“An eighty-year-old woman?” Livingston could not keep the astonishment from his voice.

“Mmmmm.” Philip shook his head. “Of course to her it was a prank, a ... I-I-I don’t know.”

“Philip, allow me.” Val turned to Livingston. “Inspector, how much arsenic was found on those tasty pasties and how much in Penelope’s body?”

“A trace,” Livingston said. “Very little, actually.”

“Certainly not enough to intentionally kill her.”

“Intentionally—difficult to say. You must remember, Miss Atwater is an overweight woman who has not taken very good care of herself. She has digestive problems, high blood pressure, an overworked heart, a very high cholesterol count. She could easily have had a heart attack from the extreme distress she was in, and in that case whoever added arsenic to the tasty pasties could have been guilty of murder. Fortunately for that person, she is going to recover. Now what did you want to tell me?”

“Veronica—Lady Exner—very much wanted to take this trip without Penelope. To be honest, Penelope has been getting on her nerves lately. They’ve travelled together a great deal recently, and while in some ways the companionship was welcomed, in others it had begun to grate. As Penelope gets older she eats more. Actually she’s put on two stone in the last ten months. Veronica has said she sometimes thinks they should name a food processor after her.

“Last week Veronica was out in the potting shed with Philip. He has ajar of arsenic, clearly labeled, and Veronica commented that the next time Penelope made tasty pasties he might want to try mixing a trace of arsenic in them. That way, when she spent the night running to the loo and interminably flushing the toilet, at least she’d have a reason to be sick.”

“Surely you’re not suggesting—”

“That she acted on her own witticism,” Philip broke in. “Val, I told you that as a j-j-joke. Veronica wasn’t serious.”

“I know she wasn’t serious then, but Sunday morning when Penelope went to church service, Veronica said that she was sure her niece would find it terribly difficult to have Penelope on her hands for a month. She again brought up sending Penelope off on her own holiday and going alone to the States. Philip wouldn’t hear of it. Then, when Penelope had to be rushed to hospital, Veronica said something about how sorry she was but doesn’t life always have a silver lining to go with every cloud. Now she’d get her wish to travel sans Penelope and not hurt her feelings.”

“Only you substituted Regan Reilly as a companion,” Livingston commented.

“Yes,” Philip said. “Actually my aunt didn’t m-m-mind that at all. She thinks Regan is quite fun, and of course when she gets to the States her cousin will take over. I warned Regan that Veronica is very unpredictable and she must w-w-watch her as one would a child.”