Chapter 5 - The Wrong BottleRichard remembered the bedside medication.
His father had taken heart medication for years.
Victoria claimed Eleanor had instructed her to retrieve a bottle from the nightstand.
Eleanor denied it.
Someone was lying.
Richard requested toxicology from stored hospital samples.
His father's physician initially resisted.
Richard insisted.
The result arrived two days later.
Robert had an unusually high concentration of a sedative in his bloodstream.
Not necessarily lethal.
But dangerous combined with his heart condition.
The prescription belonged to Eleanor.
Richard stared at the report.
Victoria said:
“Now you understand.”
“No.”
“Her medication was in his system.”
“That doesn't prove she gave it to him.”
“She told me to.”
“My mother says she didn't.”
Victoria smiled bitterly.
“Of course.”
Richard asked:
“Why would Mom drug Dad?”
“Because he was leaving her.”
Richard froze.
“What?”
Victoria showed him a copy of a divorce consultation.
Robert had met an attorney.
Richard stared.
“He was divorcing Mom?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Victoria hesitated.
“Because he was in love with someone else.”
Richard felt disgust.
“Who?”
Victoria looked at him.
“Me.”
Silence.
Richard stared at his wife.
Then laughed once.
“You expect me to believe my seventy-four-year-old father was having an affair with you?”
“No.”
Victoria's eyes hardened.
“He wanted one.”
Richard stopped.
“He harassed me for months.”
The certainty in his anger faltered.
Victoria continued:
“I rejected him.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because he was your father.”
“You expect me to accept that?”
“No.”
“I expect you to understand why I hated both of them.”
“Both?”
“Your mother knew.”
Richard stared.
“She knew what he was doing and blamed me.”
Victoria began crying.
For once, Richard couldn't tell if it was performance.
“She called me a seductress.”
“She told me I was destroying her marriage.”
“I was trying to avoid him.”
Richard remembered Eleanor's hatred toward Victoria.
Was there another origin?
Victoria continued:
“The night Robert died, Eleanor told me to give him medication.”
“Why would you obey her?”
“I thought it was his.”
“The bottle had her name.”
“The label was partially torn.”
Richard frowned.
He remembered his mother's medication bottles.
One had indeed been damaged.
Victoria whispered:
“I didn't kill Robert.”
“Then why threaten Mom?”
Her face changed.
“Because she spent six months telling me she'd make you believe I did.”
Richard stared.
“So you threw a vase at her?”
Victoria looked ashamed.
“I lost control.”
“That's not an explanation.”
“No.”
She nodded.
“It isn't.”
For the first time, Victoria wasn't denying the indefensible.
That made Richard more uncertain, not less.
Then Emily called.
“Mr. Coleman.”
Her voice sounded urgent.
“What happened?”
“Your mother remembered something.”
“What?”
Emily paused.
“The medication bottle.”
Richard looked at Victoria.
Emily continued:
“She says Victoria didn't take it from the nightstand.”
Richard frowned.
“Where did she get it?”
May you like
Emily answered:
“From your father's hand.”
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