The Poisonous Ten Read Online Free Page A

you know?”
    “Well, I’m not wearing my doctor-prescribed glasses but I’m pretty sure the woman in that chair isn’t going to be moving again. If she is, she’s gonna have one hell of a crick in her neck. Maybe you should have called a chiropractor instead of us.”
    “We did. But he doesn’t do house calls,” Jackie said. “Plus, you’re cheaper.”
    “I—” Parks paused a moment. He hadn’t been expecting her to match him beat-for-beat. She had been professional so far, almost cold. Maybe this was an olive branch for having his leadership challenged. “I bet. So how did the vic die?”
    “Poisoned.”
    “Some bio-chemical—”
    “Cyanide. Good, old-fashioned cyanide.” Jackie threw on a smile but quickly replaced it with a look of sadness. She was giddy about what she was doing. Not about the fact that there was a dead body to investigate, but the hows and whys of it. She liked her job and it showed. Parks made a mental note that though his puzzle might have been easier, this was becoming more fascinating. 
    “Cyanide, huh? You have some kind of expensive bre athalyzer that you can hook up to the victim and out pops your poison of choice?”
    Jackie smiled and Parks could see he was chipping away at her cold exterior.
    “The team who responded to the officers’ distress call realized there might be poison in the room and quickly dragged the two men out and called the CDC, who dispatched a vehicle and gave me a ring. An Officer Hernandez lost consciousness before I arrived, but one of the responding officers said he mentioned something about almonds.”
    “Almonds?” Parks sniffed the room and got nothing then looked back at the windows and realized that if he had been able to smell the scent that he’d most likely be seconds away from hitting the floor. 
    “Don’t look so displeased. The almond scent isn’t a tell-tale sign of cyanide. There’s a genetic trait that allows very few to be able to smell a faint, bitter, almond scent. We’re lucky Officer Hernandez was one of those few, or else we might not have been able to determine the poison in time to save them.”
    “So they’ll be okay?”
    “They’ve each been given an injection of sodium thiosulfate to counteract the cyanide’s effects. We’ll keep a close watch on them for the next couple of hours, but I’m hopeful.”
    “ And you think this is our actual murder scene.”
    “I do.”
    “Why?”
    “The cyanide gas,” Jackie explained. “It was concentrated mostly in this room. I believe the victim was posed in this chair post-mortem. There appear to be light ligature marks on the wrists and ankles—”
    “So she was tied to the chair?”
    “It appears so. I’d say she was tied to the chair when the gas was released. She died and the killer reentered and cut her loose then drew this circle around her on the ground and left.”
    “Why come back to draw a circle? Why not just do it before and be done? Why risk the poison affecting him as well?”
    “I don’t know. I don’t get into the minds of killers. You think I’m wrong?”
    “No. Not necessarily. I’m just talking the scene out. That’s what I do. The ligature marks. What held her to the chair? Where are the bindings? And why is she still holding onto the flowers?” Parks surveyed the room again, purposefully avoiding eye contact with Isley. She was attentive. The evidence was saying she was right. But why? He looked back to the body then turned to Fairmont.
    “Start taking mid-range shots and close-ups of the vic. We need to process this room.”
    Fairmont took a step into the room and stopped.
    “It’s safe,” Parks said with a roll of his eyes.
    “You sure?” Fairmont asked, eyeing the room. “You know the state doesn’t exactly provide the most beneficial medical coverage. I’m not sure what their policy on toxi—”
    “Just do your job, okay?” Parks looked to Jackie for help of some kind.
    Fairmont turned to Jackie, who pursed her evenly