When Holden Dawson arrived home from work, his mind was on finding a way to get his wife back in his bed. She was angry with him because his company was sending him to the Bahamas, and he wouldn’t let her go with him. Since he would be busy with meetings and unable to spend time with her, he’d told her that there wasn’t any point of her going along. Hurt by his refusal, she told him to sleep in the guest room.
As Holden stepped into the kitchen, Lisa gasped, as he didn’t usually come home until straight up five, and the clock had just struck four. “Holden, I didn’t expect you for another hour,” she said tensely. She slowly moved to the salad bowls that were on the counter and stood in front of them, hoping her husband hadn’t noticed her jumpy behavior. “Is everything okay?”
Holden was confused why his wife of two years was acting as if she was guilty of something. He couldn’t think of what it could be, other than she regretted keeping him out of her bed.
“I finished working on my project, so instead of starting a new one, I decided to come home early to get ready for my trip. Is there anything I can do to help with dinner?”
Her eyes turned to him. “Why would you ask that?”
He gave her a perplexed look, as he didn’t see anything strange by his question. “Since I’m home early, I was offering to help with dinner.”
“No, I’m fine. You go watch the news, and dinner will be ready at our regular time.”
He thought about giving her a kiss before he left the kitchen, but she turned away from him. Thinking she was still mad at him, he went on into the living room, sat down in his favorite chair and turned on the television. When a story came on about Dixon’s Cosmetics, he soon forgot his wife’s strange behavior.
* * *
Lisa couldn’t believe the one day she didn’t want her husband to be in the house, Holden had come home early. But she wasn’t going to let that fact change her plans, as she didn’t think she could wait another day to carry out her mission.
When the timer rang, she grabbed two potholders and took the roasting pan out of the oven. Once it was out, she shut the oven door with her foot, and set the pan on the counter. After she cut some of the meat and put it in a serving dish, she put it on the table. She then returned to the kitchen to get the rest of their meal, and after everything was on the table, she called Holden that it was time to eat.
When Holden entered the dining room, he was surprised to see Lisa was still acting oddly. He hoped she would tell him what the problem was before the meal started, and if not, it was going to be a long stressful meal. After he shook the bottle of Ranch dressing, he opened it and poured some on top his salad. After he closed the lid, he picked up his fork and stuck it into his salad to mix the dressing, then he stuck the fork into a piece of lettuce. Just as he was bringing up to his mouth, he heard a sound and glanced up at his wife and was confused why Lisa was staring intensely at him instead of eating her own dinner.
“Are you going to tell me why you’re acting so nervous?” he asked, his fork posed close to his lips.
Lisa let out a forced laugh as she quickly glanced away from the salad on his fork. “I’m not nervous.” Of course, that was a lie, as she was poisoning her husband tonight. She wasn’t trying to kill him; she only wanted him to be too ill to go to the Bahamas so she could go with Lenny Porter on the trip.
Lisa had met Lenny last year at one of her husband’s company dinner parties, and a short time later, they started seeing each other on the sly. Since the tickets were already bought, she would go in her husband’s place and once there, she would tell Lenny that she was expecting his child. She hoped he would ask her to marry him, as then she would leave her husband and they could start a life together.
She’d only married Holden because of his money he’d inherited from his father, and if he hadn’t made her signed that blasted prenuptial agreement, she would have divorced him months ago. Now that she was expecting Lenny’s child, she thought that when she divorced her husband, thinking she was having his child, Holden would pay child support.
The two had come up with a plan to poison Holden. Lenny had given her some Botulinum Toxin that he had left over from some of his Botox experiments. The amount she’d used for a man Holden’s size would only cause unexplained sudden loss of strength, some muscle weakness, and maybe some problem with his breathing. It wouldn’t be life threatening for Holden, but for her it would be a different story.
Lenny told her to be careful when she handled the toxin, as they knew from a prior experience with a Botox treatment that she was extremely allergic to the toxin. Since Lisa suffered from severe migraines, her doctor thought that Botox might help relieve the headaches.
At the time of her one and only treatment, the doctor had only injected the first of twelve injections, when she started having trouble breathing as well as a mild case of muscle paralysis throughout her body. Since the needle was still in her skin, the doctor quickly pulled back the plunger and withdrew as much of the toxin as he could, and his swift actions had saved her life. She was then rushed to the hospital, where she remained for two weeks recuperating from the toxin reaction. So, if she should accidently ingest any of the dose, she was giving her six foot, two-hundred-pound husband to weaken him, the toxin would kill her within seconds.
She had put Botulinum Toxin in his salad bowl, the one with the grated carrot, while her carrots were cut into bite size pieces.
“You sure have me fooled. Are you sure there isn’t something wrong but you’re too afraid to tell me?”
His question hit too close to home. “Not of course not. It’s just that I’ve fixed a new recipe for the roast and I’m worried you might not like it.”
Holden ate the lettuce off the fork, then stuck it into a small piece of meat and ate it. “It’s very good. I think you should fix this again sometime.”
“I’m glad you like it.” Hoping to get his mind off her not eating, she jammed her fork into the lettuce and placed it in her mouth. She had chewed several times when she felt a tightening of her muscles of her throat as paralysis began to creep through her body.
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Stunned by the feeling, Lisa looked down at her salad bowl and seeing the grated carrots in her bowl, she instant realized her mistake. In her apprehension of what she was planning for her husband, instead of giving the poison laced salad to Holden, she had accidently given it to herself. Though it was now too late to rectify her error, she hoped that once she died, Holden would be accused of killing her, as she hated him that much.
When Holden realized something wrong with his wife, he jumped up and rush to her side, but before he could reach her, she fell from her chair. He knelt to her in the hope of being able to help her, but when she quit breathing, he knew it was too late to offer her any aid.
He called 911 and explained what had happened, and as soon as help arrived, Lisa was taken away. Holden sat down on the front porch and cried for the loss of the love of his life. Once he was able to compose himself, he called work to tell them he wouldn’t be able to go on the trip because of his wife had just passed away.
When Lenny learned that Holden’s wife had died, he was glad, as he knew Lisa was expecting him to marry her, but he had just been using her to get back at Holden for getting the promotion instead of him. He knew what must have happened, but curious if Holden knew his wife had tried to poison him, he drove over to his place so he could speak with Holden. When he arrived at Holden’s home, he was surprised to see his friend sitting on the front porch crying. Now felt bad for the affair he’d been having with his wife, as Holden’s tears told him that he’d truly loved his wife.
When Holden saw Lenny pull into his driveway, he quickly wiped his tears away. Since the two of them had been on bad terms since he got the promotion, he was stunned to see him here.
“I just heard about Lisa, I’m so sorry,” he stated sincerely as he laid his hand of his friend’s back.
“Thanks, Lenny.” Holden was touched that he had drove to his home instead of just calling.
“Do you know what happened?” He didn’t tell Holden what he thought it might be the cause of her death on the off chance he was wrong.
Holden shook his head. “Don’t know yet. We were eating dinner; she took a bite of her salad and then she fell to the floor.”
They were still sitting there when a police car and a second car arrived and parked in front of the house.
Lenny didn’t like the looks of this. “Why are they here?”
“I guess they’re here to investigate Lisa’s death,” Holden told him.
Lenny began to panic, as he didn’t want to be connected to the death of Holden’s wife. “I think I better go.”
“Thanks for stopping by. I can’t tell you how much this means to me that you took the time to come see me.”
Lenny felt like an ass now for getting involved with his wife, as it hadn’t been Holden’s fault that he’d gotten the promotion instead of him. He just hoped his friend never learned that he’d been screwing his wife; for they wouldn’t ever be able to mend their friendship.
Two men got out of the dark sedan, and two officers followed behind them. Lenny nodded at them as he walked pass them to his car, and the four nodded back at him. He hurried to his car and quickly left before they could question him.
Holden stood as the men walked towards him.
“I’m Detective Greg Matthews, and this is my partner Thomas Parker. Just got a call from the coroner, who told us your wife died of Botulinum Toxin. We want to search your home for any clues that might tell us how your wife happened to ingest the poison.”
“Our dinner is still on the table. I didn’t touch anything after the ambulance took Lisa away.”
Greg studied the man before him. He could tell the man had been crying, which told him that he was sad at the loss of his wife, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have anything to do with her death. “Do we need to get a search warrant?” Greg asked him.
Holden shook his head. “No need, as I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Their meal and dishes were taken away to be analyzed, and after the remains of their meal had been tested, the detectives returned to take Holden in for questioning.
“We’ve found the toxin in your wife’s salad, but not yours. Her fingerprints were found on both bowls, but yours were only on the bowl that wasn’t tainted. Care to explain why that is?” Detective Parker asked.
“Lisa fixed the salads, as well as placed everything on the table. I don’t understand how the poison came to be in our home or why it was just in her food.”
“Are you telling us you didn’t poison your wife?” Thomas asked him, keeping his eyes on Holden’s expression.
“Why would I want to do that? We were happily married,” he replied, giving the officer a sincere look.
“I have to tell you that if we decide to press murder charges against you, it will be for two deaths.” Detective Parker watched him closely for his reaction.
“Two? Are you saying Lisa was pregnant?” he asked. Tears filled his eyes at the thought of losing his wife and the child he hadn’t known about yet.
Detective Parker was surprised to see the man’s reaction. “Yes, didn’t you know?”
“We’ve been very careful in that regard as my wife wanted to wait another year before starting a family,” he replied while looking off to the distance.
“Since you’re a scientist, do you have access to the toxin that killed your wife?”
Holden looked back to the detective. “Not really. The gentleman that was at my home when you arrive the first time, works with the toxin, but I handle just cancer treatment drugs.”
When Lenny learned of Holden’s arrest, he knew he had to come forth with the truth of the incident that had killed Lisa, as he couldn’t live with himself if Holden was sent to prison for something, he wasn’t guilty of doing.
Though Holden was innocent, he wasn’t surprised when he was arrested for the death of his wife and unborn child, but wondered how could the toxin have gotten into her salad bowl? After Lenny’s confession of giving Lisa the drug and that he was probably the father of the baby, Holden was released. Learning of Lenny’s involvement with Lisa and thus partially to blame for the death of his wife and her child, he refused to speak with his friend.
* * *
Knowing that his wife had been unfaithful, Holden was saddened to learn the baby hadn’t been his after all. As days turned into weeks, then into months, Holden slowly began to heal from his wife’s betrayal. Just when he thought, his life would soon be normal again, Jackson’s Drugs, the company he worked for, decided to file bankruptcy and let all their employees go.
Since he wasn’t a US citizen, with his wife dead and no job to speak of, he knew he would have to return to Canada. Returning to the country he was born wasn’t so bad, but after living here for as long as he had, he thought of United States as home. A week later, Holden received the paperwork that was about to change his life. Needing someone to talk to, he called his good friend Max Grove to see if he could help.
“Max, this is Holden. I need your input on my situation, as I’ve just received my deportation papers. Can we meet somewhere for lunch and talk over what options I may have?”
“I’ll meet you for lunch at our usual place.” Max already knew all about Holden’s dilemma, as he was aware what the lost job meant to him.
The two men met a Wendy’s restaurant and after they’d received their order, they went to sit down in the far corner of the restaurant that would offer them the most privacy. After they discussed all of Holden’s options, they decided to apply for an extension, hoping he would find work in the meantime.
A week later, Holden received a month extension, which stated that if he didn’t find employment or find a bride in the allotted time, they gave him, he would have to return to his home country.
Holden applied to every job he could, even the ones he was overqualified for, as right now, it didn’t matter what kind of job he had, only that he had one. He had a few interviews, but he wasn’t ever hired and before he knew it, his extension was about to end, so he called his friend again.
“Max, my time is almost up. I need help your again.”
“Meet me at Wendy’s and we’ll discuss what options you have left.”