Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 06 - Tiaras & Texans by Laina Turner Page B
Authors: Laina Turner
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us a direction to go in.”
“Sure. It’s a rather simple process, simpler than you might think. You can just use a steam distillation process. In steam distillation, the plant material, which in this case is the tassel flower, is placed on a screen above or away from the water and heat. Steam alone is passed over the petals. The steam process extracts oils from the natural materials and passes it through the top of the distillation dome, into the condenser to liquefy, and into a receiving tank where the essential oil, once cooled, is separated from the water. You bottle that up and, voila, you have the extract. ”
“But you would have to have a basic knowledge of chemistry and how this works, right? And equipment?” I asked.
“Yeah, but really anyone who had high school chemistry would be able to figure it out, and a distillery can be cheaply made with parts bought at Home Depot.”
I had chemistry in high school, and I didn’t see myself being able to do this. Sam noticed the look on my face and started laughing.
“You have the same look on your face as many of my students. Listen, you can look up the step-by-step process on Google, much like anything these days. If you can follow directions, you can do this. It’s no different from basic perfume making, and people make that in their kitchens all the time. Even easier, since you don’t need to worry about the smell. Just the extract. And with a tassel flower it doesn’t take much to create a fast-acting poison.”
“If you say so,” I said, joking back.
“Listen, I have to run, but you have my number if you have any more questions,” Sam said, standing up.
“Thank you for that explanation, Sam,” Cooper said, shaking his hand. “It was helpful.”
“No problem. Take care.”
As Sam walked away, I looked at Cooper. “Okay, that helped not at all. Now all we know is your average high school student could do this. Doesn’t exactly narrow the field.”
“Look at it this way. We know you need a distillation machine to get the poison out of the flower, and it’s fast-acting. Those are both positives.”
“We also know that I didn’t learn anything in high school chemistry.”
Cooper laughed. “I could have told you that before we met with Sam.”
“So, moving on,” I said, not wanting to talk about high school grades, “how do you suppose Hollie was poisoned anyway? Unless Candy did it, and I don’t think she did.”
“Me, either. We need to retrace all of Hollie’s steps that night.”
I looked at him and sighed. “I guess seeing some of the city can wait until another day. Let’s go back and figure this out.”
“I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.”
Back at the hotel, we tracked Candy down and asked her to take us through that night. Cooper had talked to her a few times, but I hadn’t yet. So I was looking forward to what she had to say. We interrupted her pedicure, but she was willing to forgo fresh polish to help find Hollie’s killer. Not something I was sure all the girls would have been willing to do.
“You finished practice, went back to your rooms and got ready for dinner, and then what?” Cooper asked her.
“We met at the Salad Connection. It’s not in the hotel, but you can get to it through the garage. So it’s not like you’re really lazy. We just took the elevator down to the garage level and walked across the lot to the back door of the restaurant.”
“Then what?” I asked.
“We both had the garden salad, no dressing, and came back to the hotel. We both ran up to our rooms with the plan to meet in fifteen minutes and take a walk in the gardens to work off our dinner.”
Working off a garden salad? Really? Candy was making me feel very guilty for not walking off the big dinner I had last night, much less the bagel and cream cheese this morning and the Take Five bar that had just been screaming my name earlier. She probably never let carbs touch her lips,
“Sure. It’s a rather simple process, simpler than you might think. You can just use a steam distillation process. In steam distillation, the plant material, which in this case is the tassel flower, is placed on a screen above or away from the water and heat. Steam alone is passed over the petals. The steam process extracts oils from the natural materials and passes it through the top of the distillation dome, into the condenser to liquefy, and into a receiving tank where the essential oil, once cooled, is separated from the water. You bottle that up and, voila, you have the extract. ”
“But you would have to have a basic knowledge of chemistry and how this works, right? And equipment?” I asked.
“Yeah, but really anyone who had high school chemistry would be able to figure it out, and a distillery can be cheaply made with parts bought at Home Depot.”
I had chemistry in high school, and I didn’t see myself being able to do this. Sam noticed the look on my face and started laughing.
“You have the same look on your face as many of my students. Listen, you can look up the step-by-step process on Google, much like anything these days. If you can follow directions, you can do this. It’s no different from basic perfume making, and people make that in their kitchens all the time. Even easier, since you don’t need to worry about the smell. Just the extract. And with a tassel flower it doesn’t take much to create a fast-acting poison.”
“If you say so,” I said, joking back.
“Listen, I have to run, but you have my number if you have any more questions,” Sam said, standing up.
“Thank you for that explanation, Sam,” Cooper said, shaking his hand. “It was helpful.”
“No problem. Take care.”
As Sam walked away, I looked at Cooper. “Okay, that helped not at all. Now all we know is your average high school student could do this. Doesn’t exactly narrow the field.”
“Look at it this way. We know you need a distillation machine to get the poison out of the flower, and it’s fast-acting. Those are both positives.”
“We also know that I didn’t learn anything in high school chemistry.”
Cooper laughed. “I could have told you that before we met with Sam.”
“So, moving on,” I said, not wanting to talk about high school grades, “how do you suppose Hollie was poisoned anyway? Unless Candy did it, and I don’t think she did.”
“Me, either. We need to retrace all of Hollie’s steps that night.”
I looked at him and sighed. “I guess seeing some of the city can wait until another day. Let’s go back and figure this out.”
“I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.”
Back at the hotel, we tracked Candy down and asked her to take us through that night. Cooper had talked to her a few times, but I hadn’t yet. So I was looking forward to what she had to say. We interrupted her pedicure, but she was willing to forgo fresh polish to help find Hollie’s killer. Not something I was sure all the girls would have been willing to do.
“You finished practice, went back to your rooms and got ready for dinner, and then what?” Cooper asked her.
“We met at the Salad Connection. It’s not in the hotel, but you can get to it through the garage. So it’s not like you’re really lazy. We just took the elevator down to the garage level and walked across the lot to the back door of the restaurant.”
“Then what?” I asked.
“We both had the garden salad, no dressing, and came back to the hotel. We both ran up to our rooms with the plan to meet in fifteen minutes and take a walk in the gardens to work off our dinner.”
Working off a garden salad? Really? Candy was making me feel very guilty for not walking off the big dinner I had last night, much less the bagel and cream cheese this morning and the Take Five bar that had just been screaming my name earlier. She probably never let carbs touch her lips,
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