“It’s possible. There was no injection site that I could see, but her stomach was pretty full.”
“Considering she died just a few hours after Paula, I have to wonder how related they are.”
“That’s for you to figure out. Paula didn’t have any drugs in her system. She was killed by blunt force trauma to the front of her head.”
“I had wondered if she had something to do with Candy’s death, but it doesn’t sound like it.”
“Paula could have been the one who gave her the drugs, for all you know. I don’t imagine Candy would have taken all of these on her own.”
“You think the drugs were in her drinks?” Kate asked.
“It’s quite possible that the speed was. I’m still waiting on a more detailed tox analysis, but that’s enough to get you going.”
“Yeah, it surely is.”
“Paula had none of the drugs, alcohol only. And she had the same drink.”
“So, they were drinking together,” Kate murmured.
“It’s quite possible that Paula slipped the drugs into Candy’s drink and was either expecting to do more or would leave her like that.”
“And then what? Somebody interrupted them? Or,” Kate said quietly, “somebody decided to get rid of somebody who could turn the tables on the bad guys and could lie about her involvement.”
There was silence in the other end. “You know what? That makes about as much sense as anything,” he said tiredly. “Whatever happened to just having wet T-shirt contests and drinking until you puked?”
She laughed. “I think that still happens a lot too. But this group, in particular, has a nasty element.”
“Right, well, you should be checking with the faculty to see if any other nasty elements abound.”
“Yeah, I’ve sent several emails to the Dr. Agress and his executive assistant already. He was supposed to send me the files last night, and I haven’t received them as of yet.”
“Wow, so what is he hiding?”
“That’s exactly where we’re at.” As soon as she got off the phone with Dr. Smidge, she contacted Dr. Agress.
When his executive assistant said that he was out, Kate replied, “Okay, in that case, I’ll be coming with a warrant, sirens blaring, and we’ll search all the files ourselves. We’ll see how he likes that. Then I’ll call the president of the university myself and let him know how uncooperative the two of you have been. Then we’ll contact the UBC Legal Department. Does that suit you better?” As soon as the assistant started to yell into the phone, Kate said, “No, ma’am, I’m done. We asked for cooperation. We tried to keep it low-key. If you continue to choose not to cooperate, I’ll be sending in the media next.” She slammed down her phone again. Then she sat here, pinching the bridge of her nose.
When Colby came in, he asked, “What the hell was that all about?”
She glared at him. “Dr. Agress is stalling me, refusing to cooperate, and so are the family of another woman who was involved in one of the accidents a year ago.”
His eyebrows shot up. “What do you mean, Paul refused to cooperate?” She crossed her arms over her chest and told him. He shook his head. “Let me talk to him.”
“Don’t even bother. I’ve already talked to the DA about getting a warrant. As far as I’m concerned, I’m bringing the press too.”
He winced.
“No, I’ve had it with this crap. We need answers before we end up with more dead people. I get that Dr. Agress’s only concerned about the politics and the university’s budget… not to mention his job, but those dead students belonged to his faculty too, and he should be giving a damn about them. That the crimes didn’t happen on campus shouldn’t matter.”
Colby held up a hand. “Now just stop.”
At his rebuke, she glared at him. “Why? Because he’s your friend?”
Instantly an awkward silence fell on the room, and she knew she’d crossed the line. She’d dared to bring up the reason he was telling her to back off.
He glared at her, his spine stiffening. “I’ll talk to him, Morgan,” he said in a hard voice. “Don’t you cross me.”
She crossed her arms, looked at the clock above his head. “Ten minutes. That’s how long until that warrant comes through.”