A/N: A shout out to my anonymous reviewer! I'm so glad you liked the previous chapters. Thanks so much for reading. There will be fluff, I promise. ;)
Chapter 13
"Lucien!" Jean welcomed her husband home the next morning. He'd spent all night at the hospital helping Alice sort out the water samples. They'd come up with some interesting results and the doctor wanted to continue to do more but Matthew told him to go home and go to bed. The Chief Superintendent was heading to Bernie Pitzen's house to question him on the crop-dusting chemicals. The cadets were keeping an eye on the farm. While Matthew wasn't keen on leaving cadets on their own, it was probably better than making an exhausted Sergeant Hobart or Detective Davis watch them.
"Hi Jean. I'm guessing that Danny is catching up on his sleep," he said as he took off his coat and hat and put them on the hooks by the door.
"Yes. He went to bed a little while ago and made sure that I had dishes to wash from our sandwich picnic. Anyway, I'm supposed to get him up at noon," Jean told him.
"Sounds good. Was I supposed to see any patients today?" Lucien asked.
"I moved your appointments to tomorrow, where there were gaps. Go get some sleep, unless you haven't had any food in a while," she gave him a look.
"Bed. Food when I get up," he smiled at her.
"Of course," Jean gave him a quick kiss and the doctor went to their bedroom. She did not tell him that the interior designer, Mr. Clay, had called and wanted to make an appointment. They were ready with some of their options for the studio. Jean explained that she'd meet them at their office later that afternoon to go over the options, but that she'd have to bring them home for her husband. Mr. Clay was fine with that and reassured her that things like this could not be rushed. Certainly, they would not want to waste money on something that neither of them liked.
It almost seemed like his head had just hit the pillow when suddenly Jean was waking him up. She had gotten Danny up first before heading to her husband. The young man promised a quick bath so the doctor could use the bathroom. Lucien opened his eyes and looked at her.
"Sleeping without you in bed is not something I care to repeat," he told her.
"It wasn't much fun for me last night either," she said as she pulled a clean set of clothes out of his dresser and closet.
"Let's try not to do that again," Lucien said as he managed to pull his tired body out of bed.
"Agreed. You go take a bath and I'll get you some food," Jean smiled as she laid the clothes out at the foot of the bed.
"I think we need to upgrade our bathroom. I hear showers are all the rage now," he said.
"They were much quicker when we were travelling. It could also offer some interesting opportunities to bathe together," she smirked. Lucien pulled her close.
"Why Mrs. Blake, are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?" He smirked.
"Maybe Doctor Blake," she chuckled.
"Ask that interior designer about that, please. The sooner the better," Lucien said.
"I will. Now off you go. Plenty of time to play later," she winked, and he headed out of the bedroom door. Jean could not help but think how different their lives had become since the wedding. She wasn't a prude, but she'd always prided herself on keeping public displays of affection to a minimum. This was common for the time they lived in, though that was changing. Once they were married, the two of them almost behaved like they were in their twenties again and could barely keep their hands to themselves. It was fun. It was exciting. It was good to feel what she'd felt with Christopher again. She hadn't realized how much she'd missed it.
"Matthew, how'd it go with Bernie Pitzen?" Lucien asked when he walked into the station close to one pm. The Chief Superintendent was at his desk.
"Arsenic is one of the ingredients in the crop-dusting chemicals, but he claims that he's never heard of it being enough to poison someone. Well outside of the usual ways someone would use arsenic. He says that he mixes the chemical powder with water to make it spray from the dispersal system in the plane," Matthew explained.
"Then I think it's safe to say that someone was dosing the well that fed the farmhouse. The water from the farmhands' well had small amounts of arsenic, but not high levels. The well that Arnold had been using was… well it wasn't good," Lucien's play on words was not lost on his friend.
"So does that mean Mary is sick?" Matthew asked.
"Yes, she is. She had what she thought was the stomach flu about a week ago. Since Arnold was sick and she didn't want to get him sicker, Reginald had her come stay with him. She seemed to recover but she was bothered by headaches and some cognitive impairment," Lucien said.
"She didn't feel like she should mention this?" Matthew gave him a look.
"Honestly, from the outside, these symptoms wouldn't seem connected. Mary and Reginald figured that she was dehydrated and needed to get her diet back to normal. Her symptoms had improved because she wasn't drinking the highly tainted water anymore. Treating the dehydration helped because it was flushing the arsenic out of her system. The problem is that if it were as simple as rehydrating, then we wouldn't need the medicine to treat it," the doctor explained.
"So how bad is it?" Matthew wanted to know.
"Alice was sending her for a battery of tests. As for cleaning the water at the farm, we can put filtration on the farmhands' well, but the house well will need to be abandoned. A new one will need to be dug and then filtration put on that one," Lucien said.
"No point in doing that until we catch the poisoner. We need to get this sorted Lucien. Melbourne is demanding answers," the Chief Superintendent told him.
"We need to run it all down. Where is Charlie?" The doctor wanted to know.
"Getting a ride in from Bill. They should be here soon," Matthew said.
To Be Continued…