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she also felt his anger. There was accusation in those eyes. She quickly realized that in their need to understand what had happened to their daughter, the Thorndyke's were searching for a scapegoat, someone to blame so it would make some sense.
    "You were on duty when they brought her into the emergency room, right?" he said in an accusing tone.
    "Yes. I was with a patient and I heard the STAT and rushed right down. I had just gotten my stethoscope on her chest when she expired," Terri explained.
    Geena Thorndyke groaned and began to sob.
    "They're telling us it looks like she died of acute scurvy," Bradley said, his disdain and disbelief quite evident in his voice.
    "Yes, Mr. Thorndyke. It's just about certain that will be the diagnosis."
    "That's just ridiculous. She was found unconscious on the floor of a cheap, one-night motel room. She must have been drugged," Bradley insisted. "Someone picked her up and slipped her one of those Ecstasy things or something, an overdose, right?"
    "The autopsy doesn't show that, Bradley," Hyman said softly. "There was some alcohol in her blood stream, but no chemical substances."
    "Well let them do another autopsy, for Christ sakes! My daughter had to have been murdered. Murdered!"
    Hyman Templeman shifted his gaze quickly to Terri and then nodded sympathetically at Bradley Thorndyke.
    "I can understand why you would feel this way, Bradley. We're stumped."
    "Someone had to have at least hit her or…" He turned to Terri, his hands out, "Or done something violent to her."
    "Every hemorrhage on her body appears to have been caused by fragile capillaries, a classic symptom of scurvy. The autopsy reveals large muscle hemorrhages and petechial and purpuric skin manifestations," Hyman explained, when Terri hesitated.
    Bradley shook his head.
    "It's not the sort of thing that happens overnight," Terri added. "Not this severe, this quickly. Did either of you notice her becoming weak, irritable? Did she become black and blue at the slightest touch? And her gums… rapidly developing gingival hemorrhages give the appearance of bags of blood," Terri continued. Wide-eyed, both Bradley and Geena looked at her. It was as if she were from another planet.
    Geena finally shook her head.
    "No, nothing like that," she muttered.
    "She wasn't being treated for peptic ulcers, was she?" Hyman asked.
    "Ulcers? No," Bradley said. "Besides, you would know. You were her doctor, Hyman."
    Doctor Templeman nodded.
    "It's been a while since I've seen her," he remarked softly.
    "That's because she was as healthy as a horse. You know she was into all that aerobics and exercise. Christ, she ate like someone in training. She was always complaining about our fatty diets, the chemicals in our food. We never ate the right cereals and she would go into tirades over the cholesterol we consumed, right, Geena?"
    "What? Oh, yes, yes," she said smiling and wiping her cheeks. "She made me promise to buy this butter substitute because Bradley eats so badly when he's traveling." Her voice trailed off. She caught herself as if she realized she was adding the most inane details to the discussion.
    "When did you see your daughter last, Mrs. Thorndyke?" Terri asked softly.
    "Two days ago… we had lunch." She started to bury her face in her hands again.
    "So what were Paige's dietary habits?" Terri pursued. "I mean, was she following any fads? I know that some people get caught up in these meditation cults and make radical changes in their food habits."
    "Meditation cults?" Bradley cried. "This is ridiculous," he said turning back to Hyman. "Scurvy? That comes from a lack of vitamin C, right? A sailor's disease before they knew about vitamins, right?" he insisted. "It has to be a stupid mistake."
    "The lab findings are pretty accurate, Bradley. What we were also wondering was had Paige gone on any sort of fad diet to lose weight," Hyman said.
    "Absolutely not. I told you. She was into exercise. She didn't have to diet to lose weight. She