She staggered as if she were drunk as her son supported her out of the dining room.
'I think you'd better call a doctor,' said Agatha.
'She's had turns before,' said Bert. 'She's got a weak heart. She always comes around if she gets a rest.'
'I still think you should call her doctor,' insisted Agatha. 'Give me his name and I'll call him.'
'You are not family,' said Bert crossly. 'There's no need to make a fuss.'
Upstairs afterwards, Charles joined Agatha in her room. 'I went along to see how Phyllis was doing. Fran was coming out of her room. She said she was fine, so no poisoning. I mean if she had been poisoned, there would have been vomiting or convulsions. Let's get out of here for a couple of hours and find a pub.'
'Not the local. Somewhere else,' said Agatha.
Feeling much restored after a pub dinner of sausage, egg and chips, Agatha and Charles returned to the manor. 'Lead me to Phyllis's room,' said Agatha. The sounds of television coming from the drawing room reached their ears. 'They're all probably downstairs watching the box.'
'Follow me,' said Charles.
He led the way upstairs and along a corridor. 'It's been done up like a hotel,' he said. 'The big bedrooms seem to have been split in two. Here we are.' He rapped gently on the door.
No reply.
'Go on in,' urged Agatha.
Charles turned the handle and they both walked in. By the light of a bedside lamp they could see Phyllis.
Agatha walked forward and looked down at her. 'Charles,' she said shakily, 'I think she's dead.'
Phyllis was lying on top of the bedclothes dressed in what she had been wearing for high tea. Bits of salad stuck to her black top.
Charles felt for a pulse and found none.
Fran's voice sounded from the doorway: 'What are you doing?'
'I think your mother's dead,' said Agatha.
Fran rushed up to the bed. She stared at her mother for a brief moment and then reached to pick up the bedside phone.
'Let's leave the room as it is,' commanded Agatha. 'Phone from downstairs.'
'What...?'
'I think your mother may have been murdered.'
'You're stark staring mad. I will phone the doctor and you'll find it was a heart attack.'
'I am not a friend of your mother,' said Agatha. 'I am a detective. She invited me here because she told me she suspected a family member would kill her.'
Fran turned paper-white. Agatha registered that the news that she was a detective and that Phyllis had suspected one of her family might murder her had shocked Fran more than the death of her mother.
'It's all madness,' whispered Fran. 'I'll phone from downstairs.'
'Let's leave and lock the door. We'll wait for the police.'
The news spread throughout the house and they all gathered in the drawing room.
'Dr Huxley is on his way,' said Fran.
'Didn't you call the police?' demanded Agatha.
There came a shocked chorus of Whys?
'Because,' said Agatha loudly above the babble, 'as I told Fran, I am a detective hired by your mother to protect her this weekend. She thought one of you might try to kill her.'
'She was old,' said Sir Henry. 'Losing her marbles. There's proof of it. Here's the doctor now.'
Agatha quickly scanned the faces around the room. They betrayed various levels of shock and apprehension but not one of them was grieving.
Bert went to the door and ushered the doctor in. 'Here's the key to her room,' said Agatha. 'I thought it better to lock it until the police get here.'
Dr Huxley was a small, thin, fussy man. He took the key from her and said firmly, 'I am sure I will find that Mrs Tamworthy died of a heart attack. Her heart was not strong. She was taking heart medicine.'
Bert led the doctor upstairs.
'I'm going out for some air,' said Agatha.
'It's pouring,' said Charles.
'Don't care.'
Agatha went outside and pulled out her mobile phone and called Mircester police and spoke rapidly.
Then she hurried back inside.
'As soon as the doctor leaves,' said Sadie to Agatha, 'you can jolly well pack your bags and go. This is our house now and you are not welcome.'
Silence fell as they all waited.
After what seemed an age, the doctor came down the stairs. 'Mrs Tamworthy died peacefully in her sleep when her heart stopped. I have signed the death certificate and given it to Mr Albert Tamworthy.'
Fran turned glittering eyes on Agatha. 'You see? Now, get out.'
Agatha heard police sirens in the distance and said, 'I've called the police.'
There came outraged cries all round. Then Fran flew at Agatha in a rage. Agatha dived behind an armchair. Fran reached over it and seized her by the hair. Charles dragged her off.
'You have no right to question my judgement,' said the doctor when the protests and shouts had died down.
The sirens wailed their way up the drive.
Then there came a loud knocking at the front door and a cry of 'Police!'
Bert went to answer it. Detective Inspector Wilkes came in, followed by Bill Wong. Bill was a friend of Agatha's. Behind them came four police constables.
'I am Dr Huxley,' he said. 'I have examined Mrs Tamworthy and signed the death certificate.'
Wilkes ignored him. 'Mrs Raisin? When you phoned, you said something about a letter?'
Agatha produced it from her handbag. Wilkes put on a pair of latex gloves, read it quickly and then handed it to Bill, who donned gloves as well before carefully putting it in an envelope.
'In view of this letter,' said Wilkes, 'we will need to wait for the police pathologist, who is on his way here. I will wait for his report.'
'If the dining room hasn't been cleared,' said Agatha, 'it might be an idea to lock it up for the moment. Her death could have been caused by something Mrs Tamworthy ate.'
'Show one of the police officers the dining room,' ordered Wilkes. He heard the sound of a car pulling up outside and looked out of the window. 'The pathologist has arrived. A forensic team will be here shortly. Do not leave this room, any of you.'
A constable let the pathologist in and Wilkes and Bill followed him up the stairs.
Everyone sat as if turned to stone.
Then Wilkes called to a constable, who went upstairs. He soon clattered back down and went out to the pathologist's car and came back in carrying a heavy case and went upstairs again. Agatha, who had risen to watch from the window, wondered what was going on.
Jimmy suddenly lit up a cigarette. After some hesitation, so did Sadie. With a little sigh of relief, Agatha found her own packet of cigarettes.
The clock on the mantelpiece gave a preliminary whirr before chiming out the hour. Eleven o'clock.
Just as it seemed as if they would have to wait all night, Wilkes came in. 'The pathologist has conducted a preliminary examination with a portable desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometer.'
'So? Stop baffling us with science and get on with it,' said Sir Henry.
'From the condition of the body, combined with the scraps of salad on her dress and a plant root clutched in one hand, he has come to the conclusion that Mrs Tamworthy was poisoned with some alkaloid plant such as hemlock. You will continue to remain here while the forensic team conduct a search of the house. A mobile police
