Unexpected Death

MOTE Week 27, 2026

This week on MOTE, I was prompted by TA Leederman: When the poison began to flow, no one realized the two houses were still connected.

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When Old George Thresher was found dead in his study, no-one thought much of it. He was perhaps the oldest person in town (the records claimed that he was but there were those who thought that a calendar translation mistake had been made on his immigration to the planet, making him not quite as old as Old Lucy Herriot), so while his sudden unexpected demise was a surprise – he had seemed quite healthy only that morning – such things were known to happen to the elderly.

The post mortem was viewed in advance as a formality. It was only carried out because the colony rules stated that in the case of unexpected deaths outside of medical facilities, if the attending doctor could not state the cause, a post mortem was required. Everyone thought it would turn out to be natural causes, and he could be buried in peace.

So when Chief Detective Sean Loader was called by the pathologist and asked to come over it was a surprise.

“I don’t normally get summoned here over a heart attack.”

“That’s because it wasn’t a heart attack. It was YXW-41 poisoning.”

Sean had never heard of YXW-41. Fortunately the pathologist took pity on him and explained.

“YXW-41 is a xeno-fungicide. It’s pretty much the only poison that will kill some of the weird funguses native to this planet, funguses that produce spores that can be fatal in high enough concentrations. Unfortunately YXW-41 also extremely deadly to humans at low concentrations.”

“So, how did it enter his system?”

“It’s a gas; it’s normally pumped into houses to kill the fungal infestation. But standard practice is to make sure that the gas doesn’t escape outside. There must have been some connection between the house he was found in and a house being fungified.”

“Could it have been an accident?”

“I doubt it. Most companies that use the gas ask someone on site to sign to confirm that there is no remaining way for the gas to escape before it’s pumped in.”

CD Loader returned to the station. He immediately asked Detectives Farnon and Olafson to find out whether any buildings in the vicinity were being treated for fungus on the day of Old George’s death.

To no-one’s surprise, there was one, the house next door. Unfortunately, New Guernsey Fungal Treatments, had already finished their work and had completely vacated the property. It wouldn’t be possible to review the equipment in situ to figure out how the poisoning took place.

CD Loader took Senior Detective Peter Chandler with him to interview the team from NGFT that had done the work.

SD Chandler went around interviewing the ordinary workers. The first person CD Loader interviewed was the foreman on the day, Fred Porter.

“Were you in charge of the work on 45-28 Thistle Peak Rise?”

“Yes. What’s this about? There weren’t any stealing whatever Missus Thorpe’s been telling you, and no call to bring in the cops over that anyway.”

“It’s about 44-28. There was a death in the property that day, and the pathologist reckons it was that gas you use.”

“Nonsense! I checked all the seals myself. They were all there, and all properly labelled.”

“Nonetheless, I’m afraid we need to check. Are you sure no-one could have tampered with a seal after you checked it?”

“Absolutely not. That’s proper procedure. We clear the house of all workers, I go around with one of the workmen, and then once I’m happy we fungify. No-one goes in or out while I’m checking the seals. No-one goes in once we come out.”

“Very good. Could a seal have been mis-installed, or tampered with between installation and your inspection?”

“Anything mis-installed would have been picked up on the initial set of checks. It wouldn’t have had the tag to show it passed them, until the mistake had been rectified. All the seals had the tag, I wouldn’t have passed the house fit for fungification otherwise.”

“And tampering between installation and inspection?”

“Why would anyone want to do that? YXW-41 is toxic. Only an idiot would break a seal to allow some of it to escape.”

“Since some of it did escape, and killed someone, I’m going to have to operate on that assumption. I assume you didn’t see any signs of the tampering?”

“Of course not! If I had, I’d have ordered a reseal, found out who had done it and fired him on the spot. You don’t mess around with anything like that.”

“I quite understand your position. However, that means whoever tampered with the seal did it in such a way that you didn’t spot it. How many people on your team could have done that?”

“I can’t believe anyone on my team would be that stupid.”

“If we assume it wasn’t an accident, and you have made it very clear that it couldn’t have been or someone would have spotted it, then someone must have been. Who is capable of that?”

“I could, but didn’t. There are three others on the team who are trained to check the seals. Since they know what I’d look for, they could have done it, but I have a hard time believing any of them did. The others? No. They wouldn’t know how to leave it to pass inspection.”

“Thank you. I may need to interview you again. I hope you’ll be staying in town.”

“Fat chance of a holiday with this job. I can’t afford to take time off to take the missus anywhere; we need the money for the rent.”

SD Chandler drove them back to the station. “They’re all horrified, Sir. They’re adamant it wasn’t any of them, that no-one would be stupid enough to do such a thing.”

“Unfortunately, the foreman says that all the seals were checked, and that none of them could have been tampered with thereafter. Were you able to confirm this?”

“Yes, Sir. I spoke with the checker who went around with him, and he confirms that all the seals checked fine. According to them, the checker who attends the foreman on those trips is chosen at random on the day; there’s no way to know who it will be in advance.”

“Which means that unless the foreman and all three checkers are in on this – which I doubt – any tampering of a seal would have to pass the later checks, because there would be a risk that at least one of the pair checking it wasn’t part of the plot.”

“That reduces the likelihood that it’s due to carelessness or accident, Sir.”

“Yes. If I understand their procedures, the seals are all checked, and then they’re re-checked as part of a final sweep. Only someone who could have fooled the checks could have tampered with one of the seals. That means we have four initial suspects, the foreman and the three checkers. I’ll get Farnon and Olafson to check the backgrounds on everyone else just in case, but unless one of them has the necessary training, we’re down to just four.”

It was Olafson who spotted the detail that made the breakthrough. He came to CD Chandler’s office to report.

“I’ve finished my background check on Thomas Smithson, Sir. We should look closely at him. He’s married to Old George’s granddaughter. In addition he’s currently heavily in debt.”

“And under Old George’s will, the house will be sold and the proceeds split between his grandchildren, giving him a financial incentive.” That had been confirmed when the will was read only the day before. “Is it enough to get him out of debt?”

“Based on the expected value of the property, yes, but if he doesn’t adjust his spending it will only be temporary.”

“Nonetheless, this is enough for us to have him in for questioning.”

Thomas Smithson was brought in. It did not take long before he admitted to his guilt. He had deliberately reconnected the pipe between the two houses, making sure that the seal looked intact, and had arranged to be somewhere else on the day the seals were checked.

With the confession on tape, it was going to be a simple conviction for murder.

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My offering this week went to Becky Jones.

Head over to MOTE and see what everyone comes up with. I’m looking forwards to reading them all.