Poisoned Prose (A Books by the Bay Mystery)

having blue lips and face. That seemed like a strange thing to make a note on. After all, Elijah died in the middle of winter and who knows how much time passed before anyone outside the family had the chance to examine the poor kid.”
    Olivia hesitated and then folded her arms over her chest. “Harris, I’m going to tell you something in confidence. You cannot breathe a word about this to anyone. Got it?”
    Harris straightened. “Whenever you look at me like that I want to curl up and hide. But I’ll keep my mouth shut. Scouts honor.”
    “No one knows this, but Violetta was blue skinned.”
    “That’s not really a secret, it is?” Harris was clearly disappointed. “I mean, she was strangled.”
    Olivia shook her head. “Asphyxiated, but that’s not what I’m saying. She had a blood disorder. A rare one, I assume. She was blue
everywhere
.”
    “Whoa.” Harris opened his eyes wide. “Seriously? Cool.” He grabbed his laptop from his briefcase, flipped up the lid, and began to type. “You ready for this mouthful? The condition is called Methemoglobinemia. And I’m only saying that right because there’s a pronunciation guide on this page.”
    “I’m still impressed,” Olivia said.
    Grinning, Harris continued to study the screen. “Basically, once you translate the fancy med speak, it’s a condition in which a person’s blood has a higher amount of a particular hemoglobin than normal. It’s called methemoglobin, and it can’t release oxygen. This gives people a bluish tinge. It can be a hereditary genetic condition or an acquired one.”
    Olivia’s brows shot up. “You can catch it?”
    Harris nodded. “From repeated exposure to certain antibiotics, nitrates, and anesthetics. The second kind is worse because it comes with other symptoms. If you inherit it, you look like a Smurf, but if it’s acquired, you can also suffer from fatigue, headaches, and shortness of breath.”
    “Grumpy’s parents described Josiah as being pretty reclusive. Maybe he had the condition too. And if so, was it passed down to only Violetta or to her siblings as well?”
    “Depends if the mom was a carrier, I guess.” Frowning, Harris kept reading. “Even if Elijah had Methemoglobinemia, I don’t think it killed him. Unless he and Violetta were both exposed to the same nitrates or antibiotics. Maybe they both got sick, but she recovered.”
    Olivia considered this. “The Devereaux kids did sell wild plants to drug companies. Maybe they traded the plants for antibiotics. We’ll have to find out from Violetta’s sister.” She told Harris that Rawlings had probably spent the latter part of the afternoon interviewing Amabel.
    At that moment, her stomach issued a loud gurgle, and Harris gestured at the nearly empty plate in front of him. “Cheese? Cracker?”
    “No, thanks. I’m in the mood for a Florentine Pizza. How about you?”
    “Hey, if you’re ordering, I’ll take a ham and pineapple.” Harris gave his flat belly a pat. “I’m more than willing to drown my sorrows in an extra-large pizza, a few bottles of beer, and this investigation.”
    Olivia didn’t want to talk about Harris’s relationship troubles, so she sifted through the take-out menus in the kitchen until she came across Pizza Bay’s neon-pink menu. “I can’t believe I don’t have this number memorized by now,” she said.
    “Ask them for one of their magnets. Then you can hang some of Caitlyn’s artwork in this kitchen,” Harris suggested and turned back to his computer.
    He’ll make some woman very happy one day
, Olivia thought. She wished that woman could have been Millay because Harris was good for her. Perhaps she’d realize what she’d had in him once he’d moved to Texas, but Olivia doubted it. Millay wasn’t one to dwell on the past. She shut it in a box and walked away without looking back.
    Olivia phoned in the order and poured herself a drink while Harris pivoted his laptop to show her images of blue-skinned people.
    “There’s such a range in hue.” She leaned closer to the screen, fascinated. “That man has just a bluish tinge while that woman is a deep indigo.”
    “And here I thought having braces, acne, and rosacea was rough.” Harris’s face was full of sympathy as he scrolled through the images. “You know, none of these photos are recent. Look at the dates. However, most of the American ones were taken of families living in Appalachia.”
    Intrigued, Olivia carried her tumbler of Chivas