Chapter 194

Sarah POV

I had been expecting the words, but they still came as a shock.

“So, that’s that,” Zane said, and I saw heads nodding on various screens.

“Yes,” Travis said. “Warfarin sodium is the most widely prescribed blood thinner in the world and is quite commonly used as rat poison. There are trace amounts of other chemicals, probably things to control the main poison, particularly in delaying its immediate effects.

“They found trace amounts in Olivia’s body and larger amounts in Dr. Calvert’s body, despite the fire.”

“Fire?” Shotz asked. “Did I miss that too?”

“No,” Travis said. “I didn’t mention it before because I didn’t know in his death throes Calvert supposedly doused himself in chemicals that eventually caught fire while his body was in storage.”

“And were these chemicals supposed to be in his lab?” Ambassador Torrin asked.

“No.”

She snorted, though somehow it was done elegantly. “That’s yet another thing that points to having a chemist on someone’s payroll. Can I get a list of the chemicals?”

“With Alpha Zane’s permission, I’d like to skip the formalities and just forward everyone a copy of the autopsy reports.”

“Yes, good,” Zane said.

Travis looked at his notes. “They couldn’t tell me why Chloe seemed unaffected by the poison while it almost killed Grace and then made her ill for so long, but they were able to tell me the poison was given about six hours before death.”

“Damn it,” Zane growled.

I looked at him.

“Olivia’s actual labor was very short. Six hours before her death, she was still surrounded by family and a few of the house staff.”

“So she was poisoned, but not necessarily, not even probably by the doctors and nurses who were caring for her,” Alicia said. I noticed Travis sent her a small smile of approval.

“I’ve been going through the employment records for your home, Alpha Zane, and there were three people who quit or were fired in the three months after Olivia’s death,” Travis said.

“Please just call me Zane, Travis.”

The agent looked surprised. “I’ll try, um, Zane. Anyway, there was a chef’s assistant named Arnold Abdullahi, a housemaid named Elcott—evidently she just had the one name—and a gardener named Caleb Brown.”

I frowned at the familiar-ish name.”

Zane looked at me. “Mavis’s cousin.”

I nodded.

“Caleb is working on an estate not far from here, so I’m inclined to rule him out. Besides, I can’t see him being part of something that would have burned Mavis’s poppy garden.”

“Though he would be someone who knew how important that garden was,” Delia said.

“You have a suspicious mind, Delia,” Alicia said. “I like it, but obviously the most guilty-looking is the guy working in the kitchen, Arnold Abdullahi.”

“I believe he went to live on the other side of the world,” Zane said.

“We’ll be looking into all three,” Travis said. “Elcot has a record.”

“For what?” Zane asked.

“Petty theft. Like I said, we’ll be looking into all three.”

“So, Olivia was murdered, and Grace was almost murdered, Chloe was kidnapped but put into excellent care, and for five years nothing much happened,” Alivia said.

“I’d like you to define ‘nothing much,’” Whitfield objected.

“I mean nothing illegal or harmful,” she clarified. “Then Chloe and Sarah are discovered, and all hell breaks loose.”

“Anything interesting online, Ted?” Whitfield asked.

“Just the usual. Not even a new conspiracy theory.”

“Let’s not get keyhole vision,” Zane said. “Does anyone have anything at all to report?”

“Yes,” Shotz and Claude said almost as one.

“Shotz, go first. No offense, Claude.”

“None taken.”

“I have no way of knowing if this is connected, but we’ve been getting in the new equipment for the geothermal plant, just some basic stuff at this point, and twice now it’s been vandalized.”

“Really?” I asked. “Whatever for?” Then I felt stupid. “OK, yes, that’s the question.”

Shotz shrugged. “Not all the wolves are pleased about the new respect the human workers are getting, and a lot of people are openly skeptical the conversion to geothermal can be done.”

“Would beefing up security help?” Zane asked.

“Probably.”

“All right.”

“I might be able to help with the skepticism,” I said. “I’ve been working on a new script with Melissa for Let’s Talk! about green energy. We could do one just on geothermal plants, go into detail just how they work and how practical they are.”

Shotz looked grateful. “That would be wonderful.”

“Consider it done,” I said.

“Claude?” Zane asked.

“Again, I have no way of knowing if this is connected, but we’ve been getting death threats.”

“We?”

“Well, me, personally, actually.” He laughed, but his eyes were worried. “I mean, I talk about Disney movies. I’ve had people yell at me for misrepresenting some movie or not liking a character, but not death threats.”

“And they’re quite specific,” the ambassador added. “One of them, an email we couldn’t trace—”

“Send it to me,” Ted said.

“Thank you. Anyway, it mentioned not being ‘all political.’ Now, that could be about political correctness in talking about some of those older movies.”

“I don’t really harp on how Snow White is White, Mom.”

“You never know what people are going to hear regardless of whatever you really say.”

“I should put that on a T-shirt,” Wilson said.

“Forward everything you have to me, including photos of any physical mail or notes,” Ted said.

“Will do.”

“I wasn’t going to mention it,” Delia said.

“Mention what?” Zane asked.

“Well, I’ve been getting death threats too, but then, I have ever since my little slave face was plastered all over the news. And it’s only gotten worse now that I’m working with domestic abuse victims, but lately, yeah, I’ve gotten some comments about being political as well.”

“Is it the task force itself, do you think?” I asked. “Is Operation Lieutenants going to become a target?”

Everyone thought about that for a minute.

“Actually,” the ambassador said, “that connects to something I wanted to talk about before we adjourned for the night.”

“What?” Zane asked.

“Well, I’m not sure about the rest of you, but even though we’ve been working specifically on these threats to Alpha Zane’s household, several other good things have come out of it. Delia and I, for example, are collaborating to help abuse victims, I know Claude and Sarah are planning to do a video together on female role models, and, Shotz, just now you were able to go directly to your Pack Alpha to ask for more security at the mine.”

“Your point?” Zane asked.

“Well, I see no reason not to continue this group and even formalize it, once the current danger has passed and we’ve been successful.”

“You turning all this into a political alliance, Ambassador?” Zane asked.

“Perhaps, but seriously, why not? We all have the chance to do many things together for the good of our territories.”

“And for the good of wolves everywhere,” Melissa said thoughtfully, her eyes shining. “What a great way to promote unity among us.”

“Can we get the person trying to kill my family first?” Zane asked, but it was dry, and he was smiling slightly.

“And then?”

“And then, Ambassador, we’ll talk.”