Murder on Amsterdam Avenue by Victoria Thompson Read Free Book Online

been poisoned over a long period of time. From what you told me, it sounds like this Oakes fellow was only sick for a few days, so I didn’t expect to see any traces of long-term exposure.”
    â€œHow long would it have to be going on before you’d find that?” Gino asked.
    Frank looked at him in surprise, but Wesley was already responding. “A few weeks at least. Then I’d find it in the liver and kidneys. If it was longer, say a month or more, then I could find it in the fingernails and hair.”
    â€œIn the fingernails?”
    â€œYeah, there would be lines. The hair is the same, except there’s no lines.”
    Gino frowned. “How could somebody be taking arsenic for weeks or months and not die?”
    â€œSmall amounts of arsenic will just make you sick. It builds up in the body over time, though, and eventually the organs begin to fail.”
    â€œWhy would somebody give a person a dose too small to kill them, though?”
    Wesley grinned, obviously enjoying the conversation. “You’d have to ask that ‘somebody,’ but maybe they aren’t sure how much would be a fatal dose, so they don’t give the victim enough at first. Or maybe the person has a tolerancefor it. Some people do, and the amount that would kill me in an hour might only make you a little sick.”
    â€œOr,” Frank said, glad to see his new assistant was curious but wanting to move the interview along, “the killer might want it to look like the victim had some mysterious illness the doctors couldn’t cure and eventually died of it.”
    â€œOh, so no one would suspect poison,” Gino said.
    â€œThat’s right. So was it arsenic?” Frank asked.
    â€œOh yes. I did the Marsh test where you put the material on a zinc plate covered with sulfuric acid—”
    â€œThis Marsh test,” Frank interrupted him, not interested in the details. “Is it something that’s scientifically official?”
    â€œYou mean, would it be accepted in court?”
    â€œI guess that’s what I mean.”
    â€œYes. It’s been around since the thirties, and the test is good on even the smallest amount of arsenic. I was also able to test the contents of the cat’s stomach, and I found arsenic there, too.”
    Frank knew he shouldn’t be pleased to hear that Charles Oakes had been poisoned. This meant a lot more heartache for the Oakes family. On the other hand, it also meant he didn’t have to spend all his days sitting in his new house, listening to the workmen pounding away.
    â€œIf someone was getting poisoned, though, wouldn’t they notice the taste?” Gino asked.
    â€œWith some poisons, yes, but arsenic doesn’t have a taste.”
    â€œSo it might’ve been put into anything he drank,” Frank said.
    â€œYes or anything he ate. It can take some time to work, too. Some poisons cause an immediate reaction, but with arsenic, depending on how big the dose is, the victim can go anywhere from half an hour to a whole day before they start showing a reaction.”
    â€œSo even though our victim first got sick when he was away from home, he might’ve gotten poisoned there,” Frank said.
    â€œYes, but from what we know about the milk and the dead cat, it looks like he got the final, fatal dose at home the night he died,” Wesley said.
    Frank told Wesley where to send his bill, and he and Gino stepped out onto the sidewalk and the noticeably fresher air.
    â€œHow does he stand the stench?” Gino asked.
    â€œHe probably doesn’t even smell it anymore.”
    â€œWhat do we do now?”
    â€œWell, I’ve got to go tell Mr. Oakes that his son was murdered.”
    â€œCan I go with you?”
    Frank hated to dampen his enthusiasm, but he couldn’t bring a stranger to the Oakes house, at least not yet. “I want to see Oakes alone. There’s no telling how he’ll take the