Chapter 6 - WHAT WAS IN MY BLOOD
My medical records took days to collect. Then longer to review. Pregnancies. Bloodwork. Emergency-room visits. Miscarriages. Nothing obvious. No toxicology because no one suspected poisoning. Then an obstetric toxicologist reviewed medication notes. One miscarriage involved abnormal liver enzymes. Another involved unexplained anticoagulation. Could be many causes. Then Price asked if I remembered supplements. I did. Daniel made tea. Smoothies. “Farm iron.” “Natural fertility support.” One bottle in old kitchen cabinet remained. Label: HERBAL MINERAL BLEND. Lab found standard vitamins. Nothing dangerous. Then another jar from freezer room. Unlabeled powder. Contained warfarin-type rodenticide traces mixed with supplement filler. My stomach turned. Could cause bleeding. Miscarriage at sufficient dose. Then DNA? No. Fingerprint? Old, degraded.
Daniel’s prints on lid. Expected; his farm. Then dosage notes in ledger. S.M. — 6 weeks — dose adjusted. This became serious. Daniel was arrested on domestic assault and evidence-related charges first? Let's keep plausible: Based on current assault witnessed/recorded plus investigation, authorities charged him for assault and child endangerment; poisoning investigation ongoing. Then he was released on bond with no-contact order. That terrified me. Dad changed locks. Sheriff patrol. Then Daniel sent message through attorney: Sarah is being manipulated by her father. Classic. Then: I never poisoned my wife. No one had publicly accused him yet. That line mattered. How did he know toxicology focus? Could be lawyer inferred from search. Not proof. Then lab found something else. The powder also contained veterinary hormone residue. Not enough to determine effect.
Then my current blood. Nothing. Then stored hospital blood from one miscarriage? Labs sometimes retain samples not years. Unlikely. Could have pathology tissue blocks. Better: pathology tissue from miscarriage stored. Testing detected anticoagulant metabolite? Hard after years. Let's fictional but plausible: archived pathology samples showed no definitive toxin, but pattern compatible. Keep uncertainty. Then one current witness. Dr. Nathan Cole, farm veterinarian. He admitted Daniel asked questions about sex selection. In cattle. Normal-ish. Then Daniel asked whether hormones could influence human conception. Nathan laughed it off. Then later noticed medication inventory discrepancies. He confronted Daniel. Daniel blamed Caleb. That was before Caleb disappeared. Then: “Did Caleb know?” “Yes.” Nathan said Caleb accused Daniel of stealing vet supplies.
Then one night, Caleb called Nathan. Said: “If something happens to me, check Sarah.” Nathan never reported. Why? He thought Caleb paranoid. Then when Caleb disappeared, Nathan regretted. Still said nothing. Again. Silence. Then Daniel’s defense. All farm drugs had legitimate livestock purpose. Ledger shorthand misinterpreted. S.M. could mean “sow mix” or “supplement measure.” But pregnancies dates matched too well. Then prosecutor wanted more. Needed stronger proof. Then Grace. She told child interviewer something. “Dad puts powder in Mom’s coffee.” Current? “When?” “Sometimes when she’s sleeping.” My heart stopped. Then: “How do you know?” “I saw him.” When? Three months ago. Why not tell? “He said it was vitamins.” Then Emma added separately: “Daddy says Mommy needs boy medicine.” That phrase. Boy medicine. My stomach turned. Then search found hidden camera footage? Grace phone only current abuse. But perhaps Eli set trail. Need twist.
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Investigators recovered cloud backup from Caleb’s phone. Older than local files. One video. Daniel in barn office. Talking to unknown man. Audio: “If she gives me another girl, I’m done.” Unknown man: “You can’t control that.” Daniel: “You can control more than people think.” Then man steps into frame. My father. I froze. Dad? He was there. He heard. Then Dad said: “I thought he was talking about breeding cattle.” Maybe. Video context unclear. Then Daniel: “Sarah will do what I need.” Dad: “She’s not livestock.” There. He knew more than he told me. Then he walked out. I looked at Dad. “You knew.” He said: “I knew he talked wrong. I did not know he was drugging you.” “Why didn’t you tell me this?” “I did tell you to leave him.” “That is not the same as telling me why.” He looked broken. Again. Everyone trying to protect me through incomplete truth.
Then Price said: “There’s more.” Cloud backup had one audio file from night Caleb disappeared. Caleb’s voice: “Robert knows about the doses.” My blood went cold. I looked at my father. He looked as if someone had hit him. Then audio ended. And for the first time, I wondered whether the person Grace had called to save us had been hiding something almost as old as Daniel’s violence.
