“This is really strange,” Lewis muttered as he sipped at a glass of iced tea.
“Yeah, Jim thought it was, too,” Sam agreed as he glanced over at the file Lewis was studying. “No possible reason for her to suddenly stop breathing and yet she did.”
“Nothing on the tox screen, no physical signs of an attack. Did she have any allergies?”
“Nothing that she would have come across in that situation, no.”
“So she did have allergies?”
“The same allergies as most people down here — poison oak, poison ivy, and poison sumack. She would have had to inhale them, though, and that leaves its own marks which were not present when the medical examiner performed the autopsy.”
“Any clear sign of the time of death?”
“Based on the contents of her stomach, some time between ten in the evening and midnight. And before you ask, her blood-alcohol was normal. She didn’t drink.”
“When am I supposed to meet with her family?”
“This afternoon. They’re flying in from Memphis.”
“So, she’s not from here?”
“No, she is. Born and raised down here. Her parents moved to Memphis to be closer to her maternal grandparents. It’s a damned shame,” Sam sighed. “She was barely getting started. Only twenty-four years old. Taught art classes at the local park.”
“No boyfriends? Girlfriends?”
“None that have come forward yet. She was a looker, though. I’d be surprised if she was single.”
“So, what do we do now? There’s not a lot left for us to go over and I’m not going to sit around doing nothing until her family gets here.”
“Jim’s down with Dufrene. We’ve got a few hours to kill so we could head over to the scene and see what we can see there.”
“I like that suggestion, Detective,” Lewis grinned. “Let’s go.”
Jim sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew he had to at least go check on Alex but the thought of getting out of his car and walking to the door — adorned with a wreath of white flowers to show that the family within was in mourning — made him sick to his stomach. He wished that Lilian was with him. His wife was so much better at these situations than he would ever be. Though, given that it was Alex behind that door, maybe his normal awkwardness wouldn’t be so bad. He sighed again, scrubbed a hand through his chestnut hair, straightened his tie and jacket, and then got out of the car. Grabbing the bouquet of flowers and the bowl of spaghetti that Lilian had sent with him, he walked up to the door. Jim decided not to knock and instead stood up on his toes to get the key he knew would be hidden on top of the door frame. Unlocking the door and going inside, he called out for Alex as he closed the door behind him. Hearing nothing, he hurried further into the house, setting the dish and flowers on the entry foyer’s table.
“Alex?” he shouted, beginning to panic. “Alex, come on, answer me!”
“In here,” came the dull, weary answer. Jim sighed in relief as he followed the sound of the voice into the library where he found Alex curled up in an overstuffed chair. “I thought you’d be working the Patterson case.”
“And I thought you’d be with your family instead of sitting here by yourself.” Alex snorted at that as if darkly amused. “Okay, I didn’t really believe that,” Jim laughed. “Lilian did, though.”
“How is Lil?”
“She’s doing fine. Worried about you. She said that if you needed to stay with us, you’d be welcome.”
“I’m fine where I am, Jim,” Alex said tonelessly. “I’d rather be at work, though, but the Chief won’t let me come back for another month.”
“It’s regulation, Al.”
“It’s bullshit is what it is.” Jim grimaced. He understood exactly where his partner was coming from. If he were in the same situation, he wouldn’t want to be sent home and kept from doing something to keep his mind off the turmoil that had overwhelmed his life. He also wouldn’t appreciate the so-called solicitousness that had everyone coming over to check on him or call him on the phone or all of the damned cards that came in the mail. He heard Alex’s phone buzz, the faceplate lighting up to indicate another message from one of the many well-intentioned friends and family. Alex lifted the phone and, in a gesture he’d never seen, turned it off and chucked it over to the loveseat. She leaned forward in the chair and ran her hands over her face. Her long honey-blond hair fell forward over her shoulders. She lifted her face from her hands, her cornflower eyes sparkling with annoyance above the dark circles marring them. “I swear by the twin suns of Gallifrey, if I get one more call or visit from someone I’ve barely spoken to since Daryl was born, I will not be responsible for my actions.”
“They’re just trying to be nice and follow the accepted social conventions,” Jim said softly
“No, they’re all wanting to gossip and get in on it if I decide to turn around and sue that son of a bitch for half his net worth,” Alex replied humorously. “Or they’ve heard my mother’s stories about how I’m ‘prostrate with grief’ and they’re trying to get a sob story for their personal titillation. If she weren’t my mother, I’d cheerfully strangle her and then lock myself in prison. No need for a trial or an investigation.”
“Well, your mother does have a rather forceful personality,” Jim muttered. “I’m surprised you let her leave New Orleans alive.”
“I keep telling myself that she’s trying.”
“Trying what? To drive you up the wall?” Alex sighed and Jim felt a momentary pang of guilt. This was his best friend, his partner — he felt closer to Alex in some ways than he did with his own wife. The two of them had met and clicked instantly when they were in college. Of course, given that they were both two years younger than the rest of the freshman, it wasn’t too surprising that they had wound up being paired off together. His only real regret was that he hadn’t been there to stop Alex from getting involved with Jeremy Benton. Of course, if she hadn’t gotten tied up with him, Daryl would never have been born and Jim would never have gotten the chance to play honorary uncle to the boy. Which is what brought him here. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m just making this more difficult for you, I’m sure.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not like there’s a how-to guide for this, Jim,” Alex whispered back. “Trust me. I checked. It certainly seems like this is something that would come with at least a brochure.”
“Maybe you could write one?” Jim offered. “Between the two of us, we have several degrees in psychology, sociology, history, and anthropology.”
“That would be a fun project, yeah,” Alex agreed. “For now, tell me about the newbie.”
Sam studied Lewis as the man went over the crime scene. The newbie was good. Thorough. But then, the whole team expected that from anyone who managed to catch their attention. That didn’t mean that he would wind up staying, though. Sam knew just how difficult it was for anyone other than an ice-blue Analyst to cut it in their team. By the converse, he also knew how difficult it was for one of them to make it in any other team. Lewis had obviously been through the wringer a few times already which was part of what caught Jim’s attention. His close-rates had impressed Yann. Alex, the only person in the team more intimidating than Jim, had somehow gotten access to Lewis’s old college tests and had actually grinned at his answers. Idly, Sam wondered if Lewis was going to wind up being his partner or if Jim and Alex would have him float until they could convince the powers-that-be to let them pull in a partner for the new guy.
“This is out of the ordinary,” Lewis said as he walked through the small apartment. “There’s absolutely nothing out of place.”
“The file said there were no signs of forced entry, foul play, nothing.”
“But we know someone was in here with her because the noose was applied post mortem. No bruising, no crushing. No fibers on her hands or fingers that would indicate she’d even handled the rope.”
“Jim suspects some kind of poison.”
“I know,” Lewis said absently. “I was there this morning, too. Whatever it was, it was something that acted fast, didn’t cause normal digestive upset, didn’t leave any kind of ulcerations or scarring on the internal organs. Doesn’t show up on the normal tox-screen… Wait, time of death was late in the evening? What was in her stomach?” Lewis asked quickly, looking up. His blue eyes were slightly cloudy with thought.
“Salad. Rabbit. Why?”
“We need to get back to the M.E.’s lab,” Lewis said quickly. “I think I figured out how she died.”
Jim walked into Dr. Dufrene’s office with his temper up. The examiner had called him just after he left Alex’s house checking to see if Sergeant Lewis Harding really had clearance to call her and tell her to bag the contents of Patterson’s stomach. What exactly the newbie wanted with those had Jim both curious and annoyed. He’d already ruled out nightshade from the rabbit himself. There were no track marks of any kind on the body which meant that the only ways a poison could have gotten in were inhalation and ingestion. Alex had offered a few somewhat creative ways that suffocation could be put back in play without leaving any sign or obvious injury to the lungs or heart and Jim was planning to go over those with the good doctor when she called him herself sounding distinctly annoyed about the newbie giving her orders.
“All right, newbie,” he growled as he stormed into the examiner’s office, “what gives?”
“Boss, I think our boy’s on to something,” Sam said, warning Jim to rein in his temper.
“If he thinks that the rabbit was tainted…” Jim muttered
“Not the rabbit,” Lewis said. He was wearing the full regalia — a smock, gloves, and a face mask. “The salad,” he exclaimed as he held up a partially digested leaf.
“That’s…not lettuce,” Jim replied, his face going slack with shock.
“It’s monkshood.”
“Wolf’s bane. Aconitum. The Queen of all Poisons,” Jim rattled off. “Why in hell didn’t I think of that?”
“Because it’s hardly something that the average killer would think to use,” Sam answered. He sounded somewhat excited himself. “Dufrene’s going to have an excuse to go over to the Big Test Center and play with all their cool toys now.”
“Yeah, she’s going to need some pretty extensive equipment to test for this,” Lewis agreed. “The victim must have had a real taste for exotic salads.”
“Now the question is how did she happen to eat it?” Jim muttered. “Monkshood is not something you’re going to find in the grocery store or just stumble across and think ‘oh, that looks tasty.’”
“If we answer that question, we’ll have a much better idea who killed her,” Lewis said.
“Maybe we can get that information from the parents. I’ll sit in with you on the interview, newbie,” Jim sighed.
“Sounds like a plan, boss,” Lewis agreed. “When are they due to get here?”
Jim pulled his phone out of his back pocket and glanced at the screen. “Flight info says that their plane just touched down a few minutes ago. NOLA PD is there to escort them to their hotel and then here so I’d say we’ve got just enough time to grab lunch and go over our game plan.”