They said nothing so I went on. “I picked them up with my handkerchief as carefully as possible, so that I wouldn’t disturb any fingerprints, but I’m afraid the waves will probably have washed away any trace of what the glass contained.”
“Mrs. Sullivan, you astound me,” Chief Prescott said. “You’ve got yourself a clever little woman there, Sullivan. She’ll no doubt be a big help to you in your profession.”
“So I keep telling him,” I remarked dryly.
Daniel wisely said nothing.
With that the interview came to an end. The police chief stood up.
“I’m sorry to have disturbed you, and wish you a speedy recovery,” he said, shaking Daniel’s hand. “You have been most helpful. A tricky business, Captain Sullivan. A prominent family—lots of money, influential in politics. I’ll have the eyes of the country on me when this gets out. I can’t afford to make a mistake. I keep thinking that maybe we’re reading more into this than actually happened. What if it was an accident?”
“But the poison?”
“What if turns out to be something his pharmacist prescribed that has toxic qualities. Many medicines do, don’t they? There are plenty of tonics containing arsenic or mercury.”
“A competent physician will be able to tell you whether any substance was in his bloodstream in sufficient quantities to kill him,” Daniel said. “And his physician will vouch for what he prescribed. So all we have to do right now is watch and wait.”
“That’s it.” Chief Prescott headed for the door. “Watch and wait.”
As I opened the door for him he said in a low voice. “And Mrs. Sullivan, your own observations have been most useful, but I have to warn you: Leave this to the police from now on and devote your energies to looking after your husband instead.”
“Go back to my rightful place, you’re saying,” I commented. “And leave the real work to the men?”
“Not at all.” He shook his head. “I’m saying that if what we fear turns out to be true, then someone on this estate killed a man in the proximity of many other people. Such a person is extremely dangerous and would not hesitate to dispatch you, should he consider you a threat.”
He stepped out into the slanted evening sunlight, blinking slightly as it shone into his face. He stared up at the brooding shape of the castle. Then he put on his hat, gave me a curt little bow, and walked over to his automobile.
When I came back into the room Daniel was standing up, one hand on the back of an armchair. “I thought I’d go back to bed, if you don’t mind,” he said. “My head’s still throbbing like the devil.”
“What do you feel like for supper?” I asked, taking his arm to escort him up the stairs. “Anything I can tempt you to?”
He managed the ghost of a smile. “Normally I could answer that in the affirmative. This evening I can’t be tempted by anything except my bed and sleep. Oh, and another of those disgusting aspirin powders.”
“But you must eat something.”
“Just some more of that broth. That’s all.”
“That’s easy then. I don’t need to cook.” I helped him off with his jacket. “Why don’t you get undressed properly and into bed?”
“I should probably stay like this for now, in case somebody comes from the big house. I’ll just lie with a rug over me.” He brought out the words one by one, and with difficulty as if the climb up the stairs had winded him.
I draped the rug over him, then kissed his forehead. “I’ll be up with the aspirin then. And a spoonful of jam this time. That’s what the chemist said. It makes the bitter taste go away.”
He nodded, lay back, and closed his eyes. Then as I was leaving the room he said, “Molly, what made you say that about changing his will?”
“I don’t know. I was trying to think of a reason he’d want his family assembled in a remote place.”
“You might have hit close to the mark,” Daniel said. “Remember I said I surmised it was something financial. We’ll have to find out from his attorney whether any such change had been planned.”
“Or implemented already,” I said.
Daniel nodded. “If he was poisoned then one has to think that the most likely suspect would be a family member. Who else would know the alderman might have a quiet drink away from the house? And he was a wily old fox. He’d not have let a stranger get near enough to slip something into his glass.”
“We’ll know more when the doctors in Providence have examined the evidence,” I said.