“Great,” the chief said. “Which reminds me—Dr. Langslow, the mayor sends his regards and asks if you’ll fill in as acting medical examiner while Smoot’s away.”
“Shouldn’t that be acting acting medical examiner?” I said. “Since Smoot—never mind.”
The chief was glowering at me.
“Splendid,” Dad said.
“So carry on, and keep me posted,” the chief said. “One other thing—”
Dad and Horace both paused in the doorway and looked back expectantly.
“We don’t tell anyone about this,” the chief said. “Apparently Dr. Blake has already spread the word that she died from being hit over the head. So let’s leave it that way. Let everybody think that’s what we think.”
“To weed out false confessions,” Dad said, nodding vigorously.
“And to create a false impression of security in our killer,” the chief said. “If he doesn’t know we know about the poison, maybe he’ll think he’s got plenty of time to dispose of the evidence. So don’t say anything to anyone about poison. What should we say she died of?”
“Blunt force trauma to the upper right portion of the occipital bone,” Dad said.
“Too specific,” the chief said.
“I’m the one most people are going to be interrogating,” I said. “How about if I just say it looked to me as if she was hit on the back of the head with something.”
“That’s probably best,” the chief said. “Holding back information is one thing; deliberately spreading inaccurate information might be counterproductive.”
“All right.” Dad sounded disappointed. “I’d better get back to my examination.”
He and Horace popped back into the library.
“There’s also the fact that anyone with half a brain could figure out that he’s lying,” the chief said.
“Yes,” I said. “Dad’s enthusiasm for intrigue far exceeds his acting skills.”
“I hope he’s not going to sulk about it,” the chief said.
“He is,” I said. “But only for about five minutes. And I see your point. After all, if someone saw someone else deliberately putting poison in her tea—oh, my God!”
“What?” the chief asked.
“Señor Mendoza’s heart medicine. Did I mention that?”
“No,” the chief said.
“Of course I didn’t,” I said. “Because I thought she was killed with a blunt instrument. But now that we know she might have been poisoned—”
“Just tell me about the blamed heart medicine,” the chief said.
“He spilled it,” I said. “He handed the pill bottle to a student to open, and suddenly there were little white pills all over the foyer floor. And people crawling around everywhere picking them up.”
“When you say people, you mean all those . . . potential suspects sitting around in your kitchen?”
“Most of them,” I said. “I don’t think Art and Abe were here yet, or Mother and the Shiffleys.”
The chief scribbled in his notebook.
“Of course, that doesn’t mean there weren’t still pills lying around when they got here,” I said. “Señor Mendoza didn’t seem at all worried about getting them all back. That’s why Dad was at the vet, incidentally; because Spike swallowed one, and we were worried about what it would do to him.”
“He mentioned Spike might have swallowed something,” the chief said. “But just then Sammy came running in with Hawkeye, so I never heard the details.”
“Anyway, there were pills all over the front hall and probably still are some. I hope Clarence keeps Spike until we can give the hall a thorough vacuuming. You might not know what they were—unless you talked to any of the dozens of people who saw what happened. But—”
“Did the pills look something like this?” he asked. He held up a small yellowish-white pill.
“Yes,” I said. “I didn’t know you had a heart problem.”
“I don’t.” He tucked the pill back in his pocket. “I almost stepped on this in your foyer when I first arrived. So we make sure the tox screen looks for digitalis.”
He glanced up and caught me suppressing a yawn.
“You should rest,” he said.
“If you’re finished with me, I could certainly use a nap,” I said.
“Take care of yourself,” he said, shooing me in the direction of the door. “If you think of anything else, you let me know after your nap.”
“Will do,” I said.
I made my way down the long hallway, wondering all the while what it would take to install one of those rolling walkways they used in airports to move passengers from one end of the terminal to the other. Probably not very useful in the long run, so I returned to trying to figure out how we could install an elevator without ruining the look of the front hallway.