“No, I don’t.”
“Then I shall have to keep you both here until the constable returns with the coroner. Don’t want to risk one or both of you running off.”
Anne’s medicated brain struggled to catch up. “Wait. Did ... did you carry us both down here? Using an opium surgery sponge on me and, what, striking Dr. Finch? And no one saw you?”
“Not that I know of. I used the spiral staircase that leads down here from the old courtroom. We all thought it was blocked over, but no, the door was simply well hidden by the paneling. Katherine discovered it while sitting vigil—felt a draught and walked close to investigate. The black fabric on the walls had snagged on a rough seam. That’s how she found it, and she showed me.”
Ah ...Anne thought. The draught she had felt during her own late-night vigil.Thatwas the room above them. The light through the grate came from the many candles illuminating Lady Celia’s coffin. So it must have been Katherine she’d heard in there, disappearing down those hidden stairs and later meeting Anne as she came out the other way.
He went on. “The original door into this cellar was concealed behind that tall wine rack, but Katherine and I moved it aside.” He walked over to an ancient wooden door and opened it to demonstrate. Anne had not noticed that door nor that the wine rack she’d seen earlier with Jasper had been moved.
Dr. Marsland returned to the cell and added pensively, “Perhaps I should go to Valley View Lodge and fetch Miss Stark as well.”
“Surely that is not necessary, nor is it your responsibility. That’s for the constable to decide. And you can’t really think any of us did it.” She surreptitiously felt for the folded note in her glove, relieved to find it still there.
He tapped his chin and peered upward in thought. “Ifnot, then who do we know that is quite skilled with a bow and arrow?”
“Why, Colonel Paine and Miss Fitzjohn, of course. Though surely you don’t suggest—”
“I am simply trying to be logical, to decipher the facts.”
“Then what about the fact that Mr. Dalby was poisoned before being struck with an arrow?”
He frowned at her through the bars, black brows thunderously low. “Preposterous. What are you talking about?”
“I had a chance to study the body,” Anne replied, her father’s voice echoing in her mind, as if he were speaking the words she’d heard him use with their own local coroner. “Enlarged pupils, blue lips, signs of vomiting. And very little blood at the site of the entry wound.”
“Why would anyone bother to poison a man if they meant to inflict a mortal wound?”
“To incapacitate him, perhaps. Much easier than hitting a moving target.”
“That is quite specific. As if you know that would work from recent personal experience.”
“No! I don’t even know how to shoot a bow and arrow.”
“Neither do I. Yet you have done so. I heard Miss Fitzjohn mention a lesson?”
“Hardly a lesson. I shot Colonel Paine’s bow once and very ill.”
“That’s more than I’ve done. I’ve never picked up a bow in my life.”
“I don’t think the killer had to. I think he poisoned Mr. Dalby and then shoved the arrow into his neck to make it appear that was what killed him.”
He gaped at her, then scoffed. “Again, a civilized, rational man wonders how a supposedly innocent young lady even conceives of such a diabolical scheme! And I suppose you have a theory about what kind of poison was used too?”
“Well, no. I don’t know that.”
“I ... do.” Ernest Finch’s voice, though weak.
Anne whirled and knelt beside him. “How are you feeling?”
“Like someone knocked me upside the head.” He frowned up at Dr. Marsland. “I was passing your home and met an anxious father with his son, looking for help. I let myself into your surgery to examine him. He feared glandular fever, but it was only the mumps. Sent him home with a hot poultice. But while I was in there, I saw something odd. Yew branches in the rubbish and ground seeds in the mortar.”
Dr. Marsland huffed. “I read an article about natives in America using yew to treat rheumatism and arthritis. Thought I’d see if it would be efficacious for old Toddy Glover.”
“It’s poisonous.”
“Taken orally, yes, in sufficient amount.”
