Read Online Antidote to Venom by Freeman Wills Crofts - Free Book Online Page B

sent through the post which, on being opened, blew their recipients to pieces. He had pictured every step which would be necessary to carry out such a scheme, and he saw that it could be done with absolute safety. He had read of the introduction of poisonous pills or medicine into the victim’s bottle of tonic. That would not be so easy, but it would be possible. There were various ways.…
    But only in imagination of course. Obviously there could be nothing serious in these ideas. George didn’t pretend to be a saint, but he drew the line somewhere. He knew that he could never do anything to hurt anyone. Murder? No, no! Hideous thought! He didn’t mean it for a moment.
    Yet Lucy Pentland’s death would solve all his problems. He must ask Marr about her. But again, he dare not.
    If George had been a little more introspective he might well have wondered why he dare not ask Marr. As nephew he naturally ought to show an interest in his aunt’s welfare. What was it that made him shrink from the enquiry?
    Then one day an event took place which seemed at first to be entirely unconnected with George and his affairs. It proved however to be of fundamental importance to his subsequent actions and fate, as well incidentally as providing the information about his aunt’s health he had so greatly desired.
    On that day as he stepped on to the road at the Zoo gates on his way to lunch Dr. Marr drove quickly past in his car. He looked grave and as he passed he made a gesture of concern to George. A little knot of men, evidently discussing something serious, looked at the car and nodded. George went across to them.
    â€œIt’s Miss Burnaby, sir,” one of the group answered. “Knocked down by a car not ten minutes ago. They’ve taken her home.”
    â€œIs she badly hurt?”
    â€œThey think she’s dead. She could scarcely be anything else. The wheel crushed her chest.”
    In spite of his preoccupation, George was a good deal upset. He had met Joyce Burnaby scores of times and had formed a sincere liking for her, and of course, owing to her father’s work at the Zoo, he knew him very well indeed. A terrible thing for them both! The poor woman just about to be married, with a prospect of happiness she seemed up till then to have missed. If she really were dead, it would be a dreadful shock for the old man. He had come to depend so completely on her, and so far as George knew, he had no other relative except that unpleasant nephew, Capper. And Capper couldn’t take a daughter’s place.
    As George considered these matters he was walking rapidly to Riverview . A few people were standing outside the door and a policeman with a note-book had evidently been taking statements. George went up to him.
    â€œI’m a friend of the family,” he explained. “Can you tell me what has happened?”
    The policeman noted George’s name and address and then told what he knew. It appeared that Joyce Burnaby had met her fate exactly as had so many hundreds before her. She had stepped too quickly out from behind a bus, failing to see a car which was coming in the opposite direction. The driver had done his best, but he couldn’t save her. She was believed to have been killed instantaneously. The doctor was then with her and they would soon know definitely.
    George murmured a reply and walked into the house through the open door. At first he could find no one, then Lily Cochrane appeared, trembling and with a face like chalk. He beckoned to her.
    â€œI came to see if I could do anything,” he explained. “Where is the professor?”
    She answered him, he thought, eagerly, as if relieved to divide the responsibility. “He’s very strange, sir: sort of dazed. He just sat down after they brought her in and I can’t get him to speak or move.”
    â€œI’ll see him,” George told her. “It’ll be a terrible shock, of course, but