The Death of Marco Styles by J.J. Campbell Read Free Book Online Page A

hours after the subject was dead, hopefully long before it could be detected, assuming an analysis was even attempted.’
    â€˜Brilliant,’ de Lacy admitted, ‘and if it hadn’t been for the bitter taste it imparted to the port, and that Marco happened to remark on it, and that I was seated next to him, then nobody would have noticed. You were very unlucky, Dr Adams.’
    â€˜Yes,’ she sighed. ‘I even knew it would taste bitter, because of its structure, but there was no way around that. That’s why I chose the port glass, hoping to mask the flavour. If I’d chosen the dessert wine instead he wouldn’t even have been sitting next to you at the time.’
    â€˜True,’ de Lacy agreed, ‘and I presume you calculated that there was a significant risk of the police tracing the origin of the neurotoxin to Vulcan and so to yourself, and that you therefore faked your own death in order to make them believe that you had been either bribed or blackmailed by the supposed murdered, then killed to ensure your silence?’
    â€˜Yes, but I was going to vanish anyway. I still can, if you’ll only let me go.’
    â€˜Another identity, I take it, no doubt even more carefully constructed than that of Maria Nowak?’
    â€˜Maria only had to exist for a few months, long enough to sign up with the agency and wait until I was booked to work at Elthorne House. I speak Polish, of course. I was going to get myself sacked in a few more weeks, long enough to make sure my leaving didn’t look suspicious.’
    â€˜I had guessed you would do that, and that you would continue to take work, hence your booking today. Incidentally, the police are still following the false trail you set them, and will probably be spending some time investigating the depths of old mine shafts around the Tamar Estuary.’
    â€˜But you didn’t believe it: why not?’
    â€˜Because while it is a possible explanation of the facts, it is not the most probable. As you intended, it relied on you having been bribed or blackmailed, then murdered; a dramatic and highly risky sequence of events, but not impossible. You are also fortunate in that the detective in charge of the case, Inspector Morden, lets his dislike of those he sees as the idle rich cloud his judgement, which is why he’s looking at Irene and Clive Styles, while he dismissed you and the other staff almost out of hand. However, he’s also thorough, and will no doubt get there eventually once they prove to be innocent.
    â€˜No, it was far more likely that an employee of Vulcan Pharmaceuticals had been present at the dinner party, but whom? The chances of it being a member of the family were very low indeed, negligible in fact. Only Clive Styles even had anything to do with Vulcan, and that only as an investor, which is hardly suspicious given the number of companies he must deal with. Also, regardless of what they had to gain, or any other motive, they were very unlikely to have poisoned Marco at a dinner party. He drank like a fish, and it would have been far easier, and safer, to put the poison in his brandy one evening. Nobody need even have realised he was dead until the neurotoxin had ceased to be detectable.
    â€˜That left Adam Carradine and the three staff. The butler, Hartfield, is a professional of several years standing and had been at Elthorne House several times before, as had the cook, so unless either of them had suddenly developed an overwhelming grudge against Marco Styles they could be discounted with reasonable certainty. There’s only one agency for domestic staff in Solsbury, and a simple phone call allowed me to ascertain the names of the two maids: Paula Scott and yourself, as Maria Nowak. Paula can’t be much more than twenty, so was highly unlikely to have gained the expertise and responsibility needed to get hold of the drug. Therefore the balance of probability pointed towards you. A little