Chapter 3 - The Forensic Toxicologist at Midnight

================================================================================
By 11:30 PM, the grand mansion had transformed into an active forensic command center.
Dr. Aris Thorne—a brilliant military toxicologist who had overseen biomedical defense contracts for Nathan’s maritime logistics group—arrived carrying two heavy Pelican diagnostic cases.
Wearing full respirator masks, Dr. Thorne and his team carefully extracted the matte-black canister from the ventilation shaft and transferred liquid swab samples into a portable mass spectrometer set up inside Nathan’s private library.
Jacob and Jonah had been moved to the far East Wing of the estate, into a clean, unventilated guest suite under my watchful care. I sat between their twin beds, reading them bedtime stories until their breathing softened into peaceful sleep. For the first time in six months, they slept without coughing.
Downstairs in the library, the centrifuge machine chimed.
Dr. Thorne pulled the diagnostic readouts, his face turning an ashen shade of grey. He walked over to Nathan’s desk, where Nathan stood staring out the French doors into the rainy night.
"The analysis is definitive, Mr. Coleman," Dr. Thorne reported grimly. "The canister contains Dimethylmercury combined with an aerosolized neuro-inhibitor, formulated to release microscopic vapor clouds every six hours during the boys' sleeping cycles."
Nathan didn't blink. "How long has it been running?"
"Judging by the residue crystallization inside the duct baffles... at least five months," Thorne replied. "The dosage was calculated with terrifying, surgical precision. It was kept just below the acute lethal threshold to ensure the children would waste away over eight to twelve months, leading to multi-organ failure attributed to an undiagnosed pediatric autoimmune crisis."
Nathan poured two fingers of Scotch into a crystal glass, but he didn't drink.
"Who could formulate something like that, Aris?"
"Only a licensed pharmacologist or a physician with access to high-tier chemical precursors," Thorne answered.
At that exact moment, the heavy oak library doors clicked open.
Dr. Malcolm Reeves walked in, shaking rainwater from his tailored wool overcoat, holding his leather physician's bag.
"Nathan, what is the meaning of this security lockdown?" Dr. Reeves asked with an air of theatrical indignation. "The gate guards checked my vehicle trunk! I received an automated alert on my phone that the boys' vital monitoring suite had disconnected from my clinic server!"
May you like
Nathan turned around slowly, the crystal glass shattering in his bare hand.
================================================================================