I sat down before she finished.

The cream contained a caustic substance inconsistent with the product as sold.

The separate bottle in our living room contained a chemically similar household cleaner, although additional testing and trace comparisons were still underway.

The other items in the gift set were being examined.

Ruiz carefully distinguished the findings from a conclusion about who put the substance into the jar.

“But it wasn’t just a bad batch of cream,” I said.