43 NoraGunderson swallowed. “I’m sorry, too. I’m saddened when I find anyone died in a fire I’m investigating. But I grieve most when the victim is a child.”
“I understand,” Nora said. “But I have questions I must ask.”
She pulled the report she’d received from the blood toxicologist from under her legal pad.
“Were you aware that the state pathologist concluded that the little girl died from carbon monoxide poisoning?” she asked.
“No, but I’m not surprised. We often find that victims succumb to carbon monoxide before the flames reach them. I find some comfort in knowing they suffered no pain.”
“Some comfort,” Nora agreed.
She added, “According to the pathologist, the level of carbon monoxide in the little girl’s blood was eighty percent. What do you make of that?”
Gunderson’s forehe
