“No. I don’t know what you mean.”
“Isn’t ptomaine an alkaloid?” Dorothy Riff asked.
“Yes,” Wolfe conceded, “but cadaveric. However, for that there is the record. You were here the night of Mrs. Huck’s death, Miss Riff?”
“I was here for the party. I left around eleven o’clock.”
“Did you know that she was fond of pickled artichokes?”
“We all did. It was a kind of standing joke.”
“How did you know that ptomaines are alkaloids?”
She flushed a little. “When Mrs. Huck died I read up about them.”
“Why? Was there something about her death or about the artichokes that made you suspect something?”
“No! Of course not!”