Mrs Pargeter 01; A Nice Class of Corpse

∨ A Nice Class of Corpse ∧

37

Mrs Pargeter flopped on to her bed. She felt trembly, in need of some sort of restorative. For a moment she contemplated the effort of going back down to the Schooner Bar for a brandy. Then, wryly, she remembered that there was no one at the moment around to man the Schooner Bar.

She wondered where Newth would go. She didn’t think he’d get far.

Soon, she knew, she’d have to call the police. Soon she’d have to explain the reasons why she had reached the conclusion that Newth was a murderer.

But it’d keep for a little while. She was going to need all her wits about her for that conversation. Just give herself a few minutes for recuperation.

She knew why she felt so exhausted. It was the release of tension. She had been really terrified of Newth, because she could recognise the logic of a murderer’s mind. The person who had killed Mrs Selsby had also killed Mrs Mendlingham when she revealed that she had witnessed the first murder. Mrs Pargeter, by her hints in the Schooner Bar that evening, had alerted the murderer to her own suspicions, and from that moment had put herself at the top of the list of prospective victims.

It was a huge relief to have survived that interview with Newth.

She felt drowsy, as if she might drift off to sleep.

But still there was a nasty metallic taste in her mouth. Probably just dry, she thought, another reflection of the strain I’ve just been under for the last hour.

Still, she didn’t want to wake again with a nasty taste. She reached sleepily round for the atomiser on her bedside table and brought it to her mouth.

It was an uneven ridge she felt along the side of the little cylinder that stopped her short.

She peered at the tiny atomiser and saw that the two parts of it were marginally out of alignment.

She was instantly alert. The unit was sealed, but with a little force could be opened. She tried it. The cylinder unscrewed without any force at all. It had been opened before.

With unpleasant foreboding, she continued to unscrew the top from the atomiser and lowered her nose to sniff the exposed liquid within.

She recognised the smell instantly. Though the late Mr Pargeter had never used toxic substances in his own business, he had occasionally been at risk from other less scrupulous operators in the same field; and among the many other useful things he had taught his wife had been how to recognise the major poisons.

The atomiser contained cyanide.

Mrs Pargeter went rigid with shock.

Not just shock because someone had tried to kill her.

But shock because she’d used the atomiser without adverse effects immediately before going down to the Seaview Lounge, where she had found Newth.

Which meant that Newth could not have had the opportunity to fill it with cyanide.

Which meant that the murderer at the Devereux was somebody else.