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“Revenge? On whom?” Dr. Mellon asked puzzled.
“On his family, on me?” Taylor asked.
“No,” Mellon said shaking his head. “No, he never spoke of hate towards his family. Cedric loved his family. Even when he spoke of Grant and Elizabeth, he was upset but conflicted. He loved his brother and Elizabeth, he wanted them to be happy, wanted the best for them. He just hated they were together.”
Taylor leaned forward dropping her face in her hands. “I don’t get it,” she muttered into her palms then pulled them down her face. “Cedric told us to find you, said you would have the answers, but you don’t seem to.”
“I’m sorry, Taylor,” Dr. Mellon said, his sympathies clear on his face. “Perhaps I can help with trying to timeline the journals?” he offered, as almost a peace offering. “Maybe something will come up I can help decipher.”
“That would be great,” Taylor said.
“May I use the bathroom?” the older man asked. “I presume a place this large has at least one,” he joked.
Derrick smiled and nodded, “Sure, down the hall.”
“Mick will accompany you,” Henry told the doctor, opening the door and directing his subordinate.
“Trust issues, Henry?” Derrick asked.
Taylor made a hmph noise. “More than you know,” she muttered.
“Just being safe, Mr. Fletcher,” Henry said as he flipped through one of the journals.
Taylor grabbed another stack of books and one of them fell to the floor, a file folder slipping from inside. Derrick watched the pages flutter around and bent to help Taylor collect them, reading them as he did.
“Tay, they have your name on them,” Derrick said as he handed a stapled set of papers to her.
Taylor took the papers with a shaking hand. “What the hell are these?” she asked. All the pages were highlighted and covered with notes, the handwriting shaky and barely legible.
“Articles?” Derrick pondered out loud as Taylor shuffled through the pages.
“Yeah,” she said, standing. “Articles and printouts and photocopies,” Taylor said, shaking her head in frustration. “What the hell am I supposed to do with this?” Taylor looked up at the ceiling and growled, shaking the pages in her hands. “Dammit, Cedric,” she ground out.
“Wait, Tay, read it,” he said, reaching over her shoulder and flipping back through the papers in Taylor’s hand. Derrick grabbed one sheet and look at the article title—"Audio Tooth Implants.”
Taylor furrowed her brows and looked at Derrick, shrugging.
“Remember Cedric’s autopsy? It said something about a tooth being removed after death,” Derrick reminded her.
Taylor’s eyes widened in understanding. She leafed through the pages she had pulled out of the envelope. “Henry,” she said, handing a page to him with the title “Datura the Mind Control Drug.” “Wasn't that the substance found in his autopsy?” she asked.
Henry nodded. “His and Tappen’s,” he reminded them.
The door opened and Derrick watched Taylor jump at Dr. Mellon’s reentry. “Where should I begin?”
“Dr. Mellon,” Henry said, grabbing the man’s attention, “we found these documents. They were in the box with the journals,” he said slowly. “Do you think they in some way pertained to Cedric?” he asked, pushing the file over to the doctor across the table.
Mellon opened the folder and looked at the documents, his eyes scanning them quickly, bringing them closer to try and decipher Cedric’s erratic notes in the corners, and then his eyes widened.
“I thought he was delusional,” he finally said.
Derrick and Taylor’s eyes slid to meet without their heads moving.
“About what?” Henry finally asked.
Dr. Mellon flipped back through the papers he held. “He, well, there was a letter he sent me, after Elizabeth died. It was incoherent. I thought it was his grief, it had broken him, the depression. I tried to call but could not get to him.”
“What did it say?” Taylor asked. “What did the letter say?”