“Out of all the heavy metals, this one is a good choice. It produces flu-like symptoms; fever, chills… so a healthcare professional will assume a routine health problem if a patient presents with it. God, it’s even odorless and tasteless and dissolves readily in water. So, all is good for a poisoner in that regard but we can detect it so easily because heavy metals hang around in the body for years,” Zoe said.

Val shivered, thinking of what kind of psychopath they were dealing with. “The twins would have been poisoned fifteen years ago. That’s at least when it started. That leaves someone in the Morgans’ household as the poisoner. Bethany or Melinda would have been too young to be poisoning people.”

“Maybe not.”

“A poisoner at sixteen? Could a sixteen-year-old know how to do something like this?” Val said, shocked.

“It is possible, Val.” Zoe took a seat. “I remember a case that occurred in England. The child’s name was Graham Frederick Young, and he became known as the Teacup Poisoner after he was suspected of poisoning the tea of one of his family members. At the age of fourteen he murdered his stepmother. Rather than going to prison he was sent to a mental hospital where he was released nine years later after they judged him fully cured. Subsequently, he went on to be a serial killer who used poisons. Get this, while he was in the mental hospital, he had access to medical texts which allowed him to sharpen his skills.”

Jesus, talk about breeding a killer. Val shuddered at the thought. “What about Gabrielle? What did her tests show?”

“I’m convinced she was poisoned with cadmium too. This would explain where the gout came from. Unfortunately, I can’t prove it.”

Val’s face fell in disappointment but didn’t need to ask because the reason was clear. “The poisoning with cadmium was fifteen years ago. Gabrielle’s hair and nails would have long since grown out.”

“You’re correct. Hell, even our bone re-mineralization turns every seven years. All I can tell you is that at least in the last seven years, she wasn’t poisoned with cadmium, or any heavy metal for that matter.”

Hair, bone, nails… suddenly Val realized they were forgetting one more place to look. “There might be one way to tell if Gabrielle was poisoned back then.”

“What’s that?”

“Her teeth. Bone remodels every seven years but the composition of teeth is fixed at the time of tooth development. This does not change.”

“Well, Val, would you like to extract some teeth for me, then?”

“It would be my pleasure.”

31

Val’s one week time limit to investigate any leads in this case ended yesterday. Thankfully, with discovery of the cadmium for the twins, Dr. Maddox allowed her a few more days. “The Morgans are very angry over the exhumations. I won’t be able to hold them off for long,” he warned.