Lawrence Sanders - Tenth Commandment

'I believe you, Josh,' she said, still wiping her eyes. 'No one could have made up a story like that. How did you get her home?'

I told her how we had discovered Colonel Manila still waiting in the snowdrift, and how they had driven me to work and then gone off together.

'Will you see her again?' she asked, suddenly serious.

I thought about that.

'Cleo, I cannot promise you I will not. Things may develop in the investigation that will necessitate additional conversations with her. But I assure you, my only motive in seeking her company will be in the line of business. I have no personal interest in Perdita whatsoever. Would you like another brandy?'

'Please,' she said, and I went gratefully to replenish our glasses, fearing she might detect guilt in my face. I had told her the truth — but not the whole truth.

I came back with our drinks, pulled my chair closer, took her free hand in mine.

'Am I forgiven?' I asked.

She was looking uncommonly handsome that night. But each time I saw her I discerned new beauty. The long hair I had once thought of as only gleaming chestnut now seemed to me to have the tossing fascination of flame. The smile I had defined as pleasant but distant now appeared to me mysterious and full of promise. The thin nose was now aristocratic, the high, clear, brow bespoke intelligence, and the wide mouth, instead of being merely curvy, was now sensuous and madly desirable.

As for her figure, I could not believe I once thought her skinny. I saw now that she was elegant, supple as a willow wand, and her long arms and legs, slender hands and feet, were all of a piece, pliant and flowing. There was a fluency to her body, and I no longer thought of her as being a head taller than I. We were equals: that's what I thought.

'Of course I forgive you,' she said in that marvellously low and gentle voice. 'But there is nothing to forgive. The fault was mine. I have no claims on you. You can live as you please. I was just being stupid.'

'No, no,' I said hotly. 'You were not stupid. Are not stupid.'

'It was just t h a t. . ' she said hesitantly. 'Well, I was — I was hurt. I don't know why, but I was.'

'I would never do anything to hurt you,' I vowed.

'Never! And I haven't forgotten about the kite either. I really am going to buy a red kite for us. With string.'

She laughed. 'I'm glad you haven't forgotten, Josh,' she said, gently taking her hand from mine. 'Now do you want to talk about what I found out? About the arsenic?'

I nodded, even though at that moment I most wanted to talk about us.

She took the envelope from the floor at my feet and opened the flap. I moved the table lamp closer.

'I'll leave all of this for you to read,' she said. 'Most of it is photocopies, and photostats from medical journals and drug company manuals. Josh, it's awfully technical.

Maybe I better go over the main points, and that will be enough for you, and you won't have to read it all. That man you said was poisoned by arsenic — was he killed? I mean, was he fed a large quantity of arsenic at one time and died? Or small amounts over a period of time?'

'Small amounts,' I said. 'I think. And I don't believe he died. At least not from the arsenic.'

'Well, arsenic comes in a lot of different chemical compounds. Powders, crystals, and liquids. There's even one type that fumes in air. Pope Clement the Seventh and Leopold the First of Austria were supposed to have been assassinated by arsenic mixed in wax candles. The fumes from the candles were poisonous, and whoever breathed them died.'

'That's incredible,' I murmured, and before I could help myself I had flopped to my knees alongside her chair and taken up one of her long, slender hands again. She let me.

'I think what you're looking for, Josh, is arsenic trioxide. It's the common form and the primary material of all the arsenic compounds.'

'Yes,' I said, putting my lips to the tips of her fingers.

'Arsenic trioxide.'

'It is white or transparent glassy lumps or a crystalline powder. It is soluble if mixed slowly and used extremely sparingly. It is odourless and tasteless. A poisonous dose would be only a small pinch. There might be a very slight aftertaste.'

'Aftertaste,' I repeated, kissing her knuckles, the back of her hand, then turning it over to kiss that pearly wrist with the blue veins pulsing faintly.

'Only two- or three-tenths of a gram of arsenic trioxide can kill an adult within forty-eight hours, so you can see how a tiny amount could cause illness.' She obviously

intended to finish her lecture despite the distractions.

'Arsenic affects the red blood cells and kidneys, if I read these medical papers correctly. The symptoms vary greatly, but a victim of fatal arsenic poisoning might have headaches, vertigo, muscle spasm, delirium, and stupor.

Death comes from circulatory collapse. In smaller doses, over a period of time, there would probably be a low-grade fever, loss of appetite, pallor, weakness, inflammation of the nose and throat. You notice that those symptoms are quite similar to the flu or a virus, and that's why arsenic poisoning is sometimes misdiagnosed. In tiny doses over a long period of time, there is usually no delirium or stupor.'

'Stupor,' I said, touching the tip of my tongue to the palm of her hand. Her entire arm quivered, but her voice was steady as she continued.

'After repeated poisonings, loss of hair and nails may result, accompanied by hoarseness and a hacking cough.

Arsenic collects in the hair, nails, and skin. There is some evidence that Napoleon may have been poisoned with arsenic on St Helena. It was found in a lock of his hair years later.'

'Poor Napoleon,' I whispered. I craned upwards to sniff the perfume of her hair, to bury my face in the sweet juncture where neck met shoulder, to breathe her in. She, who would not brook diversion.

'An alert physician may sometimes spot a garlicky odour of breath and faeces.' She showed no evidence of slowing down. 'Also, urine analysis and gastric washings usually reveal the presence of arsenic. But the symptoms are sometimes so similar to stomach flu that a lot of doctors don't suspect arsenic poisoning until it's too late.'

'Too late,' I groaned, pushing her hair aside gently to kiss her divine ear tenderly. She trembled, a bit, but continued to read from her notes.

'Arsenic is no longer generally used in medicine, having 258

been replaced by more efficient compounds. It was formerly used in the treatment of infections, joint disease, skin lesions, including syphilis, chronic bronchitis, anaemia, psoriasis, and so forth. It's still used by veterinarians, but much less frequently than it once was.

Most uses of arsenic today are in manufacturing. It is used for hardening copper, lead, and alloys, to make paint and glass, in tanning hides, in printing and dyeing fabrics. It's also used as a pigment in painting, in weed control, for killing rodents and insects, and in fireworks.'

'Fireworks,' I breathed, touching the fine silkiness of her hair. It was as soft and evanescent as cobwebs.

'Now, as to the availability. . It's prohibited in food and drugs, and is being phased out as a weed killer. You might find it in rat poison and wood preservatives, but they'd be poisonous for their ingredients, too. Arsenic is available commercially in large wholesale quantities. It is used in manufacturing parts of car batteries, for instance.

But for uses like that, it's bought by the ton, and the government requires disclosure of the end-use. So what is a poor poisoner to do? It would be difficult to purchase an arsenic-containing product in a garden nursery or hardware store or pharmacy. It would probably be impossible.'

'Impossible,' I moaned. I was kneeling, an arm about her shoulders. The fingers of that hand touched her neck, ear, the loose strands of hair cascading down her back. My other hand stroked the arm closest to me, touched her timorously. I felt her shiver, but too soon she recovered her self-control.