Malice in Miniature by Jeanne M. Dams

Author:Jeanne M. Dams [Jeanne M. Dams]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2012-12-07T16:00:00+00:00

10

In spite of my reservations about Bramshill, and Alan’s ambivalence about my activities, we enjoyed a pleasant weekend. We went to the village church on Sunday morning, and though the music was awful, compared to a cathedral choir and organ, the vicar was a charming man who conducted a dignified service and preached a good sermon based on St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, the bit about husbands loving their wives. Perhaps because of that, or perhaps because a night together in a large, comfortable bed in the guest wing had strengthened our appreciation of each other, on Sunday afternoon we talked long and hard about Mrs. Lathrop’s murder. By tacit consent we avoided controversy. I was careful to be non-provocative in my remarks, and Alan, in his turn, was scrupulously fair about dealing out information. He really was trying to unbend.

I brought him up to date on the disappearance of the accountant. “When I found out, it seemed obvious that he was the culprit, but I thought about it on the train coming down, Alan, and now I’m not convinced that Thoreston actually had anything to do with it. I’m sure they’ll find irregularities in the books—that’s why he’s vamoosed—but he’s not the type for anything more ambitious. He struck me, the one time I met him, as a sly, sneaky kind of person. He cringes, like Uriah Heep. Now a man like that might easily embezzle a few paltry sums, but would he have the steady nerves, not to mention the knowledge, to plan a particularly clever poisoning?”

“Means, motive, opportunity.” My spouse intoned the classic trio like a mantra. “Look at it from a police point of view. The means and opportunity were at hand. From what I’ve been told, anyone in the house could have got at the herbal tea, though there’s a limited time period involved.

“Morrison’s kept me apprised of all the main points of the case, because of my personal interest. This, by the way, is privileged information; don’t mention it to anyone.

“It seems Mrs. Lathrop asked for new herbs to be gathered on Wednesday, a week and a half ago, and Bob did as the head gardener, Adam, told him. She, Lathrop, allowed them to dry for a couple of days in a fruit desiccator, and then chopped them and put them away in her own particular tea caddy, which she kept in the kitchen. According to the cook, Lathrop was quite particular about mixing the herbs herself, though she trusted the gardeners to pick them.”

“With her weight, I doubt if she would have enjoyed stooping over flower beds, especially in the sun.”

“Perhaps not. At any rate, on the Sunday—a week ago—she indulged in a heavy meal and was struck with indigestion in the evening. She asked the cook to make her an infusion, drank it, and reported feeling better, although she drank a little more of the tea in the morning, a fresh infusion, just to be sure. She felt fine, then, until Wednesday night, when a meal of roast pork caused her fits again.

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