It was a beautiful spring May morning, in 1912. Julia in the kitchen, preparing breakfast, and William in the nursery, with a fussy Susannah.
"Come on, Susannah. You have to get ready for the day" he says in a calm but frustrated voice, as he tries to put her dress on, when the phone ring, but hears Julia called out, "I got it William."
As he finishes dressing Susannah, he picks her up and heads to the living room, "yes, George, he's right here" she says as she takes Susannah, and he grabs the phone, "morning, George, what have you?"
As William hears about a murder, he knows that means he'll miss breakfast and will have to grab a slice of toast to go, "ok, George I'll be right there"
"A murder?" Julia asks
"Not sure yet, but they someone found a body of a male in a room at the Queen's hotel. I'll just take a slice of toast to go"
She hands him a slice, "call me, if you need a coroner"
"Of course," gives her a kiss goodbye
"Bye, bye, daddy" Susannah says as he gives her a kiss on the cheek, "have a good day"
William bikes to the hotel, as he shows his badge and sees George and the inspector,
"George, sir, good morning, what have you?"
"Morning, Murdoch"
"Good morning, sir. "
"Any more information about the victim?" William asks
"We just arrived, as well, me old mucker"
"Yes, I took the call…" George says, as he takes out his notepad, "a female, that for anyone from station house 4 to take the case"
"Did we get a name?" Inspector asked as he just arrived to the room, and it was open a crack and they heard something inside.
They opened the door a little more and saw a young woman, no more than 20 years old with short blonde hair, with a needle in her mouth, kneeling over the dead man's body, "stop!" William shouts
As the young woman raises her hands
"George get the syringe, out of her mouth"
He walks over to the woman, and takes the syringe, "wait you don't understand, I'm trying to help him"
"By killing him?" Inspector asked
As George gets her up from the floor, "I knew this man, he was a friend of mine. This needle I had in my mouth is an epinephrine injection."
"An epoxy?" George looked confused
"Epinephrine injection, George. It's for someone who has allergies" William said as he took out a hanky and reached for the needle, "what was the young man allergic too…and who are you?"
"Just call me, Dorothy. This is my friend Samuel or Sam I called him. He was highly allergic to nuts, latex, and fruit such as bananas and strawberries. I saw he had a needle in his hand, but that's not the one he uses…if I may show you?"
William nods, as she hunches back over, Sam's body and shows his left hand holding a thin needle, "but this is his insulin needle."
"He was a diabetic too?"
Dorothy nodded, "before you came in, I found something lodged in his mouth. May I pull it out, since I have gloves on?"
"Why do you have gloves on?"
"When I came in, I noticed the doorknob was loose, and I pushed the door open and noticed Sam on the floor and the room ransacked. So, I put on my gloves, so I wouldn't any evidence contaminated."
William, they her a look, "why haven't I never thought of gloves?"
"Murdoch, she asked you a question?"
"Ah, sorry Miss…"
"Call me, Dorothy."
"Right, Dorothy and I will check his mouth, do you have any spare gloves?"
"Yes, I have 3 spare pairs" she pulls them all out and hands them out
As, William puts the gloves on, he hunches over and tilts Sam's chin, and reaches into his mouth and pulls out 2 peanut shells.
"Peanuts?"
"I knew it peanuts!"
"How, could you know?" Brackenreid asked looking down at the body
"In New York, that's where I am from, but he's from Ottawa, while at work he showed us what happens if he accidentally ate peanuts, or fruit or touches latex."
"He gets different reactions?" William asked
"Yes. For peanuts, he gets rashes that look like welts, as you can see"
William looks over Sam body and sees his whole face and throat are covered in red welts, "and his throat closes up."
"What reactions does he get with fruit or latex?" George asked
"With fruit his face, and hands blow up, like a balloon, and are completely red. When I saw the reaction he looks like a monkey. But with latex, if he touches it, his hands get itchy and a rash develops, like if you touch poison ivy."
"Well, we know cause of death" inspector asked
"But why kill him?" George asked as they look through his room
William looks and sees something else in his mouth, "detective?" Dorothy asked in confusion as William grabs a piece of paper and pulls in out of his mouth, and reads the note.
"Detective, what is it?"
"It looks like a news article about a survivor on the Titanic."
"That's why Sam, wanted me to come to Toronto. We work for a New York Post and he sent me a letter…"
she opens her satchel that was sitting beside her, and shows him the letter, and reads it, "it's time to come to Toronto, now. Big news article about Canadian Titanic survivor. Don't tell anyone."
And shows inspector and George, "what was the article about?"
"All I know is that it was about a female survivor, who wanted her story to be told. But New York won't put it in the newspaper because of a scandal. The name of the women, is Astor"
"I heard of that name. Big scandal about the husband. His children are fighting over his inheritance." Inspector said
Dorothy shook her head, "I told him, this story would get him killed."
"Why do you say that?" William asked
"He was receiving threats in New York, and our boss told him to leave quietly and got him a job with the Toronto post instead."
"But you said he was from Ottawa?" Inspector asked
"Yes, born in Ottawa, but he was raised in New York."
"Well, we have our motive. But let's take the body to the morgue to get further examined" William said
As the assistants took the body away, the men, noticed Dorothy, going through a journal.
"What do you think, Murdoch?"
"I don't know, sir. She shows no remorse for her friend and is a step ahead of us"
"Want me to arrest her, sirs?"
"Not yet, George. I want to see if she will help us"
"Ok, but if she does something to sabotage this case, it's on you, me old mucker"
"Fair enough, sir"
"Ok, you ask and if she says yes, bring her to the station. Crabtree, you and I will look for more clues"
"Sir" the men said
William approached Dorothy, "miss Dorothy…that's odd to say. Do you have a last name?"
"Yes, Gurden. Dorothy Gurden"
"Gurden, is that German?"
"It's a mixture of Scottish and English, you can say.
"Miss Gurden, since you have been so helpful, would you like to help us with the investigation?"
"I would love to…uh"
"Oh, Detective William Murdoch, Toronto Constabulary." And shook her hand.
"I'm constable George Crabtree" George said
"I'm inspector Thomas Brackenreid"
"I heard about you all, from my parents, and we read your book."
"Oh, well I'm honored then, shall we"
As he leads her to the hallway, William looks at his hand, "Murdoch, something wrong?
"It's nothing, sir" but this wasn't true, he felt something strange, when he shook her hand.
"Who is this Dorothy Gurden?"