“That'll do, thanks!” Guy said harshly. “Mother had no motive, none that would satisfy any jury in the world!”
“I can respect your championship of your mother,” replied Mrs Lupton with a certain grimness, “but you would be better employed in facing the facts as they are. Your mother had a certain motive for poisoning my poor sister—not that I accuse her of having done it, for I cannot suppose that she would have been fool enough to take such a risk while the police are still investigating your uncle's death. But if you think that the police will not make very particular inquiries into her movements today you are living in a fool's paradise, my dear Guy, and the sooner you cease to do so the better it will be for you!”
Mrs Matthews arose from the sofa, and said tragically: “I can only hope, Gertrude, that you don't realise what you are saying. I don't think you know how deeply you have wounded me. I am going to my room now. Somehow I don't feel I can bear any more.”
Mrs Lupton made no effort to detain her. She watched her go out of the room, and then herself rose, and announced that she wished to see her sister's body.
“Fielding's locked the room up,” Guy said briefly.
Mrs Lupton's bosom swelled. “Dr Fielding takes a great deal upon himself!” she said. “In my opinion he is an officious and an incompetent young jackanapes!”
That seemed to dispose of Dr Fielding. Mrs Lupton, promising to give him a piece of her mind at the first opportunity, laid a strict charge on her nephew to notify her by telephone of whatever should happen next, and left the Poplars.
Not until Miss Matthews' body had been removed did Mrs Matthews come downstairs again. As though by tacit consent, neither Stella nor Guy, alone in the library, made any attempt to discuss the cause of their aunt's death, but when Mrs Matthews reappeared she opened the subject by saying as she entered the room: “I have been thinking about it all very deeply, and I feel more than ever convinced that poor Harriet had a stroke. You know, she has not been herself ever since Gregory was taken from us. When the police come we must tell them the truth just as simply as possible. We have none of us anything to hide, and I do so want you, my dears, to be your natural selves, and not to behave in any silly, exaggerated way that might make anyone who didn't know you as I do think that you were afraid of something coming out.”
Stella raised her eyes. “What are we to say, mother?”
Mrs Matthews returned the look with one of her limpid gazes. “Dearest, Stella, I don't understand you. You must just tell the police exactly what you know.”