Read Capacity for Murder (Professor Bradshaw Mysteries) for Free Online

“It’s a marine phenomenon, rare this far north. The crest of waves glow with bluish light, and the wet sand emits a blue glow when you walk on it.”
    “I’ll be damned. I’d like to have seen that. I was in Aberdeen on Monday night. What makes it glow?”
    Hornsby said, “Some sort of phosphor in the water, I believe. Is that right, Professor?”
    “That’s what’s commonly believed,” he said, sticking to his habit of not muddying an investigation by adding previously unknown facts. The truth was more complicated than simple phosphor. The glow was created by ocean plankton. Always present, when the conditions were right, they experienced enormous blooms. The action of the waves and the impact upon the sand triggered the tiny creatures to glow in a process known as bioluminescence.
    Hornsby’s brow suddenly furrowed, and then he gasped with a sharp intake. “The glowing sand, Professor, it didn’t affect the apparatus here, did it? Is there some electrical aspect to it? It sparked!” Panic filled his voice. “Should I have not have performed an electrotherapy treatment so close to such an event?”
    “No, Doctor Hornsby. The glowing sand did not alter your equipment.”
    Even so, tears rolled silently down Hornsby’s cheeks and welled in his mustache.
    “We will discover the truth of what happened here, but it will be difficult for you.”
    Hornsby nodded. “That doesn’t matter. Whatever you need, I’ll do.”
    “First, tell me. Was David in here alone at any time?”
    “The sheriff asked me that, too. He was alone for a few minutes that morning. As I said, Mrs. Thompson had come to speak to me. Freddie, her husband, had a severe bilious attack during the night and was still feeling poorly. I went to see him, and determined his usual treatment might improve his condition, so I escorted him back to my office and got him settled there. By then, David was here waiting for me. During that time, I suppose it’s possible he tampered with the settings, but probable? No! Why would he? And you said you saw nothing wrong.”
    “But David was killed, and so we know something went terribly wrong.”
    “But I can’t believe he’d do anything so foolish, and I couldn’t live with myself if I falsely blamed David for his own death. He was a good man, devoted to my daughter. I loved him like he was my own son.”
    “I understand. But I still must ask you what David knew of electrical matters.”
    “Quite a bit, although he wasn’t a trained electrician. His knowledge was all practical. He was very clever. You’ll see for yourself when you visit the powerhouse and laundry. He knew enough to never have done anything to harm himself or others.”
    “Can you say with complete certainty that nothing had been altered on the machine when you entered the room?”
    “No! If only I could, this tragedy would never have occurred. If I’d seen it had been touched, I would not have continued with the procedure! I looked at the machine, as I always do, and I saw nothing unexpected. I didn’t examine the entire outfit, you understand, or open the panel. Why would I? I’ve kept up on the maintenance, and I knew the Leyden jars had adequate saline solution. I looked at it in the usual way with my mind on the procedure and saw that the settings were as they should be for administering autocondensation. My eye met nothing unusual and yet I can’t say for certain now what I saw.”
    Bradshaw spent the next half hour running standard tests on the individual components and found all in perfect working order. He asked Dr. Hornsby and the deputy to stand back at a safe distance, then he threw the knife switch, energizing the machine. At once it began to thrum, and a tiny spark buzzed across the narrow gap of the spark interrupter. The glass electrode wand that Bradshaw had attached by cord to the diathermy post glowed purple. He touched the tip of it with his knuckles, feeling a slight stinging buzz, then he picked it up,