by Alec Peche
Among the instruments in her on site lab was a mass spectrometer analyzer which she had used in prior cases to determine trace elements of compounds. She had also used it at various times for her vineyard when she was experimenting with natural pesticides. It was the most expensive instrument in her lab and she purchased it used when the manufacturer introduced a new, faster model. As she didn’t run many tests on it, she was happy to have the slow speed but accurate analyzer. The results of the analyzer would be compared against a library of mass spectrometer results to identify the components of the poison and if that didn’t yield anything she could move on to manual interpretation. The analyzer could also look at radio-isotopes. It was starting to get late and she had just traveled from a time zone that was two hours ahead of California, looking up at the clock she thought she was prepared for the next day of chemistry lab work and headed for bed.
Chapter Nine
Jill woke up to another sunny California day, and while she was excited to analyze her two test tube samples, she needed to do a quick three mile run with Trixie and cool down from the run by walking her vineyard to make sure no strange plant disease had attacked while she was gone. Heading into fall, her vineyard required little work at the moment. Once the leaves finished dropping, she would need to work long hours pruning her plants, but that was a favorite activity for Trixie and herself. Since they spent long hours outdoors, the dog could play as much catch as she could handle, while Jill always found it to be a time of reflection. She would remind herself of all that she was grateful for in the last year, take stock of her life, and set goals in her mind until the next year’s fall pruning.
An hour and a half later, she had run, inspected her vines, and showered. Now it was time to get to work on the case. She had given Adam Johnson a general timetable of the work she did while she was in Texas and back in California. As a courtesy and to stay on Detective Castillo’s good side, she had also provided him with the same information. While she had been reviewing the various poisons last night she developed a short list of the top contenders for the poison that killed Stacy Johnson. There were other poisons that could be involved with this case but given that the substance had to be clear and tasteless and cause Stacy to exhibit the symptoms she had at the podium, she was hopeful after an hour or so in her lab she should be able to identify the poison.
Jill gave thought to the use of poisons and the Mexican cartel. Did the cartel have members amongst it who were specialists with poisoning or was that a service they hired out for? She would have to do more research in regards to the homicides connected to the cartel. Certainly any pictures of cartel murders that she had seen were gun related.
Ricin was the first potential poison on her list. It came from castor beans and a very small amount ingested caused death. The murderer would have to have some experience working with the bean to extract the deadly pulp or waste product of the bean. Some other poisons were dioxin which was tasteless and could kill in a single drop placed in a glass of water, or maybe something more exotic like polonium which was reputed to have caused the death of a prominent Russian dissident.
Her phone rang and Jill picked it up off the table saying, “Hello.”
“Dr. Quint, this is Deputy Davis.”
“Hi, Deputy Davis, what can I do for you? It’s quiet at my house at the moment so if you’re looking for an opportunity to brush up on your shooting skills, you’ll have to wait as there are no bad people trying to kill me at the moment.”
“Ha ha. At the end of your last case, I asked if you would do me a favor and tour some youth I am working with through your lab and talk to them about death and murder. You know - scare them straight.”
“Yeah, like I told you I would love to help. When do you want to bring them by?”
“How about right now?”
Jill thought about what she was about to do with her two test tubes from Texas and thought ‘what the heck - might be a perfect time to talk to teens about murder’.
“I’m at the start of a new case and I was just about to process some samples, it’s likely a perfect time to bring them by. When should I expect you and how many kids are there?”
“We’ll be there in about fifteen minutes and I have six boys and two girls.”
“Okay, you know which building houses my lab, so just come in when you arrive.”
“Thanks Dr. Quint.” said the deputy with true appreciation running through her voice.
“Even if you hadn’t saved my life a few times, I would do this for you, if I can steer kids in a better direction, then that is a good thing.”
They ended the call and Jill took Trixie with her to the lab. She would count on her bark to alert her to the deputy’s arrival. She looked around her lab and straightened a few things up. Her murder board was blank at the moment as she hadn’t filled in the details of the case yet. Perhaps she would take the kids on a walk-through of the current case. Better that they become crime scene techs or forensic pathologists than street thugs; she figured she just needed to grab their interest to ignite a spark in them. She went to work printing a picture of Stacy, as well as pictures from the scene. As the crime was in another state and the kids would not have name recognition of anyone involved in it, she thought it would be fairly easy to keep the case private yet share it with the kids. She collected the police report as well, so she could go over the details with them while she filled out her murder board. She heard Trixie bark and then the wheels of a vehicle arriving outside of her lab. She walked outside to greet the new arrivals.
Deputy Davis was in uniform and the kids exited the van looking around her property. After a quick handshake, the Deputy had each kid introduce him or herself to Jill adding the personal fact of their age. Jill was amazed at how much older the kids looked than their actual age. Even the toughest of the lot had a hard time not warming up to Trixie. The dog had sized up the kids and then taken a ball over to drop at the feet of what Jill would have called the hardest looking kid. When the kid didn’t respond and throw the ball, the dog moved closer, picked up and then dropped the ball on the kid’s shoes and then sat back expecting the kid to throw it.
Jill had watched the interchange and said, “Antonio, this is Trixie and she won’t let you enter my lab until you throw the ball, so you may as well chuck the ball.”
The tough teenager was having a hard time maintaining his bored expression while throwing a ball for the dog, to Jill’s amusement. The kid threw the ball then they turned and entered Jill’s lab. Deputy Davis hadn’t told her anything about these kids; she didn’t know if they had spent time in the Juvenile Justice system or not. She would make a pitch that they choose a law enforcement career and then see if she could excite them with helping her work on her current case.
Jill had them sit down on chairs and opened with a lecture on lab safety. She had a variety of chemicals used in her lab that she didn’t want the kids to touch, so she started by having them lean in to smell a container of sulfur dioxide. They reeled back and two of the kids exited for fresh air.
“Sorry to make you guys uncomfortable for a few moments, but I do that to demonstrate lab safety. I have substances and chemicals that will blister your skin, make your eyes water, and lungs spasm. Don’t be curious about things or you’ll get hurt. I want to see each of you nod that you won’t touch stuff. I need to know you’ll stay safe while here,” and Jill got the nods of agreement she was looking for.
She went on to describe her background and those of other personnel in law enforcement and a crime lab. She tried to demonstrate that her and Deputy Davis’ side of the law was so much more interesting than spending time behind bars. She saw she was losing a kid or two which she expected. She then moved on to her murder board and her two test tubes along with the circumstances on Stacy’s death. The kids and Deputy Davis were asking questions about the crime scene. She knew some of the kids had been excited by the gruesomeness of murder, a few were turned off, and a few were using their brains to solve
the whodunit. While they were talking, Jill had been filling in her murder board. They were running out of time as the Deputy had to get the kids back to wherever they had come from soon, so Jill wrapped it up.
“I don’t think the cartel did this woman,” Antonio said as they were leaving.
Jill stopped him before he exited the door to her lab and asked, “Why not?”
“That not their style,” commented the slouching teen.
“What do you mean ‘their style’, Antonio?”
“The cartel don’t like you, they take you out with a gun. This was too much work; they don’t have that kind of time to waste. If she needed to die, just park on her street and shoot her when she leaves the front door.”
Deputy Davis paused on her way out and said, “Thanks Dr. Quint, I’ll give you a call later. And by the way I agree with Antonio’s line of thinking, I don’t think the cartel is involved.”
Jill watched the van leave and thought of what a satisfying time she had talking to the kids. She was intrigued with Antonio’s comments. It had been a question in the back of her head but she hadn’t articulated it into the front of her brain so to speak. Like Deputy Davis, she agreed with Antonio’s reasoning. Now what was she to do with that line of thinking? She recalled that Detective Castillo had the cartel on his murder board but didn’t put much weight on that selection. So Adam was the only person to think that the cartel was his wife’s murderer. Interesting.
She re-entered the lab and started her analyzer running so she could compare chemical compounds. Then she picked up her phone and called Nathan.
“Hey babe, how are you?”
“Doing well, how about you?”
“I was about to call you to make dinner plans tonight. How’s your day going in the lab, find the poison yet?”
“I've just begun work on identifying the poison as I had a very pleasant interruption this morning.”
“Oh really! What happened?”
“After the sovereign citizens nearly caused your house to burn down in the last case, Deputy Davis asked me if I would do her a favor and spend time with some at-risk youth that she was mentoring. I said yes but when she didn't contact me immediately I admit I forgot about it. She called me this morning and asked if she could bring some kids over.”
“Did you say yes?”
“Of course I did and it was most instructive.”
“How so?” Nathan asked.
“So I'm starting this new case and at the time of the call I’d not laid out the murder board yet in my lab. So after giving the kids a tour of the lab and telling them about the various occupations related to crime scene investigation, I took them through the current case. I could tell a couple of the kids were bored stiff, but I think I might've made a positive difference for a few others.”
“I bet that was a unique experience for both you and the kids. Did you learn anything about the case while laying it out for the kids?”
“Actually I did. I had been bothered by something but couldn't put my finger on it until one of the kids, just as he was leaving, told me I had the wrong suspect.”
“I wish I'd been there to watch this whole thing - you and a bunch of juvenile delinquents with Deputy Davis serving as referee. I can't believe that one of the kids didn't do something stupid in your lab as you have some dangerous things there.”
“I thought of that before the kids arrived and so I gave them all a whiff of sulfur dioxide. It stinks like rotten eggs and after several of the kids ended up gagging, they got my point and kept their hands off my stuff.”
“Good strategy and again I'm sorry I missed it.”
“I set up my murder board in front of the kids based on the evidence we had collected so far. As the kids were leaving, one of them told me I had it wrong - that this murder was not something the cartel would do. He said something like, ‘If the cartel wanted you dead they would just shoot you in your driveway. They wouldn’t bother with poison.’ I had to agree with his reasoning.”
“That's an insightful teenager! What did Deputy Davis think?”
“She agreed with the kid.”
“So what are you going to do now?”
“At this point, El Chapo’s picture will remain on my murder board representing the cartel. I'll have to give some thought into other suspects. Of course, there’s the husband, but why would he hire me to dig into the case if he poisoned her? How’d he get into the convention center conference room to put that poison in the water? He’s not on screen but then I’ve not found the person that placed the poisoned water on the podium. So my approach hasn't changed from this morning. I'm still looking for the poison hoping that will point me toward a suspect. How’s your day been?”
“Not as exciting or fruitful as yours has been. I've mainly caught up on correspondence that arrived while we were in Texas last week. I made a few appointments to meet with the various vineyards that I met at the convention who think they want to hire my services.”
Jill heard a timer go off in the background on one of her analyzers and so she knew she needed to bring the conversation to an end and get back to her lab.
“I'm going to be working in the lab all afternoon. How about if I come over to your house at seven tonight for dinner? I actually stopped at the grocery store on the way home yesterday so I could bring over a loaf of French bread if you're in the mood to whip up a pasta dish.”
“I can do that and I’ll plan on seeing you tonight. Stay safe and I love you," Nathan said.
“Love you back and see you tonight,” replied Jill.
Jill walked over to the analyzer with the dinging timer to examine her results. She had a printout of chemical composition. This was a sample of water from the convention center. Jill had filled a test tube before they left Dallas to know which minerals were naturally occurring in the convention center’s drinking water. Practically every water system in the country had a different set of metals, minerals, and impurities related to the soil and the wells located in that city. She now had her baseline of what her analyzer should find in the test tube sample that Detective Castillo gave her from the crime scene.
After a second analyzer bell, she walked over to view the results of the water from the glass at the podium that Stacy Johnson sipped from.
“What the heck?” Jill said to herself. She went over to where her three test tubes lay, one marked ‘hotel water fountain’, the second marked ‘vomit’, and the third with the label ‘podium glass’. She must have mixed up two test tubes. She pulled a sample out of her third test tube and again put it in the analyzer, set the timer, and went back to studying the murder board. Sometime later she jumped when the timer went off and she walked over to study the results.
She picked up the phone to call Detective Castillo. She was pleasantly surprised when he answered his phone.
“Detective, this is Dr. Jill Quint.”
“Yes?”
“I just finished my first analysis of your podium water and I think there is a problem with the specimen.”
“How so?”
“Before I left Dallas I collected a water specimen from a convention center drinking fountain. It is an exact mineral match for the glass of water at Stacy’s podium. I’ve run it twice with the same outcome. There was no poison in the glass of drinking water.”
“Yes, I know. I got the same result back from our crime lab about an hour ago.”
“Would you have shared that with me if I hadn’t called?” Jill asked.
“Probably, like I told you, you seem to be a magnet for murder, so it makes sense to keep you close to this case.”
Jill had to think about that. In the end she couldn’t decide how she should feel about the detective’s comment. So she shifted to her next question.
“Where do you think she came into contact with a poison?”
“Perhaps it was a natural death,” Castillo proposed.
“Do you really think that was a death by natural causes?”
“You tell me
, you’re the doctor.”
Jill wondered what the detective was up to. He was answering her questions with a question.
“As you know, I didn’t examine the body, but based on the findings of your medical examiner and based on observation of the film recording of Stacy’s death, I think she was poisoned with some agent.”
“I agree.”
“Then why the runaround detective?” Jill asked exasperated.
The detective ignored the question and asked one of his own, “What are your next steps, Dr. Quint?”