Lessons in Following a Poisonous Trail: A Cambridge Fellows Mystery novella (Cambridge Fellows Mysteries) by Cochrane Charlie

Author:Cochrane, Charlie [Cochrane, Charlie]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: The Right Chair Press
Published: 2020-04-05T16:00:00+00:00

***

Orlando had felt less tired when he woke on Monday morning, the fine weather and a good night’s sleep working their wonders on him. While his degree of bafflement was no less than the previous day, he had resigned himself to it. The case was no different to an abstruse mathematical problem that at present defied solution: all it needed was patience and the application of thought.

After seeing Claridge, the man who had hosted the meal at Assumption, Orlando’s spirits were on the wane once more. Notwithstanding Threlfall being poisoned or any of the other possibly related incidents, Claridge was not convinced that the dinner he’d given—or the diners who’d attended—had been specifically targeted.

Why had he gone along with having the student held to be responsible sent down when he believed nothing had gone on? Because, he said, the lad concerned had been living on borrowed time and it had been as well to rid the university of such a malign influence.

What about the laxative which had been found in the pudding? Claridge showed his opinion of that with a snort. Laithwaite was an excellent man, but gullible, especially if a woman was involved. He’d have believed anything he was told and Claridge could imagine the friend who’d performed the chemical test making game with him, perhaps aware of the similar incident at the school.

Orlando held his counsel on that. Although he didn’t know Laithwaite well, the man struck him as nobody’s fool, although it had to be admitted that Orlando found himself naturally biased against anything Claridge said, given his college’s rivalry with St Bride’s. The only point of real note was discovering that Sibley was a fellow of Peterhouse, although that might be of little significance, given that it was Jones the student from that college had sent the threatening note to. Eventually Orlando decided that nothing was else to be gained in questioning Claridge further, so he set off to see Jones, who had promised to squeeze him in between two supervision sessions.

The meeting proved to be slightly less frustrating. Jones recognised something strange had gone on and that while the threat he’d received and the subsequent action didn’t match up, a genuine attempt had been made to cause harm to the diners. He was also ready to accept that the student who’d been sent down was most likely to have perpetrated the offence, given that he was in Assumption at the time. As for the incident with Threlfall, Jones said that he felt it was sufficiently different to suggest it was unrelated. The laxative had surely been meant to cause distress and embarrassment, but in this case the harm was more serious.

Orlando came away pondering how three men, all of them respected in their academic fields, could have such differing views on an incident they’d all been involved in. Sibley’s opinion would form an interesting counterpoint although Orlando wouldn’t hear that until the afternoon, which, so the man had told him over the telephone, was the first mutually convenient time they could meet.

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