Murder Is At Hand.

Chapter 5

I woke up nice and early the following morning, feeling sick with anticipation. After washing and getting dressed, I picked up the keys to the room from my shoe, where I had hidden them the previous night, and went downstairs to get breakfast at about nine o'clock. I was getting a lot of curious stares from the people already in the breakfast hall as I sat down on a single table in the corner and looked at the menu. Well, I looked at and over the top of the menu, as I wanted to see if Commander Armstrong, Newham, Nesbitt or even Hettie had come down to breakfast. They hadn't, but I could see Church and Hanson Grange over in another corner. Grange looked, and rightly so, extremely distressed, and Church was trying to calm the big man. I felt bad for him. I would have been in a similar state, if not worse, if I had ever lost Isabel the way he had lost Nathan.

I ordered a full English breakfast, but sadly couldn't quite stomach it all. Hettie and her husband had sat down across the room while I had been eating, and I decided not to bother them, since Hettie was probably still keeping the fact she was helping me a secret from her husband. It was nearly ten o'clock, and I hurried out into the foyer to wait for Dr. Scott. I wasn't waiting long, and soon the old man arrived, holding a suitcase full of, I hoped, important things.

"Miss Winter!" Dr. Scott smiled, coming over to me. I shook his hand heartily, beaming all over my face.

"It's been too long" I sighed, and he agreed. 

"Where's the Lieutenant?" he asked worriedly. I shrugged, looking around.

"I  haven't seen him all morning. I think he's having a lie in or something. Probably right, too. he was one of the four players in the poker room where the murder took place. He knows I'll have to treat him as a suspect for a while."

Dr. Scott bit his lip as he followed me down the hall to to the poker room. It was, calmingly, still locked, so I unlocked the door and we went in.

Everything was just as it had been the previous night. I led Dr. Scott over to where the body still lay, flopped over the table.

"Time of death was around half past ten" I told him. "Not that that's important,  I mean, there were only four people in the room at the time, so it sort of narrows the field a little."

"Just a little" Dr . Scott murmured, humouring me.

"There's a couple of things I want you to check out" I carried on, crossing over to the sideboard where the drinks tray was. "First off, I need to know what this is."

I was pointing to the sprinkles of white powder on the side of the tray. Dr. Scott came over to look.

"I've also got a hunch that whatever that is" I said "is in one of the cups too. Can you take samples from all of them? I know which one it should be in, but it doesn't hurt to check."

"Is that everything?" the doctor asked. I looked around,  nodding.

"For now, yes. If it's no trouble."

"No trouble at all, Miss Winter. In fact, I'm rather liking the change" Dr. Scott smiled, setting to work as I sat down on one of the armchairs, studying the scene. Four men. Three different suspects, ruling out suicide. Two innocents, one guilty.  One game. One death. One apparent method, and currently,  no motives. I frowned as I watched Dr. Scott at his work. I needed to talk to someone who knew all three suspects well, well enough to be able to give me an accurate history of them all. Church, perhaps.

Dr. Scott came over to see me, with four labelled test tubes and a sachet.

"All done?" I asked. He nodded.

"I'll get back to you as soon as I can. I'm going to ask for the body to be removed. Is that alright?"

I smiled.