The Arsenic Investigation

It's time for 3-word Thursday! Visit Quilly to find out rules and words and to read the exciting conclusion to her long-running story! And come play with us next time!

Definitions I used:

pulchritudinous -- beautiful, stunningly attractive

phylarologist -- one who talks and talks and talks nonsense

summotion -- craziness (Urban Dictionary)

Alice watched impassively while Brian signed for his personal effects. He returned the sheet to the blonde duty officer, a pulchritudinous young woman who he normally would have stopped to flirt with. This time he simply filled his pockets with the detritus that had been in them when he was arrested and turned to Alice. “Let’s go home,” he directed tersely.

Alice led the way out of the station. It was only once they were in her car that he turned to her and asked, “what on earth was this about?” Alice, as his attorney, had gotten the scoop from the assistant district attorney who had shown up when Brian was brought in. “They are looking into a series of deaths that occurred at Wibley Hospital. Marina’s toxicology reports showed that she had massive amounts of certain chemicals in her system that cannot be explained by natural processes.”

Brian leaned his head back and sighed. “Well, of course she did. Towards the end Marina was willing to try anything to ease the pain. She spent time online at night getting advice from other cancer patients regarding whatever they were using. She was searching for something that would ease the pain, but not knock her out. But why would they arrest me?”

Alice flicked her eyes over towards him and then back to the road before she answered. “The chemical they found the most of was arsenic. That’s a tightly controlled substance and you were the person closest to her. They figure you administered it to hasten her death.”

“What?” Brian exclaimed. “I would have sold my soul to give her life back to her! This is just a summotion without foundation.” He calmed down. “Okay, so why did they let me go?”

Alice considered carefully before answering. “Well, something is going on that I can’t yet discern. The young ADA is a phlyarologist of the highest order.” Seeing Brian’s expression she added, “someone who talks nonsense.” He nodded. She continued, “either they can’t figure out how you got arsenic for her, or they’re working another track entirely. And I don’t know what this has to do with the deaths at the hospital.”

Alice pulled into the driveway and waited for Brian to lift himself out of the car. “Brian, don’t talk about this to anyone. There may be some ugly stuff just below the surface. I’m going to do some investigating tomorrow. I’ll be over for dinner at 7 and will bring you up to date. In the meantime, just go to work as normal and try to be like the old Brian.”

He gazed at her sadly, “I don’t even know who he is anymore.”

/kw