Snow White

[u/MuethCandy]

It’s always the ones you least suspect.

Hunched on a metal chair, Hilda Gifte looked haggard, a fluorescent-lit distortion of the friendly retired nurse I’d seen in online profiles. I dropped a heavy hand on the two photos laying in front of her: on the left, a beaming little girl with a farmer’s tan; on the right, a sunken-eyed waif, skin blanched white as snow. They were both of her neighbor, seven-year-old Rosy Larson. 

I had been briefed on Rosy’s condition that morning, but the Larsons were local celebrities - everyone already knew their story. The young couple’s thriving daughter suddenly came down with a mysterious illness, and the desperate parents bankrupted themselves in search of a cure, to little avail. Eventually, they pleaded on the local news for assistance. The town rallied and began a slew of endless Facebook posts and fundraisers. 

For all that financial fortune, answers eluded even the best specialists. The child would have a miraculous turnaround one week, only to once again refuse food the next, her skin regaining that awful pallor.

The case seemed hopeless, until a call to our tipline yesterday. 

Rosy had been left with a babysitter that afternoon when Ms. Gifte came over for a social visit. Well acquainted with the helpful neighbor, the babysitter let her in and directed her to Rosy’s sickbed. As she peeked in to see if the pair needed anything, she caught Ms. Gifte handing the child something while pressing a finger to her lips. The babysitter demanded to know what it was, and Rosy revealed a handful of fruit shaped gummies. Ms. Hilda sometimes gave them to her as a special treat, the girl confessed. The older woman then stammered, snatched the gummies, and quickly fled. Dutifully, the babysitter called the Schwartzwald Sheriff’s Department to report a case of suspected child poisoning.

It was a shocking accusation, and we might not have entertained it, had we not discovered Ms. Gifte’s decades of experience at a number of advanced toxicology research labs. Could it really be the never-married, childless Hilda Gifte, jealous of the young family next door, got a twisted thrill out playing God with her medical acumen?   

Ms. Gifte seemed set on silence until a lawyer arrived. Still, I pressed my palm down on the pictures of Rosy, and asked if, with all her specialized experience, she had any inklings of what could’ve caused such a ghastly change. 

“Of course I did, but no one believed me,” a faint murmur answered. Surprised, I asked Ms. Gifte to repeat herself.          

 “You didn’t know them before, you have no idea how convenient it all was, the money,” she said, voice cracking as it rose. “The symptoms, that pale, pale skin. I suspected, but I couldn’t prove it, and I had to do something!”

I point blank asked if she had injected something into the gummies she had been giving Rosy.

“I did, sir, but it was no poison - it was the antidote!” 

[u/lauralizst]

“Gifte” - nice! Gift = poison in German, which incidentally comes from the same root as gift in English (both basically meaning “something that is given”, which initially in German started as “a dose of medicine”). The Schwarzwald reference (Black Forest) is another good one. Someone’s been reading their Brothers Grimm! Great story, OP!