Page 80 of Lost Cause
“Give me five minutes to get some water, and we’ll begin the dig.”
“How long will it take?” Abby asked.
“The remains aren’t buried terribly deep so we should be able to do it fairly quickly.”
“What is ‘fairly quickly’ for you?” he pressed.
“If the GPR is correct on the depth, and I have no reason to believe it wouldn’t be, just a couple of hours,” Kelsey answered, not seeming to be bothered by Burke’s pushy behavior. “But you’d be wasting your time to stand here and wait. Pay attention to your phones and I’ll contact you the minute I find anything.”
She stepped to her team, who’d taken a seat around a large cooler, each of them drinking bottled water. Kelsey grabbed a bottle for herself and settled on a nearby rock.
Abby changed her focus to Burke. “If you’re able to obtain the search warrant for Dr. Shore, we’d have enough time to serve it now.”
“If we succeeded, it should be in my inbox.” He took out his phone and swiped his finger over the screen several times. “Got it. Let’s grab Sam to process the forensics and head for the mainland.”
Abby didn’t have to be told twice but hurried toward the house. Their investigation had just changed. Or had at leastlikelychanged. And it was time to find out if Dr. Shore had anything to do with the theft of the crown and Estelle’s death.
Burke had wanted to race to Dr. Shore’s house, but it made sense to pick up Estelle’s missing person file on the way. To ensure things moved faster, he left Abby in the car where he wouldn’t have to introduce her to everyone. Or maybe he left her behind because his feelings for her weren’t under control. Either way, he ran in, grabbed the file, and bolted for the door before anyone tried to talk to him. Then he raced over the speed limit to Dr. Shore’s house.
Since Sam knew the evidence she was looking for, he and Abby left her in the entryway to do her thing and escorted the doctor into her small office.
“Take a seat,” he instructed.
“I thought I answered all of your questions before.” Sitting, she looked up at him. “What’s this about?”
She twined her hands together in her lap. “And why do you have the forensic tech here? What could I have possibly done?”
Abby sat next to the doctor, and Burke perched on the corner of the wooden desk holding neat piles of paperwork.
He took a slow breath, pushing down the accusatory edge in his voice. She was older, and everyone had moments where memory faltered. He would try to be more gentle in his questioning, even if she could be a murderer. “When we last talked, I don’t think you told us everything about your visits to Victor.”
She swallowed hard. “I don’t know what else there is to say.”
“Maybe it helps if you know we’ve located a clandestine grave on the property,” he said, hoping to shock her into revealing anything she might know.
She gasped. “Estelle?”
“Could be. We hope to know more in a few hours.”
Abby scooted forward on her chair. “If you had anything to do with her disappearance, tell us now, and it will go better for you.”
“I didn’t.” She flashed her gaze between Abby and Burke. “Honest. I’d even take a lie detector test to prove it.”
“But there’s something you’re not telling us, isn’t there?” Burke pressed harder. “Maybe something that could’ve contributed to Estelle’s death, but you don’t see the connection yet.”
“Okay, fine.” She slumped in her chair. “That first visit to Victor. It was for a specific reason. His gardener was having problems with garden pests. Estelle didn’t want him to use synthetic pesticides, and he’d read that botanical toxins worked well.”
Now they were getting somewhere. “And did you share the information with him?”
“I did, but first, I educated him on the limitations of botanical toxins and warned him about their safety issues. Then I gave him the names of the three most common toxins he could use.”
Finally! “Toxins that could potentially be deadly to humans?”
“It’s possible, if not managed properly. You’re not…” Her eyes widened. “You’re not thinking the toxin was used to kill Estelle, are you? Because Victor would never hurt her. He loved her. And his gardener wouldn’t either. That man was in love with her too.” She spit out the final statements with disgust.
Abby got out a notepad and pen. “Tell us the names of the toxins you gave Victor.”
“Rotenone, Ryania, and nicotine. All are derived from plants.”
