Chapter 4 - The Husband Who Knew Too Much
Daniel arrived at the hospital at six that morning.
We were legally separated but not yet divorced, and until that night we had still shared temporary joint custody of Caleb.
He came through the waiting room looking exhausted, wearing the same navy work jacket he used at his landscaping company.
I put the photograph of the bottle label between us.
“Explain it.”
His face changed before he answered.
Not shock.
Recognition.
“Those are old.”
“What are they?”
“Medication I got for panic attacks.”
“Why did your sister have them?”
“I don't know.”
Detective Miller was standing close enough to hear.
“When did you last possess that prescription, Mr. Carter?”
Daniel rubbed his jaw.
“Months ago.”
Miller asked for the prescribing physician and pharmacy.
Daniel became defensive immediately.
“You're treating me like I drugged my own kid.”
“I'm establishing where the medication came from.”
I watched my husband get angry at the question instead of frightened by the answer.
That mattered.
So did something else.
Daniel had spent the previous week pressuring me to let Amber back into Caleb's life.
I had thought it was about family loyalty.
Now I remembered exactly how specific he had been.
Saturday would be good. You work Friday late, right? Let Amber pick him up Saturday morning.
He had known my schedule.
He had known Amber's schedule.
And somehow, before I told him anything, he had known police might find a bottle.
I called my divorce attorney from the hospital cafeteria.
By afternoon she had filed an emergency motion to suspend Daniel's unsupervised parenting time until the poisoning investigation could be reviewed.
I cried after signing it.
Daniel was Caleb's father.
Five months earlier I had still believed that, whatever happened between us, he loved our son more than he hated me.
Then Detective Miller called.
“Sarah, Daniel's pharmacy filled that prescription Thursday.”
May you like
Thursday.
Two days before Caleb collapsed.
