Chapter 39

CHAPTER 39

D EVINE GAPED. “GARLIC? AM I missing something here?”

“Despite being a deadly poison, cyanide is actually naturally occurring. Found in the soil, water, air. Those types are not typically lethal, at least not in unconcentrated doses. It’s also heavily used in various industries, like photography, chemical research, synthetic plastics manufacturing, and jewelry polishing.”

“Okay, so it’s all around us, but how does it actually kill?”

“By preventing cells from using oxygen to make energy molecules. Deprived of that, the heart and nerve cells rapidly shut down. Now, you can inhale it, be injected with it, or absorb it through your skin. Inhalation is the most lethal because it’s the fastest acting. That’s also why people die inhaling smoke in fires. Plastic and other industrial products are full of cyanide. Now, ingestion of a concentrated dose is also bad but it may give time for treatment. The Jonestown mass suicide used cyanide in the Kool-Aid. Other things being equal, poisoning via adsorption is probably the most survivable because it’s the slowest acting.”

“What are the symptoms?”

“Immediate ones are headache, dizziness, fatigue, weakness, shortness of breath. Longer exposure results in low blood pressure, convulsions, slow pulse, lung damage, respiratory failure, unconsciousness, coma, and then death, which is almost always by respiratory-cardio failure.”

“What made you suspect it was cyanide?”

“There was no detectable smell of bitter almonds, as you alluded to. But the bitter almond smell is not always present, and here it might have been overwhelmed by the garlic odor I encountered.”

“And where does the garlic come in?”

“I’m getting there. Bear with me. I noted that both the Odoms’ blood and skin were pink-red, which made me think of cyanide.”

“Why?”

“It shows that the blood was full of oxygen. Too full. That’s because the cyanide was blocking it from being absorbed into the cells. Because of that, and other factors, I ordered up an in-depth testing and analysis of blood and urine samples using UPLC/MS.”

“You’re going to have to explain that one.”

“Ultra-performance liquid chromatography in tandem with mass spectrometry. It’s a complicated process, but is necessary to confirm the presence of cyanide.”

“Okay.”

“Cyanide rapidly disappears from the blood and urine, so the collection of biological specimens has to be done fairly quickly. And the postmortem formation of cyanide in the body can also occur and further complicate matters. All in all, it’s tricky.”

“And the garlic ? Where does that come in?”

“It was a hunch on my part. But I couldn’t see how the Odoms could have inhaled cyanide at such a level and concentration to kill them, while their daughter was completely unaffected. And there was no corrosion of their esophagus or stomach lining, which you typically see in ingestion cases. But when I detected the strong smell of garlic, I thought about something called DMSO.”

“Never heard of it,” said Devine.

“It stands for dimethyl sulfoxide. It has a unique ability to rapidly pass through even durable membranes, like rubber gloves and human skin. Thus, it’s a perfect vehicle to administer medications without the risk of injections, which can lead to infections, particularly in compromised patients. It’s used with things like localized painkillers, anti-inflammatories, and antioxidants. It was once even thought to be a miracle cure for cancer, although DMSO lost some of its luster after a woman died from an allergic reaction. In 2016, the FDA approved it for medical use, for burns, cuts, bruises, clot-busting in victims of strokes, and combined with other medications, it can even reduce intercranial pressure. I didn’t know all this off the top of my head. I researched it after I detected the garlic smell and thought of DMSO.”

“So you smelled the garlic and…?”

“If a dose of cyanide was combined with DMSO and was administered via the skin? It could kill more rapidly than you would typically find in an absorption case. Still not nearly as fast as inhalation or ingestion, but more efficiently than usual. It also might initially look like a drug overdose. However, neither fentanyl nor any drug that I know of gives off a garlic odor. But DMSO does.”

“It couldn’t have come from what they ate? You said they had lunch, which I confirmed.”

“What they ate for lunch was still largely undigested. A tuna salad sandwich and a side of berries for Mr. Odom, and a waffle and scrambled eggs for Mrs. Odom,” she replied. “Not usually meals that contain an abundance of garlic. And I removed and bagged the stomach contents. The garlic smell was not detectable in them outside of the body.”

“And the sorts of tests you ordered would conclusively show it was or wasn’t cyanide poisoning?” said Devine.

“That was my hope, yes. I very carefully collected samples of blood and urine. And on the requisite forms I set out in great detail the tests I wanted administered.”

“Did you tell anyone in Ricketts what you suspected about cyanide being present?”

“No.”

“Cyanide linked with this DMSO? Pretty sophisticated?”

“Agent Devine, I would think that whoever did this is well used to killing people efficiently.”

“And the reports you actually wrote? Are they on your computer hard drive?”

“No, we use a cloud.”

“Can you access it remotely?”

She pulled out a laptop and did so. They looked at the pages on the screen.

“My God,” she said. “It’s a duplicate of what you just showed me.”

“Did you do drafts of them somewhere, which would show your true work product?”

“No. But I dictate everything as I’m performing the posts. I use that to create my report.”

“Where are the recordings kept? Do you have them with you?”

“No, they’re at the Ricketts government building.”

Devine sighed. “Okay, dollars to donuts those recordings no longer exist.”

“But I exist,” she said defiantly.

“And do you have hard copies of anything with you?”

“No. Too much to lug around and the cloud is always there. But now I guess we know the cloud can be seeded with utter drivel,” she added angrily.

“The samples for the screenings? Did you send those in personally?”

“No, I left them for—” She looked up in alarm.

“Doris Chandler to send for you?” he finished.

“Yes, she handles all that.” Coburn added in a hushed voice, “You think she’s in on it?”

“I think pretty much everyone in Ricketts, except you, is in on it, Dr. Coburn, whatever it is. So the screens will come back with a finding of death by opioid overdose, more specifically fentanyl. And cyanide, DMSO, and garlic will appear nowhere in the tox report.”

She looked up at him, the fear etched starkly in her features. “Someone else could post the bodies. That would—”

“They’ve been cremated.”

“Cremated!”

She seemed to shrink down to nothing. “I’m in real danger, aren’t I?”

“Who knows you’re here in Seattle, at this house?”

Coburn looked ready to faint. “I…”

“Doris Chandler?”

She nodded. “So what do I do?”

“We need to get you somewhere safe. Then the FBI can take your statement and maybe we can make a dent in this case.”

“Do you think we really can?”

Devine was about to reply when he heard a noise coming from the back of the house.