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"I ran a blood test on Eli Jefferson as you requested, this ti for GHB I ran it twice"

"And?"

"Negative"

"Negative?"

"There was nothing there Not a trace I looked very hard"

"Are you sure?’

"McKenzie, it’s what I do"

"I don’t knohat to say"

"How about, ‘Sorry for wasting your precious time and resources, Doctor’--that’ll do Oh, neverup

Suddenly, I felt like the tiredest man on the face of the earth

I had asked Muehlenhaus why he was protecting Priscilla St Ana What I should have asked him hy Priscilla St Ana needed protection The answer had seemed obvious to me She had killed Jefferson She had all but confessed to it, along with the ht I knehy It was the reason I was driving to New Brighton Noasn’t so sure

Vonnie Lou Loasa beeline from her front door to her car in the driveway, a Plyer than she was I pulled in behind it

My brain was all a-junatures and motives and opportunities and the means of murder Cilia claimed she had put Robert St Ana and Brian Becker to sleep with her GHB analog and then allowed the Eli Jefferson had also been asleep when he bled to death The coroner now says there was no trace of GHB in his blood If Cilia hadn’t killed Jefferson, as she so anxious that I believe she had? OrGHB, she used the softball bat to make him unconscious

Put that aside for now, I told myself Instead, concentrate on motive Concentrate on the why Cilia killed her father for herself She killed her brother for Merodie She killed Becker for Silk Why did she kill Jefferson?

"What is it?" Vonnie Lou wanted to know as I approached her car She was dressed the way lots of wo blue blazer and skirt and a white blouse with notched lapels The outfit reminded me of a private school uniforraph," I said

"I don’t have tiot a call for a receptionist gig that could last three weeks, er I can’t afford to be late"

"It’ll only take a sec"

I showed her the computer printout of a photo of Priscilla St Ana, the one that appeared in Women’s Business Minnesota