“I see, maybe we could work something out special, like if I do that, you could bring me some of your seven-layer bean dip next week,” he said as he scribbled on his computer.
“You name it, I’ll bring it,” Michelle said as she turned into her cubicle. “I’ll owe you, Colin, and seven-layer dip is a cheap payment.”
“Oh, that’s not all I’ll get from you. I do have other ideas, too. Next time I have to be in my superhero outfit for a local hospital conference, you can tell the boss lady that I’m working on a special case,” he said as he walked away. “Where are your controls?”
“Colin, you do have a life, as a superhero. What are you, ‘Chemical Man’?”
“No, ‘The Neutron Nerd,’ and if you breathe a word of it, I’ll have to gas you. Later, girl,” he said as he headed for the lab.
“Controls are in the stabilization vat, cisterns are next to the autoclave, and you are amazing.”
Michelle’s division was the Analytical Branch of Criminal Scene Investigation. She had been in the field when the television industry had made it glamorous. She still thought it glamorous, but that was because she liked making complex machinery provide accurate data. That was one of her many jobs, establishing the controls for the many machines in her department and keeping the log of their maintenance and recalibration. A boring job, but somebody had to do it. She looked forward to getting into more of the actual investigative work, but Michelle thought Ms. Borden considered that “man’s work.” She would try for a few more months and then go to another lab if there was no progress.
Her standardization samples had been in a controlled temperature bath to set their temperatures. This was a pressurized bath with nitrogen cycling to clean the air, requiring forty-eight hours to equilibrate. It would take her eight hours to run the calibrations on all the analytic equipment, but if she waited another day, it would mean she would have to convince Ms. Borden there were reasons she had stalled the labs analysis capacity for another day. Colin would pull her out. She pulled her controls out of the bath and placed them into transport cisterns to maintain their temperature and nitrogen pressure. One analytic lab was in another building, and she decided to run those first, leaving the samples for the third floor in the bath.
The vial of Acozil kept oddly nagging at her mind. The calibration ran for twenty minutes on each machine, so when she had all the machines involved in this process, she called the operator.
“Coreen, this is Michelle Lumen. Yeah, hi. You too, I was going to try and get to the play. Yeah. Say, listen, need a long distance to General Hospital in Portland, here’s the number,” she said as she read the number off her PDA. It rang. “Please page Dr. Price, he’s in anesthesia services. Yes, I’ll hold. Tell him it is the maid at the Arctic Steam Bath, and if he wants his socks back, he’ll have to talk to me.”
Michelle waited for five minute before a voice came on, “Michelle, what in hell are you doing with this steam bath bullshit? I work here and have to maintain my decorum, and we’re not supposed to be taking calls during the main shift. And besides, I haven’t heard from you since you moved out of town all those many years ago.”
“How did you know it was me?” she asked.
“Caller ID, operator told me what area code this came in from. I don’t know anyone else in your area code. What’s up?” he said.
“You’re a peach, even if you’re my brother-in-law, and you did hear from me at Christmas, I sent you a flower. What is Acozil?” she asked, leaning on the counter, watching the calibration cycle tick off seconds.
“Your flower was beautiful until Casey ate it. Glad it wasn’t a poinsettia, which would have made my day and killed your sister’s dog. Why do you want to know about Acozil? Your date trying to tell you it’s a vitamin? Acozil is an amnesic, something we give people that we plan to do something to, but we do not want them to recall who it was that did it.”
“Why would it fall out of a pocket on a murder victum?”
“You’re the cop, Michelle, you have a better feeling for the situation than I do but it is a popular drug for date rape, too. Give it to the victim, and two hours later, they’re the stuff of urban legends. Great for that line of work, too. You can give it orally, intravenously, and rectally. Works however you get it in, and it is not too dose dependent. Get the same affect regardless of body weight, up to a limit. Where’d you come across it?” he asked as an overhead speaker kept barking pages behind him.
“Hank, I don’t know what more I can tell you except it was at a crime scene and empty,” she said, clicking the sample port closed on another calibration run.
“Well, how big was the vial, 2 cc or 5 cc?” he asked.
“What difference would that make?” Michelle asked, feeling her shirt pocket for the vial. “I’m pretty sure it is a 5-cc vial, yes it is.”
Hank thought for a second and then said, “Michelle, guess it was a silly question. We get the 5-cc vials up here because we go through a pretty good bit of it. Seems like the clinics stock the 2 cc because of the street value and the pharmacy does not like letting the big bottles out. To me it would mean that if you found it here in Portland it would have come from the anesthesia department of one of the hospitals, but I don’t know what you guys do in LA, you probably can buy it over the counter in Juarez. You can trace the lot to the day it was released from the manufacturer, but all bets are off from where it was sold. It may come from Brazil, for all you’ll know. What are you doing with it?”
“Oh I’m just curious. Never came across something like that before. Thought maybe it was an expensive medicine for some rare disease this guy might have had, but instead he probable got caught dumping it into the drink of some gal, and her boyfriend saw it and killed him. Not much to go on,” she said as she recorded the calibration serial settings on another machine.
“What are you doing for summer vacation? Been looking at coming up here?” he said.
“Yup, Mom wants me to take a look at all that stuff Dad left. Maybe I’ll do that. I’ll call you soon. Say hello to Sissy, tell her to keep her legs crossed,” Michelle said as she pushed away from the counter for the phone.
“Hell, I’ve been telling her that for years. She’s doing something real wrong, I tell yeah. We’re looking at number quarto here pretty soon.”
“That’s what I suspected. Bye, Hank, thanks,” Michelle said as she hung up.
The machine she was just closing was a high-speed gas chromatographic analyzer—one of the best. Her last step on finishing the calibration was to run a sample after she replaced the columns that slowed the chemicals down to study. She pulled the cap off of the injection port and placed a syringe into the vial of distilled de-ionized water. She pulled up an accurate measurement of this extremely clean water and injected it into the vial of Acozil. After shaking it she placed a sample syringe into the vial and pulled up a very small sample of the chemical. She started the recorder and injected the sample into the port. The analyzer spread the liquid into a billion molecules and forced them along the column of inert glass fibers. From the end of this column came wires that attached to an instrument that developed a spectrum of chemical compounds over time. The signature for the sample came out a meaningless scribble of lines that looked like waves on the shores of Laguna Beach. Michelle stored the data on a disc she had for her computer, replaced the columns with new columns, and placed the machine on standby, leaving the machine freshly calibrated and ready for work.
Chapter 10
The Morgue
Michelle found the vial again three days later. She had finished her work by 6:00 pm the night before, but one thing lead to another, and she spent the best part of the morning busily fixing the equipment she was supposed to only calibrate. Finally, she saw the vial locked in her desk. The label listed the manufacturer. She was not an investigator. She was not authorized to make inquiries or start question trails, but she wanted to know more about Acozil.
She pulled the case up on the computer.
Male, forty-two-years old. Name: Paul Oldenburg. Gunshot wound, chest entry at fifth intercostals space, left side. Caliber estimated 9 mm, range six inches by degree of tissue destruction at wound margin as well as carbonation of entrance as well as vacuolization of tissues at entry. Bullet lodged in vertebral body of thoracic vertebra seven, left side, after transversing the heart and descending thoracic aorta. Lung damage, moderate. No other foreign material except clothing fragments. Left thoracic cavity contained 1200 cc clotted blood. Right only contained 200 cc of clotted blood. Missile trajectory did cross the dome of the left diaphragm without deviation, suggesting the victim was in exhalation when hit. Remaining autopsy revealed organs to be without pathology and massing in the 60th percentile for age. Noted other pathologic findings reveal that the victim did have a large tumor on his left adrenal gland measuring 4.3 cm by 3.3 cm by 2.6 cm. This was not clinically significant to the pathology of his demise. Serum samples likely abnormal due to extensive hemorrhage but preserved as minimal evidence of autotransfusion after brief interval from injury to demise.
Exam room 7
Case open: 9:22
Case closed: 11:10
Slides identified as 00198-M 1-32
Examiner: D. Ophers, MD
Michelle closed the file and pulled up the data from the lab studies. It revealed the blood alcohol level was 0.08mg/dl, hardly a significant level, even if he had planned to drive home. Remaining analysis was done on tissues from his major organs to determine evidence of other acute processes. These automated tests were done routinely only if there were reasons. Michelle e-mailed Dr. Ophers:
Dr. Ophers, This is Michelle Lumen, analytics. Please explain the reason you ran tissue on case 00198-M*. I am trying to determine what to do with evidence found on body. M. Lumen.
She was surprised when the reply came only minutes later, as the physicians on the team had many jobs and usually did their work late in the afternoons.
Hello, Michelle. Michelle, I did my homework on the case and noted you found Acozil on the body. I tried to see if there was evidence of chronic injection of chemicals. This was to look at the heart, lungs, and liver. They returned as normal, as did your exam of the arms and inguinal region for needle tracks. I do not know if Mr. 00198 had any Acozil inside his body at the time of death. Cordially, Dr. O.
Michelle went to the main chemistry room and found one of her co-analysts. “Judy, can you run a sample of blood for chemicals for me?” she asked.
Judy was a good worker, but a very unpleasant person to talk to. She turned to Michelle and said, “Get me a cost code, and I’ll wipe my ass and run it.”
Michelle had to laugh briefly and said, “I’ll run it under calibrations. It is on 00198-M*. Keep it on a disc, please, and send me the disc. I’ll compare it with my known chemical footprints.”
“You know analytics are not cheap. This will be a full run and will cost you a bundle. You sure accounting won’t find out you been playing with the samples?”
“You’re the one playing with the samples. I’m just comparing wild types to known standards, Judy. We do it all the time.”
“OK, coming up. I’ll get it out now and warm it up. Should have it in a couple hours,” Judy said as she shuffled to the freezer in her slippers. “Who’s the case?”
“Judy, do you know what OSHA says about house-slippers in the lab? It’s 00198-M*,” Michelle called as she headed for the door.
“I bet I could figure out what they say about damn near everything. See ya,” she said.
Michelle sat at her terminal doing other work until the disc arrived. She pulled out the analysis of the Acozil vial and placed it into the computer. Next, she opened the window for comparison and ran the sample from Mr. Oldenburg. The computer flashed a bar across a small box on the bottom of the screen. The green bar slowly made its way across the box. The box disappeared and another box opened. Within this box were the results of the two chemical runs simultaneously displayed one above the other. From the background static of every chemical that existed in Mr. M’s blood at the time of his death, the computer revealed a 95 percent confidence that Mr. M’s blood contained the same tracing as the analytical data from the Acozil vial. This analysis only required a match to 80 percent to verify the presence of a chemical. Mr. M had whatever was in the Acozil vial in his circulation when he died.
Michelle then asked the computer to measure the quantity of the Acozil by the area, under the curve method. This resulted in a number that was meaningless to Michelle, but important to know. Next she asked the computer to measure the concentration of the material used as standard and was rewarded with an estimate of approximately 0.081 mg in 1cc. This was well below the concentration of the original product, but she had diluted it to get the sample. Then it struck her that she had compared the two chemicals, but still did not know with any certainty that the chemical was indeed Acozil. This would require going out of her calibration account, but she was now interested. Michelle went to the lab library and pulled out the Physician Desk Reference, and looked up Acozil. She noted the manufacturer and went to the Internet for a search, coming up with their lab department number in ten minutes.
She called Coreen. “Can you make a long-distance call for me, Coreen? Sure, here’s the number, thanks.” She waited only a moment until a pleasant voice answered the phone at a major drug manufacturer’s home office. Michelle now stepped into the great danger zone and identified herself as an investigator for the city and said she wanted to speak with a chemist for the Acozil division.
“Well, miss, there is only one chemical division for the whole place, so I’ll ring them up. Please hold,” she heard.
“Chemistry Department, Wiess speaking,” came the squeaky voice.
“Yes, sir,” she said. “My name is Michelle Lumen. I work for the State Labs for California and we are investigating a homicide. This case had a bottle of Acozil at the crime site, and I am trying to determine if the victim had any of this medication in his system when he died. Can you give me a reference chromatographic pattern for Acozil please, rapid gas phase, if you have it.”
“Lady, we get calls from folks so often that the reference you want is on our Web site. Just click ‘OD’ and it comes right up,” the squeaky Wiess said.
“Surely you jest,” Michelle said.
“Yeah, lady. I’d lose my crummy job if I posted that. No, we don’t get all that many requests. The file’s electronic. Gimme your e-mail, and I’ll get one to you ASAP. What’s your time there, anyway?” he asked.
“It is 2:15. Why?” she said.
“’Cause I’m the evening shift here, lady, and can’t get to the main computer until morning. Can you wait that long?” he said.
“Yes, that will be fine. Please take this e-mail: [email protected], and I’ll look for your file tomorrow. Thank you,” she said as she started to hang up.
“Hey, wait, lady. Hey, you there?” came the pleading squeaky voice of Wiess.
“Yes, what do you want?” she asked.
“My boss just came in. No kidding. He’s never here. I’ll have him send this out now. Good luck,” Wiess said genuinely.
“Thank you, Mr. Wiess,” Michelle said. “I’ll let you know what we get, if I can.”
Michelle waited for several hours, the file from the drug company finally arriving just before closing time. She pulled open the computer and placed the data into her computer. She then opened the program for the analysis comparison and ran the test. The green bar seemed to go across the screen much faster, though Michelle knew that was more likely due to the fact that her terminal was only a dumb head and the central computer was just less in demand later in the day. Soon the data appeared, saying the match did identify that the unknown chemical was Acozil. It was in the vial as well as in Mr. Oldenburg’s blood, but there was an additional chemical in the vial—an organic cyclic hydrocarbon. The vial contained a trace of Acozil, as well as something else.
/> Michelle called Judy’s voice mail, “Girl, thanks for the data, matches with the reference I just got from the drug company. Do you have any way to identify unknown hydrocarbon rings?” she asked.
“So now what are you chasing? You know this guy or something? Honey, only way we can run them is for simple hand comparison to reference texts. It would take you days to go through those texts. Somebody might have automated it. You ought to call the FBI or something,” she said. “Go home, I am.”
“OK, that sounds good. Thanks Judy,” Michelle said as she hung up.
Colin walked by just then and seeing Michelle staring at the phone, he said, “He’ll never call. Why don’t you let me take you to dinner instead?”
Michelle was so surprised by the offer, she accepted before she realized what she was doing. Regretting the fact that she was not quicker witted in the circumstance, she also noted Colin’s surprise, as if he never considered it possible that she would accept. She said, “I’ll close up here. You want to meet somewhere?” Michelle had to laugh briefly as Colin’s glasses almost seemed to fog over as he concentrated.
“How about Chop Stix at seven?”
“Which one? There’re three I know of.” she said.
“Next to the zoo. See you there,” he said as he shook his head and headed from the cubicle.
“Bye,” Michelle said. Oh, what will I do now? she thought. Then she decided she would go and just relax.
Chapter 11
First Date
Michelle sat by the window of Chop Stix and waited for Colin. He arrived about fifteen minutes late. He was dressed in fashionable enough clothing, but Michelle could not help but notice he was also wearing a sticker on his shirt that indicated it was a large. He had evidently gone out and purchased the shirt just for this event. She decided to ignore it.
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