“To get revenge and clear the way to be together, of course!”
“No, why do you think that’s the case?”
“Oh.” Saffron thought for a moment. Why had she jumped to this conclusion? “I suppose … well, I suppose my only reason was the meaningful looks they gave each other. Miss Ermine implied Mrs. Henry wasn’t faithful. And Richard Blake gave Mrs. Henry the glass that probably had the poison in it. Maybe she didn’t realize that was the glass she was meant to give her husband.”
Alexander frowned. “That’s rather sloppy. Wouldn’t Blake have indicated to her that it was the poisoned glass, rather than allow her to drink it? He wouldn’t have been able to watch her put it to her lips without a reaction. And if it was by accident, they must be terrible would-be murderers to choose a situation where they could poison the wrong person so easily.”
“I suppose you’re right.” She sighed, slumping back in her chair.
“Probably more likely that Blake tried to kill her instead, since he poured her the glass. Did you actually see him or anyone else touch it before?”
“The inspector already knows that both he and Dr. Henry poured into the glass.” Saffron stood and began pacing. She wasn’t pleased that her theories were so easily discarded. Now that the idea that Mrs. Henry and Blake were lovers had taken root in her mind, it was impossible to ignore. But how to prove it?
Silence settled between them. Saffron looked up from her musing to find Alexander straightening the book atop his desk, a frown creasing his brow. “Oh, I’m sorry! Am I distracting you from your work?”
“No … There’s just something about Richard Blake. Something about the papers on his desk when I was in his office. It’s probably nothing.”
“What seemed amiss?”
“He had his papers everywhere. He seemed to be looking for something; he was completely distracted from our conversation. I looked at the papers and saw what you’d expect—receipts, invoices, letters, order forms for the expedition. Quite a lot of forms were spread out.”
“Did you see what they had ordered?” Saffron asked. She was curious what had Alexander so tense. Although given how he’d cleaned Dr. Maxwell’s office during her experiment, and how he kept his own office, he clearly had a problem with clutter. Even now, he was prodding the book to make it perfectly parallel with the edge of the desk.
He shook his head, eyes unfocused. “No, I didn’t. Dr. Berking had one or two orders, and Somerville from geology had several, Robinson, Straithway … Dr. Henry’s name was all over the place. His signature is so large and messy, it’s easy to identify.”
“So, it was odd because …？”
“I don’t know. I suppose it was odd because Dr. Henry had ordered so many things compared to the other professors, although I’m sure not all the forms were visible. Mine wasn’t there, for one.”
“Perhaps it was the usual materials, and they were all laid out, so it looked strange,” Saffron suggested.
He stood and went to his bookshelf, straightening a book that wasn’t out of place. “I suppose. But his research is about people. It doesn’t require vast amounts of supplies—just crates and packing and cloth to collect artifacts, and he could get most of that in Brazil.”
“He is the leader. Perhaps it’s the materials for the whole team, tents and camp supplies and things.”
Alexander shook his head. “He wouldn’t be ordering that sort of thing himself. It wasn’t his responsibility for past expeditions.” He ran a hand through his hair, still curly from the rain, and said again, “It’s probably nothing.”
“Maybe,” Saffron replied. She didn’t have any experience ordering materials for an expedition and didn’t particularly want to emphasize that inexperience further. She stood, walking to the door. “Well, I won’t take more of your time. I’m afraid I’ve been quite a nuisance. See you later, Alexander.”
Standing in the hall, Saffron decided she could no longer avoid her work. But when she settled down at her own desk, she found herself staring down at a pile of books and papers rather than doing anything productive with them. Her thoughts were scraping the bottom of the barrel, searching out new possibilities for Dr. Maxwell’s defense. She’d just proved why she couldn’t theorize based on insufficient information; Alexander had tossed out her ideas with barely any consideration.