“This whole mess with your friend, Professor Appleby, has made my office look bad. The DA wants me to
“And you want
“Not on the autopsy itself. But I’d like your opinion about the flower,
“All right.”
“I hope this isn’t a problem for you,” he said. “I realize you were close to both these men.”
“That has nothing to do with it. I want to get to the bottom of this as much as the DA.”
Harold Ramsey was a tall, stout man with thinning hair that he combed forward to cover a bald spot. He held his hands behind his back and rocked on his heels. “When can you get started?”
“In the morning?”
He glanced at the clock and took a deep breath. “I was hoping for tonight.”
“It’s a little late.”
“Maybe you could examine this flower and give me your opinion for now,” he suggested. “Then we could start on the fieldwork tomorrow.”
Peggy was relieved she didn’t have to help with the autopsy of anything but a flower. She followed him to a microscope where the hyacinth was laid out.
“I don’t know.”
“What?” She looked up at him.
“I know what killed Reverend Appleby. He died of an acute asthma attack. According to your information and what I’ve read, this plant can bring on that kind of attack. But it didn’t kill him immediately. Why didn’t he pull out his inhaler and use it?” Dr. Ramsey pointed to an inhaler in a plastic bag on the counter beside them.
“I don’t know. I’ve wondered the same thing myself.” She pointed to the hyacinth. “May I look at it?”
“Put these on first.” He gave her a pair of gloves.
“Did you find any fingerprints on the stem?”
“Only Reverend Appleby’s,” Mai responded. “There was nothing else.”
Peggy looked at the flower closely. It didn’t appear to be any different than any other hyacinth. Then she held it to her nose, sniffed and coughed. “Oh my God!”
“What’s wrong?” Mai and Dr. Ramsey leaned closer to inspect it.
“It’s been doused with something extra. Probably a concentrated burst of hyacinth scent,” Peggy explained. “It smells a hundred times stronger than a normal hyacinth should smell. Luther probably didn’t have time to pull out his inhaler.”
“Interesting.” Ramsey looked at it again. “But it could have been given to Reverend Appleby by anyone. He could have picked it himself. How are we going to prove what happened from using the flower, which is our only evidence of the crime?”
Peggy considered the question. “There is a way to figure out where it came from. When you pick a flower, it has a distinctive pattern. It wouldn’t fit on any stalk except the one it was taken from. We should be able to find where it came from by matching the cut piece to the bottom of the plant. The edge of the stem should be an exact match with the cut part on the base.”
“Will it show what it was cut by?”
“It should show serration or a smoothly cut edge,” she theorized for him. “We could probably take a knife or scissors to check to see if one or the other made the cut. If it was pulled off, the edges should still match from the same plant.”
“Excellent!” Ramsey turned away. “Let me know when you’ve discovered the base plant and its location.”
“That’s a tall order.” Peggy glanced at Mai. “It could be anywhere.”
“Well not
“Yes, but how will that prove anything? Even if we find the base of the plant in the garden, we still won’t know who picked it.”
“That is where Ms. Sato comes in. When you find the plant, there may be footprints around it or fingerprints on the base of the plant. You do your part of the job, and we’ll do ours. I’ll arrange a police escort to take you around tomorrow. Take Ms. Sato with you.”
“Is this what I can expect if I contract to be a forensic botanist?”
“This and all the coffee you can drink. Maybe even a key to the lab if you play your cards right” He winked at her.
Fortunately, he turned away before she could laugh at his suggestive tone. Knowing from previous encounters with him that she and Mai were dismissed, Peggy left the same way she’d come in. “He’s such a people person.”
Mai laughed. “I think he’s spent too long behind that microscope. He’s kind of forgotten what people are.”
