The toxicologist's name was Dr. Merrill Osei, and she worked at a research institute in Alder Bay that studied marine biotoxins. I had used her as an expert witness once, on a case involving a shipment of pufferfish that had been mislabeled as cod, and she had been the only person I trusted to tell me the truth about Cassius.
I called her on Monday morning. She answered on the second ring.
"Daniel," she said. "It's been a while."
"I need to ask you something about the fish."
"The one you shouldn't own?"
"That one," I said.
"Go ahead."
I did not want to say too much on the phone. I asked her if she could meet me for lunch. She said she could, and we met at a place near the water, a restaurant with a patio and an umbrella, and we ordered iced tea and she looked at me with the calm, pa
