Kendra hesitated, then slowly nodded. “Something pretty nasty. Poison.”
“What?”
“You heard me. I think they tried to poison your Beth Avery.” She frowned, working it out. “And it had to be within the past few days. They tried, but they didn’t succeed.”
Eve shook her head in disbelief. Kendra was speaking as matter-of-factly as if she were commenting on the color of the sky. “Dammit, how do you know?”
Kendra pointed high on the wall she was facing. “See that thin line?”
Eve squinted, then shook her head. “No.”
“It’s perfectly clear, but it reflects the light. Move your head back and forth until you—”
“I see it!” Eve took a step closer. It was an extremely thin line, almost invisible, that arced high on the wall behind the bed. Evidently the spray of liquid had dried on the wall and was nearly undetectable. “But what is it?”
“Conium, I’m pretty sure. It’s quite deadly, and has a distinctive odor. It hit me as soon as we stepped close to the bed.” Kendra stood on the bed and moved her face within inches of the clear line.
“And I suppose you have a mental catalog of what every poison smells like?”
“Don’t be sarcastic. No, but I am good with plants. When you spend the first twenty years of your life without sight, scents are very important. Conium is an extract of hemlock, which grows almost everywhere. It retains both the plant’s poisonous properties and its rather unpleasant smell.” Kendra pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and rubbed it along the line. “We’ll see if we can test a sample off this, but I’m sure that’s what it is.”
“Hemlock poisoning,” Eve said. “That’s how Socrates was killed…”
“And it would have killed Beth Avery, but for some reason it ended up sprayed against this wall.”
Eve felt sick as she stared around the room. Pills in the mattress hidden by a desperate woman fighting for her freedom. Poison … “Someone actually tried to kill her.” She looked back up at the lethal streak on the wall. “And even if this didn’t work, there’s no certainty that they didn’t manage to kill her in another way.”
“No certainty. But I believe your sister is still alive.” She met her gaze. “And I think you do, too. Isn’t this what all this is about?”
Eve nodded. “But I have nothing concrete on which to base it. Do you?”
“I don’t deal in concrete, but I have an idea or two.” She turned away. “I want to take one last look around in the bathroom. Keep watch. You haven’t done a good job so far.”
Because what Kendra did had a tendency to blow Eve away. She couldn’t argue with her that she hadn’t been doing her part. “Can’t you hurry?” Eve cast another quick glance through the small window in the door. “It’s already been ten minutes. Joe can’t keep him on the line for much longer.”
“I’m done.” Kendra glided across the room from the bathroom. “Where’s that nurse?”
“She got up and went down the hall toward the waiting room a few minutes ago. Since there don’t appear to be any visitors on this floor, I’d bet on her hitting the coffee machine.” She swung the door open, glanced at Room 302 before gesturing for Kendra to leave. “Out.”
Kendra strode out of the room and down the hall with Eve following. “I’m out. Stop being so nervous. We made it.”
Eve drew a deep breath, slowed down, and stopped. Kendra was right. The immediate danger was over. She just didn’t like to cut things so close. “Then let’s find a place to sit down and be impatient when Piltot shows up. After all, he’s been very rude to keep us waiting.” She dropped down on a bench across from the nurse’s station. “Did you find anything else in the bathroom, Kendra?”
Kendra shook her head. “Nothing that’s made an impression. But someone had to have helped her if she got out of here. Maybe we’ll know more when we check the file records on Beth Avery tonight and see who has been in attendance or at least in close proximity.”
“Tonight?”
“Well, we can hardly march into personnel and tap their records during regular business hours. It will have to be tonight.”
“And how are we supposed to get into personnel? It’s an administrative office. The chances are that it will be locked up tight as a drum.”