The Aspirin That Wasn't
Chapter 08 - The Aspirin That Wasn't
Castillo's forensic team, working alongside Dr. Singh's toxicology report, identified the specific substance in Lila's bloodstream within the week, a compound commonly found in certain veterinary medications, designed to thin blood and prevent clotting in large animals.
"It's not something you'd find in any pharmacy," Castillo explained to Adrian, during a formal briefing at the hospital. "It's agricultural. Available through veterinary supply companies, livestock feed stores, that kind of source. Someone obtained this deliberately, with specific knowledge of what it would do to a human body."
"How would someone even know about something like this," Adrian asked.
"That's exactly the question I've been investigating," Castillo said. "Your aunt Vivienne's husband, Robert Hall, owns a horse ranch outside the county. They maintain a veterinary supply account with a regional distributor."
Adrian felt something cold settle into his stomach. "You think Vivienne—"
"I think Vivienne told me she was in the kitchen looking for aspirin," Castillo said, "and I think the medicine cabinet is in the bathroom, not the kitchen, and I think the water glass that Margaret left on the counter was unattended for approximately ten minutes while Vivienne was the only other person in the room."
She paused.
"I also think Vivienne's husband's veterinary supply account shows a purchase, three weeks before the wedding, of exactly the compound found in your wife's blood."
Adrian sat with the full, devastating shape of what Castillo was describing, understanding now that the woman who had sat at his wedding reception, smiled through the toasts, embraced him as family, had apparently spent those same hours calculating the specific, cold logistics of poisoning his wife.
"Why," he asked, though the answer was already forming in his mind.
"The estate," Castillo said. "Under the current will's succession terms, if you have a child, your aunt's sons lose any future claim to the property. Lila's pregnancy represented the permanent closure of that possibility."
"She tried to kill my wife over a house," Adrian said slowly.
"Over six million dollars in combined property value," Castillo corrected gently. "People have committed violence for considerably less, unfortunately."
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Adrian thought of his aunt, of her careful, measured composure during every family gathering, her specific, consistent warmth toward him throughout his entire life, and felt the particular, sickening betrayal of understanding that warmth had apparently existed alongside a willingness to poison his pregnant wife the moment her own financial interests were threatened.
"Arrest her," he said. "Today. I don't want another day to pass with her free while my wife recovers from what she did."
