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Dr. Foster shook like a leaf as Faith and Slade took their seats opposite her in the interrogation room. Turk sat calmly to her left, watching her closely. After Faith walked out of the exam room with the pills Foster had tried to hide, Foster had lost all of her fight and gone quietly with the officers Slade called to take her. Now she sat ready to answer for her crimes.

“Okay, Dr. Foster,” Faith said. “Let’s get straight to the point. We suspect you of the murder of Dr. Rachel—”

Foster’s eyes flew open at the word murder. “Murder? You’re kidding me!”

“No, ma’am.”

“But…” She looked at Slade. “You said it was for assault on a law enforcement officer and tampering with evidence!”

“Those charges too,” Slade agreed. “You didn’t even give us a chance to talk before committing those crimes, but we’re going to talk now.”

“But I didn’t kill anyone!”

“As I said,” Faith continued. “You’re suspected of the murder of—”

“I didn’t kill anyone !”

“You’ll get your chance to talk, Dr. Foster,” Faith replied.

“But…” Foster slumped backwards. “Shit.”

“As I said,” Faith repeated. “You’re suspected of the murders of Dr. Rachel Summers, Dr. Lisa Patel and Dr. Mark Chen.”

Foster flinched. Slade lifted an eyebrow. “You recognize those names?”

She shook her head rapidly.

“Let’s try again,” Slade said. “Only this time, pretend I already know the answer to that question, and I’m just trying to figure out how honest you’re going to be with me.”

Foster released a sound that reminded Faith of Turk whining. “This is fucking bullshit.”

“We get it,” Faith said sternly. “This is unfair. This is wrong. You’re innocent, and you’re suffering for no reason. Now answer our questions.”

“I…” Foster tapped her foot anxiously on the ground. “I know them, but I didn’t kill them.”

“How do you know them?”

Foster rolled her eyes. “We were supposed to be on a panel together last year at the Great Lakes Veterinary Conference. I ended up pulling out of the panel.”

“You pulled out, or you were asked to leave?”

“I pulled out voluntarily. You can check the official records.”

“We have,” Slade replied. “We’ve also dug a little deeper than the official records. You want to tell us about the unethical conduct you engaged in that raised concerns with the other panelists?”

Foster’s lips thinned. “I didn’t engage in any unethical conduct.”

“Really? Because according to some of the organizers, the panelists caught you behaving unethically and asked for you to be removed from the panel.”

“Well, I don’t know what they said. I know that I was asked to leave, and I did.”

Faith leaned back and crossed her arms. “So now we’ve gone from leaving voluntarily to being asked to leave.”

“Yes, I was asked to leave, and I left voluntarily.”

“And you don’t know about any unethical conduct?”

“No.”

“So you didn’t know that they accused you of stealing drugs and trying to resell them during the conference?”

Foster swallowed. “No. The event organizers just told me I could either leave, or they could make my life very hard.”

Faith and Slade shared a look. “Did it upset you at all to be accused of unethical behavior by your colleagues?” Faith asked.

Foster scoffed. “No, not at all. I loved it.”

Faith smiled slightly. “Okay, fair enough. That was a weak question.”

“Here’s a stronger one,” Slade said. “How did you feel when your colleagues requested that you be removed from the panel?”

“How is that a stronger question? I was pissed. Just like I’m pissed when some moron in a Civic who thinks he has a sports car cuts me off on the way to work. But I don’t carry a gun and shoot everyone who cuts me off.”

“But you do carry Pentobarbital,” Faith pointed out.

Foster paled. “I’m a veterinary doctor. I often carry drugs with me.”

“Then why hide the evidence?” Faith asked. “Why run into the exam room in a panic and try to throw the pills into drawers? Why not just explain to us that’s why you had the drugs?”

“Because I knew you guys were going to assume the worst. I could see that your dog was fine— nice trick, by the way, to get me to stay; super cool of you—and I saw your FBI uniform, and I knew that you were after me, so I didn’t want anything that could make you think I was a criminal.”

“Why did you know we were out to get you?”

“Because you’re always out to get me! That’s what you cops do. You go after innocent people.”

Faith leaned forward and held Foster’s gaze. The vet paled a little and lowered her eyes. “Do you really believe that?” Faith said.

Foster swallowed. “Yes.”

“Your mouth says yes,” Slade replied, “but your body language says, that you’re hiding something and trying to play stupid hoping that we buy it.”

Foster’s eyes shifted to the left. “I didn’t kill anyone.”

"Hmm. So why the pentobarbital? And the other drugs, what were they, Detective?"

“Embutramide, potassium chloride and magnesium sulfate.”

“Wow,” Faith said drily. “That’s a lot of big names. Dr. Foster, what do all those drugs do?”

Foster’s eye twitched. “They’re anti-seizure medications.”

“Ah. Anti-seizure medications. What else are they used for?”

Foster swallowed. “I use them as anti-seizure medications.”

“Yeah, we’re done with the lying,” Slade said. “Let me be very clear. I have three dead victims, all of whom were injected with lethal amounts of pentobarbital. Pentobarbital is used to euthanize pets. Fun fact: so are all the other drugs you had in copious amounts. I mean copious amounts.”

“It’s also used as an anti-seizure medication.”

“It’s also used to execute people in certain states.”

Foster’s eyes snapped open. “W—what?”

“You heard me. Pentobarbital is used by some states to execute convicts on death row. So is potassium chloride.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“You didn’t know that those drugs were lethal to humans at the right dosage?” Faith challenged.

“Oh, come on!” Foster exclaimed. “ Tylenol is lethal to humans at the right dosage. You can’t tell me that you actually suspect me of murder because I happened to have drugs that could kill people. Everyone who has a medicine cabinet has drugs that can kill people.”

“Not many people have drugs specifically designed to kill people in large quantities in their handbags,” Faith replied. “Not many people have the same drugs that killed three people who got her removed from a panel and jeopardized her career and carry them around within hours of those multiple murders.”

“I…” Foster was shaking again. “Please. I didn’t kill anyone, okay?”

Faith and Slade looked at Foster for a long moment. Faith broke the silence. “Why did you have the drugs, Dr. Foster?”

Foster took a deep breath. “I was transporting them to the animal shelter. They were running low.”

“Nope. No reason to hide them if that’s all you were doing.”

Foster whimpered again. “God… this isn’t fair.”

“Three people are dead,” Slade snapped. “That’s a little more unfair, don’t you think.”

“Jesus Christ, God spare me from fucking goody two-shoes pricks.”

The two investigators blinked in shock at the sudden outburst. Foster sighed in exasperation and said, “I took the drugs, okay? I… Do I need a lawyer?”

“Do you?” Faith asked.

“For… God damn it!” She leaned back as far as the shackled would allow and shook her head. “I took the drugs.”

“Why?”

“I sell them.”

Faith lifted an eyebrow. “You sell them?”

“Yes. Pentobarbital isn’t made in capsule form for human consumption anymore, but it’s manufactured in small dosages for pets who have seizures. People take the pills recreationally.”

“How difficult is it to extract a lethal dose from those pills?” Slade asked.

Foster frowned. “What?”

“I feel like that was a simple question.”

“Probably very easy, but who the hell would want to do that?”

“A murderer.”

Foster paled. Slade held her gaze for a moment, then asked, “And the other drugs? Are those taken recreationally?”

“Magnesium sulfate is. It’s the main ingredient in bath salts.”

Slade grimaced. “Lovely.”

“Oh, fuck you,” Foster said. “People are going to do drugs whether I profit from them or not. There are far worse people out there than me.”

Faith leaned forward. Foster paled and leaned away. “Fuck you ,” Faith said quietly. “Three people are dead. We think you killed them. You’re doing a very bad job of convincing us that you didn’t.”

“But I didn’t ,” Foster insisted, her voice barely a whisper. “I swear to God! I just took the drugs. I didn’t kill anyone.”

“Hmm. I’ll make it really easy for you to convince me. Sound good?”

Foster perked up. “Yes! Yes, what do you need me to tell you?”

“Where were you last night for starters? Then how about the night before? And just for fun, where were you two nights before that?”

Foster slumped again. “I can’t tell you that.”

“You sure?” Faith asked. “Because the next step is that we formally charge you for multiple aggravated murders. Some other charges too, but those are the big ones. When that happens, your name and face get blasted on the news.”

Foster whined once more. “The news ?”

“Yep. Then you go to trial, and reporters write stories about you and talk all about your little drug dealing problem. Now, look, if you killed the three of them, now is the time to get a lawyer and grasp at any straw you can to keep yourself out of prison. If you didn’t, then now is the time to convince us of this, because we’re very convinced that you did.”

Foster sighed. “Okay. I was doing community service.”

If Faith were to list the top hundred answers she expected from Foster, that one wouldn’t have made the cut. “What?”

"I was caught with drugs before. Two counts of misdemeanor possession. They only found the yellow jackets—that's the pentobarbital. My lawyer managed to keep me out of prison and keep me from losing my license, but I was given a year of probation instead. As part of my probation, I was given two hundred hours of community service. It's damned hard to find time to do that when I work full-time and volunteer, so I've been working nights cleaning up streets in the city. I have three weeks left to complete twelve hours, and then I'm done. You can look up my record and confirm that."

Faith’s confidence began to dissipate. “Can your probation officer confirm that you were at community service?”

“Well, we’re supervised by PD officers, but if my probation officer finds out I was caught with drugs again, I’ll fail my probation and have to go to jail. I’ll lose my license, and my life will be ruined.”

“And that’s why you didn’t want to tell us,” Slade said.

“That’s why. Please—”

“Call the supervisor for those shifts and confirm that Foster was there,” Faith told Slade. “You can look up the number. I don’t feel like arguing with Dr. Foster anymore.”

“No! Please!”

“Enough. Three people are dead, and you’re whining because you might get caught dealing drugs? I don’t want to hear it anymore.”

Slade dialed the number while Foster buried her face in her hands and wept. Faith took deep breaths to stay calm. She was angrier at the situation than at Foster. Foster was a piece of work, no doubt, but what really angered Faith was the likelihood that their lead had taken them to another dead end.

Slade confirmed that outcome a moment later. “Damn it. All right, thank you, Sergeant.” He hung up and looked at Faith. “Sergeant York was the supervisor. He confirmed that Dr. Foster was present for her court-ordered community service each of the past five nights.”

Faith sighed. “All right.” She stood. “Okay, Dr. Foster. That’s it for us. Indianapolis P.D. is going to come talk to you about the drug charges.”

Foster’s head snapped up. “What? You’re still charging me?”

“I’m not, but Indianapolis sure is.”

“But… I helped you! I told you the truth!”

“If I were you,” Faith replied, “I’d start preparing for a career change.”

Foster’s complaints echoed as the three investigators left the room. “Oh, damn it! This isn’t fair !”

No, Faith agreed. It’s not. It’s not fair at all.