Page 98 of Night Watch
Kennedy stood on the deck looking over the water, her heart heavy. She would be leaving with Finley tomorrow. One more night on the floating home, and she should’ve packed already, but stood out there looking at the moon slicing across the deck like a bright spotlight. She’d been useless all day, wandering around the house, touching everything she would have to leave behind. She started out deciding what to keep of her mother’s things, but it didn’t take long before she realized most everything she wanted she wouldn’t be allowed to take.
No photos. No videos. No mementos that referenced her family in any way.
The enormity of her decision to follow Finley rendered her ineffective, and she’d done nothing but stare at her mother’s things and the water throughout the day.
Her phone rang.Finley.
Kennedy dredged up a cheerful tone. “Hey, Sis.”
“Tyrone says be ready at nine A.M. for transport.”
“Nine?” The finality of her decision hit Kennedy. “No. Please. I want a little more time.”
“No can do.” Finley sounded eager and determined. “We’re lucky I got him to back off until tomorrow by telling him Nighthawk Security was protecting you.”
Kennedy opened her mouth to tell Finley that she’d left Erik and his brothers and was on her own tonight, she didn’t want to hurry the process along. Kennedy would have one more night in the same city as Erik. Maybe he would come by again. Maybe she would go see him. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
She swallowed down a sigh. “I’ll be packed and ready.”
“With the little bit we can take with us, it’s not like it’ll take long,” Finley said. “See you in the morning.”
Kennedy ended the call before she snapped at her sister and blamed her for having to give up everything. Everything!
Kennedy didn’t know yet where they would be relocated. Or what kind of job she would be doing. She was supposed to have called to quit her current job, but she’d put it off, and now it was too late for the day. She would do it first thing in the morning. Likely the last call she would make from this phone.
“Stop being such a big baby and suck it up,” she muttered. “You’ve made the best decision for Finley. A decision Mom would want. So stop whining. It won’t accomplish anything. Face it. You’re going to have to once again walk out on one of the finest men you know.”
Enough star gazing. Pack and get some sleep. That was what she needed to do.
She spun and headed into the house, but her feet stuttered to a stop just inside the door.
A man stood by the front door, cloaked in shadows. She gasped.
“Hello, Kennedy,” he said. “Time for us to finish this once and for all.”
Confused, Erik blinked at Maya. “How can you possibly tell she was murdered from her denture?”
“I’ll bet we’ll find that it contains the heart medicine the ME couldn’t explain in her system.”
He gaped at her. “In her denture? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Not kidding at all. You wanted me to review Wanda’s autopsy file to look at the toxicology report, remember?”
“Sure, but what does that have to do with the denture?”
“There was a photo of her plate, and I noticed it was unusual. It was 3-D printed, not traditionally made.”
He shook his head. “Are 3-D dentures really a thing?”
“Yes.” She rested her hands on her waist. “Printable dentures aren’t common yet, but they could be the way of the future.”
“Okay, makes sense, I guess, but the medicine? How’s that connected?”
She crossed the room to a work table. “First, you need to know that nearly two-thirds of the denture wearers in our country suffer from frequent fungal infections. Needless to say, that causes a lot of issues for the wearer. Researchers want to solve that problem and have filled 3-D printed dentures with microscopic capsules that periodically release an antifungal medication. These aren’t available to the general public yet but are still in the testing phase.”
“And you think someone put heart medicine in her plate instead of the antifungal?”
She nodded. “Not just anyone could inject the meds into an antifungal denture and expect it to work. And honestly, not many people even know about these dentures, so seems like a scientist is trying to develop them for heart medicine.”
