Part 37 (1/2)
”And they were poisoned!”
”One of them was. See, somebody had put a poisoned one in among the others.”
”That leads back to Thorpe, who else could do that?”
”And we don't know that anybody did, only it might have been.”
”Can you smell any prussic acid in the vial?”
”No,” and Zizi sniffed at it, ”I seem to think I do, but I daresay it's my vivid imagination. Do you suppose a chemist could discern any?”
”Probably not, but we might make a try at it. Pretty slim clue, anyway, Ziz.”
”I know it, but I have a hunch it's the real thing. You see, Blair was in the habit of taking these things----”
”How do you know?”
”Carlotta Harper told me. I've quizzed her a lot about Mr. Blair's personal habits, and he always carried soda mints in his pocket, and took one now and then. So, as there was no soda mint bottle found in his pockets, and this was in the basket, it's a logical deduction that he finished this bottle that night that he died. And they all think the poison was given to him through some simple trick, so why not this?”
”It may be. It very likely is. But where does it get us?”
”Dunno yet. But, say it was done that way, it needn't have been done here. Maybe the murderer put a poisoned mint in the bottle when they were somewhere together.”
”How could he?”
”Oh, lots of ways. Say Blair had his coat off, playing golf or billiards, or----”
”He'd carry such a bottle in his waistcoat pocket, I think.”
”Well, it's all surmise. The thing to do is to begin from the other end.
Who had a motive?”
”That's what I'm trying to trace. Nothing doing as yet. h.e.l.lo, here's that old letter from Joshua, the guide. Look at it! It is in a small, cramped hand, and you know the one purporting to be from him later was in a big, sprawly hand. Somebody faked that letter!”
”Well, there's something to work on, then.”
”But maybe Thorpe did it.”
”Not he. Why should he? He had nothing to do with that Labrador trip.”
”What was the letter about, the other Joshua letter?”
”Advising him not to try to bring Peter Crane's body down to New York, or to postpone the matter, or something like that.”
”Queer business, that. Why should anybody want to fake a letter like that?”
”I don't believe anybody did. More likely some one else wrote for the guide. They're an ignorant lot, and writing is an unwelcome task to them.”
They were still looking at the guide's letter when Shelby came in.