Read Online Murder of the Bride by C. S. Challinor - Free Book Online

Newcombes. Perhaps best if you stay.”
    â€œWhy do you suspect intentional poisoning?”
    â€œFor one thing, the caterers don’t strike me as careless. For another, Timmy Thorpe presents signs of long-term arsenic poisoning, if I’m not mistaken.”
    â€œDon’t know about that,” Carter said doubtfully. “He has been ill, but we all thought it was a stomach bug.”
    â€œMaybe that’s what you were supposed to think. His nails tell a different story.”
    â€œHis nails?” Carter all but scoffed.
    â€œFaint white striations, called Mee’s Lines. At first I thought it was due to anemia.”
    The solicitor blew out a heavy sigh. “If you want to try your hand at unmasking the culprit, it’s your funeral. But I don’t know that I want to go barging into an investigation without sufficient evidence. Lord knows, the family has been through enough.”
    â€œI appreciate your position, but we shan’t be barging, merely tiptoeing. Until I can validate or refute my suspicions.”
    â€œOh, very well, but when the police arrive, I’ll go to Victoria. I take it the police have been alerted?”
    â€œI called just before Polly was taken out to the ambulance.”
    â€œYour fiancée told me you were something of a private detective. Of murders.”
    â€œJust a hobby. A morbid hobby, granted. I’m a barrister by profession. An advocate as we call ourselves in Scotland.”
    â€œGood reasoning skills and a flair for eloquence are required for that,” Carter acknowledged. “But as the Newcombe’s solicitor, their interests are my first concern, which means I don’t want to stir up a hornet’s nest, just to play along with your hobby.”
    â€œI promise to use the utmost discretion, and your help will be invaluable.”
    Carter hemmed and hawed some more. “Presumably the hospital will conduct tests on the basis of your, er, supposition. At the very least, we have a case for negligence on the part of the caterers.”
    â€œAnd at worst, murder. Reverend Snood left here with an oxygen mask over his face. It’s possible he may not survive.”
    â€œI think you may be grossly exaggerating the situation, but if what you say is true, I wouldn’t mind nabbing the prankster myself and swinging him from the turrets. Could be one of the younger guests or a couple of them in cahoots. Perhaps they were practicing on Timmy.”
    Rex refrained from telling Carter that he thought the poisoning had been more than a prank. Too much care and thought had gone into the plan.
    â€œHolding your own counsel on that one, eh?” Carter inquired as together they walked back across the gravel toward the front entrance of Newcombe Court. “Well, we’ll see.”
    â€œ Quo Vadis , ” questioned the enigmatic motto above the threshold. “Where angels fear to tread,” Rex murmured in response. He felt a sudden tightening of the stomach, a cold dread in his heart. He might be wrong in his assumptions. How much Guinness and champagne had he consumed? And yet he felt in full command of his mental faculties. On reflection, it had been two beers and not much champagne.
    All the same, he decided not to mention his suspicions to Helen, who would likely agree with Carter that he was seeking evil intentions where none existed.
    He popped his head through the door to the vacated reception room, preparing to seal it off until the police could investigate. His gaze swept the discarded wedding veil, which lay bunched up on the floor. The cake tray, a forlorn monument to the nuptials, stood on the cart, bereft of its miniature figures. Rex did a double-take. He could have sworn they had been lying on the empty top tier when he left to talk to the caterers. They were nowhere to be seen.
    Now, more than ever, he was convinced evil was indeed at work. But who was the evil-doer?

Quod Erat
Demonstrandum
    Bobby