Chapter 22
“JOANNA, BILLY IS dead,” I said, blinking back tears. “I saw his body. His ashes are right in front of me.” I picked up the urn and ran my thumb over it. “I don’t know what you think you saw, but it wasn’t my Billy.”
“Do you remember last Christmas, when Phillip was talking about his friend Jacob Slether?”
“No. I’m sorry, I guess I don’t.”
“I didn’t think so, but I thought I’d ask. Jacob Slether is a chemist. He works for this big-time pharmaceutical company, Fairfield Enterprises. Anyway, Phillip mentioned that Slether was testing some new d**g that could actually make one appear as if they were dead.”
I clutched the phone tightly. “Really?”
“Yes. Something containing tetrodotoxin, I believe.”
“Sorry, I don’t know what that is.”
“It’s something that’s found in puffer fi
