Page 55 of Shrapnel

Leaning down, he lowered his voice to a hushed whisper so as not to startle him. “Jamie, wake up.”

Snuffling, Jamie rolled to his back and opened his eyes. For a moment his gaze was unfocused, then he closed them again and drifted off.

Owen retrieved an extra blanket and pillow, lifting Jamie’s head to slide the pillow under it. The moment the blanket lowered over him Jamie snatched it, snuggling down into it.

Without understanding why, Owen felt the urge to stay. To watch over him while he slept. But that would be weird. He stood and retreated to his bedroom. His complicated feelings followed him like a shadow.

“According to these reports, our inhalantisn’tany known chemical makeup.” Elijah narrowed his eyes, trying to make sense of the report in his hand. “It acts like Mustard gas but also has anticholinergic properties.”

Noah made a face as Elijah looked up from the report in his hand.

This was supposed to be a date weekend. Noah had dismissed everyone except the perimeter guards. Even Harvey had gone off to do whatever it was he did when he wasn’t working for Noah.

Instead of spending time together, watching crappy B movies, and eating cold chocolate, they were looking at autopsy reports. Three separate doctors had examined the lung samples and come to the same conclusion—they had no idea what it was.

“Why don’t we save us all some time and get to what theydo know.”

“Well,” Elijah started. It had been a long time since he took a science class, and he was having trouble finding his way around the report. He flipped through some pages until he came across something.

“This is interesting. Apparently, there’s a difference between the chemicals in the homeless guys and the dead Mesa members.”

Noah pushed himself off the desk and looked over Elijah’s shoulder. “The concentration was higher in my guys?”

“Yeah. It’s almost like the homeless guys were hit with it first but didn’t succumb until a few days later. Almost like Silo Fillers disease.”

Noah groaned, dropping his head to Elijah’s shoulder. “Please use small words to explain.”

Elijah turned, nuzzling against Noah’s head. “Fresh corn and grains, or silage, gives off nitrogen dioxide when wet. If exposed, fluid can develop in the lungs as late as 12 hours after exposure. Farmers can even get better only to get sick again two weeks later.”

Noah nodded. “Do I want to know how you know that?”

“One of those stupid pieces of knowledge that I’ve accrued.” He shrugged. “So the homeless men were attacked days before their deaths. Why?”

Noah moved away from Elijah, falling back into a chair. Slouching down, he dropped his face into his hands. He was exhausted. Elijah didn’t need to see the bags under his eyes to know that. Noah’s spark was gone. Those proud eyes of his, normally sparkling in defiance, were dim. Seeing the defeat on his boyfriend’s face destroyed Elijah.

The only way to get it back is to solve this. Find the person killing White Sand Mesa members and Noah will shine again.

“Inhalants don’t stay in the system very long, so our docs are working with disintegrating samples.”

The problem was there were a thousand chemicals that could cause blistering of lung tissue: chlorine, phosgene, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, nitrogen dioxide, and ammonia. All of which were easy to get a hold of, and according to the tox results, not the manner of death.

“We should call the local universities, and see if there are any chemists or doctors who have fallen off the radar.”

Noah snorted. “What? Like Walter White?”

Elijah thought it might be exactly like that. If the killer wasn’t the chemist himself, it wouldn’t be difficult to find someone with chemical knowledge to do his bidding.

As Jamie said, the murderer wanted to kill extravagantly. He was trying to send a message, they just had to decode it. The only part they figured out was that the killer hated Noah.

Noah sighed, running his hands through his hair and fluffing the chestnut strands, rubbing at his scalp.

“What I can’t figure out is why the Legos. They don’t fit.”

“Elijah.”

“I mean, it could be part of the message he’s trying to send. Which means he either knows something about you that you don’t know yourself, or he’s guessing.”

“Elijah.”