"Yeah, we were pretty fast to trust him," said Alex with a shrug. "Even though he also served our poisoned coffee, come to think of it."
"But not Camellia's drink, nor the tea for Applewhite," said Julian. "Anyway, their lawyer might try to pin it on him, but he had a good alibi."
"Did you ever figure out how she knew how to deal with the snakes?" asked Alex, peering at Thomas' notes.
Julian poked him through the bond. "We did, actually. She went to university and did a biology minor, helped out with some reptile study."
"So she may have been the only person there who could have done that part," said Alex thoughtfully. "Not that I'm investigating."
"You are a little," said Lapointe. "You did turn over all your interview notes."
"They sucked," added Thomas.
"We know," said Julian with a wry chuckle. "We're just not suited to it."
"So, for Camellia, he had the berries in his drink?" asked Thomas, moving them along, probably to get lunch to happen sooner.
"Yeah, they were pretending to be a garnish," said Alex. "He was dead before anyone noticed, other than the murderess, so there was no hope of saving him. Not that a snowed-in manor house is likely to have a lot of antitoxins around, anyway. Geoff certainly doesn't keep that stuff in his first aid kit."
"He might start now," said Lapointe. "He seemed pretty annoyed at losing two guests."
"The important one survived," said Julian, twining his fingers with Alex's. "He had a really small dose. It takes more of the belladonna to be fatal, especially at the concentration of Gallowglass's recreational supply."
"You looked that up," said Alex, pulling his hand up to kiss the back.
"Of course I did," retorted Julian. "Just like you looked up the various snakes and things. It's valuable knowledge in case I ever need a prophetic dream."
"I don't recommend the method," said Alex, "but maybe that other potion Gallowglass had would make the hangover less awful."
"Speaking of which," said Thomas, "do you know what that potion is? Gallowglass handed over the whole case, which matched a bottle we found emptied and cleaned in Halliwell's rooms."
"The potion was basically there to mitigate the side effects," said Alex, "and I think deepen the experience a little with a mild sedative as well?"
"The one I saw mentioned was a combination anti-emetic, sedative, and mild analgesic," said Julian. "No throwing up, no headache, and a deeper sleep, basically."
"We'll still have to have it evaluated, but that's a good path to look down," said Lapointe, making a note for herself.
"Okay, you've thrown me off again. Winterson! What all did you actually do to save her?" asked Thomas. "Even Geoff is a little unclear."
"Oh, yeah. Um, the baneberry." Julian thought about it a moment. "That slows and eventually stops the heart. It can be used medicinally in potions, but isn't recommended to just, you know, ingest."
"Clearly not," said Lapointe dryly.
Alex chuckled. "So basically Geoff does have some healing magic, and we pushed our power through him to keep her heart going past the peak of the poison, which is a quick-acting, quick-fading magical toxin. Once we got her past the danger point, her heart was slow but steady enough on its own, and eventually sped up enough for her to wake."
"So you, what, magically kept her heart beating?" said Lapointe in disbelief.
"Pretty much," said Alex. "The venom, that works very differently, nothing we could do. But the baneberry was something we could counteract since it works primarily on the one system."
"Okay, so, magical healing saved her life or something," said Thomas, "and she stayed out cold for so long because the poison was wearing off?"
"Yes, and exhaustion as well, probably. But mostly the poison filtering out of her system." Julian took another sip of his coffee and reminded himself that these people already thought he wassmart and competent, and would listen when he corroborated with his husband.
Apparently, being back in high society brought back some of his old insecurities.
"That's good to know," said Lapointe. "So, Alex lived both because you intervened with your plant magic, and because the dosage was low?"
"Mostly the latter," admitted Julian. "It was mixed for recreational use, so one small sip of the laced coffee wasn't enough of the belladonna to do more than a recreational amount of poisoning."
