I'm working on a crime story about cyanide poisoning from apple seeds. I just would like to have an idea of what processes and extraction techniques might be involved in getting cyanide from the seeds. The character is supposed to have access to a high school chemistry lab; so I was thinking equipment and tools that can be found in a typical HS lab. I prefer a detailed answer, step by step, if possible. If not then just generalized terminologies would work.

Forget about the apple seeds, they contain about 1 to 4 mg amygdalin per gramm seeds (DOI).
Instead, collect apricot seeds during the right season, the amygdalin content varies though the year and can be as high as 5% of the dry weight of the seed (DOI).
It is probably advantagenous to break the husk with a nut cracker, a plier, etc. and cut the softer inner material to smaller pieces.
Extraction of amygdalin can be performed by


immersing the material in methanol and subsequent ultrasonification
Soxhlet extraction with methanol
reflux extraction in water in the presence of citric acid



A comparison of the extraction methods is given here.

Removal of the solvent in vacuum will yield a crude material with significant amounts of amygdalin. You might want to have a look at this article from the Western Journal of Medicine on the toxicity. Here, an $\mathrm{LD_{50}}$ of 522 mg amygdalin per kg body weight was estimated for the oral application to rats. The online resource of the U.S. National Library of Medicine gives a value of 405 mg/kg.


Further information on the health risk of apricot kernels are provided by of the German Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung (Federal Institute for Risk Assessment) and the British Committee on Toxicity.

A note in the a German medical journal, Deutsche Ärzteblatt, (PDF) describes a case where boy of four years (110 cm, 18 kg body weight) was given apricot kernels during an alternative cancer treatment. Upon additional treatment with a single dose of 500 mg amygdalin, the kid showed agitation, spasms and the eyes started to roll.


I'll leave it up to your fantasy as a writer on how to apply the poison, but spicing some marzipan with it might help ;) 
