Page 31 - Labelle Gramercy, On the Case

Polished Off

“Don’t forget pesticides,” Labelle admonished. “I am certain Pete
Boggs’ collection of chemicals includes compounds designed to kill
bookworms. And I saw at least one volume in Bibliopoly’s crime and
mystery section in which oil of mirbane was the means of dispatching
an enemy. I dusted it for fingerprints before you arrived; no luck,
unfortunately.”
“My God! How fiendish! Is the chemical undetectable to anyone
handling it?”
“Generally not. As I told you earlier, it has a fairly strong
characteristic odor, like bitter almonds. I could smell it in that
confined space immediately.”
“Then Mariana must have committed suicide.”
“Not necessarily. I do not think she smelled it. Her medical
records show that she suffered from severe hyposmia, bordering on
anosmia. Were you unaware of that?”
“No sense of smell? Ah, no, I was not.”
Labelle showed no sign of being impressed that I understood that
diagnosis. In my day, Latin was still a required subject in high
school—and my parents had virtually guaranteed my interest in the
language of the law with their choice of my given names.
“It would be in character for her not to discuss any negative health
conditions with you, despite your professional relationship.” Did I
detect the barest suggestion of irony in her voice? Did she think I
was one of Mariana’s moths, incessantly beating its singed wings
against the pyre? I hoped not. She continued. “I saw the scars of
rhinoplasty, probably several decades old, indicating it occurred in a
period of relatively crude surgical technique. That in itself is generally
unlikely to disable chemosensation of the olfactory nerves, but the
operation may have been performed in tandem with a botched
polypectomy. Were that to be the case, and I believe it is, then we
have a single explanation for her strident voice, chronic sinusitis,
indifference to odors considered unpleasant by most people, and
uncontrolled application of artificial personal scent.”
“You mean perfume?” Now I really began to suspect she was
making fun of me, or at least of legalistic diction.
“Yes. As several witnesses have reported, Ms. Trench regularly
applied copious quantities of products containing nitrobenzene to
herself, her clothing, and her immediate environment.”

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