Erudition of Doyle: Volume One

CHAPTER 25: CASE V - THE UNEXPLAINED DEATHS

Case 5: The Unexplained
Deaths (The Missing Member
Chapter, Last Part)

ROSALINDA

We saw Doyle’s father approaching from afar, papers in hand, what for, I didn’t know. We straightened up automatically. Fear flickered on Harriet’s and Ajax’s faces. His usual expression twisted into something terrifying, eyes sharp and dangerous, like he wanted to kill us all.

“Why did you bring the other pests?” he demanded, furrowing his brow.

“Who’s he talking about?” Ajax whispered to Harriet. She answered with a frown.

“Us, Ajax. He means us,” she said firmly, blinking hard.

“I think I know where Doyle got it from, they both have sharp tongues.” Raleigh whispered, he's sitting from my left side. I do agree but they have different ways of how they will deliver those sharp comments.

I answered him, reluctantly, “They wanted to come with me. I had no choice, I apologize for that, Mr. Luther." I paused. "So, about the results of the samples that your son and I gave you?"

“Tch! I know, pesky brat,” he snapped, dropping the papers onto the table and slumping onto the other couch. “Don’t remind me what I’m supposed to do. I don’t have Alzheimer’s or dementia. How annoying.”

I’m just trying to start a conversation. But what am I supposed to do? Say? I don’t know. I don’t talk to people much.

“I don’t want to repeat myself, so listen carefully,” he said, as the four of us settled down. “Let’s start with the cake the victims ate at your debut. My son gave me a sample, and I used solvent extraction to separate the liquid from the solid parts.” Liquid? “After analysis, the cake’s liquid contained wine mixed with a deadly poison. The victims’ eyes and mouths widened because of it. I ran mass spectrometry on the liquid, measuring the ions’ mass-to-charge ratios. The spectrum showed unknown signals—an unidentified, deadly substance hidden in the wine used for the cake.”

We remained quiet.

“I compared the mass spectrum to databases of poisons—it didn’t match anything. So, we moved to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for deeper analysis.”

“What’s that?” Ajax asked, frowning. “How does it work?”

“Don’t interrupt!” he snapped, holding his head. “Can you just stay quiet while I explain?”

“I'm sorry…”

Just please continue, we want the results already.

After hours of his angry tirades and insults toward the investigator he called an idiot, he finally moved on to the important details.

“We got nothing, wasted time for no result on the deadly liquid or its components. So I used an invention I developed last year, the Science Trailblazer Analysis,” he said proudly, his face bright like a happy puppy.

We all exchanged looks, visibly losing interest.

“I studied infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry, then combined them into one, better than any of those. Why would I make a useless invention?”