by L M Krier
'It was her idea, let her run with it. If nothing else, it will give you and the rest of the team a break from her. She's clearly a lone wolf, so let her run free of the pack for now. At least it will show her we're taking her ideas seriously and valuing her input. That in itself may bring some improvement, if she's not used to such a reaction.'
Mike drained his mug and stood up to go. 'If you say so, boss. At the moment, I can't see anything working with her. But if you've taught me anything, it's not to pre-judge anyone. And she certainly is a she-wolf, that much is true.'
He left the office and Ted went back to his paperwork. He didn't have a clue if they would make any headway with Jezza where other divisions had failed. But he had promised to give her a chance and he was determined to do so.
Chapter Sixteen
Jezza was late into work again the following morning. Ted was as disappointed as he was annoyed. He had optimistically thought that she might at least have made more of an effort on her second day. They had almost concluded the day's briefing before she appeared.
Again she made no apology but she did say, as soon as she walked through the door, 'Before you say anything guv, or skip, I have actually been working. I went to a garden centre on my way in, to ask about plants.'
No one had seen her since Mike had sent her out to check into gardeners at the homes the previous morning. Most of the team usually dropped in to the office at the end of the day, just to touch base and find out if there were any updates. It didn't really matter that she hadn't, although Ted did prefer the team to keep in close contact.
'That would be sarge and sir, or boss, at the very least,' Mike said pointedly.
It was clearly water off a duck's back to Jezza. She took absolutely no notice, simply continued, 'So do you want to know what I found out?'
Ted looked at her closely. She looked like someone who had barely slept. There were dark rings under eyes which looked bloodshot. He wondered if she made a habit of drinking too much, although surely that would have shown up on her record by now.
'Go ahead, DC Vine,' Ted told her. He wondered if his formality might produce the same from her, although he doubted it.
'I didn't have time to get round all the homes, clearly, so I started with the ones where there have been deaths. Two of them use the same contract gardener. I have the details, I'll get round there later today when I've checked out more of the homes.'
She was clearly self-confident, used to working by herself. There was no hesitation, and no question of her checking that her chosen route met with approval. Ted let it go for now.
'Also two of the homes, though not the same two, have foxgloves growing in the garden. The one where the victim died of foxglove poisoning and the one where the old Welsh biddy died, but hers was a different toxin, wasn't it?'
There was a stunned silence from the whole team at her choice of words. Mike was the first to speak.
'DC Vine, Mrs Jones was the boss's grandmother.'
'Well, I didn't know that, did I?' she said defensively. 'I wouldn't expect someone related to one of the victims to be involved in their murder enquiry.'
Ted almost smiled. She did have a point.
'It doesn't really matter who she was related to, DC Vine,' Ted said quietly. 'The fact is, she deserves to be spoken of with respect, please, as do all the victims. Go on.'
She did not apologise. She didn't even acknowledge what he had said. She merely continued, 'I didn't see any monkshood anywhere, although it's a bit early for it to be flowering, apparently.
'The trip to the garden centre was interesting. Anyone can go in and buy any number of highly poisonous plants, like foxglove and monkshood, possibly without knowing how deadly they can be. They're not labelled as dangerous or anything. Well, the foxgloves aren't, the aconite has something about the whole plant being poisonous, but in small lettering at the bottom of the label, which is often sticking down into the soil in the pot. In other words, that would mean you would have to know beforehand that they were poisonous, if you were planning to use them to bump someone off.'
To everyone's surprise, it was Steve who decided to challenge her first. He was usually quiet and painfully shy but he clearly did not appreciate the lack of respect the new arrival was showing to the boss he thought the world of, nor to the rest of the team.
'Anyone who can use a computer can get that sort of information in a couple of clicks. Google it, pick the most poisonous, go out and buy it. That proves nothing.'
'Yes, but, duh! Why go to the trouble?' she came back at him, her tone scornful. 'You can buy enough paracetamol in any supermarket to kill off an old …'
To Ted's surprise, she actually checked herself before continuing, '… an elderly person. Why go to the expense and trouble of faffing about with plants instead?'
Once again, her opinion was valid, Ted grudgingly had to concede to himself. He said nothing, waiting to see where things would go.
'So what exactly are you saying, someone with specific plant knowledge? A botanist or something?' Rob O'Connell asked.
'Well, I've not ruled out the gardener angle yet, I'm still looking into that. Then there's also the question of why the victims are all women,' she continued. 'Is that significant? A grudge against an older woman?'
'Statistically, women live longer than men, so there are far more women in homes than men,' Steve said, clearly not done yet. 'That may be entirely coincidental.'
'And it may not be, which is precisely why we should be considering it,' she countered, then continued, 'Also, sorry to mention this, guv, in relation to your granny, but these were particularly unpleasant deaths. So is that fact significant in the motive for this? Not just killing these old people but killing them in a certain way, making them suffer horribly.'
'We can't really look at motives until we have a suspect though, can we?' Maurice asked her. Ted was impressed that the normally tactless DC managed to keep his tone just the right side of patronising.
'Finding some sort of a motive might lead us to a definite suspect,' she retorted.
'But isn't that guesswork rather than detection?' Virgil Tibbs put in.
'Isn't guesswork all we have so far?' she said scathingly, waving a hand towards the board. 'A woman calling herself the Angel of Death, possibly, under various nicknames, who may or may not always be the same person?'
Ted decided it was time to step in before things got too heated.
'All right, everyone, calm down,' he said, standing up and moving over to the white board. 'This is a murder enquiry, not a debating society. It is also a murder enquiry being headed by DS Hallam.'
He was looking straight at Jezza as he spoke. 'Therefore it's his decision which direction it goes in, as well as if and when we move into the realms of pure speculation. Is that clear, DC Vine?'
At that moment her mobile phone rang and she answered it, without even acknowledging him.
'Yes, but can't you …' she started to say and was clearly cut short. She listened for a moment then added, 'I'll be there shortly.' She looked round at the team and said, 'Right, I've got to go, that could be important.'
She grabbed her shoulder bag and was gone before anyone could say anything.
Mike shook his head in bewilderment. 'Is it too much of a cliché to say 'there's no I in team'?' he asked.
Ted's team were all regarding him expectantly, wondering if even their easy-going boss was going to lose his cool in the face of such dumb insolence from a newcomer.
'DC Vine is certainly a little, shall we shall, individual. Some of you may be wondering why I have not yet pulled her up on her unusual style. You may even be thinking I'm going a bit soft in my old age. If you are thinking that, I'd prefer you to voice it to my face, rather than behind my back.'
He looked round at the team members. Nobody said anything.
'That's great, thank you. I'd just ask you to bear with me on this for the time being. I'll handle it, but it may take a while. Now, you've got your appointed tasks, please get on with
them. And let's not neglect other cases while we concentrate on this one. With luck, we may get further tox results soon on our other victims, which would be a help.
'Mike, have you got a minute?' he asked, as he headed for his office.
Ted went straight for the kettle, nodding to Mike to sit down. 'Coffee?' he asked.
'Give me some of that green stuff you drink, boss, please,' Mike said to his surprise. 'I want to find out how you keep as calm as you do. I just want to slap her face off and I'm not normally the violent sort, with more reason than most.'
Ted laughed. 'I hope that's a joke,' he said, then added, 'I'll put honey in it, it goes down better that way.'
He prepared two mugs, waiting for the kettle to boil.
'The problem is, of course, she does have some good ideas,' he said. 'She's picked up on a couple of angles we hadn't considered and she seems to be working them very thoroughly.'
'Yes, but she's certainly not a team player, boss,' Mike said at once. 'She's only been here five minutes but she comes and goes as she pleases. I don't have a clue where she is most of the time. That's not how we work. And is it just me or did she look well and truly hungover this morning?'
'You know I don't like to judge, Mike' Ted said. 'There could be all sorts of reasons for her to look like that. We've all had stuff in our private lives which sometimes spills over into the workplace.'
Mike had had personal problems when he had first arrived, which Ted had helped him to deal with.
'Fair point, boss, but I hope I was never gobby with it.'
Ted laughed. 'Never gobby, Mike, no,' he said. 'Let me have another word with Jezza, quietly, and see if things improve.'
'Then can I kill her?' Mike asked hopefully. 'Sorry, boss, only kidding.'
'Let's try her in undercover. According to her file, she really has had some good results. It seems to be her thing,' Ted told him. 'She deserves a chance to show us what she can do. Then, if it doesn't work out, we'll just have to think again. We've always got Inspector Turner's offer of an extra officer from uniform, should we need one, which gives us a Plan B.'
Chapter Seventeen
'Absolutely fascinating case this, Edwin, really extraordinary.'
Ted was still having his breakfast at home when Professor Nelson called him on his mobile. As usual, she started with the briefest of greetings.
'Morning, Bizzie, do you have some toxicology results for me, then?' Ted asked, pushing aside his plate of half-eaten wholemeal toast. He could hardly be crunching that down the phone whilst the pathologist was giving him details of poisonings.
'Yes indeed. Your poisoner certainly knows their plants and would seem to have been experimenting somewhat with which is the most efficacious, and at what dosage. I will, of course, be emailing you my full report shortly, but I wondered if you would prefer the essential highlights from me first? Is this a good time for you?'
Ted looked wistfully at his breakfast, already going cold and limp on the plate. Depending on how long the conversation was, he would not have time to make more before he needed to leave for work. He sighed to himself. He would just have to pick something up on the way in, to eat in his office.
The most senior of the cats, Queen, sensing his abandonment, had already jumped on to the table and begun licking the butter off the toast.
'Yes, it's fine, Bizzie. Thanks for taking the time to call me. What have you got for me?'
'I now have the two outstanding sets of results. Both deaths were the result of ingestion of toxins from plants, as before. Regarding the toxins used, we have two new ones this time. First, your hospital lady, Mrs Applegate. This time the poison used was taxus baccata, from the yew tree. Not at all hard to find. Traditionally, most churchyards had, and sometimes still have, at least one.
'It's quite a poisonous plant but - and this is where I think it tells us something important about your poisoner - the leaves are actually the most toxic part. That is to say that the concentration of the toxins is higher in the leaves than in the berries, contrary to what many people think.
'In fact, the berries themselves are harmless and edible. The stone inside is lethal, but only when crushed so the toxin is exposed. It's why these trees self-seed so easily. Birds eat and digest the fruit, leaving the stone to pass out undigested, thus preventing the birds from being poisoned. Please tell me if I'm boring you?'
Ted smiled to himself. The Professor was inclined to get a bit carried away with her own enthusiasm, but so far what she was saying was useful. He encouraged her to go on, at the same time lifting Queen off the table before she started on the toast itself, having finished the butter.
'Now, I had some stomach contents to go on with Mrs Applegate, so I can tell you that the leaves were used. I would expect most people to go for the berries under the mistaken belief that they are the poisonous part. In addition, I was able to test other fluids like bile, brain tissue, urine …'
She broke off abruptly. 'Oh, I am sorry, Edwin, I do hope you're not in the middle of your breakfast?'
Ted sighed once more, although he was now no longer hungry after listening to her list. Once again, he asked her to continue.
'Yew contains taxoids, which are used medicinally for their anti-cancer properties. But in the case of an overdose, the taxoids taxine A and taxine B cause symptoms including nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.
'After these initial symptoms, there may be bradycardia then ventricular tachycardia, possibly followed by severe ventricular arrhythmia and ventricular fibrillation. All of which means, put simply, that the heart first slows down, then speeds up, then its rhythm is seriously, potentially fatally, disturbed.
'Even if the medical team had known or suspected the ingestion of toxins and knew which one was involved, there is no known, proven antidote readily available. In an elderly patient with an already weakened system, the result was, I would say, a foregone conclusion.'
'Bizzie, this really is very helpful, thanks for simplifying it for me. I probably wouldn't have made head nor tail of the report as clearly as this,' Ted said gratefully. 'But right now, I need to be heading in to the office. May I call you from there in, say, half an hour, for the details of the other one? If that's not disturbing you?'
'Not at all. I will be doing another post-mortem about then, but I am quite capable of chopping and chatting at the same time,' she said breezily.
Ted grabbed a Danish pastry from a nearby shop on his way to work. He wasn't keen on starting the day with a sugar rush, but at least it was quick and easy to eat on the go.
Bizzie had already emailed her reports. He had a quick glance through but decided to call her back for her explanation of the second one. She was better at explaining the main principles than he was at picking them out for himself.
'Yes, as I was saying, utterly fascinating,' Bizzie spoke as if their break in conversation had been less than a minute, instead of more than half an hour. Ted didn't risk asking her what she was doing as she spoke. 'Now this fourth victim, your Mrs Protheroe, the exhumation. So unusual that I had to do quite a bit of research.
'The culprit this time was oleander. Such a pretty flower, but so very deadly. It's a hard call as to which one is the most toxic, oleander or the aconite which said poisoner has used before. For me, the oleander wins hands down, as even smoke from burning it contains the toxic cardiac glycosides, oleandrin and neriine. Their effects are similar to those of foxglove toxins. It's probably because of the robust nature of these toxins that we were still able to detect traces so long post-mortem.
'As with the other plants, there is a beneficial side, in that cardiac glycosides are used in the treatment of congestive heart failure and cardiac arrhythmia. But in toxic doses, the symptoms manifest as vomiting and light-headedness, often some hours after ingestion, followed possibly by cardiac abnormalities, including ventricular dysrhythmia, tachycardia, bradycardia, and heart block.
'In other words, Mrs Protheroe would in all likelihood have presented with sympto
ms similar to gastroenteritis, then her heart rhythms would have varied wildly, leading to her heart failing, as in the other cases.'
'So the death would appear to be similar to the others, just yet another different toxin?'
'Correct,' the Professor confirmed. 'And in this particular case, it would appear that this lady had ingested enough to kill more than just one frail elderly person. All of which leads me to a somewhat wild theory. May I suggest it to you?'
'Please do,' Ted said. 'Theories are something we are a bit short of at the moment.
'Entirely speculative, of course, but if Mrs Protheroe was the first victim, the poisoner may have been playing about to see what dosage was sufficient to do the dastardly deed. Now they are refining their art somewhat, I would brace yourself for the possibility of more victims to come.'
Ted thanked her and rang off, hoping she was wrong.
The team members were all in now, so Ted went into the main office to join them. Jezza was the last to arrive but she was only just late, which Ted hoped was an encouraging sign.
He brought the team up to speed on the latest findings, while Mike wrote up what he said on the white board, with Steve on the computer to check spellings for him. Ted had to get him to double check the various heart rhythm terms as he was losing track of what was fast, slow or irregular.
When he'd finished, Mike spoke up. 'Boss, I had a sudden theory for a possible motive.' Ted nodded at him to go on.
'Bed-blocking,' he said, then, as there were blank looks all round, he continued, 'You remember, boss, the ward manager was saying how they get a lot of old people in from homes when all they basically need is more water to drink.
'What if there is a nurse or a carer somewhere thinking there are just too many old people on the planet? That when they finish up in hospital, they're stopping anyone younger, with a better chance of survival, from getting a bed?'
'The ward manager we saw couldn't be our Angela though, she was far too tall,' Ted said. 'Height is one part of the appearance it simply isn't possible to alter significantly, as I know to my cost.'