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Back The Secrets We Bury Save as PDF
Chapters (49)
  1. Cover
  2. Love best-selling fiction?
  3. Also by Mary Bush
  4. Dedication
  5. 1
  6. 2
  7. 3
  8. 4
  9. 5
  10. 6
  11. 7
  12. 8
  13. 9
  14. 10
  15. 11
  16. 12
  17. 13
  18. 14
  19. 15
  20. 16
  21. 17
  22. 18
  23. 19
  24. 20
  25. 21
  26. 22
  27. 23
  28. 24
  29. 25
  30. 26
  31. 27
  32. 28
  33. 29
  34. 30
  35. 31
  36. 32
  37. 33
  38. 34
  39. 35
  40. 36
  41. 37
  42. 38
  43. 39
  44. 40
  45. 41
  46. Acknowledgements
  47. A note from the publisher
  48. Love best-selling fiction?
  49. You will also enjoy:

“Those are all pretty common ailments but they’re also classic heavy metal poisoning symptoms,” Zoe said.

“Her doctor found nothing unusual in any of her blood tests,” Val said.

“If he didn’t specifically test for heavy metal poisoning, a regular blood test wouldn’t have revealed it.” All of a sudden Zoe stopped and shook her head with a smirk. “Oh my God.”

“Zoe, what is it?” Val asked.

“Heavy metals could have caused her gout by creating her kidney damage. You know, if someone was poisoning Gabrielle, and this was given to her long enough ago to have caused her gout, they would have been doing it for some time.”

“Zoe, can you test for heavy metal poisoning in the samples we kept from Gabrielle?” Val asked.

“Depends on how long ago she would have ingested it. We have her hair, bone and nail specimens, these are the structures heavy metal gets into and hangs around in. But once those structures grow out, and the poisoning has stopped, the tests will come back negative.”

“But they can also provide us with a timeline of poisoning if we find them,” Val said. The poison would have gotten embedded in the hair shaft at the skull and since hair grows at a certain rate this can be used as a timeline to determine when the person was poisoned. Same principle with bone and nails. “Her hair was long, so that will give us about four years. Bone remodels about every seven years. Her nails would have the shortest time frame.”

“Correct on all of the above.” Zoe stood up. “I’ll start ASAP and see what we have.” All of a sudden Zoe stopped. She looked disappointed.

“What’s wrong?” Val asked.

“This is too easy.” Zoe shook her head.

“For you maybe.” Val laughed.

“No, for a poisoner. It’s way too easy to detect heavy metals with the right tests. I think, if you have a poisoner on your hands, you have a skilled one. I think this is someone who knows what they’re doing. Heavy metal? That’s amateur hour.”

25

Jesus, Val thought. Claudia had poisonous flowers in her room. Bridget was painting pictures of them. Was Bridget trying to say something?

Val’s phone rang. She looked at the screen and her stomach dropped when she saw the name of Hayward Sinclair, the lawyer from Florida. Oh crap, I can’t deal with this right now. So much was going on with Gabrielle Morgan and the thought of going back to Clearwater to testify was a nightmare. It was a distraction she would do anything to avoid. Though the last thing she wanted to do was answer the phone, Val also knew procrastinating wouldn’t solve anything. She needed to tell Haywood, once and for all, she couldn’t do this.