“Miss Viola had a PICC line in place for receiving meds, but she’d developed complications with it. Her sister said she’d been getting direct injections for pain the last couple of days. Whoever injected Viola with morphine pushed the needle right through her antecubital vein. Would have been easy to do, because that vein was shot. Some morphine probably got into her system, but most of it went into the soft tissue beneath the vein. No way that killed her. The home health nurse told me she had a huge tolerance built up.”

“Then what killed her?”

“It’s looking like an adrenaline overdose. But they’re not positive yet.”

I squeeze the coroner’s wrist. “Thank you, Jewel.”

“Wait, baby. That’s not what I came to tell you.”

Glancing through the small windows that frame her office door, I watch an ancient Chrysler trundle down Wall Street with a white-haired woman at the wheel. “I’m listening.”

“Two things. One, I worked alongside Dr. Cage long enough to know he wouldn’t push a needle through nobody’s antecubital vein.”

“Not even under stress?”

Jewel scowls. “He wouldn’t have wasted time trying to hit that old thing. I’ve seen Doc find a deep vein to draw blood from a four-hundred-pound man. He’s got the best touch I ever saw. Either somebody without medical training gave that injection, or Viola tried to inject herself, and she was so far gone that her nurse’s training was useless.”

“Good. What’s the second thing?”

“News flash. Shad Johnson hates yo’ ass, boy. You made him lose one election and beat him yourself in another. Add to that the Del Payton case, Dr. Elliott’s trial, and that casino mess a couple months back … that’s a big account coming due, from Shad’s point of view. That Negro ain’t playing. He means for Doc to die in jail.”

“That’s what Caitlin thinks, too.”

Jewel’s eyes gleam like the precious stones she was named after. “I always said that girl was smart.” She takes hold of my hand and squeezes. “If you need help, call my son, not me. He’s staying in town for a while. Your fiancée can find out his phone number.”

Before I can respond, Jewel pulls open her door, pushes me outside, and shuts it again. The lock turns behind me.

After a stunned couple of seconds, I hear Kirk Boisseau’s excited voice in my head: Bones … There was a car sitting on them.

After a paranoid glance at the sheriff’s department, I start running for my car.

CHAPTER 34