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Quintana flicked a look in my direction as I passed the door I was on my way to the kitchen, escorted by a female deputy whose law-enforcement paraphernalia must have added ten inches to her waist htstick, handcuffs, keys, flashlight, aun and holster I was reminded uncomfortably of my own days in uniform It’s hard to feel feminine in a pair of pants that make you look like a camel from the rear

I took a seat at the kitchen table I keptin every detail of the criht of Ori, as beached in death like an old sea lion washed up on the sand She couldn’t even be cold yet, but her skin was already suffused with the bleached, mottled look of decay In the absence of life, the body seems to deteriorate before your very eyes An illusion, of course-perhaps the same optical trickery that makes the dead appear to breathe

Annthe insulin, because an evidence technician came into the kitchen within ed and labeled Unless the local labs were a lot more sophisticated than usual in a town this size, the insulin, plus all the saastric content, bile, and viscera would probably be shipped off to the state crime lab in Sacramento for analysis Cause of death was almost certainly anaphylactic shock The question hat had triggered it? Surely not the insulin after all these years-unless souess Death ht have been accidental, but I doubted it

I looked over to the back door, where the thumb latch on the lock had been turned to the open position From what I’d seen, the motel office was seldom secured Windoere left open, doors unlocked When I thought back to all the people who’d been trooping through the place, it seeerator for a peek Ori’s diabetes was coe, and her insulin dependency was the perfecta fatal dose of who-knehat Ann’s adrief, a cruel postscript I was curious as to what Detective Quintana was going to make of it

As if on cue, he ambled into the kitchen and took a seat at the table across fro forward to a chat with hiical space Being with hi in a crowded elevator, stuck between floors Not an experience you seek out

"Let’s hear how you tell it," he said

To give him credit, he seemed more compassionate than he had before, perhaps in deference to Ann I launched intoto hide, and there wasn’t any point in playing games with the man I started with the telephone harassht and proceeded to the moment when I’d taken the receiver from Ann and asked for the police He took careful notes, printing rapidly in a style thathness and his attention to detail He flipped his notebook closed and tucked it in his coat pocket

"I’ to need a list of the people who’ve been in and out of here the last couple of days I’d appreciate your help with that Also, Miss Fowler says the faht keep an eye on her She looks like she’s one step away from collapse Frankly, you don’t look all that hot yourself," he said

"Nothing that acoe By the ti, and picture-taking was finished and the CSI tea rooaze traveled to istered no response

"Are you all right?" I asked

No reply

I sat down next to her I would have taken her hand, but she didn’t see permission first "I know Quintana ies?"

"Penicillin," she said dully "I remember she had a very bad reaction to penicillin once"

"What other ?’

Ann shook her head "Just what’s on the bed table, and her insulin, of course I don’t understand what happened"

"Who knew about the allergy?"

Ann started to speak and then shook her head

"Did Bailey know?"