“It’s a whole-house fragrance diffuser,” I whispered, reaching in to look at the fluid reservoir.
The reservoir was a two-liter aluminum canister. It was warm to the touch. The internal heating element, designed to vaporize the chemical oil into micro-droplets under twenty microns, was humming silently, powered by the house’s electrical grid. The fluid inside was three-quarters empty.
“Why would this be inside the wall?” Clara cried out, her voice pitching into hysteria. “Who put that in our wall?!”
“The previous owners? The contractors?” Julian was hyperventilating, staring at the green light blinking rhythmically on the faceplate. “The contractors… the HVAC crew said they had an add-on package for indoor air purification. Clara, remember? They said they were installing an ‘ambient freshness module’ as part of the whole-home filtration system. They said it was completely organic, hypoallergenic, essential-oil based…”
“Synthetic fragrance oils are not essential oils,” I said, my fingers carefully tracing the edge of the unit without touching the wiring. “And even if they were, micro-aerosolized organic compounds pumped into an enclosed space are profoundly toxic to developing central nervous systems.”
