The next day, Zoe stood in her lab, practically jumping up and down. Though she was still waiting for the results on Gabrielle’s teeth, the toxicology reports were back on Bethany Arias. “Val, I told you all along you’re looking for a master poisoner. This was genius. But we have the same problem as with everything in this case: I can’t prove anything.”

All words Val didn’t want to hear. Master poisoner. Genius. Can’t prove anything. “Give me the details,” she said, frustrated.

“You saw the angel’s trumpets in Claudia’s room. If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have even thought of looking down this road. As I said, angel’s trumpets are in the nightshade family. There are the three main alkaloids: atropine, hyoscyamine, and scopolamine. And they appear in drug form, in common medications, treating everything from Parkinson’s to diarrhea.”

Val nodded. Zoe had mentioned that most poisonous plants have a good side and a bad side.

“Bethany was an asthmatic and taking medication for this. She was also on a tricyclic antidepressant. Both of these drugs are made from nightshade alkaloids. Her tox results were positive for alcohol too. These meds, taken together with alcohol, will produce overdose symptoms. The amount she had in her system was far greater than I would have attributed to her meds mixed with alcohol though.”

Val cocked her head.

Zoe sounded excited: she was on a roll. “I would have stopped here in my investigation and labeled this an accident anyway. An overdose causing anticholinergic toxidrome… remember our mnemonic… blind as a bat, mad as a hatter, red as a beet… but, Val, mad as a hatter. This is the important one. This drug overdose produces a lot of mental impairments. It produces hallucinations. Bad hallucinations.”

Val’s eyes went wide. “Bethany flew off a fifth-floor balcony with no apparent help from anyone else.”

“She probably didn’t need any,” Zoe said. “But here’s more to the elegance of this poisoner. Here’s the skill. There are various types of nightshades; some are also edible. For example, tomatoes, potatoes, bell peppers, eggplants are all edible nightshades. But some edible nightshades can become poisonous. When potatoes are exposed to light, they turn green and increase saponin production, or scopolamine. This is a natural defense mechanism to prevent the uncovered potato from being eaten. Scopolamine is very toxic even in small quantities. I checked the results of Bethany’s stomach contacts and she did ingest potato shortly before she died.”

Val nodded, she understood what she was being told.