Page 75 (1/2)

"What subject?"

"I’ to that This is an article on ’Human stress cardiomyopathy’ written by a couple of doctors in Ohio Here we go Catch this," she said "Mrs Grey suffered a characteristic daeneration brought on by fear-generated stress"

"Can you translate?"

"Sure, it’s siets flooded with intolerable levels of adrenaline, heart cells are killed The pockets of dead cells interfere with the norulates the heart When the nerve fibers are disrupted, the heart starts beating erratically and, in this case, that led to cardiac failure"

"Okay," I said cautiously I had the feeling there was more "So what’s the punch line here?"

"This little old lady was quite literally scared to death"

"What?"

"It’s just what it sounds like Whatever happened to her in those hours she was gone, she was so badly frightened it killed her"

"Are you talking about her being lost or so more The theory is that, under certain circuical stress and pain can generate lethal charges in cardiac tissue"

"Like what?"

"Well, take a little kid Her father beats her with a belt, ties her up, and leaves her bound in a vacant roo, she’s dead The actual physical injuries aren’t sufficient to cause death I’ about the stress levels most of us experience in the ordinary course of events Without getting graphic about it, it’s analogous to certain ani focalme this is a homicide"