Chapter 3 - The Ghost of the Lab
The state lab was still located in the same brutalist concrete building on the edge of town. Entering it felt like coming home. The smell of formaldehyde and high-end chromatography equipment was a perfume I hadn't realized I missed.
Dr. Aris, a man I had mentored in the nineties, looked up from his microscope as I walked into his office. He didn't ask how I was. He looked at the sealed evidence bag I held.
"Karina," he said, his voice grave. "It's been a long time."
"I need an analysis, Aris. Total profile. And I need it buried. If this hits the official ledger before I say so, the target will know he’s being hunted."
"Who is the target?"
"My son-in-law."
The silence in the room was heavy. We worked for twelve hours straight. As the machines whirred, breaking down the chemical composition of the liquid, the truth emerged with terrifying clarity. It wasn't just a toxin to sedate me; it was a cocktail designed to create a "medical history" of dementia. They were going to have me committed to a private facility, one owned by a shell company Jason had been linked to in the news reports I’d secretly tracked.
"He's not just stealing your money, Karina," Aris said, holding up the readout. "He's erasing you. He’s going to turn you into a non-person. You’ll be in a ward, sedated, until your heart decides to stop."
I looked at the results, feeling a surge of cold, white-hot clarity. "He’s forgotten one thing, Aris."
"What's that?"
May you like
"I wrote the manual on how to detect this specific compound in a blood sample. He thinks I’m a senile old woman, but in this building, I am a god."
I left the lab with the data tucked inside my coat. I had the motive, the method, and the timeline. Now, I needed to let them think they were winning. I went to a florist, bought a bouquet, and headed back to the house to play the part of the fading matriarch one last time.
