“Also, I think they may have been trying for both of us,” Stone said. “Dame Felicity, Chief Inspector Holmes of the Hampshire police. And this is Dr. Rose McGill, of St. George’s Hospital, London.”

Holmes shook their hands, but said little. It was obvious that the policeman was putting together one plus two and forming an opinion about why the bombs were under the bed.

“Ah, yes,” he said. “Stone, I believe you said there was a poisoning afoot. The officer standing behind Dame Felicity is Sergeant Pepper, no relation, and he is our resident expert on lethal substances.”

“Come with me,” Stone replied. He led the officers downstairs to the kitchen and found the Château Palmer ’61 on a corner counter, beside it a folded towel. He shook the towel, and the cork containing the needle and the top of the capsule fell out.

Sergeant Pepper pulled on latex gloves, picked up the suspect cork, and sniffed it, then he removed the new cork from the bottle, swirled the wine in it, and sniffed again. “As far as I can tell without an actual chemical analysis, the only thing wrong with this wine, apart from being corky, is that someone has injected a substance into it and, in the bargain, broken off his hypodermic needle. I observe that, perhaps, half a glass of wine is missing from the bottle. I sincerely hope that no one drank it.”

“It was decanted and the lees thrown away,” Stone said.

“It’s troubling that I cannot smell any foreign substance in the wine,” he said.

“Sergeant Pepper,” Holmes said, “is famous for his nose, which can identify hundreds of aromas.”

“I’ve been offered a job in a distillery, blending whiskys,” Pepper said with a touch of pride. “As I’m sure you know, blenders do not taste their product, but smell it. Tasting would render the palate incapable of discerning differences in whiskys.”

“Ah,” Stone said, as if he knew what the man was talking about.

“I will take charge of this bottle and its contents and the damaged cork and needle,” Pepper said, “and I will order a proper analysis done.”

“How long will that take?” Holmes asked.

“If it’s an easy poison to identify, we’ll know in a day or two. Something more exotic could take a week or, perhaps, weeks. That will probably be the case, given that the Russians are involved.”

“Well,” Holmes said, “I believe we have some arrests to make, so we’d better get started.”

“Chief Inspector,” Stone said, “you might consult Dame Felicity before you start collaring people. Most, if not all, of the suspects will have diplomatic immunity. Perhaps Mr. Thomas may not, and I should think he would be quite a catch. May I suggest that you have the appropriate officers in London pick him up as soon as possible? His bomber may not have told him yet of his failure here.”