When Paige arrived at the hospital, she went directly to the medical library on the fifth floor. It took her less than a minute to find trichloroethylene. The description read: A colorless, clear, volatile liquid with a specific gravity of 1.47 at 59 degrees F. It is a halogenated hydrocarbon, having the chemical formula CCl CCL:CHCl.
And there, on the last line, she found what she was looking for. When chloral hydrate is metabolized, it produces trichloroethylene as a by-product.
Chapter Thirty-five
Inspector, Dr. Taylor is here to see you."
'Again?" He was tempted to turn her away. . She was obsessed with the half-baked theory she had. He was going to have to put a stop to it. "Send her in."
When Paige walked into his office, Inspector Burns said, "Look, doctor, I think this has gone far enough. Dr. Dolan called to complain about—"
"I know how Ken Mallory did it!" Her voice was charged with excitement. "There was trichloroethylene in Kat's body."
He nodded. "Dr. Dolan told me that. But he said it couldn't have made her unconscious. He—"
"Chloral hydrate turns into trichloroethylene!" Paige said triumphantly. "Mallory lied when he said he didn't go back into the apartment with Kat. He put chloral hydrate in her drink. It has no taste when you mix it with alcohol, and it only takes a few minutes for it to work. Then when she was unconscious, he killed her and made it look like a bungled abortion."
"Doctor, if you'll forgive my saying so, that's a hell of a lot of speculation."
"No, it isn't. He wrote the prescription for a patient named Spyros Levathes, but he never gave it to him."
"How do you know that?"
"Because he couldn't have. I checked on Spyros Levathes. He has erythropoietic porphyria."
"What's that?"
"It's a genetic metabolic disorder. It causes photosensitivity and lesions, hypertension, tachycardia, and a few other unpleasant symptoms. It's the result of a defective gene."
"I still don't understand."
"Dr. Mallory didn't give his patient chloral hydrate because it would have killed him! Chloral hydrate is contraindicated for porphyria. It would have caused immediate convulsive seizures."
For the first time, Inspector Burns was impressed. "You've really done your homework, haven't you?"
Paige pressed on. "Why would Ken Mallory go to a remote pharmacy and fill a prescription for a patient he knew he couldn't give it to? You've got to arrest him."
His fingers were drumming on his desk. "It's not that simple."
"You've got to ..."
Inspector Burns raised a hand. "All right. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll talk to the district attorney's office and see whether they think we have a case."
Paige knew she had gone as far as she could. "Thank you, inspector."
"I'll get back to you."
After Paige Taylor left, Inspector Burns sat there thinking about their conversation. There was no hard evidence against Dr. Mallory, only the suspicions of a persistent woman. He reviewed the few facts that he had. Dr. Mallory had been engaged to Kat Hunter. Two days after she died, he was engaged to Alex Harrison's daughter. Interesting, but not against the law.
Mallory had said that he dropped Dr. Hunter off at her front door and did not go into the apartment. Semen was found in her body, but he had a plausible explanation for that.
Then there was the matter of the chloral hydrate. Mallory had written a prescription for a drug that could have killed his patient. Was he guilty of murder? Not guilty?
Burns buzzed his secretary on the intercom. "Barbara, get me an appointment with the district attorney this afternoon."
There were four men in the office when Paige walked in: the district attorney, his assistant, a man named Warren, and Inspector Burns.
' 'Thank you for stopping by, Dr. Taylor,'' the district attorney said. "Inspector Burns has been telling me of your interest in the death of Dr. Hunter. I can appreciate that. Dr. Hunter was your roommate, and you want to -see justice done."
So they're going to arrest Ken Mallory after all!
"Yes," Paige said. "There's no doubt about it. Dr. Mallory killed her. When you arrest him, he—"
"I'm afraid we can't do that."
Paige looked at him blankly. "What?"
"We can't arrest Dr. Mallory."
"But why?"
"We have no case."
"Of course you have!" Paige exclaimed. "The tri-chloroethylene proves that—"
"Doctor, in a court of justice, ignorance of the law is no excuse. But ignorance in medicine is."
"I don't understand."
"It's simple. It means that Dr. Mallory could claim he made a mistake, that he didn't know what effect chloral hydrate would have on a patient with porphyria. No one could prove he was lying. It might prove that he's a lousy doctor, but it wouldn't prove that he's guilty of murder.''
Paige looked at him in frustration. "You're going to let him get away with this?''
He studied her a moment. "I'll tell you what I'm prepared to do. I've discussed this with Inspector Burns. With your permission, we're going to send someone to your apartment to pick up the glasses in the bar. If we find any traces of chloral hydrate, we'll take the next step."
"What if he rinsed them out?"
Inspector Burns said dryly, "I don't imagine he took the time to use a detergent. If he just rinsed out the glasses, we'll find what we're looking for."
* * *
Two hours later, Inspector Burns was on the phone with Paige.
"We did a chemical analysis of all the glasses in the bar, doctor," Burns said.