A Nest of Sparrows by Raney Deborah

Author:Raney, Deborah [Raney, Deborah]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Raney Day Press
Published: 2017-02-28T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

Wade read the stark words again. It still seemed unbelievable that he could be holding an autopsy report for his beloved Starr. She was still so fully alive in his memories. Even now, more than three months after he’d discovered her lifeless body on the floor of the bedroom they’d been so eager to share, it was still hard to fathom that she was gone forever from his life.

He stared at the two folded pages the coroner’s office had sent. Though he didn’t understand most of the pathologist’s report, one sentence stood out like a billboard: In my opinion the cause of death was cerebral aneurysm secondary to the presence of phenylpropanolamine.

The toxicology lab report attached to Starr’s autopsy report shouldn’t have contained more than perhaps a trace of caffeine from the cup of coffee Wade had made her the morning she died. The caffeine was there all right, under the column marked Drug Confirmation Results. But there was the technical-sounding word again.

Phenylpropanolamine (PPA) detected in blood.

Why couldn’t they just write these things in plain English? Wade had no idea what this PPA was, but why would Starr have had a foreign substance in her blood? Something strong enough to contribute to her death, if he was reading the report correctly.

Could the paint fumes have been strong enough to get into her bloodstream? He knew nothing about this sort of thing, but it didn’t seem likely. Yet it was equally unlikely she had actually ingested something that would kill her.

Though Starr had experimented with alcohol and even drugs during a rebellious youth, she had been ashamed of the fact, and upfront with Wade about it from the start of their relationship. Many times she’d lamented that Sophie had gone down the same path. She’d told Wade she felt responsible, since she had set such a bad example for her little sister. But she’d given up that lifestyle when she became a Christian. And as long as Wade had known her, she had to be feeling pretty lousy to take so much as an aspirin.

In all the speculation over Starr’s death, he’d never had a deep need to know. Now he felt differently.

He scooped the mail off the porch and went into the house, his mind reeling. He pitched the junk mail into the trashcan under the kitchen sink. Taking the envelope from the coroner’s office, he went to the desk in the dining area and pulled the dictionary from the bottom drawer. Turning to the P’s, he ran a finger down the columns. The technical-sounding word wasn’t listed, and he searched without success for the abbreviation, PPA.

He threw the dictionary back in the drawer and scanned the autopsy report, searching for the phone number of the coroner’s office. He picked up the phone and dialed the number, steeling himself.

“Coyote County Medical Examiner.”

Wade faltered. “Yes…um…I just received an autopsy report from your office. It was for my…my fiancée. She died in March. Is there someone there who could explain this to me?”

“Well, I’ll try.

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