A Time to Live and a Thyme for Murder! (Outer Banks Baker Mystery Series Book 3) by Phoebe T. Eggli Page A
Authors: Phoebe T. Eggli
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It was presumed, after finding the loaves Derek stuffed with bags of the drug, that the drug was consumed somehow. “That’s funny,” Cheryl interjected, “We were just pondering that same question.”
The coroner laid out his files on the counter with a nervous glance towards the front windows. “Neither the DEA nor Chief Monroe would ever condone me consulting a civilian on such a high profile case, but since you made the bread I was hoping we could work together to solve this mystery,” he stated. “Without, of course, letting anyone else know.” The women readily agreed so the three sat down to peruse his files and brainstorm. All test results indicated the drug had been ingested, but no one would purposefully eat a bag. Cheryl was sure someone would have noticed a bag in their bread and complained.
Melissa asked if he had one of the bags they could examine. Maybe the bags had holes in them or were porous. Dr. Wiggins looked around a little nervously again, so she suggested they adjourn to the back kitchen area where no one could see them from the street. This helped put the doctor at ease. Once the swinging doors closed behind him, he pulled out a flimsy, nearly clear bag. It was entirely too delicate. Not at all like your normal plastic storage bag. It almost had the consistency of cloth. “Do you mind if we run some of our own tests?” Melissa asked. Because he only had the one bag, they agreed to cut the bag into small pieces for the tests.
First, Cheryl held the material over a clear measuring cup as Melissa slowly dripped water onto it. Once the material was soaked, it started to leak water into the cup below. “Interesting,” Dr. Wiggins noted. Plastic was not known to become saturated with water at all.
Next, Melissa grabbed a loaf of bread from the refrigerator and defrosted it in the microwave just enough to bring it to room temperature. “Not the most scientific approach, I know,” she quipped. Taking a small knife, she cut an incision in the bread and placed a swatch of the material inside. “Cheryl, how hot would you say your soup is when you ladle it into the bread bowls?” she asked. Her friend simply shrugged. “Well, I guess we can do this in small increments and see what happens,” Melissa stated as she placed the loaf into the microwave and hit the “30 Seconds” button.
They continued this process for a while. Heating the bread for thirty seconds and then checking the bag. Not much happened except the bag shrunk a bit. Deciding to move on to the next experiment, Melissa repeated the water test with the heated piece of the bag. The result surprised them all. Water immediately flowed through the material. The heat had made the swatch smaller and porous.
The trio ran more tests to see what else affected the consistency of the bag, until they ran out of samples to use. Dr. Wiggins would have to run more scientific tests to show the police in order for it to be used as evidence, but at least they had a working theory. Heat from the soups in the bread bowls caused the bags with the drug to become more permeable than normal plastic bags. The drug would then be able to leach out into the bread bowls and possibly even into the soups. Since most people don’t eat the entire bread bowl their soup is served in, perhaps no one consumed the actual bag. Assuming Derek cut miniscule razor slices into the bread bowls, it was possible that the cuts went unnoticed by anyone preparing the bowls, too. At least it was something to go on and it could vindicate everyone that worked for Cheryl, including Krissy.
Chapter 18
Back at Melissa’s house later that evening, she filled in Krissy and Logan about the tests conducted on the bread bowls with the bags. The young woman claimed she never saw any slits in the bread bowls, but she also admitted she wasn’t that observant when it came to ladling soup into large chunks of bread. Actually, she
The coroner laid out his files on the counter with a nervous glance towards the front windows. “Neither the DEA nor Chief Monroe would ever condone me consulting a civilian on such a high profile case, but since you made the bread I was hoping we could work together to solve this mystery,” he stated. “Without, of course, letting anyone else know.” The women readily agreed so the three sat down to peruse his files and brainstorm. All test results indicated the drug had been ingested, but no one would purposefully eat a bag. Cheryl was sure someone would have noticed a bag in their bread and complained.
Melissa asked if he had one of the bags they could examine. Maybe the bags had holes in them or were porous. Dr. Wiggins looked around a little nervously again, so she suggested they adjourn to the back kitchen area where no one could see them from the street. This helped put the doctor at ease. Once the swinging doors closed behind him, he pulled out a flimsy, nearly clear bag. It was entirely too delicate. Not at all like your normal plastic storage bag. It almost had the consistency of cloth. “Do you mind if we run some of our own tests?” Melissa asked. Because he only had the one bag, they agreed to cut the bag into small pieces for the tests.
First, Cheryl held the material over a clear measuring cup as Melissa slowly dripped water onto it. Once the material was soaked, it started to leak water into the cup below. “Interesting,” Dr. Wiggins noted. Plastic was not known to become saturated with water at all.
Next, Melissa grabbed a loaf of bread from the refrigerator and defrosted it in the microwave just enough to bring it to room temperature. “Not the most scientific approach, I know,” she quipped. Taking a small knife, she cut an incision in the bread and placed a swatch of the material inside. “Cheryl, how hot would you say your soup is when you ladle it into the bread bowls?” she asked. Her friend simply shrugged. “Well, I guess we can do this in small increments and see what happens,” Melissa stated as she placed the loaf into the microwave and hit the “30 Seconds” button.
They continued this process for a while. Heating the bread for thirty seconds and then checking the bag. Not much happened except the bag shrunk a bit. Deciding to move on to the next experiment, Melissa repeated the water test with the heated piece of the bag. The result surprised them all. Water immediately flowed through the material. The heat had made the swatch smaller and porous.
The trio ran more tests to see what else affected the consistency of the bag, until they ran out of samples to use. Dr. Wiggins would have to run more scientific tests to show the police in order for it to be used as evidence, but at least they had a working theory. Heat from the soups in the bread bowls caused the bags with the drug to become more permeable than normal plastic bags. The drug would then be able to leach out into the bread bowls and possibly even into the soups. Since most people don’t eat the entire bread bowl their soup is served in, perhaps no one consumed the actual bag. Assuming Derek cut miniscule razor slices into the bread bowls, it was possible that the cuts went unnoticed by anyone preparing the bowls, too. At least it was something to go on and it could vindicate everyone that worked for Cheryl, including Krissy.
Chapter 18
Back at Melissa’s house later that evening, she filled in Krissy and Logan about the tests conducted on the bread bowls with the bags. The young woman claimed she never saw any slits in the bread bowls, but she also admitted she wasn’t that observant when it came to ladling soup into large chunks of bread. Actually, she
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