The Poisonous Ten Read Online Free PDF Page B

well. Been working there for six years. Our victim was poisoned by cyanide, but the room is safe for us to be in. So that’s it. I suggest we start in on the body.”
    “All right then,” Parks said. “Fairmont, you finish with the body so we can get Doc—I mean Jackie—working it. It’s time we find out what exactly happened here.”
     
     
     

 
    3
    “Hello, boys,” Medical Examiner Amy Tanaka called out as she walked into the room with a glow about her that made her coworkers wonder if she was pregnant or had just had morning sex instead of having just arrived from another crime scene. At her side she carried her examiner’s kit, which looked as if it weighed more than the small woman and often made observers wonder how she stood upright while holding it. “And women. I apologize. How are you, Rachel?”
    Moore smiled silently, focused on her task on hand.She was halfway through the room while Tippin looked intently over her shoulder to see how she worked the laser system that read for latent prints on the wall, scanning anything abnormal into the computer system.
    Tanaka walked up to the dead woman and set her kit on the ground then stared at the body. It was a full minute b efore she noticed Jackie next to Parks.
    “Hey, girl,” Tanaka beamed. “Why, if it isn’t my two f avoritist people in the world. So what do we have here?”
    “A tardy slip with your name on it,” Parks quipped.
    “Sorry, teacher, but the principal gave me a pass. I knew she was coming here”—Tanaka gestured toward Jackie—“so I knew I’d have some time before they let me in to see the body.”
    Tanaka worked her way closer to the body of the dead woman in the chair and looked down at her. The woman’s eyes remained open, her deep-blue gaze forever staring off through the windows at the valley below while the skin around the eyes had a dark-purplish hue to them, as if she was wearing a lot of mascara. There was a sad look to the woman that affected the inspectors as they stared silently for a moment, giving the victim her last respects.
    “Does she look familiar to anyone else, or is that just me?” Tanaka asked, breaking the silence.
    “Can’t say that she does,” Parks admitted.              
    “Me neither,” Jackie said with the shake of her head.
    “Probably just me,” Tanaka said. “There are slight abrasions on the wrists and ankles, proving she was held against her will. I’m not sure by what yet. No residue was left behind so I’d rule out duct tape, plus it appears thinner in circumference. More like small rope or wire. Kind of hard to see, so whatever it was, it was probably something soft to the touch. It didn’t cut through the skin when pressure was applied. So that probably rules out wire.”
    Tanaka began shifting through the purple flowers in the victim’s hands and looked curiously at a gummy substance that came off the flowers, sticking to her gloved-hand.
    “What do you have there?” Parks asked.
    “I’m not sure,” Tanaka said as she brought her fingers to her nose and moved her head back in confusion. “But it smells like . . . honey.” She motioned for Jackie to get something out of her kit. “I’ll take a sample and have it tested.”
    “Honey?” Jackie asked, handing over a sample container. “Why?”
    “Not sure,” Tanaka admitted. “But it appears to be all over the bouquet of flowers in our vic’s hands. You get pics already?”
    “Roger Dodger,” Fairmont called from behind Tanaka.
    “Thank you, hon,” Tanaka said. “Then I’m going to get this entire bouquet tested. Just to make sure. Maybe there’s something else in here.”
    “Could that be how the poison was administered?” Parks asked as he scribbled into his notepad.
    “No. The poison was in a gaseous form,” Jackie replied, not looking away from the body. Parks wasn’t sure how often she wound up at crime scenes or if she was used to seeing dead bodies, but she appeared in control of