Evolve or Die! 7.

The Sparrow is an international crime-fighter and superheroine. She's also an old school friend of mine (maybe my old school should advertise the fact?). I use her as my forensic lab when she's in town. She was born blind, but her dad, a brilliant man, made her artificial eyes that can see in practically any spectrum. Which is handy, really. The electronic eyes have a computer link to her brain, and she uses that (along with the bes virus-protection in the world) to link her brain to the internet. Again, might useful.
She knows just about everything about science. Whereas I don't kow enough to analyse the sample. So Emily and I just watched in fasination as Alice examined the blood sample. It didn't do any harm, and I'm sure Alice appreciated my expression. It was one of those moments when I wished I looked like Emily -no-one can see her expression!!
"Jane," Alice said at length. "That's the most fascinating sample you've ever brought me. There's a toxin in this blood so virulent that it kills the victim within five minutes. Where did you get it?"
"You KNOW where I got it!"
"All right, then where did the victim get it?"
"In a 'hit' of heroin, I assume."
"That's impossible. But you know nearly as much about crime as I do, so you must be right. There's no way this drug could have been administered with heroin. The reaction... unless... it might have been administered in two parts! That would have got around the reaction. Part with the heroin, and part later, with something else."
"A two-part poison?"
"Yes. The Borgias were expert at such things, and this one was used back in the 16th century as a way of getting rid of people who were unwanted. It was often administered years apart, the first part stays in the system for years, the second part can then be administered later. Both parts are quite harmless on their own..."
"Then the killer's 'cut' the first part with the drugs he's selling and he administers the second part to his victims later?"
"It could be much later," Alice affirmed.
"Alice, we're in serious trouble. Who knows how long the contaminated drugs have been circulating for? Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of drug-addicts could have been poisoned. They're carrying around half of a lethal poison in their systems, and when the second part is administered, they'll die horribly."
"You've got your motive then, Jane, someone hates drug-addicts."
I nodded. I had a probable motive. But I had no suspects at all.