Page 86 of To Die For

“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 someof 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 initiallylooklike 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.”

“ButIexist,” 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, isinon it, Dr. Coburn, whateveritis. 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.”

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