It all made sense now. She couldn’t help but picture Samantha Ritcher, on the floor with her swollen tongue and blotchy skin. A severe allergy would have easily produced these symptoms. She should have immediately suspected the possibility and listed it prominently in her report. The way Dr. Blythe was staring at her made her feel like an idiot for not doing so. But a drug allergy and not overdose as the cause of death for an addict like this? It almost seemed outlandish.

“I’m surprised someone with your dental background didn’t pick up on the obvious signs,” he scoffed. “Zoe’s going to need a list of all the drugs Samantha Ritcher was taking.”

“So, this was an accident?” she simply asked, preferring not to talk about her mistake.

Dr. Blythe crossed his arms. “Zoe should have the toxicology results finished. I want you to get them and follow up with the drugs that were in the house. I need to know which one she was allergic to.” He handed her a copy of the autopsy report, and walked away briskly, not taking any time, or really seeming to care to hear if she had any thoughts on the matter.

Val watched Blythe’s back as he moved down the hall. She was furious, thinking the whole time what a prick he was, making sure he schooled her on protocol. After she calmed down she glanced at the autopsy report, her new top priority chore for the day, and headed towards the toxicology lab. When she entered the room, Zoe was seated at her desk and looked up when the door opened.

“Hi, Zoe. I need the toxicology report for the Samantha Ritcher case,” Val said. Zoe’s jet-black hair was cut into an angled bob with short bangs. It contrasted nicely with her watery blue eyes and pale skin. Several tattoos could be seen on her arms, peeking out of the ends of her T-shirt sleeves. Her right eyebrow was pierced, along with her left nostril.

“Yep, have it right here. I was just going through this earlier. The results were pretty strange.” Zoe shuffled through several folders and picked up the one of interest. “Drug levels were high for pain medication Percocet, but not high enough to kill her.”

“Dr. Blythe said the cause of death was anaphylaxis. Not a drug overdose.”

“And he would be right. She definitely had an allergic reaction. Her post-mortem serum levels of the enzyme tryptase are elevated. This lets us know that histamine has been released. Histamine triggers the swelling that we see with cases of anaphylaxis. So, this test is a marker for the reaction. Her levels of the antibody IgE are also high. It’s all telltale.”

“She was allergic to the Percocet then?”