Hush Now, Don't You Cry(45)

“I wish I could shed more light,” Daniel said. “I gathered that I was being asked here for a reason. He said he had something he wanted to show me and then he added that he thought he might have got it wrong.”

“Had got what wrong?”

Daniel shook his head. “He didn’t elucidate and I didn’t see fit to press him at that point. I had the impression that Brian Hannan was the sort of man who would tell you what he wanted to tell you, when he wanted to.”

“So you had no idea what it could have been?”

“No,” Daniel said. “I surmised it might be something to do with finances. I don’t know why I thought that. Maybe something he said about difficulties running a family business.”

He paused, coughing. I remembered that I had brought in the tea tray and poured two cups, handing one to the police chief and one to Daniel. The latter nodded gratefully and took a sip. “You’ll have to excuse me,” he said to Chief Prescott. “I’m not at my best today. Nasty chill, I’m afraid.”

“So your wife told me,” Chief Prescott said. “Well, I won’t bother you much longer, but I had to know whether you got the impression that Mr. Hannan knew he’d be in danger here.”

“I did not get that impression,” Daniel said. “Quite the opposite. He waxed eloquent about how delightful it was and what a perfect spot for my delayed honeymoon.”

The chief took a drink of his own tea. “Did he tell you why he’d invited his family this particular weekend? None of them seems to know. Something about his son-in-law taking part in a yacht race, but surely there was more to it than that. It’s quite unheard of for owners of cottages to come here after the season.”

“I realize that now,” Daniel said. “Frankly at the time it never crossed my mind that there was anything unusual about it. I’m not often invited to mix with the Newport elite.”

“It had to have been planned for a purpose,” Chief Prescott said. “I did hear from Mr. Hannan’s family members that they had been issued the royal summons and felt that they had to come. But not one of them had any idea about what it could mean.”

“Maybe he was planning to change his will,” I suggested, making them both look in my direction as if they had forgotten I was in the room.

“Now there’s a thought.” Chief Prescott put down his teacup. “And a good motive, if it turns out to be murder. If one of them was about to be cut out of a fortune…”

“I don’t think that was about to happen,” I said. “One thing I have noticed was that they all speak warmly of him. They were concerned about his recent drinking but that was because they were fond of him.”

“Fondness can change if one discovers one is being cut out of an inheritance,” Prescott said. “Especially among people like this who are used to enjoying the good lifestyle. And that would explain the tray in the gazebo.” He smiled with satisfaction. “He knew he was going to tell them something unpleasant. He wanted to fortify himself before he faced them, so he carried out the decanter and a glass and had a quiet drink.”

“I presume you’ve had the contents of the glass and the decanter tested if you suspect he might have ingested poison?” Daniel asked.

“Again, an initial testing. Frankly our facilities here in a small town like Newport are not the best. We’ve sent them to Providence with the blood sample.”

“And were traces of a poison present?”

“Not that we could detect,” Chief Prescott said. “The glass and decanter seemed to contain nothing but Irish whiskey.”

“What about fingerprints?” I asked.

Again he looked at me in surprise. “Your wife is certainly up-to-date in her methods, isn’t she?” He said with a nervous chuckle. “Yes, we’ll have them tested for fingerprints.”

“I have something else that might be of assistance,” I said. “Wait one minute.” I left the room and went to collect my handkerchief containing the fragments of glass I had picked up on the rocks. I returned and opened it on the table in front of them. “Here,” I said. “I found these earlier today when I was walking on the clifftop above where Mr. Hannan was found. I saw the glint of something shining in the sunlight. I thought it might be important, so I climbed down to retrieve it.”

“Good gracious,” the chief said again.

“And it turned out to be these pieces of glass. At the time I thought they could have lain there any amount of time or even fallen from a passing ship, but now I’m wondering—was there a second glass on that tray? Was Mr. Hannan holding it when he drank and fell?”