A Corpse for Yew (13 page)

Her cell phone started ringing before she could reach her truck. It was Steve, but she didn’t stop running until she was out of the rain. It was wonderful to have the rain even if she still had to spend the rest of the day in her damp clothes. By the time she answered the phone, he’d left a message saying a surgery hadn’t gone well and he might be late that night. She tried to call him back and got his voice mail. She closed her phone, refusing to play phone tag.

Peggy sat in the driver’s seat for a few minutes, trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. She hoped the ring would give them some answers, but it might create more questions. She wanted to think the information she got from the yew bushes would be definitive, but she’d worked with botanicals long enough to know they weren’t always what they seemed.

She finally started the truck and pulled out into traffic. An impatient horn sounded at her. She glanced in her rearview mirror and wondered what made Charlotte drivers so irritable. The man in the green Volvo glared back at her and made a rude hand gesture she chose to ignore.

The rain was still chasing pedestrians inside and snarling traffic when she reached the ME’s lab. She was glad she hadn’t decided to ride her bike today. She didn’t mind a little warm summer rain, but the cold autumn variety chilled to the bone.

Peggy looked for Mai after she signed in and found her lab coat. The conference room door was closed, so she took a peek in there. Mai and Harold Ramsey glanced up at her. “Well! Dr. Lee!” Harold said. “Why don’t you come in and join us? Perhaps you can help my assistant explain why Chief Mullis found it necessary to call me back early from St. Louis.”

Not relishing the idea of joining the two, especially when she saw Mai’s glum face, Peggy wanted to back out the door and pretend she hadn’t found them. She couldn’t do that, of course, so she closed the door behind her and took a seat at the long table.

There were crumbs on the table—pizza crumbs, unless she was mistaken. That would be another thorn in Harold’s side if he saw them. It was expressly forbidden to eat in that room. She hurriedly brushed them on the floor.

“Now that we’re all nice and cozy . . .” Harold leaned back in his chair. He was a stout, heavyset man who barely fit between the arms of the chair. He had thinning dark hair that he swept forward to cover a bald spot, and wore heavy black-rimmed glasses. “Who’d like to explain what’s been going on?”

“I already explained about Lois Mullis,” Mai said.

“Shh!” Harold looked at Peggy. “I want to hear what Dr. Lee has to say. No coaching!”

“Harold, I know you’re unhappy about being brought home,” Peggy began. “But that’s no reason to take it out on us. Mai has done the best she could with a bad situation.”

“I like team players, but I don’t think she’s done much of anything with the situation. Otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here. Where are you on the Mullis case?”

Peggy explained about the possibility of yew poisoning and their field trip to the lake to find the bushes the berries might have come from. “I might be able to match the seeds to one of the bushes. Then we’d know where she got the berries.”

“And are you convinced that’s what killed the chief’s aunt? Because he seems to think you, and I mean both of
you
, have been dawdling. Maybe taking a few too many field trips while his aunt lies in state in our office.”

“I can’t say for sure,” Peggy said. “According to what Mai told me about the cause of death, it could be natural or it could’ve been brought on by poison berries.”

“I assume you told Dr. Lee the same thing you told me about cause of death?” Harold glared at Mai as he got to his feet and began pacing the room with his hands locked behind his back. “Signs of heart attack?”

Mai nodded. “I told her that, but we both felt that finding the berry stains on her lips and the seeds in her mouth at least warranted further investigation. Peggy told me the berries could cause the heart to stop.”

Harold’s high brow furrowed as he considered what they’d told him. “And your field trip was this morning, is that right?”

Both women nodded. Peggy pushed the pizza crumbs under the table with her foot.

“And have we learned if yew berries were actually the cause of death?”

“I can’t tell for sure, sir.” Mai swallowed hard. “I sent some blood work to Raleigh, but it might be a while before we know if a toxin was involved. Mrs. Mullis’s heart was in bad shape without any poison.”

“So it could go either way.”

“Yes, sir. Her lungs were in good shape. There was no fluid in them. She was dead before she hit the mud. Without the blood work, I don’t know how we’ll tell the difference.”

“And you found these yew plants near the crime scene, I presume?” Harold questioned his forensic botanist.

“There were plenty of them,” Peggy acknowledged. “You see, even though her lips were red from the berries, it’s the green seed in the middle of the berry that contains the poison. One seed can kill an adult human. There would be dizziness, possibly vomiting, and heart failure.”

“And do we know if the seeds that were found came from those plants at the crime scene?”

“Not yet,” Peggy admitted. “I was coming in to look at them, although we don’t have the technology here that I need to test them.”

“And were you out procuring said equipment and that’s what kept you from explaining this to Chief Mullis?”

Mai and Peggy exchanged glances again. “I blame myself for the breakdown in communications, Dr. Ramsey,” Mai said. “Normally we don’t communicate everything we find to Chief Mullis. We were still working on the case, and I would’ve given him my report when we were finished.”

Dr. Ramsey nodded his head rapidly as he paced, making him look like a tall bird. “That makes perfect sense to me, Sato. I would’ve done the same thing.”

Mai blinked her eyes more rapidly than Harold nodded his head. “Sir?”

“What? I believe in giving credit where it’s due. There was no way for you to know that Chief Mullis wanted to be updated hourly on your progress, nor should you have been concerned with making him feel better or getting his aunt out to the funeral home faster. That’s not your job. I’ll speak to him. You two carry on.”

Peggy got up first, too stunned by his words to say anything. The trip to St. Louis must have done him some good. Mai apparently felt the same way, because she didn’t speak either. The two women walked quietly to the door and started to leave the room.

“But stop fooling around with this poison berry thing and get me some real evidence one way or the other.” Harold had the last word.

Mai and Peggy went to Peggy’s workstation. “I know he’s hiding something,” Mai whispered, glancing over her shoulder as Dr. Ramsey prowled the other side of the lab. “I can’t believe he supported what I did.”

“You were right.” Peggy shrugged. “Why wouldn’t he?”

The look on Mai’s face answered her question. “We both know why he normally doesn’t.”

“So did you find any other seeds in Mrs. Mullis?” The question pained Peggy to ask, but she needed to know.

“No. Those seeds I found in her mouth were it. Could they have killed her without her swallowing them?”

“I don’t know. I suppose if she’d chewed them, the poison could’ve been released into her system.”

“The lab in Raleigh can probably identify the poison, but it could take months. They’re always backed up.”

Peggy nodded. “I’ll do the best I can matching the seeds to the plants.” She held up the plastic bags, which held the seeds. “You can see there’s some damage to them. She might’ve chewed on them.”

“Would the effect still be the same?”

“Probably. I’ll consult with a few colleagues and have the answer for you. In the meantime, I’ll take these seeds to a friend of mine who has the equipment to examine them.”

“You can’t do that!” Mai’s face was suddenly animated. “That would break the chain of custody, and it might make them inadmissible in court.”

“I can look at them under the microscope, but I can’t make DNA judgments without the proper machinery.”

“Let me check on that. There must be someone who has that machinery, so the seeds would still be safe forensically.” Mai left to consult with Dr. Ramsey.

Peggy waited, e-mailing a few friends who might’ve done more extensive work with yew berries than she had. She especially wanted to speak with Sir Nigel, a British botanist she’d met years ago. Studies had been done in England on using yew berries for various ailments. The problem always seemed to be finding a dosage that wasn’t lethal yet did some good.

“I think I have the answer,” Mai told Peggy. “Dr. Ramsey said we have a contact at UNCC. He has some equipment you could use. I’ll go with you, and we’ll do this the right way so the seeds remain in our custody through the process.”

Dr. Ramsey put the seeds into a brown envelope, closed it, and sealed it with tape. He put his initials and the date on that seal, then had Peggy and Mai do the same. “Now mind you, use the equipment but don’t let anyone else look at the seeds. This lab at the college has been used before. Have Dr. Dillard add his initials when you get there.”

“Merton Dillard?” Peggy asked.

“Yes. Do you know him?”

“It’s a small botanical world, Harold,” Peggy told him. “We’ve collaborated many times.”

“Good. That should make this more efficient. I want an answer by the end of the day.”

“I can tell you if these seeds came from these branches,” Peggy said. “But it may take a lot longer to know if they killed Mrs. Mullis.”

“One step at a time, Dr. Lee.” Harold looked at the two women over the top of his glasses. “Why are you still here?”

 

 

THE RAIN WAS STILL STEADY on the streets and houses as Mai drove the ME’s van down Tryon Street to the UNCC campus on the northern end of town. There were reports of accidents everywhere. No doubt people had forgotten how to drive in the rain, Peggy decided.

They got out on the school campus near the arboretum and greenhouse, Peggy holding the envelope under her purse to keep it dry. Opening the door into the botanical garden was like stepping into another world.

Mai sniffed and put her hand to her nose. “What is that awful stench?”

Peggy sniffed and laughed. “I’d completely forgotten with so much going on. That stench is corpse flower. It must be blooming at last!”

“SO NAMED FOR THE TERRIBLE stench of rotting flesh it gives off.” A tall, white-haired man came up and gave Peggy a hug. “A treasure, to be sure!”

Mai moved her hand away from her face long enough to say, “You’re kidding me! A flower that smells like rotting flesh? Why would anyone have such a thing?”

“Because they’re very rare outside of central Sumatra in Indonesia, where they grow. They’ve bloomed only a few dozen times in this country since 1937.” Peggy smiled at her friend. “Mai, this is Larry Mellichamp, the director of the UNCC botanical garden. Larry, this is Mai Sato, the assistant ME for Mecklenburg County.”

“In other words, if this lady thinks Bella smells like rotting flesh, she knows what she’s talking about.” Larry laughed, and Peggy laughed with him.

Mai looked at them as though they’d lost their minds. “Do we have to be in here with it to use the flower DNA machine?”

“No, of course not,” Larry said. “But I heard you were on your way over here, Peggy, and I knew you wouldn’t want to leave without seeing our girl.”

“I wouldn’t miss it!” Peggy started to follow him into the enclosed garden.

“I’ll wait in the car.” Mai backed out.

“Nonsense! You’ll want to be able to say you saw this,” Larry encouraged her. “It may be the only time you have a chance to see the titan arum in all its splendor.”

Mai reluctantly followed the two botanists through the garden, the smell getting steadily worse as they got nearer the corpse flower. As they turned a corner, the plant came into view with visitors and photographers appreciating it. “Oh, my God! I can’t believe that’s a plant!”

“This is Bella. She’s six years old. She’s young and a little small.” They circled the plant, which was easily six feet tall. “Her spadix reached a temperature of a hundred degrees this morning. We expect her to be bigger next time, which may not be for another five or six years.”

“This plant probably weighs more than 170 pounds.” Peggy was awestruck by the sight. “Those are thousands of flowers hidden inside at the base of the spadix. That’s the fleshy central column.”