Read Online Murder on Potrero Hill by M. L. Hamilton - Free Book Online

grateful there was no body on it. Behind the metal table were rows of shelves encased in glass. Any number of bottles, flasks and test tubes crowded the shelves. Below the glass shelves were drawers that Peyton knew housed saws and blades and instruments worthy of a medieval torture chamber. For a homicide detective, she realized her squeamish nature was at odds with her job description.
    “Hey, my soul sista,” came Abe’s voice.
    Peyton turned and found him beaming a huge smile at her. Abe always looked like his mouth sported too many teeth. He shook back his dreads and rose to his full six feet. His dark eyes shifted to Marco and his smile grew wider.
    “And the Italian Stallion,” he said, giving him a saucy wink.
    Marco shot him one of his quelling stares, but Abe wasn’t afraid of him. “What can I do you for?”
    Peyton glanced at Marco, knowing he would catch the double entendre. A smile tugged at the corners of Marco’s mouth and he walked away, looking at the bottles in the shelving unit.
    “We’re here about the Zoë Ryder case, Abe,” said Peyton.
    Abe’s playful demeanor fell away and he turned toward his desk, reaching for the file on top. He placed it on his bench next to the microscope and opened it. “Nasty bit of business, that,” he said, reading.
    Peyton inched closer. “We just went to see Dr. Singh, the attending. He said he sent you all of his findings and the tox report. Have you completed the autopsy?”
    Abe nodded. “Just waiting on the results of my own tox screening. They sent me the fetus too.” He looked up, narrowing his dark eyes. “Hate that part like crazy.”
    “I know.”
    Abe turned a page with his elegant long fingers. Peyton had always been fascinated by Abe’s hands, long fingers, smooth seal-brown skin, but capable of sawing through a human skull without a moment’s hesitation. Abe Jefferson was the best M.E. in San Francisco, and one of her closest friends.
    “So, the attending initially thought it was a ruptured aneurysm?” prompted Peyton.
    “Yeah, she presented as such, especially with the pregnancy, but he got the initial tox report back the day after she died.”
    “That’s when he found the war…whatever.”
    “Warfarin. Yeah, really high levels too.”
    “Is that what caused the hemorrhaging?”
    Abe met her gaze. “Massive. She basically bled out, Peyton. Poor girl.”
    “Dr. Singh said something about it being stroke medicine.”
    Abe pursed his lips. “Yeah, warfarin is a blood thinner. Miracle drug, really, if used properly.”
    Peyton eased onto the stool on the other side of Abe’s bench. “Is that what the hospital uses warfarin for?”
    “Stroke patients? Yeah. If you give them warfarin when they first present, it can almost reverse the damage. It’s saved many people’s lives, kept them alive, and for those who’ve had strokes, it’s improved their recovery immensely.”
    Marco wandered back to them. “Could she have done this to herself?”
    “You mean suicide?”
    Marco shrugged.
    “Hell of a way to go. I’ve never heard of it before.”
    “What if she was exposed to warfarin and didn’t know it? Could that have caused this?” continued Marco.
    “Naw. She ingested huge amounts. There are signs of bleeding in her stomach.”
    “Could the hospital or the medics have given it to her when they picked her up? Maybe they thought she was having a stroke?” asked Peyton.
    “Her symptoms wouldn’t have presented as such. They would have suspected something was bringing her blood pressure down and they wouldn’t have wanted to lower it further.”
    Peyton exhaled.
    “It’s a terrible way to die,” said Abe. “By the looks of her stomach, she would have been suffering for days. Would have been more humane to put a gun to her head.”
    “It would have been more humane to divorce her. That bastard is gonna ride the needle if I have anything to do with it,” Peyton said.

 
    CHAPTER 4
     
    Jake wandered aimlessly around