Dr. Blythe knows about the drug testing, thought Val, horror mounting.

Zoe must have seen Val’s face, because she added quickly, “I only said anything to him because I thought he would be interested to hear that this type of analysis was possible and that it suggested Francine had this drug in her system too.” She sighed. “But he was concerned that this technique was experimental and he couldn’t possibly accept this as scientific proof. He needed more to go on to consider Samantha’s death related to Francine’s, let alone prove Francine had something like pancuronium in her system.” Zoe ended by stressing to Val that Dr. Blythe was really upset that she would even do this kind of testing. “He wants to know why I did it.”

The pit of Val’s stomach dropped. Dr. Blythe would certainly find out she also was involved with this experiment too, if he didn’t know already. He must have asked Zoe how she got the bone specimens. Oh God, does he know I gave them to Zoe?

“He’s going to rule Samantha’s death an accident,” she said. “Sorry, I thought we had something there.”

Zoe started to go into more detail about how mad Blythe had been. Val couldn’t listen anymore. With each word she knew how dangerous the situation was becoming and made an excuse to be on her way. She needed to think this through. Quickly.

Val was almost to her office when she heard someone yelling her name. It was Candace, calling for her to stop. Val halted and turned. When she did, her pulse exploded. Candace had a slip of paper in her hand.

“You received this message today.” She handed Val a note. “The woman seemed a little irritated that you haven’t returned her other messages.”

Val exhaled so strongly that she almost became light-headed. Candace made no mention of any skull specimens. And she didn’t say that Dr. Blythe wanted to see her about said skull specimens. Val read the message and she tried to comprehend what she was seeing. “Did this person say what this was in regards to?” she managed to ask.

“No, but she did say she needed to talk to you immediately.”

What on earth could this be about? Val didn’t want to deal with out-of-the-blue problems right now. Unfortunately, she had to. The message was from the Florida State licensing department. They had questions about her dental license. Val had no idea what they could possibly want. She walked away from Candace without any further conversation and went to her office. At this point it was hard to even think straight.

She punched in the phone number and after a few rings someone answered.

“Division of professional regulation, board of examiners for the State of Florida, Stephanie Carter speaking, how may I help you.”

“My name is Dr. Valentina Knight. I received a message to call you back.”