Page 82 of The Senator's Wife

“I need to call Emmy.”

“I can’t let you do that,” she’d told her.

Sloane had shrunk back. “I know what you’re doing. You’re going to kill me!”

“It’s okay. I’m here to help you.” Athena pulled a chair up next to the bed and took Sloane’s hand in hers. “I’m not who you think I am.”

Sloane sat in shocked disbelief as Athena disclosed everything to her.

“I don’t understand,” Sloane said. “If you’re FBI, then you have no medical training? You’ve been lying all this time, taking care of me with no idea what you’re doing? How did you even get the job?”

Athena put a hand up. “I’m a naturopath by training, and for the last two years I’ve worked as an undercover agent for the FBI. The care agency has no knowledge of my real identity, but, well, the FBI can arrange things without seeming to. We’ve beenmonitoring all your phones, and when Whit called to make the request for a home healthcare worker, we moved in. It isn’t the lupus that’s been making you sick; it’s Whit. He’s been giving you Bactrim, as well as belladonna. I found it in his office yesterday. That’s why you’ve been having hallucinations, fever, mental confusion. Belladonna is poisonous. Bactrim exacerbates lupus flares. And you’re sleeping so much because he’s been dosing you with sedatives. We need to get you to a hospital. Have you checked out and see what needs to be done to try and reverse the damage he caused.”

“Belladonna? Isn’t that a plant?”

Athena nodded. “It’s used in homeopathy, but it can be poisonous. You might have heard of nightshade. People have mistakenly eaten the berries and died. He was adding it to your tea and other drinks. Easy enough to do with eyedrops used by ophthalmologists, which aren’t harmful as eyedrops, but when consumed, very poisonous. He somehow got his hands on a bottle.”

“So all those times he said he took me to the doctor, when I couldn’t remember—he was lying?”

Athena nodded. “At the time, I thought you really were sick, so I didn’t suspect anything like that. My handler, Clint Winston, said the surveillance team that was following him saw him drive you to a medical building and go in, but of course they didn’t follow him inside. Clint tried to determine whether you’d been seen, but they wouldn’t tell him due to privacy concerns. My guess is that he never took you in to actually see the doctor, but you can call the office yourself and confirm.”

Sloane shook her head, her mouth open but saying nothing. Finally, she burst into tears. “He made me believe I was losing my mind! I bet there was never any MRI either. Why would he do it? I’m no threat to his career.”

Athena waited for the shock of Whit’s machinations to sink in before she delivered the next bombshell. “We’ve also been investigating him for Robert’s and Peg’s deaths. We have even turned up evidence that he was involved in the death of her parents. Webelieve he’s planned to kill you from the very beginning. Your foundation is the perfect vehicle for him to launder money.”

“He did kill them! I found Peg’s father’s watch. The one supposedly destroyed in the fire. And a report he stole from Rosemary!”

Athena listened rapt as Sloane filled her in on what she’d found in the guest room last night.

Sloane’s lips were pressed in fury. “He is absolute filth. And if he is responsible for Robert’s death too…” She began to cry again, shaking her head back and forth in disbelief. “I married this monster. I moved him into our house!” She rocked forward, wrapping her arms around her knees. “What have I done? How could I be so stupid! He should be put away somewhere forever.” Sloane’s breath was coming too fast, getting ragged.

Athena put a hand on her arm. “Try to calm down. I’m here to help you. The FBI has been watching everything he does. We have the proof to put him away on everything but Robert’s and Peg’s murders. We have information from Congressman Horner that Vice President Bishop is involved, and Horner’s helping to get us proof. But I can’t risk leaving you here any longer.”

Sloane’s face looked even more gaunt than usual. Her eyes met Athena’s. “What are you going to do?”

“I need to get you out of this house. You’re very sick.” She took a breath, giving Sloane time to absorb what she was telling her. “I’ve been playing him, making him think I’m falling for him. I told him I would give you a fatal dose of sleeping pills tonight while he’s away.”

“What? Why don’t you arrest him now?”

“We’re planning to. We had hoped to wait until after Whit’s meeting with the VP, Congressman Horner, and a few others in four days. Horner is working with us and was going to be wired for the meeting.” Athena gave Sloane a brief summary of how the conspirators were stealing money from HUD housing projects. “We needed Whit to get the vice president on record, proving that he’s apart of the scheme. We think they were involved with the contractor who was arrested in connection with the Chicago fire. But we can’t risk your life. We have to get you out now. Once that happens, Whit will know we’re onto him.”

“What? All those innocent people who died…The children! They profited off of that as well. They have to pay,” Sloane said.

Athena was all too aware of the tragic consequences of Whit’s greed and what it had cost her. Her own husband had died in the fire that was caused by the contractor Whit and his fellow criminals had helped scam into being awarded the building contract. She wanted them all to pay—it was the reason she’d been so dedicated to this case—but no matter how much she wanted justice for her husband, she couldn’t allow Sloane to become collateral damage. “Whit will pay. We can arrest him. But I’m afraid the vice president will get away with it.”

“No! He has to be exposed. I don’t understand. Why do you have to abandon it if you arrest Whit?”

“Once we take you out of the house and the FBI takes him into custody, the investigation falls apart, because the meeting with the VP will never happen. The reason we’ve been waiting was to get to Bishop. But we have to get you out now, get you to a hospital.”

“No, you can’t let Bishop get away. You can’t let him go on stealing from people, ruining lives. Whit already thinks you’re going to kill me. What if you do?”

That was when they’d come up with the plan. They had to make it look real. Athena’s 5:22a.m.call brought the arrival of an FBI agent, posing as a medical examiner, to take the body away. The police were brought in on the operation to convince the remaining household staff that Sloane was really dead. But it still had been surreal for Athena to watch Sloane wheeled out on a gurney with a sheet covering her from head to foot.

Sloane was moved to a safe location in the hospital, where she waited—until Athena brought Emmy to her. The three of themhuddled in the room, outlining the plans for the coming days—the planning of the funeral, their confrontation with Whit, the police follow-up.

“What about Gram? And Aunt Camille?” Emmy had asked. “Can I tell them the truth?”

“We can’t take the chance of their knowing your mother is alive. Something might slip. It’s too risky,” Athena had told her. “It will only be for a few more days.”

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