The Sins of the Wolf - Anne Perry [70]
“That’s absurd,” Baird said abruptly. “If anyone is to blame, we are. We hired Miss Latterly. We spoke to her and we thought she was an excellent person. It wasn’t up to the servants to argue with us.” He looked acutely unhappy.
“We have already had this conversation,” Alastair said with irritation. “No one could have known.”
“Oh yes.” Quinlan shot a look at Monk. “You asked us what we thought had happened. I don’t recall that anyone ever answered you, did they?”
“Not yet,” Monk conceded, his eyes wide. “Perhaps you would begin, Mr. Fyffe?”
“I? Well, let me see.” Quinlan sipped his wine, his eyes thoughtful, but if there was distress in him, it was well masked. “The wretched woman would not have killed poor Mother-in-law unless she had already seen the brooch, so that must have happened fairly early on….”
Deirdra winced and Eilish set down her glass, untasted.
“I don’t know what you hope to gain with this,” Kenneth said angrily. “It is an appalling conversation!”
“Appalling or not, we have to know what happened,” Quinlan said viciously. “There’s no point pretending it will go away decently just because we don’t like it.”
“For God’s sake, we do know what happened!” Kenneth’s voice rose also. “The damned nurse murdered Mother! What else do we have to know—isn’t that enough? Do you want every jot and tittle of the details? I certainly don’t.”
“The law will want it,” Alastair said icily. “They won’t hang the woman without absolute proof. Nor should they. We must be sure, beyond any doubt at all.”
“Who doubts it?” Kenneth demanded. “I don’t.”
“Do you know something that the rest of us do not?” Monk asked, his voice polite, his eyes glittering.
Kenneth stared at him, frustration, self-justification and resentment flaring in his face.
“Well, do you?” Alastair demanded.
“Of course he doesn’t, my dear,” Oonagh said soothingly. “He just hates thinking of the details.”
“Does he imagine the rest of us enjoy it?” Alastair’s voice rose suddenly and for the first time his composure seemed in danger of slipping. “For God’s sake, Kenneth, either say something useful or hold your tongue.”
Oonagh moved a little closer to him and put her hand lightly on his arm.
“Actually, Quin has made a point,” Deirdra said with her face screwed up in concentration. She did not appear to have noticed Alastair’s distress. “Miss Latterly must have seen the brooch before she decided to give Mother-in-law a double dose of medicine….” She avoided using the word poison. “And since Mother-in-law was not wearing it, then either she saw it in her case, which does not make a lot of sense—”
“Why not?” Alastair said tersely.
There was no anger in Deirdra’s face, only deep thought. “How could she? Did she look all through Mother’s case at some time when she was supposed to be resting? And then mix the medicine at the same time?”
“I don’t know why you say that.” Alastair looked at her irritably, but already there was a quickening in his expression belying his words.
All heads turned from Alastair to Deirdra.
“Well, she couldn’t mix it in front of her,” Deirdra said quickly. “And she couldn’t give her two doses. Mother would not have taken them.”
Monk smiled with the first real satisfaction he had felt since Rathbone had broken the news.
“You have an excellent point, Mrs. Farraline. Your mother-in-law would not have taken the double dose.”
“But she did,” Alastair said with a frown. “The police informed us of that, the day before you arrived. That is precisely what happened.”
Oonagh looked very pale, a flicker of tension between her brows. She turned from Alastair to Monk without speaking, waiting for him to explain.
Monk chose his words with intense care. Could this be the key to it all? He refused to hope, but still he found his body rigid, muscles aching.
“Was Mrs. Farraline sufficiently forgetful that she might either have accepted two doses of her medicine or have taken one herself and then allowed Miss Latterly to have given her another?