Caribbean Mystery - Agatha Christie [18]
“Oh, I don’t think that’s likely at all,” said Molly.
Victoria shook her dark head. “You never know. People do bad things.”
Molly glanced out of the window. The place looked like an earthly paradise. With its sunshine, its sea, its coral reef, its music, its dancing, it seemed a Garden of Eden. But even in the Garden of Eden, there had been a shadow—the shadow of the Serpent—Bad things—how hateful to hear those words.
“I’ll make inquiries, Victoria,” she said sharply. “Don’t worry. And above all don’t go starting a lot of silly rumours.”
Tim Kendal came in, just as Victoria was, somewhat unwillingly, leaving.
“Anything wrong, Molly?”
She hesitated—but Victoria might go to him—She told him what the girl had said.
“I don’t see what all this rigmarole—what were these pills anyway?”
“Well, I don’t really know, Tim. Dr. Robertson when he came said they—were something to do with blood pressure, I think.”
“Well, that would be all right, wouldn’t it? I mean, he had high blood pressure, and he would be taking things for it, wouldn’t he? People do. I’ve seen them, lots of times.”
“Yes,” Molly hesitated, “but Victoria seemed to think that he might have taken one of these pills and it would have killed him.”
“Oh darling, that is a bit too melodramatic! You mean that somebody might have changed his blood pressure pills for something else, and that they poisoned him?”
“It does sound absurd,” said Molly apologetically, “when you say it like that. But that seemed to be what Victoria thought!”
“Silly girl! We could go and ask Dr. Graham about it, I suppose he’d know. But really it’s such nonsense that it’s not worth bothering him.”
“That’s what I think.”
“What on earth made the girl think anybody would have changed the pills? You mean, put different pills into the same bottle?”
“I didn’t quite gather,” said Molly, looking rather helpless. “Victoria seemed to think that was the first time that Serenite bottle had been there.”
“Oh but that’s nonsense,” said Tim Kendal. “He had to take those pills all the time to keep his blood pressure down.” And he went off cheerfully to consult with Fernando the maître d’hôtel.
But Molly could not dismiss the matter so lightly. After the stress of lunch was over she said to her husband:
“Tim—I’ve been thinking—If Victoria is going around talking about this perhaps we ought just to ask someone about it?”
“My dear girl! Robertson and all the rest of them came and looked at everything and asked all the questions they wanted at the time.”
“Yes, but you know how they work themselves up, these girls—”
“Oh, all right! I’ll tell you what—we’ll go and ask Graham—he’ll know.”
Dr. Graham was sitting on his loggia with a book. The young couple came in and Molly plunged into her recital. It was a little incoherent and Tim took over.
“Sounds rather idiotic,” he said apologetically, “but as far as I can make out, this girl has got it into her head that someone put some poison tablets in the—what’s the name of the stuff—Sera—something bottle.”
“But why should she get this idea into her head?” asked Dr. Graham. “Did she see anything or hear anything or—I mean, why should she think so?”
“I don’t know,” said Tim rather helplessly. “Was it a different bottle? Was that it, Molly?”
“No,” said Molly. “I think what she said was that there was a bottle there labelled—Seven—Seren—”
“Serenite,” said the doctor. “That’s quite right. A well-known preparation. He’d been taking it regularly.”
“Victoria said she’d never seen it in his room before.”
“Never seen it in his room before?” said Graham sharply. “What does she mean by that?”
“Well, that’s what she said. She said there were all sorts of things on the bathroom shelf. You know, tooth powder, aspirin and aftershave and—oh—she rattled them off gaily. I suppose she’s always cleaning them and so she knows them all off by heart. But this one—the Serenite—she hadn’t seen it there until