Chapter 12

Relieved and tired, Mel pulled the front door closed behind him. Finally home again. She smiled, if someone had told her months ago that she would call Hawaii home, she would have said they were crazy. Steve had already taken their bags upstairs and was now standing at the top of the stairs.

"How about you? Tired?"

She nodded, then slowly followed him upstairs, changed briskly and dropped onto their shared bed. Shortly after, they were both asleep.

Something had woken Steve up. He had to orientate himself briefly, then he saw that Mel was sitting upright in bed, she was wet with sweat and the shock was still in her face.

Carefully he took her in his arms.

"Hey honey, it's all good. We're home."

Mel nodded, then he felt her heart calm down again and she snuggled into his arms. Thus protected, she awoke the next morning to the sun tickling her nose. Careful not to wake Steve, she wriggled out from between his arms and disappeared into the shower first. The warm water did her good and so she let it flow over her body for a long time. With the new bathing prosthesis, a bit of quality of life had returned even in the shower. She had just rinsed the shampoo out of her hair when she heard the bathroom door open and shortly afterwards Steve pushed the shower door open.

"Good morning, doctor. Haven't you forgotten something?"

He joined her in the shower.

Mischievously, she looked at him. "I wouldn't know what?"

Playfully concerned, he looked at her, but then took her in his arms from behind, pushed her long curls aside and seductively kissed her neck. Then he slowly turned her around and his mouth found hers.

"Commander, what are they up to?" She whispered at his mouth.

"Nothing, doctor, nothing at all." But his body proved him wrong.

The two had just made themselves comfortable with a coffee on the chairs in the garden when Steve's cell phone rang. Slightly annoyed, he glanced at it and looked apologetically at his girlfriend.

"Yes, Danny?"

Steve sighed. "Be right there." He hung up and leaned over to her.

"I've got to go."

She gave him a loving kiss. "Take care of yourself."

Then she looked after him. She briefly considered sitting down at her computer and doing some work as well, but then she stayed where she was. She still had a few days off and she wanted to enjoy them. She sipped her hot coffee with pleasure and let her gaze wander over the sea.

She had just put the two coffee cups in the sink and was thinking about going surfing when her cell phone rang.

"Noelani. Well, that's nice to hear from you. Are you okay?"

"Yes, thank you. And you? Are you okay again?"

Mel heard the slight hesitation in Noelani's voice. Danny had surely told everyone how close everything had been. Mel's heart grew heavy; she didn't want to be confronted with worry and sympathy everywhere again. It was enough for her that Steve treated her with kid gloves, although he should know better.

"I'm okay. Thank you." Her voice sounded harsher than she had intended.

But Noelani seemed either oblivious to it, or ignoring Mel's frustration, as she continued to speak normally.

"Mel I need your help. I have a case on the table here but I need to see my mother urgently, she is not well and my father is away on business. Could you take over the autopsy?"

Mal breathed a sigh of relief. Finally a piece of normality. She nodded, then remembered that Noelani couldn't see that.

"Yes, of course. I'm on my way."

Mel grabbed her car keys, got into her car and drove to the institute. At the door, she took a deep breath and then entered the long hallway with her key card. Noelani was standing in the car pier and looked up in delight when she noticed Mel. Mel changed her clothes and joined Noelani.

"Okay, what do we have?"

"I'm glad you're here." Noelani beamed at her and Mel's heart warmed, then she continued.

"Mary Jones, 23, a nurse at the nursing home. She was found dead in one of the rooms this morning by the early shift. That's all we have so far."

"All right. Then make sure you get to your mom."

"Thanks again, Mel!"

"I'd love to."

Noelani left the room and Mel began the external examination of the corpse.

Here she found no abnormalities at all. She therefore opened the body and took various samples. When she looked at the 23-year-old's intestine, she was taken aback. The intestinal epithelia showed massive bleeding.

In addition, the liver and kidneys were also severely damaged. For Mel, everything pointed to poisoning. She completed the autopsy and returned Mary to refrigeration. Then she took the samples to the lab and ordered a detailed tox screen. Back in the office, she wrote the preliminary report. Nervously, she waited for the lab results. She had a hunch about what had happened to Mary, but she didn't have the information from the lab to confirm it. When it finally arrived, Mel nervously opened the email. She was right. Abrin. Mary had the toxin in her system and the lab had also found residue in her stomach contents. She dialed Steve's number.

"Mel?"

"Hey Steve. I got the cause of death for Mary Jones. Abrin, which is one of the most potent plant poisons around and is found in the paternoster pea. I just sent you a picture of the peas. Since there was residue in her stomach contents, I'm assuming oral ingestion and over an extended period of time."

"Okay, thanks honey. let's go check out her surroundings for those peas."

"All right. Be careful. If the outer shell of this seed pod is damaged, it may already have a toxic effect even on the skin."

"All right, we'll watch it."

Mel hung up. Actually, she would have finished her work now, but somehow the case didn't give her any peace. She searched the Internet for more information about paternoster peas, which were used in the past to make rosaries. Even today, the pretty red seed pods were used to make jewelry or the seeds were put into samba rattles. Mel thought it was insane that it was still allowed to use these highly toxic seeds.

At some point, Mel landed on Mary's Instagram account. She was very fond of traveling. She found pictures from all over the world over the last few years. At first Mary was alone in the pictures, then later often together with a pretty brunette she had linked to Amy0203. Apparently her girlfriend. Suddenly Mel stumbled and scrolled back a few pictures. The picture showed Mary with Amy at a spice bazaar in Tunisia. Hadn't she just read something about that? Mel opened a new browser window and searched her history. There it was, the article. Mel jumped up, grabbed her car keys, and walked out of the medical examiner's office.