait.”
    “I’m going with you.”
    “You can’t,” I told him. “It’s too overwhelming if two people show up. She’ll feel outnumbered. She’ll never