She Was Their Target, page 11
“It’s hard to say. Some doctors would feel obligated to tell her parents and others wouldn’t. Did Kristin have the ability to pay for it? Without whatever medical insurance her mother carried?”
“Jennifer said that Kristin’s bank account was empty. That all of the money she had put away for college was gone, and she didn’t have anything to show for it. No new clothes, car, or anything else you might expect a teenager to buy.”
“She did have something to show for it. Her weight loss.”
“I guess.” Zachary poked at the casserole on his plate. “You think she might have done it without Jennifer’s knowledge, then?”
“If she paid for it out of her own bank account. It sounds like it.”
“I’ll have to follow up with the doctor.” Zachary nodded to the prescription receipt. “Did she just go to her family doctor? Jennifer didn’t say anything about not recognizing his name.”
Kenzie tapped his name into her phone. “He is a specialist. Bariatrician.”
Zachary had never heard the word before. He shook his head. “Specializing in…?”
“Weight loss. From the looks of his website… he specializes in LipoSlayerRx.”
“LipoSlayerRx?”
Kenzie indicated the prescription receipt. “The brand name for that.”
“LipoSlayerRx. It sounds very…” Zachary tried to put the feeling into words. “Very… commercial?”
“Yeah, I would agree with that. I’ve seen this before. I didn’t recognize the drug name, but I’ve heard the branding before. Advertisements on the internet. In my inbox, videos, social media timelines. I’ve seen it around quite a bit lately.”
Zachary didn’t think that he had. But Kenzie was probably closer to the target demographic than he was. A female professional with a good income. And she’d complained a number of times in his hearing about having gained weight the past few months. With all of the electronic eavesdropping built into home automation systems and monitoring search engines and social media discussions online, it wouldn’t take long for one of them to pick up on her interest in weight loss.
“Is it new? Or just a new label for something old?”
“Pretty new. This whole class of drugs. They seem to be very effective for weight loss. Without the side effects that we’ve seen in the past from amphetamines.”
“But it does have side effects.”
“Looking at her weight loss log, I would say so.”
“Could this have caused all of her problems? Digestion, headaches, the drop in her marks?”
“I’d have to look at the reported side effects from their drug trials. It’s possible. Although the drop in her marks…” Kenzie grimaced and shook her head. “I would think that was more likely to be some kind of distraction at school. Certain drugs do cause mental impairment… brain fog, dementia, forgetfulness… but I wouldn’t expect that from something that stabilizes blood sugar. I’d expect the opposite. Better focus and ability to concentrate.”
“Unless she had a migraine. Or upset stomach.”
“Well… I guess so. If she wasn’t feeling well, it could impact her schoolwork.”
“She had to leave classes a few times because she wasn’t feeling well. So it was more than just a bit of nausea.”
25
Zachary was no longer hungry. Maybe the talk about weight loss was affecting him. Or maybe it was the thought that Jennifer had lied to him or intentionally not told him things that might have a bearing on his investigation. He pushed food around on his plate without much interest. Kenzie was nearly finished eating her meal and Zachary’s plate was still basically untouched. She eyed it, opening her mouth to comment.
Zachary’s phone rang. It was lying on the table next to him, and he looked at it surreptitiously. They had a rule against answering calls at the dinner table. But Kenzie was finished and Zachary didn’t think he was going to eat any more. And the caller ID on his phone showed that it was Jennifer.
“This is her. Do you mind if I…?”
Kenzie nodded. “Sure. Go ahead.”
Zachary stood up and walked away from the table before swiping the call and putting the phone up to his ear. “Hi, Jennifer. I was going to call you.”
He suspected she was calling to see if he were finished with Kristin’s phone and computer. She was worried she wouldn’t get them back, or Zachary would do something to damage them or erase data.
“Oh?” Jennifer’s voice cracked. “Does that mean that you found something?”
“I found out that she was on a weight loss prescription drug,” Zachary told her. “What you told me was an antibiotic.”
“A weight loss prescription?” Jennifer sounded doubtful rather than guilty at being caught in a lie. “She wasn’t ever on a weight loss prescription. I didn’t want her to be stigmatized by her weight…”
“Then she got the prescription without your knowledge?”
“I don’t think you could be right. She was just walking more, getting in better shape.”
“She had a prescription. In her name. For LipoSlayerRx.”
“LipoSlayerRx? That crap? I remember her asking about it once, and I told her to stay away from it. It’s so hyped up. I don’t trust anything that hits the media like that.”
“Like what?”
“Have you been living under a rock? You never heard of it?”
“I haven’t… but I’m not exactly their target demographic.”
“You’re pretty thin,” Jennifer admitted, as if she thought it was a bad thing.
And she hadn’t seen him at his worst. Before his last hospital stay and the change in his prescriptions, his weight had been a significant concern. It always dropped when he was in a depressive cycle, and the previous drug cocktail had made him nauseated so much of the time that it was a real struggle to eat enough calories to maintain his weight.
“So you had no idea that she was on LipoSlayerRx.”
“No. If I had… I would have strongly discouraged it.”
“She was having success losing weight with it.”
“That was just because she was putting in the work. You know that none of these quack medicines really work.”
“You think it was snake oil?”
“Of course I do. None of those weight loss medicines do anything. And then half the time, they end up being pulled off the market a year later because they cause heart problems.” Jennifer cleared her throat. “You don’t think… that’s what happened, do you? That it damaged her heart?”
“There’s no evidence to support that yet, but we’ll look into it. But it isn’t an amphetamine.”
“I worked so hard to keep her from worrying about her weight. From being defined by it. There were so many great things about her. She was smart, funny, and kind… why was it the only thing people cared about was that she was overweight?”
“I wish I had an answer for you. But kids—people—bullies are good at identifying weaknesses, especially the ones that cause you the most distress. And they dig away at them…”
“Yeah,” Jennifer agreed, her voice hoarse. There were a few seconds of silence. Zachary didn’t know what else to say to her. She hadn’t asked for Kristin’s possessions back like he had thought she would.
“Was there something else?” Zachary asked eventually, when she didn’t say anything.
“I got the autopsy report.”
“Oh.” He didn’t know whether to give his condolences for this or to act like it was good news. He had no idea what the correct response was to such an announcement. “Well, I’m glad it came through. Did you get a hard copy or an electronic copy? Should I come and get it?”
“They sent it by email. So I can forward it on to you.”
“That would be great. I can look at it tonight and sort things out. We’ll see if anything is new to us or if they overlooked anything.”
“Okay. I’ll send it to you.”
“I’m sorry, Jennifer…” Zachary felt like condolences were definitely required. Jennifer sounded stunned, like she had just found out about Kristin’s death. Like it had just hit her again. “Is there anything else I can do? Is there someone who could be with you?”
“No. I’ll be fine. If you can find anything out… I want you looking at the report, not patting my hand and telling me it will all be okay. Nothing is ever going to be normal and okay again. Never.”
“Someone should sit with you.”
“No. I’ll have a drink and go to bed. I don’t feel like being around people right now.”
“Not too much.”
“Not too much what? Oh,” she gave a bleak bleat of laughter. “Don’t drink too much? I won’t. Never could hold my liquor. Just a glass of wine. It will put me to sleep.”
“Okay. I want to make sure that you’re all right.”
“If you can get me any answers… that’s what I need the most.”
“Did you look at the report?”
“I opened it,” she admitted. “I thought I wanted to read it. But seeing her talked about as ‘the deceased’ and the pictures… I couldn’t.” She swore. “I had no idea how awful it would be. I thought it would be dry and clinical and that would keep me from being emotional about it. But that just made it more horrifying.”
“You shouldn’t have read it.” Zachary took a deep breath and held it for a moment. “I’ll get on it as soon as I receive it.”
“Thank you, Zachary. I owe you.”
“No, you don’t.” He thought of all the times she had helped him and intervened on his behalf that semester that they’d been in Ptarmigan House together. And on top of that, she was paying him for his work. “You don’t owe me anything.”
26
Kenzie saw Zachary go to his laptop and open the lid.
“Are you working tonight?”
Normally, the evening was reserved for time together, unless Zachary had surveillance or a job that couldn’t be done during the day.
“Actually… you are too,” he told her. “The autopsy report came in.”
“Oh, okay. Let’s have a look at it, then. You want to print off a couple of copies?”
“I’ll print you off one. I’ll read it on the screen.”
He knew she preferred hard copies and would dog-ear pages, highlight passages, and write notes in the margins. Zachary, on the other hand, would use the computer’s text-to-speech function to read passages to him, which was much easier than trying to decode each of the medical words and construct the sentences in a way that made sense to him. It was much easier to understand if he could hear it.
He found Jennifer’s email, downloaded the report, and opened it. He sent a copy to the printer and started by browsing through the file to look at each of the photographs and figures. Jennifer should not have looked at it. Zachary had a hard enough time keeping a professional distance from the subject. There was no way a mother should see her child like that. He hoped the wine would help her to forget.
Kenzie went down the hall to get her copy as it came out of the printer in the home office, starting her reading in there as she waited for it to spit out each page.
She returned to the living room while Zachary was reading each heading and the descriptions of the photos and graphs of test results. Then he would drill down to reading some of the longer passages and discussing them with Kenzie.
“The medical examiner didn’t know that she was taking LipoSlayerRx,” Kenzie told him.
Zachary looked up at her. “Since Jennifer didn’t know, I guess nobody told him. He couldn’t tell that she was taking it? From the tox screens or whatever other tests?”
Kenzie shook her head. “It isn’t like you see on TV where they can identify any poison or chemical present in the body. Tox screens won’t pull up things like LipoSlayerRx.” Kenzie made a face. “I’m just going to call it Rx, okay? I hate the name.”
Zachary nodded in agreement.
“The medical examiner noted the injection marks on her belly. But he assumed they were from insulin.”
“Then she was diabetic?”
“Being so overweight, I would be surprised if her pancreas could keep up with the insulin production she needed. But the blood tests show pretty good glucose levels. So the Rx was doing its job. The medical examiner just didn’t know it was Rx rather than insulin.”
“Right. Okay.” Zachary had already seen the picture of the needle marks on her stomach. “Is that a normal place to inject? Not into a vein?”
“We aren’t talking about recreational drugs you want to get into the bloodstream. Insulin and drugs like Rx work best injected into the fatty areas.”
“I thought the prescription would be a pill. I can’t imagine a teenager having to give herself a shot in the belly.” He shuddered at the thought. Some people committed suicide by injecting drugs. Zachary could never go that way. He wasn’t afraid of needles, but he couldn’t imagine using one on himself.
“Some diabetic six-year-olds give themselves injections,” Kenzie told him, amused.
“Sheesh. That’s awful.”
“It’s not a nice disease. Kristin was certainly old enough to handle her own injections if she wanted to. And the autoinjectors that Rx comes in make it easy. Like an Epi-pen.”
“Still. In the stomach.”
“Yes,” Kenzie nodded. “In the stomach.”
Zachary looked down at his computer. “There were no needles in her room. I didn’t do a thorough search—they could still have been hidden in a hoodie pocket or a box in the closet—but they weren’t obvious.”
“She wouldn’t have wanted her mom to find them if the prescription was a secret.”
“No. Maybe she kept them in her locker.”
“Might have. But I would expect her locker to have been cleared out and everything sent to her mom. There would have been a pretty big to-do if they’d found needles.”
Kenzie was still studying the medical examiner’s report, and Zachary planned to go back to it after Kenzie had milked everything out of it that she could but, in the meantime, he decided to work on her phone. Jennifer wanted it back soon, so he might as well be ready for her.
He had already sorted out which apps and social media Kristin actually used—as opposed to the public ones her mother saw—so he was able to get straight into it. There were no saved chats or posted videos, no screenshots of conversations that Kristin had engaged in. The app had done everything it was supposed to, wiping the trail behind her so that whatever interactions she’d had with her friends and communities on social media had remained private.
He got out his notepad and started searching the hashtags he’d copied from the posts Rhys had found for him—#weightlosschallenge #Rx4Fx #SlaythePounds.
He immediately found himself immersed in the world of LipoSlayerRx. Now that he knew about the drug and what to look for, he saw it was everywhere. Though it was rarely called by its full name, “Rx” and “Slay” were peppered everywhere. There were apparently social media challenges to see who could lose the most weight with it. There was storyline after storyline of celebrities rumored to be taking Rx, even though it was only supposed to be for grossly obese people with diabetes. Men and women alike used it to shed pounds before a walk down the red carpet or a photo shoot.
It was no wonder that Kristin had asked her mother about the drug and had been interested enough to get a prescription without her mother’s permission. It was the new miracle drug—a cure for the obesity epidemic. The hype wasn’t just limited to social media and supermarket tabloids. Major news outlets were onboard, the results of drug trials were quoted, and everyone seemed to have an opinion. Jennifer was right to ask what rock Zachary had been hiding under. He had no idea how he had missed all of the chatter about the drug.
27
Zachary was not able to get in to talk to the principal, but the vice-principal, Mr. Cortez, agreed to help him. Cortez looked Zachary over, and then his eyes drifted away, bored. He had better things to do than babysit some private investigator. Zachary didn’t have any place in the school. They had only indulged him because of how shocking and sudden Kristin’s death had been. Cortez looked at the clock on the wall.
“Students are in classes right now. What can we help you with, Mr. Goldman?”
“You know that I’m here about Kristin Jones.”
“I am aware, yes. Though I’m not sure why. She died in a doctor’s office. It was nothing to do with school. And you’ve already been here asking questions once before. I think it’s appropriate for us to ask when exactly this is going to be over. Our students need to get back to normal life. Distractions like this are not good for students who should be focusing on their studies.”
“I imagine they’ll be distracted by Kristin’s death whether I’m asking questions about it or not.”
“I think that if you were not here causing a disruption, they could get back to their work. You are creating a distraction. So what can we do about that?”
“Did you clear out Kristin’s locker? To give her personal items to her mother?”
“Yes. I was involved in collecting her things.”
“How long after her death did that take place?”
Cortez rolled his eyes and thought about it. “The next day, I would say. It isn’t like there was a rush. Mrs. Jones would not have wanted us racing over there with our little box of odds and ends. She needed time to grieve and adjust to the fact that her daughter had just died. That’s a pretty shocking position to be put into. She didn’t have any warning that her daughter had any health problems.”
“Well… she knew some of her health problems,” Zachary corrected. “Her asthma, for one thing. And her weight. I imagine there were other issues that she didn’t think were as serious. And she knew that Kristin was failing this term.”
“Not failing,” Cortez objected. “She was still above a failing grade. But her marks had gone down.”
