Chapter 19 - The Person Closest to Eleanor
The new toxicology report showed chronic exposure to a second drug.
Someone had been dosing Eleanor slowly.
Not Daniel.
Not Martin.
Not Hale.
The amount found in her system suggested repeated small doses over at least a month.
Claire returned to the mansion with Torres and a forensic team.
They tested Eleanor’s supplements, tea, coffee, and medications.
Nothing.
Then Rosa walked into the kitchen carrying a tray.
Claire saw the small bottle of mineral drops Eleanor used every morning.
“Wait.”
Rosa stopped.
Claire pointed. “Test that.”
Rosa looked confused. “Mrs. Whitmore has used those for years.”
Torres bagged the bottle.
The preliminary test came back positive.
Claire’s heart sank.
Only a few people had access to Eleanor’s private breakfast routine.
Rosa was one of them.
Rosa stared at the result in horror.
“No.”
Torres asked, “Who handles this bottle?”
“I do. Sometimes Mrs. Whitmore. Sometimes…”
She stopped.
“Sometimes who?”
Rosa looked at Claire.
“Her nurse.”
Eleanor had hired a private nurse six weeks earlier after a minor blood-pressure scare.
A woman named Dana Mercer.
Claire had barely noticed her.
Torres searched the personnel records.
Dana Mercer did not exist.
The nursing license was fake.
The address was fake.
The phone number was disconnected.
Then one of the agents found a security image from the side entrance.
Dana was leaving the mansion two hours before the dinner.
Beside her stood Martin Shaw.
Claire stared at the screen.
“He hired her.”
“Looks that way,” Torres said.
But the next image changed everything.
It showed Dana receiving an envelope from someone else three days earlier.
Eleanor.
Claire zoomed in.
The two women looked calm.
Familiar.
That evening, Claire confronted Eleanor in the hospital.
“Who is Dana Mercer?”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“Her real name is Rachel Shaw.”
Claire’s breath caught.
“Martin’s daughter?”
“Yes.”
“Why were you paying her?”
Eleanor’s voice broke.
“Because she came to me two months ago and said she wanted to help destroy her father.”
Claire stared.
“Then why was she poisoning you?”
Eleanor opened her eyes.
“I don’t think she was.”
“Her bottle was contaminated.”
Eleanor whispered, “Rachel told me someone had been changing the bottle after she left each day.”
“Who?”
Eleanor looked toward the hallway.
May you like
“My son.”
Daniel stood outside the half-open door.
