Free Behold Here's Poison by Georgette Heyer Page A

Matthews was doing her hair at the dressing-table when her son knocked on the door. She smiled at him as he came in, and said: 'Well, darling, not gone off to work yet?'
    'No, and a darned good job too!' said Guy. 'Haven't you heard? There's a chap from Scotland Yard downstairs, cross-examining everybody!'
    Mrs Matthews' comb was stayed in mid-air; in the mirror her eyes met Guy's for one startled moment. Then she put the comb down, and turned in her chair to face him. 'Scotland Yard,' she repeated. 'That means he was poisoned.'
    'Yes, something to do with nicotine. I never heard of poisoning anybody with nicotine myself but that's what Fielding said. The Superintendent's interviewing Aunt Harriet now, and then he wants to see you and Stella. He's already asked Aunt Harriet and me a whole lot of questions. Aunt was scared out of her life at first, but personally I found it rather amusing.'
    'What did your aunt say?' asked Mrs Matthews quickly.
    'Oh, she drivelled on in her usual style! Mostly irrelevant. Except that she would insist on stressing the fact that it was I who poured out uncle's drink for him on the night he died.' He gave a little laugh. 'Actually it wouldn't be a bad plan if someone tipped her the wink not to talk so much. Given time she'll tell the police all the family details, down to what uncle was like in the cradle.'
    Mrs Matthews began to put up her hair. 'I'll go down at once. Run along while I finish dressing, dear. Oh, and Guy!—Find Stella, and tell her I want her, will you? And just remember, darling, that the less you say the better. It isn't that there's anything to conceal, but you and Stella are inclined to let your tongues run away with you, and you very often give a totally wrong impression to people. I want you for all our sakes to be careful what you say.'
    'Well, of course!' said Guy, rather impatiently. 'You don't suppose I'm going to give anything away, do you, mother?'
    'There's nothing to give away, dear. All I mean is that I don't want you to talk in that silly, exaggerated way you and Stella so often fall into, particularly when speaking of your uncle.'
    'All right, all right!' Guy said. 'I'm not quite a fool, mother!'
    He went downstairs again, and found his sister in the hall, holding a low-voiced conversation with Dr Fielding. They both looked up as Guy rounded the bend in the stairs, and he saw that Stella was rather pale. 'Mother wants you,' he told her. 'Seen the giddy detective yet?'
    'No. I'm scared stiff of him,' Stella confessed.
    'You needn't be, Stella; he's not at all alarming,' said the doctor reassuringly.
    'I shall go and blurt out something stupid. Policemen always terrify me,' said Stella with a nervous laugh. 'You know, in spite of talking about it, and wondering what would happen if uncle had been poisoned, I never really believed he had been, did you, Guy? Deryk says it was nicotine, which, as a matter of fact, I always thought was the stuff you get in tobacco.'
    'Well, so it is,' said Guy. 'I didn't know you could poison people with it either. Is it often done, Fielding?'
    'No, I don't think so,' replied the doctor shortly.
    'I suppose he couldn't have taken it by accident, could he?' suggested Stella hopefully.
    The doctor shrugged. 'I should say, very unlikely.'
    'Well, but when could he have swallowed it if not at dinner?'
    'My dear girl, what's the use of asking me? I don't know.'
    'You needn't be stuffy about it,' said Stella mildly. 'It's my belief you know more than you pretend about this nicotine stuff.'
    'Actually I know extremely little about nicotine,' answered Fielding. 'Sorry if that blights your faith in me, but it is not the sort of poison that comes in the way of general practice.'
    'Jolly lucky for you,' remarked Guy. 'I mean, if it had been an ordinary sort of poison, like arsenic, they might have suspected you.'
    'Why should they?' demanded Stella fiercely. 'There's no reason to suspect Deryk!'
    Fielding smiled. 'Oh yes, there is, Stella! Guy is