Desdemona, in her usual abrupt manner, said, ‘Of course I remember them. Tall, scrawny woman and her big, ungainly son. Poking around and asking daft questions. Not as if they wanted to buy anything!’
‘What I wondered was, did they show any interest in your garden?’ Ally asked.
‘No, only that the silly woman wanted a handful of seeds to see if she could get them to grow in Nova Scotia or something.’
‘I remember she said at the time that you’d let her take someseeds.’ Ally’s heart was thumping again. ‘But can you recall what sort of seeds they were?’
‘Yes, they were laburnum seeds. Why? What’s she done? Tried to poison someone?’ Desdemona laughed at the very idea.
Ally hoped she sounded more casual than she felt. ‘Thanks, Desdemona, that’s all I wanted to know.’
If her suspicions were correct, there was no time to waste. She rushed up to Patti’s room and, without knocking, went in.
‘Patti?’
Patti was lying under the covers, motionless and grey-skinned. Ally rocked her gently, but the woman was comatose. She took her phone out of her pocket and phoned 999. Then she needed to talk with the girls downstairs.
‘I’ve sent for an ambulance for your mum,’ Ally said as she opened the sitting-room door. ‘She’s not at all well.’
‘We wanted to do that earlier,’ Julie said, ‘but Auntie Wendy said we shouldn’t make a fuss.’
‘I think the time has come to make a fuss,’ Ally said firmly, at which Janey burst into tears.
‘I’m sure she’ll be fine,’ Ally added hastily.
Then she headed back into the kitchen, grabbed her phone and called Amir. Miraculously, he was actually close to Locharran for once. ‘I’ve called an ambulance for Patti, and I’ve found the other half of that note I gave you,’ she said, ‘and something else. I need to see you urgently.’
‘I’ll be up as soon as I can,’ he said.
Ally raced back to the girls, who were now in panic mode. ‘The ambulance will be here shortly,’ she assured them, ‘and she’ll be well taken care of. Try not to worry.’
Janey was in tears again, but Julie was more composed. ‘We’re going with her,’ she said firmly.
‘I’m not sure if that’s allowed,’ Ally said doubtfully, ‘but we can ask.’
‘How would we get back?’ Janey asked tremulously.
‘Don’t worry about that,’ Ally said, ‘because Ross or I can come to collect you if necessary.’
Everything happened quickly then. Within about fifteen minutes, the ambulance arrived. As she opened the door, Ally noticed a policewoman sitting in the front, while two paramedics came rushing in.
As they carried her out, Ally was appalled again at Patti’s appearance: grey skin, heavy-lidded eyes and barely able to move.
Julie and Janey were beside themselves, rushing backward and forward, shouting, ‘Hurry! Hurry! Get her to the hospital!’
Julie turned to Ally. ‘We’re going with her, Ally. We must!’
Ally turned to the policewoman as the paramedics hoisted the stretcher into the ambulance. ‘Look, her two daughters are distraught. They’re visiting from Canada, and have already lost their father and uncle in the last few days, so please,please,can they go with her?’
The policewoman nodded. ‘But we cannot be responsible for them,’ she told Ally. ‘They can come, under the circumstances, but someone will have to come to collect them from the hospital later.’
‘I will,’ Ally said firmly. ‘Where are you taking her?’
‘Inverness,’ one of the paramedics shouted over his shoulder, climbing into the ambulance.
‘Just a moment.’ Ally fumbled in her pocket. She had put a few of the seeds into an envelope because, if this did turn out to be any type of poisoning, these could be the answer. ‘Would you make sure to hand these to the medical staff?’
The paramedic studied them for a moment. ‘What are they?’
