After lunch, I was sitting alone on my favourite chair in the poker room, waiting for Nesbitt to deem himself fit to see me. It was frustrating. Very frustrating. Even more frustrating than the fact that I still had absolutely no idea what had gone on in the little room. Everything seemed so wrong.
I stood up and began to pace around the table, eyeing the contents. I had two possible solutions. One, my assumption had been correct, and the poison was in the glass, or two, I was wrong, and it wasn't.
And if it wasn't in the glass, then where was it?
I stood pensively over the table, running my fingers up the bridge of my nose and back again. I hoped the poison was in the glass. I guessed the poison was in the glass. But I didn't know.
And if it wasn't in the glass, then where was it?
I groaned aloud and walked to the cabinet leaning on the surface heavily, trying to re-gain my thoughts. I was going in circles here.
"You don't know everything yet."
I turned sharply. Hettie was standing in the doorway, looking sympathetic.
"How can you expect to understand what's going on when you haven't collected all the evidence?" Hettie reasoned. I frowned at her.
"What do you mean?"
Hettie came over, grabbing me by the shoulders and steering me firmly over to the armchair.
"I mean, you haven't got the results from the liquid tests back yet, and you haven't talked to Nesbitt" she pointed out. "How can you complete a jigsaw with only half the pieces?"
I flopped down on the chair with a sigh.
"Well, what can I do, then?" I whined. "I can't stand being bored."
"Read something" Hettie advised. "And get out of this room, too. If you burn yourself out too soon, you'll be no good when the time comes."
I pouted.
"You're worse than my sister."
Hettie smiled.
"I'll take that as a compliment."
We left, me locking the door again behind us. Hettie led me to the lounge, and we sat down. It wss quite empty, and I could see the other people looking at us intrestedly.
"Talk to me" Hettie ordered. "About one of your other cases. It'll take your mind off this one."
I pouted again.
"Fine. Which one do you want to hear about?"
Hettie sighed again.
"This isn't working, is it?" she asked. I shook my head defiantly.
"Nope."
Her next question surprised me a little.
"Talk about that Detective Inspector friend of yours, then."
"Which one?" I asked confusedly.
"Whichever one you want" Hettie replied easily. By then, I had worked out what she was up to, so deliberately picked the other option.
"He's big, bold, and really loud" I said bluntly. "A bit of a pig to his deputy..."
"Allie!" Hettie snapped. "Be serious for a second! You know which one I want to hear about, so why won't you tell me?"
I relented a little.
"I just don't see why you want to hear about him. He's just a random Detective Inspector, and I'm never going to really see him again."
Hettie sighed.
"Because you enjoy telling people about him. I see it in your eyes, Allie. Sedgefield Carburry may have bestowed more of his gifts onto you, but that doesn't mean I don't have any at all" she pointed out patiently.
I looked at her, a mixture of frustration, guilt, and a hint of reluctance.
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"Because it feels wrong" I admitted. "I feel like I should be forgetting about him."
"Why should you forget?" Hettie questioned. "Really, though. This Detective Inspector, from what you've told me, sounds like another version of you, Allie. Someone smart enough to keep up with you. People like that deserve to be remembered, and not just by you. Both of you deserve to be remembered by everyone. So for God's sake don't try to forget. Try to remember."
I bit my lip, trying to hold back the smile.
"Stop it, Het."
"No!" Hettie said determinedly. "I won't."
"Hettie, I can't try to remember Smart, because if I do, Newham will get jealous and do something stupid."
The words were out before I could stop them. The underlying truth of why I couldn't think about Smart. Newham had always been jealous of the connection we'd had, and after Isabel had recounted to me the awkward conversation between the lieutenant and the Detective Inspector while I was in shock, I could see why. Hettie seemed to realize she had crossed some sort of line, and was sitting watching me nervously.
"I had no idea" she said quietly. "I understand now, I think."
"I'm glad you do. I don't."
I was just spouting truths now. Nine times out of ten I was sure, but then every now and then...
"Nope. Stop it now. Let's change the subject" I said quickly, closing that metaphorical door instantly. Hettie could see I had been thinking about other things, so didn't question my sudden outburst.
"You're going to have to think about it eventually, you know" she warned.
"Yeah" I huffed, standing up. "But not now. Now, we're going to take the bull by the horns."
"What?" Hettie asked confusedly.
"We're going to take the interrogation to the Nesbitt" I explained. "Come on."
"What?" Hettie repeated, before dissolving into giggles.
"I'm going to talk to Nesbitt. Now. If you don't want to come with me, go find a cruise to the Caribbean."
"Will you shut up about the Caribbean?" Hettie complained, as we went out into the hall. "It's getting really boring."
"For you, perhaps" I smiled wickedly.
After finding out which room was Nesbitt's, an arduous task which involved sixty seconds of churlish giggling and rapid eyelid-fluttering at the unfortunate male receptionist, Hettie and I hurried up the stairs as quickly as we could.
"You know" Hettie remarked, as we climbed. "I'm beginning to understand how you make men fall for you. I don't think I've ever heard someone giggle and flirt so much in such a short space of time."
"Well, I had to" I shot back. "I mean, you couldn't be seen to be flirting with a receptionist, could you? Not since you're a married woman. So naturally, I had to do most of the work."
Hettie snorted.
"You and Lieutenant Newham are courting, aren't you? I'm pretty sure he'd be just as annoyed to see you flirting with the receptionist."
I gasped, before bursting into fits of giggles.
"Oh, God! You won't tell him, will you?"
"My lips are sealed" Hettie assured me, trying desperately to keep a straight face as we reached Nesbitt's floor and hurried across the landing.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Hettie asked dubiously.
"No, not really" I replied. "But this is my investigation, and I want answers."
With that, I knocked smartly on the door. It was opened by one of the hotel maids, and a whiff of disinfectant mixed with sick wafted out with her, making Hettie gag. I kept my composure. Just.
"Sorry, miss" the maid apologised. "Mr. Nesbitt's really not well. We've called for the doctor again, but he really isn't up for your investigating."
I sighed grumpily.
"I'll have to cope without, then. Come on, Het."
As we walked dejectedly back down the stairs, I spoke my thoughts out aloud.
"I don't like it, Het. I feel like there's something we've missed. Something last night made Nesbitt and Newham ill, and something killed Nathan Grange. If there was more than one evil in that room last night, then where's the other one hidden? If there was only one, then how come it's affected Grange, Newham and Nesbitt and not the Commander?"
"Maybe the Commander had an antidote or something?" Hettie suggested.
"But if it was the Commander, then how did he get the poison into the glass?" I asked. "And if it wasn't, how come he is the only one who isn't affected?"
Hettie shrugged.
"We need to go back into that room, Het. See what we can and can't find." We had reached the bottom of the stairs, and I had set off at a blinding pace down the hall. Hettie followed, shaking her head. There was no stopping me when I was on a roll. She knew that much.
By the time Hettie actually reached the poker room, I had already started to walk around, trying to see what I'd missed. She joined me, with slightly less of an idea of what she was looking for than I had, which was rich, considering I didn't have a clue.
"Any ideas?" I asked.
"Nope" she replied. "Any ideas?"
"Nope."
We carried on like this for fifteen minutes at the least, asking each other the same question over and over again. It was only when I was physically sitting at the poker table itself that the idea hit.
"Het?" I said distractedly.
"Mm?" Hettie asked, having been looking up the chimney for no reason whatsoever.
"What about the cards?"
"What do you mean?" Hettie asked, coming over.
"I mean, what about the cards? We know Nesbitt was rigging the game, so what's to say the poison isn't on one of them?"
"How do we check?" Hettie asked, staring at the cards, facinated.
"Very, very carefully" I murmured, reaching towards the first pile.
"Or" Hettie said quickly, lightly smacking my hand away "We go and ask your doctor friend to check the deck out for us."
"Mm" I agreed, withdrawing my hand swiftly. "But first, we'll have to find another deck to replace the old one with."
"Why?" Hettie asked curiously.
"Avoiding suspicion" I replied simply. "In case the murderer gets in here, and works out we're onto him."
"Clever" Hettie smiled. "I'll go and find one, if that's alright."
"Perfectly" I nodded. "Don't be too long. I want to do some poking into pasts this evening."
Hettie giggled.
"Sounds fun."
I grinned.
"It will be."
Hettie went off to search for another deck of cards, and I went to the telephone.
"Dr. Scott?" I asked, after dialing the number.
"What do you need me for now, Alianna?" Dr. Scott sighed. I laughed.
"Anyone'd think you didn't want to help me. I've got a deck of cards I need you to look at. How can I get them to you?"
"Come and drop them off tomorrow morning" Dr. Scott advised. "You know the address. Harley Street. I've finished with the first batch of evidence you've given me, by the way."
"And?" I prompted eagerly.
"It's all rather confusing" Dr. Scott confessed. "I checked the powder out, and it appears to have a rather nasty sort of mushroom in it. Wouldn't kill, mind, just give someone a very bad case of the vomiting. To make it worse, the only cup containing it was Nesbitt's."
"Right" I said bluntly, my brain spinning. "You're sure?"
"Sure."
"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow, unless something else comes up" I sighed. "Thank you."
"It's no problem, Alianna. I hope you can make more sense of this than I can."
"Don't bet on it" I sighed. "Goodbye."
"Goodbye. Good luck."
I put the phone down.
"Right" I said to myself. "That just got more complicated."
I decided to go and sit back in the poker room. Hettie hadn't returned, so I flopped down on one of the armchairs and put my feet up on the coffee table.
"So how did Newham get the mushrooms?" I mused. "And why? And also, why was Nesbitt given the mushrooms in the first place? And how was Grange actually killed?"
I stood up, wandering around the room aimlessly.
"Nothing makes any sense."