“That’s true. All parts of the yew, except for its seed cups, which are red, fleshy, and look like a berry, contain the highly poisonous alkaloid taxine, which causes death due to cardiac arrest and respiratory failure. Only takes about thirty minutes after ingestion for this to kill someone.”

“Seed cups? You mean this tree has seeds?” Val nearly shouted.

“Yes. And they’re very deadly,” Jack added.

Dr. Delarosa shook his head. “Depends on how you view it. The yew is an odd tree. All parts of this plant contain toxic alkaloids that can be fatal even in small amounts. Even touching this plant may cause a skin reaction in some people. Luckily, we’re wearing gloves.” Dr. Delarosa smiled. “To date, there is no antidote for yew poisoning. But the toxin has its up sides too. The seeds are used to make medicine for conditions such as asthma, anxiety, mania—just to name a few. The bark contains another alkaloid called taxol. It has anti-cancer properties.”

“Anti-cancer!” Val exclaimed.

“Mostly for ovarian and breast cancer. The drug created from the alkaloid was called Paclitaxel because it came from the Pacific yew.” Dr. Delarosa rubbed his chin, as if stretching for a memory. “This would have been back in the late 1970s.”

“Do they still use this drug today?” Val asked.

“Yes, Taxol remains one of the best plant-based cancer treatments out there for ovarian and breast cancer. But it’s all synthetic production now. It has to be. The Pacific yew is slow growing, making the drug very expensive to manufacture. And the ecological cost is high—harvesting the bark kills the tree. The synthetic version is where Tamoxifen came from. You’ve probably heard of it. It’s the oldest and most prescribed medicine for breast cancer.”

Val pulled out a plastic container holding the sample of the seeds discovered in Gabrielle Morgan’s mouth. “Dr. Delarosa, are these yew tree seeds?”

He opened the container carefully and used a set of tweezers to pull one out. He examined it under the lighted magnifying glass. “Yes, they are.”

Val absorbed that. Jesus, there can be little argument that Gabrielle didn’t kill herself and her son. As soon as Gavin learns this, he’ll probably shut the case. But there were things that just didn’t make sense, and Val couldn’t let these inconsistent shards slip by. The answer, though seemingly getting sharper, was only getting murkier.

“You said the yew is a tree of rebirth. Is it because of these healing properties that you’ve mentioned?” Val asked.