Free Harriett by Rebecca King

coated in some sort of poison.”
    “ When will you know for certain?” Mark’s voice was sharp. No
sooner had David dropped the pencil back onto the desk than Mark
swept it up and threw it into the waste paper basket.
    “ I should know if poison is involved this afternoon. My staff
is working on it as we speak. It is supposition, you understand?
The fraying could just be where the material was cut to
size.”
    Mark
nodded.
    “ This cloth is too small to be of any use to anyone though, so
you need to consider whether it was specifically cut for purpose.
What could anyone use something of this size for?” He pointed to
the small piece of cloth that was no bigger than an inch and a half
square.
    “ Do you think someone intended to frighten her?”
    “ Why would you want to frighten someone by dropping a piece of
muslin into their drink though? I mean, for what purpose? Nobody is
going to admit to putting it there as a joke. It isn’t
inconceivable that it contained someone’s medication; a tablet or
powders of some sort, and it was accidentally dropped into
Minerva’s drink, but it seems highly unlikely that someone would
take powders in the middle of a psychic circle meeting.”
    Mark
studied the object. “It’s too small for powders, even if one could
put powders into a piece of cloth like this.”
    “ Powders are usually wrapped in paper though, Mark,” David
replied. He leaned back in his seat and studied his colleague. He
really didn’t relish Mark having to figure this one out.
    “ We are doing more tests on the contents of her stomach. I
should have some of the answers to you tomorrow morning at the
earliest, but it may take longer than that if I need to do more
detailed tests.”
    “ Was she on any medication at all?” Mark frowned. He wondered
if the woman had carried a tablet or powders in the cloth and had
accidentally dropped it in her drink herself.
    David
shook his head. “I haven’t seen her for at least six months. If she
was taking medication, it was nothing I have given her. I am going
to call into the pharmacist and make a few enquiries, but Minerva
always seemed to be one of the village’s residents who was always
in fine fettle.”
    “ Good Lord, so there may be a killer amidst Tipton Hollow’s
first psychic circle?”
    “ There may indeed.”
    “ Damn,” Mark sighed. He inwardly groaned at the thought of all
of the people who were in the room last night. It was going to take
the next couple of days to interview everyone. The only high point
was the fact that he now had a very good reason to remain in
contact with Harriett for the next few days at least.
    “ Do you know if anyone else in the room were on any kind of
medication that they might conceivably need to take with
them?”
    David
frowned at that. “I don’t have Madame Humphries or Miss
Hepplethwaite on my list, I think I would remember them,” he added
wryly. “I can check the records of the rest of the group though and
get the list to you by this afternoon.”
    “ What about Harriett or Babette? Are they on any medication as
far as you know?” Mark’s question was just a little too sharp, a
little too pointed, and he inwardly groaned at the look of interest
on his friend’s face.
    David
sighed. He had never seen that intent look on Mark’s face before
and wasn’t sure what to make of it. Was it because he suspected
that either Harriett or Babette might be involved? Or was it
because he had rather too much of an interest in proving their
innocence? He rather suspected the latter might be the case but
wisely kept quiet.
    “ Harriett is always in excellent health. My family have known
hers for many years. My father delivered her you know. I haven’t
seen Harriett at my surgery since she was a young child with
chicken pox. Babette has only had cause to visit me oh, about once
or twice in the last ten years. As far as I can recall, there isn’t
anything strange or startling about any of the family, apart from
the