Toxic Attack: Spirit of the Soul Wine Shop Mystery (A Rysen Morris Mystery book 2)
“She sat down on the edge of Christina's bed, down by her feet, carefully placing her weight. The seconds ticked past while Rysen tried to decide what to tell her sister and what to hold back. Christina glared at her.
"I'm not a piece of china, Ry. I won't break. You heard the doctors. A few more days in here and they'll have the arsenic levels purged from my system. I just wish I didn't have to be on a soft foods diet. Bleh. Now answer my question. Someone was poisoning me? On pur...pose?" Rysen nodded. "Yes. It's the only thing that makes sense, sis. We both live and work in the same places. For enough arsenic to be in your body to be affecting you like it was, there had to be a lot of it. If it was just accidental then I'd be poisoned, too." "Did you have yourself checked out?" "Actually, yes. The doctors did that as a precaution the night we brought you in. You just don't remember it because you were drooling on your pillow." Rysen imitated a sleeping Christina with her tongue hanging out, complete with snoring sound effects, just to make her sister laugh. "So yes, I'm fine. Someone did this to you on purpose." "With wine? You really think so?" "Yes. It's the only thing that makes sense. They must know when you're at the shop and when I'm not, and that's a creepiness factor of eleven." "Uh, yeah." Christina's face pinched up. "I just don't understand who would want to hurt me." "They were targeting you. I know that much. It doesn't mean it was the guys who made that wine but it had to be someone who handled it. The good news is that arsenic is a very slow acting poison. No way you would have died from just the amount they found in your system. I think whoever did this to you only wants the shop closed." "Oh," Christina said, throwing her hands up and then letting them drop down to her lap, tugging on the monitor wires. "That's the good news. I'm so glad there's good news in all of this. How do you know they only want the shop closed?" "Last month they had someone steal your wine shipments. This month, they're poisoning you with arsenic. But they killed that other woman. Seems if they wanted you dead…" Rysen could tell her sister was following her logic. She relaxed, if only just a little. "They would have killed me, too. Fine. So now you're an expert on poisons? You're taking this detective thing very seriously, Ry." Rysen slapped her sister's feet under their blankets. "I looked it up on Google, dummy. For you to get enough of the poison to effect you like this you must have been exposed to a lot of it. I figure if you put enough heavy fruit flavor into a bottle of wine, it would mask anything else. Then you wouldn't notice any kind of bad taste." "Well," Christina had to admit, "I have been sampling a lot of local wines lately. But they're from all over the place. And I know all of these people. I can't imagine any of them would want to harm me." "We'll know soon enough. Brandon brought the bottle to the police today for them to test the contents. He said he was going to wait until the tests were back and then come tell us. Do you remember where you got that bottle from?" "Sure I do." She winced and settled back in the hospital bed a bit more. She wasn't over the poison's effects yet. "That bottle came from the Salton vineyard. I know them. Frank and Simon. There's no way they were poisoning me, Ry. I won't believe it." "I don't either," said a strong voice from the open door of the hospital room.MoreLess
"I'm not a piece of china, Ry. I won't break. You heard the doctors. A few more days in here and they'll have the arsenic levels purged from my system. I just wish I didn't have to be on a soft foods diet. Bleh. Now answer my question. Someone was poisoning me? On pur...pose?" Rysen nodded. "Yes. It's the only thing that makes sense, sis. We both live and work in the same places. For enough arsenic to be in your body to be affecting you like it was, there had to be a lot of it. If it was just accidental then I'd be poisoned, too." "Did you have yourself checked out?" "Actually, yes. The doctors did that as a precaution the night we brought you in. You just don't remember it because you were drooling on your pillow." Rysen imitated a sleeping Christina with her tongue hanging out, complete with snoring sound effects, just to make her sister laugh. "So yes, I'm fine. Someone did this to you on purpose." "With wine? You really think so?" "Yes. It's the only thing that makes sense. They must know when you're at the shop and when I'm not, and that's a creepiness factor of eleven." "Uh, yeah." Christina's face pinched up. "I just don't understand who would want to hurt me." "They were targeting you. I know that much. It doesn't mean it was the guys who made that wine but it had to be someone who handled it. The good news is that arsenic is a very slow acting poison. No way you would have died from just the amount they found in your system. I think whoever did this to you only wants the shop closed." "Oh," Christina said, throwing her hands up and then letting them drop down to her lap, tugging on the monitor wires. "That's the good news. I'm so glad there's good news in all of this. How do you know they only want the shop closed?" "Last month they had someone steal your wine shipments. This month, they're poisoning you with arsenic. But they killed that other woman. Seems if they wanted you dead…" Rysen could tell her sister was following her logic. She relaxed, if only just a little. "They would have killed me, too. Fine. So now you're an expert on poisons? You're taking this detective thing very seriously, Ry." Rysen slapped her sister's feet under their blankets. "I looked it up on Google, dummy. For you to get enough of the poison to effect you like this you must have been exposed to a lot of it. I figure if you put enough heavy fruit flavor into a bottle of wine, it would mask anything else. Then you wouldn't notice any kind of bad taste." "Well," Christina had to admit, "I have been sampling a lot of local wines lately. But they're from all over the place. And I know all of these people. I can't imagine any of them would want to harm me." "We'll know soon enough. Brandon brought the bottle to the police today for them to test the contents. He said he was going to wait until the tests were back and then come tell us. Do you remember where you got that bottle from?" "Sure I do." She winced and settled back in the hospital bed a bit more. She wasn't over the poison's effects yet. "That bottle came from the Salton vineyard. I know them. Frank and Simon. There's no way they were poisoning me, Ry. I won't believe it." "I don't either," said a strong voice from the open door of the hospital room.MoreLess
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