Bitter Business

was small, crammed with books and periodicals. Even though it was only forty degrees out, an ancient air conditioner clanked in the window. Behind her on the wall hung diplomas and a framed photograph of two pretty blond girls hugging a Labrador retriever. Beside them was a large poster of gunshot wounds made by bullets of various calibers, illustrated with color photographs.
    “I’m the pathologist who performed the autopsies on Cecilia Dobson and Dagny Cavanaugh,” she said, after
    Blades introduced us. “As you know, when the toxicology reports came back both women had lethal levels of cyanide in their blood.”
    “Were the levels similar in both cases?” I asked.
    “They were slightly higher in the Dobson woman, but I’d say both cases were in the same range—very high.... Cyanide poisoning is actually quite difficult to detect on autopsy,” Dr. Gordon continued. “The signs are easy to miss. The blood that normally pools in the chest cavity after death is a very bright, cherry red in the case of death from cyanide poisoning. But you also see that same red color after a body has been refrigerated for more than a few hours. Unfortunately, last week we were very busy and both bodies were stored for some time before autopsy. You may also have heard about the scent of bitter almonds being present in the case of cyanide poisoning. The smell is much less pronounced in real life than it is in fiction, and indeed, not everyone can smell it. There’s usually only one person in any medical examiner’s office who’s good at picking up that smell. In our office that’s Dr. Margolick, but last week we had two cases going in the decomp room, and to be perfectly honest, it would be a miracle if anyone could smell anything else.” She clasped her hands on the desk in front of her like a schoolteacher. “So, Detective Blades tells me that you were present at the time of both deaths. That’s quite a coincidence.”
    “Not really. I’m the attorney for Superior Plating and Specialty Chemicals, the company where both women worked. I had a meeting with Dagny Cavanaugh the day that Cecilia Dobson died. The two of us were meeting in a conference room in another part of the plant. We went to pick up some figures from Dagny’s office. When we got there we found Cecilia on the floor.”
    “And she wasn’t breathing when you found her?”
    “No. I also checked for a pulse. There was none. Now, of course, I realize that she was probably already dead when I started CPR.”
    “Yes,” Dr. Gordon agreed matter-of-factly, “with the level of cyanide we found, I’d be surprised if death didn’t proceed very quickly. If she’d taken a lower dose, you’d see a much more gradual progression of dizziness, gasping for breath, headache, nausea, and vomiting. Then, when blood pressure dropped, there’d be a period when the victim would experience unconsciousness and convulsions. But at the level of concentration that we detected in both victims, I’d be surprised if either of the two women was conscious for more than a minute or two after being poisoned.”
    “Dagny Cavanaugh was alive when I got there,” I said, suddenly struck by the realization that if I’d gotten out of the car and gone looking for her a few minutes earlier, I might have found her... found her doing what? Taking poison?
    “There’s nothing you could have done,” Dr. Gordon assured me, as if reading my mind. “With the amount of cyanide that we found in her bloodstream, even if you’d immediately administered amyl nitrate—which is the first part of the antidote—I doubt you could have saved her.”
    “But that means she must have taken the poison right before I got there.”
    “Yes. That’s why I wanted to speak to you. I was wondering whether you noticed anything in the room. It was an office of some kind, I believe?”
    “It was her office—Dagny Cavanaugh’s.”
    “Did you notice anything unusual? Especially anything that might have struck you as being the same both times. A smell of some kind perhaps?”
    “No,” I said, trying hard to remember. “I honestly don’t recall anything out of the ordinary.” Except for the bodies on the floor, I thought to myself.
    “Was there anything to eat or drink visible in the room either time?”
    I thought before I answered. “No. But I can’t say that I would have noticed the first time. With Cecilia Dobson, it was all a blur. I was so focused on trying to resuscitate her. I also went