A Randomly Organized Witch by Satori Kate

Author:Satori, Kate [Satori, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798876860149
Google: Ef5w0AEACAAJ
Amazon: B0CSX6LR7X
Publisher: Draft2Digital
Published: 2024-01-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

My phone rang. I gave it a glance. I smiled on seeing it was Fisk. At least he hadn’t written me off—yet. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he said, still lacking the warmth he’d have carried prior to yesterday’s conversation.

“What’s going on?”

“I found out something that might help. I had a look at the autopsy report. It was quite eye-opening, and something relevant stood out.”

“Oh?”

“Grayanotoxins,” he said, pride filling the space between us.

“What?” It was like he was speaking a foreign language.

“Right, sorry. It’s the outcome of rhododendron nectar. It’s a neurotoxin. In other words, it’s bad stuff. Highly toxic to people. It’s an odd duck in that it’s not the simple path of a toxin infusing your bloodstream, but rather what happens with the cells when it’s been ingested.”

“Any chance you could explain it to me with less science and more real-world speak? Maybe simplify it a bit?”

“Sure. I sometimes forget when I explain things to people. I overcomplicate ideas, but I get excited when I connect the dots or find a new possibility that wasn’t there before. Okay, so rhododendrons, like the flowering bush you see all over, the leaves and flowers can be dangerous if consumed. This is to both animals and people, but we don’t eat their products intentionally. However, bees harvest honey from the nectar of the flowers, and it can be highly toxic. Now, most honey you buy at the store—”

“Honey?” Color slowly drained from my face.

“Yes, but honey that’s been laced with this toxin.”

“Okay, go on.”

“Right, so the honey you buy at the store is honey that’s been harvested from safe sources. A popular variety might be orange blossom honey. When bees harvest honey from the flowering rhododendron bush, they are immune from the effects of the nectar. In other countries, they sometimes call this Mad Honey because of how it interacts with the body’s cells. The chemical reaction creates something called grayanotoxins after mixing with the cell’s sodium. Are you with me so far?”

I hesitated. “I think? Keep going.”

“The poison goes into the cells. What happens next is that it changes the cell’s dynamics. When the cells open up, normally, they close after releasing what it’s excreting. In this case, the cells can’t reclose. It’s vitally important for them to reclose. That’s how they keep the toxic stuff out. It’s a safety mechanism. Yet, because of the way this poison acts in the body, the cells can’t close. That means they can’t keep toxins outside of their barriers, and it backs up. See?”

“Sort of…? Can you explain it again? Maybe a tad slower. I think I have the general idea, but that was a lot to absorb, and my brain isn’t exactly firing on all cylinders right now.”

He agreed and went into details once again, breaking things down even clearer until it clicked.

The rhododendron nectar was mixed with honey and caused poison. The poison caused Sharon’s body to shut down, because it couldn’t combat the poison. She died after consuming it, but it didn’t happen immediately, because it’s not like having a heart attack where you drop on the spot.

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