Page 121 of High Season
“There’s something else you should see.”
Imogen is sliding another piece of paper out of the pack. She pushes it toward Hannah.
“The toxicology report.” Hannah sounds dazed. “I’ve seen this before. Online.”
“Yeah,” says Imogen. “A lot of people have said a lot of things about it, including me. High blood alcohol levels and a complete cocktail of drugs in Tamara’s system. Cocaine, antidepressants, painkillers…”
“Right,” says Hannah. “Tamara had a pretty relaxed attitude to… stimulants.”
“Exactly. In fact, basically everyone that the police spoke to said that this was totally normal for Tamara. That she took this kind of stuff all the time. Other than alcohol, there wasn’t a concerningly large amount of anything in her system—certainly not enough to make her wander off and fall into a pool and drown.”
Hannah nodded. “Wasn’t one of the arguments for accidental death that drugs were a potential factor, but the court ruled that out?”
“Yes,” says Imogen. “Which made sense. At least, it made sense without those pictures. But look at this.”
Imogen runs her fingers down the list of drugs, stopping close to the bottom.
“Benzodiazepines: flunitrazepam,” Hannah reads. “Benzos are sleeping pills, right?”
“Exactly,” says Imogen. “In fact, these were apparently Evelyn’s sleeping pills. Evelyn said that she got them under the counter, for insomnia. Said that she wasn’t sleeping because of everything that was going on with her cheating scumbag husband. And when the toxicology report is released, she completely sweeps this under the rug. Tellsthe police that it’s no biggie. That she actually gave Tamara some of her pills pretty regularly, because Tamara didn’t sleep well. She said that Tamara wanted to nap before the party so could have taken them then, or maybe even shortly before she died, if she was done with the party and wanted to get some sleep without the noise disturbing her. Evelyn actually got investigated, since the pills weren’t prescription, but the police decided that it wasn’t in the public interest to prosecute.”
“So… what are you saying?”
“Hannah.” Imogen leans in close. “You said that you were drunk that night. But were you surprised by how drunk you got? Did it seem strange to you?”
“I mean…” Hannah looks flustered. “Yeah, I guess. I’d never been like that before. Passing out, and not remembering stuff. But then, I’d hardly ever drank champagne before. I wasn’t used to it. And Blake kept giving me drinks…”
“Flunitrazepam,” Imogen says, “also has another name.”
“It does?”
Imogen nods. Josie can see something of truecrimefangirl_2002 in her then. Something of that dramatic flair.
“Flunitrazepam,” she says, “is also known as Rohypnol.”
“Rohypnol?” Hannah looks between Josie and Imogen. “As in roofies? The date rape drug?”
Imogen nods.
“In small doses, it’s a treatment for insomnia. But in larger doses… well.”
“We think you were roofied that night,” Josie says. “And we think that whoever roofied you also roofied Tamara.”
“But that’s…” Hannah is frowning. “Wouldn’t the police have figured that out? Or the coroner?”
“One of the reasons why roofies are a drug of choice for people up to no good is because it leaves your system really fast,” Imogen says. “Reallyfast for some people, and a little bit slower for others, depending on what it’s interacting with, and your size, and how much you’ve eaten, and a ton of other stuff. And Tamara didn’t die until almosteight hours after she was found. There were minimal traces of it detected in her toxicology results. Not enough to draw any conclusions. And certainly not enough to disprove Evelyn’s sleeping pill story. It was impossible to tell when Tamara had taken them, and whether she’d taken enough to help her have a quick nap, or to totally incapacitate her.”
“And toxicology results take a long time,” says Josie. “Months. By the time they were released, nobody was paying much attention. Nina had already come out with her story, and that had completely taken everyone’s eyes off the toxicology report. The investigators had basically made their minds up. They had their theory, and Tamara being on drugs didn’t prove or disprove anything. Nina’s story still held up.”
“But…” Hannah closes her eyes and presses her palms down against them. She shakes her head. When she speaks, her voice is quiet. “You think that Blake roofied me,andthat he roofied Tamara, too?”
Neither of them speak. Hannah pulls her hands away from her face. She can see, from their silence, their pained expressions, that this is exactly what they think.
“But why would he have taken those photos?” She hears the pleading note in her voice.
Imogen looks at Josie, who gives her a small nod. “Hannah, I know it’s hard to hear this, even now, but… Blake was still seeing Cordelia at the time of the party. In fact, he was still seeing her for about a year after the party, until she dumped him when she went to university the next autumn. My guess? Blake wanted to have something on you, some form of blackmail, in case you threatened to expose him for what he was: a cheating asshole who had been unfaithful to his wealthy, connected girlfriend all summer.”
“He was… he was still with Cordelia?”
