“Neither have I.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Carlita spotted a cargo ship. A cluster of crewmembers stood on the deck, facing in their direction.
She waved, and the crewmen waved back. “I’m not sure I could work on a ship.”
“Spending multiple hours on the pirate ship is enough for me, although a cruise vacation sounds enticing.”
“We can add it to our retirement to-do list.”
The lunch date ended all too soon. Pete returned to the restaurant while Carlita went home, insisting she would take care of the picnic supplies.
The hours flew by. Before she knew it, the day had almost ended, and she still hadn’t heard from Priority Labs.
She checked her phone and emails to make sure she hadn’t missed them. “I had better call them.” Carlita tracked down the number and made the call. After several transfers via the automated system, she finally reached an actual person.
“Priority Labs. Ilene speaking.”
“Hello, Ilene. My name is Carlita Taylor. My daughter and I dropped off food samples yesterday to be tested. We paid for expedited service and were promised the results by the end of today.”
Rustling ensued on the other end of the line. “Can you hold for a moment while I check?”
“Sure.”
Background music played. Carlita waited…and waited. Two…three…five minutes ticked by. She was getting ready to hang up when Ilene returned.
“I’m sorry to leave you on hold for so long. The lab finished posting the results. I had to wait for them to print a copy. I can read you the results if you would like.”
Chapter 20
Carlita tightened her grip on the phone. “Yes, please give me the lab results.”
“The fettuccine sample you brought in contains chlorophacinone, and diphacinone.”
“Which is?”
“Ingredients for rat poison.”
She reached out to steady herself. “Rat poison?”
“To be more specific, they were first-generation ingredients.” Ilene explained that based on the quantities, it would require a heightened level of consumption to be lethal to a human.
“So, not enough to kill someone, but enough to make them sick.”
“Correct.”
“Out of curiosity, what would it take for the poison to be deadly?”
“A second-generation superwarfarin, typically containing Brodifacoum, Bromadiolone, Difethialone or Difenacoum,” Ilene said. “We call them the b’s and the d’s – bombs of death. Second-generation rodenticides are more potent and used to exterminate rodents who have built a resistance to the weaker, first-generation poison.”
“I see. What you’re saying is if someone had put the bombs of death in the food, it could have killed them?”
“In a large enough quantity, yes.”
“What about the other food samples I dropped off?”
“Nothing was found in any of those.”
“Is there a way for me to get a copy of the report?”
