Rosalyn said nothing, choosing instead to carry the dark glass bottle directly to the toxicology division.
The next morning, her office telephone rang unexpectedly. “Rosalyn, you need to come down to the laboratory immediately,” the chief chemist said in a serious tone.
Twenty minutes later, the chemist rotated his computer monitor toward her. “The liquid inside this bottle is mostly an ordinary liquid vitamin, but testing detected a substantial amount of a dangerous heavy-metal compound.”
Rosalyn felt her hands become completely cold. “What kind of compound did you find?”
The chemist looked at her carefully over his glasses. “The analysis detected significant concentrations of thallium salts.”
Rosalyn immediately pictured Chloe sitting on the hospital bed, the d@maged black flowerpot beside the window, and Brenda insisting that the little girl open her mouth.
She understood immediately that Chloe’s unexplained illness might not have been natural at all.
Someone appeared to have been deliberately exposing her to something harmful for weeks, while continuing to enter the hospital room every afternoon wearing a reassuring smile.
