Deadly Medicine Read Online Free PDF Page B

and he was absolutely sure it was illegal, but the sheriff wouldn’t allow him to get into trouble. After all, it was Zeke’s idea.
    As soon as Ward and George headed for the front door, where his brothers Elliot and Edmund were causing a racket, he bolted from the bathroom and headed toward the bar. He might have had misgivings, but they weren’t going to slow him down enough to get caught in the act.
    He was able to calm himself with the knowledge that he was doing the right thing. It was a good deed, even if the way he went about it wasn’t. Jess was unhappy with Ward Thrasher, and he could make her happy. Emory remembered the way she’d looked on the night of their junior prom, so beautiful in a blue dress that matched her eyes, carrying the roses he’d bought for her with his grass-cutting money. She’d been happy back then, on that one and only date they shared. She’d told her parents she was a lesbian, and she’d been living with Ward down in Philadelphia, but didn’t the fact that she was back here in Garden say something about that? She was unhappy, and he was going to help Zeke make her happy again.
    Emory had been successful in his landscaping business, so he’d be able to provide for Jess. She’d want to give up her career once they began having children. His home was almost paid for, and he owned both a pickup truck and a car, all paid for with the profits of the company. Two crews worked for him, cutting grass and landscaping in the summers and plowing snow in the winter, and he was so respected in the county that he was on the commissioners’ advisory board.
    With the thought of Jess’s smiling face in the back of his mind, he poured the powdery substance into Ward’s drink and then followed her out the door.

    *

    Ward shook her head in disbelief as she sat back down at the bar. A man had passed out in the snow and after regaining consciousness refused to go to the hospital. The episode might have meant nothing, but it could also have been a harbinger of something ominous. Without further testing, she couldn’t tell what was happening, but she had been unsuccessful in her attempts to persuade him.
    “I’ll check on that burger,” George said, and as he headed through the swinging doors leading to the kitchen, Ward tilted her glass back and swallowed a mouthful of beer.
    A minute later he returned and, glancing at her near-empty glass, offered her a refill as he placed her plate of food before her. “Just some water, George. I have to drive home.” She didn’t say anything to him, but she suddenly didn’t feel well. Her peripheral vision was becoming blurry, and she had difficulty focusing as she squeezed ketchup onto her burger and fries. Perhaps the food would fix her problem. She was plagued by the occasional migraine, and skipping dinner could certainly trigger one. Not to mention the stress she was under with Jess. The weird things happening with her eyes certainly seemed like a migraine, and the sooner she ate and went home to bed, the better off she’d be.
    “Sure thing,” he said, then looked down the bar where a man was seated, quietly nursing a drink. “Another one for you, Emory?”
    Although the man wasn’t very noticeable, with average looks and size, his name was certainly distinct. Ward turned and studied him a little more closely as she popped a fry into her mouth. “Are you the Emory who took Jess Benson to the prom and tried to grope her in your pickup?” Ward asked.
    George chuckled, but Ward wasn’t amused. It was a serious question and deserved an answer. Suddenly, it was more important than the food before her or her impending headache. The answer to her question was more important than anything. Emory was trying to take Jess from her. Her partner. Her lover. Her heart. Ward had never hit another human being in her life, yet she was suddenly filled with rage, with the desire to beat thoughts of Jess from his mind. “Hey! Emory! I’m talking to you!”
    Ward