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County. Any help you can give us will be appreciated both by the sheriff and by the county.”
    “Just don’t go getting huffy and hysterical on us,” he advised her, even though she looked like she would do neither.
    She stood up and looked down at him. “I’ll do my job. You do yours. We’ll get along.”
     
    “How’s Rachel?” Leaning back in her chair in the quiet office, Claire asked the required question. After first calling the pharmacy where Bridget worked, she had then tracked her sister down at home.
    Claire had found in talking to Bridget these days that she might as well make an immediate inquiry about her niece and get it out of the way. Otherwise Bridget would find some way to mention Rachel in the first minute or two. Not that hearing updates on Rachel was a hardship. Bridget’s enthusiasm for her young daughter was infectious, although sometimes Claire worried that Bridget’s vocabulary was suffering since she was spending so much time with Rachel. “She’s fine. I think she’s starting to talk.”
    Claire had recognized early on that this child of her sister’s was going to be a genius. At least if she believed half of what Bridget told her. And for the most part she went along with it all. But there were times when Claire had to object.
    “I don’t think that’s possible, Bridget. She’s only nine months old.”
    “You should hear her. She’s hardly ever quiet.”
    “That’s called babbling. She’s practicing talking. It’s not the same thing. She is saying sounds to say sounds, not to communicate.”
    “Well, when she does start to talk, she’s going to be a master at it.”
    “I’ve no doubt. Hey, I’d love to chat, but I’m actually at work. I have some questions for you about pesticides.”
    “Pesticides. Not exactly my area of expertise.”
    “I’d like to understand better what they can do to a human if ingested or inhaled.” Claire explained the theft at the cooperative and the massacre of the flower garden. She concluded with the thought that was uppermost in her mind. “It wouldn’t have taken very much of the pesticides to kill the flower garden. This guy probably still has a lot of the stuff left.”
    “You sound worried. Do you really think he’s going to do more with the pesticides? Like what?”
    “That’s where you come in. I need to understand what kind of harm could be rendered with these substances. I talked to the agronomist who works at the cooperative and he was barely helpful. Made me feel like an idiot because I didn’t know what cholinesterase inhibition was.”
    Bridget giggled. “Well, at least you can say it. Do you understand what it is now?”
    “Not really.”
    “I doubt the agronomist did either. I’m not sure I remember completely. Pharmacy school was a few years ago. But basically what it means is the body stops functioning.”
    “That sounds bad.”
    “Yeah, deadly. Arsenic acts by causing this inhibition. The body slowly starts to shut down. Or it can happen fast. Depending on the dosing.”
    “Okay, that helps. I know it’s your day off, Bridget, but I really do need help with this. We need to be ready in case this guy gets crazy on us.”
    “What do you need?”
    “Could you look up what Caridon and Parazone can do, what amounts are needed, and what the antidotes are? I need all the particulars. The agronomist acted as if it were some state secret and I was a KGB agent. I want to disseminate this information to all the deputies by tomorrow so we can be prepared. I don’t want to be taken by surprise.”
    “Sure, I can help out. I was going to go into town anyway. I’ll look through my books here and then I’ll check at the pharmacy. Rachel has been saying she wants to go for a ride today.”
    Claire felt relieved that Bridget would be on the case. “Buy the kid an ice-cream cone for me.”
    Two hours later, Bridget called her back. “I’ve got what you need. Rachel and I shared an ice-cream