Percy had absolutely no idea in his mind as to who could be responsible for the insidious action which had put an end to the life of Mrs Alicia Valtos, but he knew that he had to keep on pushing people and striking at their nerves, while he still had the chance to run the show on his own. The arrival of a policeman and his forensic medics would surely reduce Percy's control over the situation. The forensic medicine would only serve to confirm what a common sense process of deductive argumentation and reasoning had made apparent to Percy anyway. There had been no bullet wounds or cuts and no history of a weak heart condition. Readers of previous Sneaky Spy adventures will know that Percy seldom, if ever, vested great faith in the possible value of a policeman's presence.

"If you're really innocent, you might not have to worry anyway," said Percy at last, "Where's the medicine bottle now?"

'"Sitting on one of the kitchen shelves," said Anthony Skilton.

"Nobody touches that bottle until the police have compared its fingerprints to those of everyone in this room," said Percy, "and if they match someone's prints other than those of Skilton, then we will know for certain that Skilton is not the sole naughty one in this party, if he is even a naughty one at all."

"I'll get the key and lock the room," said Valtos.

"And I'll come along, just out of curiosity," said the Sneaky Spy.

He waited until he and Irwin were out of earshot of the others, and then consoled his friend.

"Look Irwin, I'm sorry to have to include you under suspicion, but anyone could have tampered with your wife's medicine. I cannot let anyone out - and none of your guests can really let me off the hook either - until we find out who the killer actually was."
Percy opened the door to the kitchen, surveyed the bottle on the shelf, and then left the room and watched Valtos turn the key in the lock. Soon afterwards they heard a ringing from the front door.

"Well I guess I will just have to let the law take over now," said Percy, reserving his own inner thoughts of continuing to mentally screen every single thing that happened in the house until he found the person responsible for the death of Alicia Valtos. The door was opened by the owner of the house, and into the room walked three plainclothes men, one of them carrying a large case; and an inspector by the name of Higgins.

Percy wondered what he would say to the man. The Sneaky Spy had not revealed his name (nor any cognomen or alias) to the inspector, when he had tussled with Higgins at a girls college in order to clear the name of a woman suspected of attacks on school girls.

"Well, how nice to see you again," said Higgins.

"Yes indeed. Do you mind if I have a small conversation with you in privacy, Inspector?"

"Certainly. Who telephoned, by the way?"

"I did, Inspector," said Valtos, "I take it you know Percy Dale already."

"Yes, we have ... met. We'll go into the next room, if it's alright with you. Is every guest still here?"

"There's one asleep upstairs," said Percy, "Come on Higgins."

The inspector followed Percy into the spare room.

"You really did a good job on me that night, Mister Dale. Would you care to explain why?"

"I read the newspaper stories about an attacker at the school, and decided to go in search of the naughty ones. Then you had to turn up and blame me for the attacks, and, well I got impatient and left you knocked out in the bushes. You can put me in a line-up, Higgins, and you can also talk to some associates of mine, because I have cast iron alibis for my movements on the nights of several of the attacks."

(Percy had read of these attacks in various newspapers).

"Well it seems that I can only let that business go, using my own discretion not to charge you with taking the law into your own hands, assaulting a policeman, and trespassing on school property. This new case is far more important, and you're in it up to your neck, along with everyone else in the house."

"Even the owner and his butler, I know, Inspector."

Percy followed the inspector back into the living room, inwardly celebrating the fact that he had found a policeman who did not feel the need to follow through every single technicality. The man had erred. Percy had bopped the man in the flesh with a powerful tranquilising dart, and a coincidence of situations had reunited them.

"Who knows?" thought the Sneaky Spy, "He might even prove to be of some assistance in cracking this case."

Higgins began to ask a series of questions similar to those that Percy had asked the others earlier. Meanwhile, the forensic medicine team took the body of Alicia Valtos into the spare room and began to examine her.

"As I have already said," replied Skilton, "I gave her the medicine as usual, and she drank it. Ten minutes later I heard her groaning, and then she collapsed. She has not stirred since then. Mister Dale assures us that she is now dead."

"Oh we are convinced, Mister Skilton, of the fact that Mrs Valtos is most definitely dead," said the inspector, "We also know that she took some medicine that was administered to her by you. It is reasonable to assume that you might have had something to do with her having been poisoned."

Percy was inwardly impatient now. He had already enacted this line of questioning to little avail himself. When would he ever be able to think of a way to learn the truth?

*          *          *          *

More questions.

More fruitless answers.

*          *          *          *

Percy suddenly had a burst of inspiration.

"Sorry Skilton," he said, "and sorry to interrupt you, Inspector, but I have just remembered something which has only in the last few minutes occurred to me as being of significant importance. When Ingrid and I first arrived tonight, Skilton had a jacket on over his vest. Where's your jacket now, Skilton?"

"I'll go and get it from the cloak room," said Skilton.

"And Higgins and I shall come with you," rapped Percy, before the Inspector could make the same ultimatum himself. They were soon standing in front of the jacket, which the inspector opted to examine himself.

Inspector Higgins found a few suspicious items in the inner pocket of the jacket.

He removed a small dropper and a narrow vial of fluid.

"Why don't you give these little goodies over to your forensic boys?" asked Percy.

"But I really don't know how on earth that stuff got in there, Inspector," said the butler.

"Don't worry too much. Higgins might have his own ideas about this case, but that jacket of yours convinces me that you had absolutely nothing at all to do with the murder."
"What do you mean?" exploded the inspector.

"Simply, old bulldog, that the clue is too obvious. Anybody who seriously contemplated a murder would not overlook such a dead giveaway as that. It's an obvious clue, and one that Skilton would have thought of removing much earlier in the piece. I am now absolutely sure that there is somebody who is doing their level best to frame an innocent butler."

"That's rather an elaborately contrived story, Dale."

"We'll see who cracks this one first, Higgins, old boy."

One of the doctors entered the room and explained that the woman had indeed been poisoned. She would not have detected the effect of the altered medicine until it had almost taken its full effect. The connection between the dropper and vial and the death of Alicia was indisputable.

"Excuse me," said Valtos, "But Skilton, Anthony, I want you to look me in the eye and tell me whether or not you had anything to do with this hideous murder of my wife."

"I promise you again, that I had nothing to do with it, except as the innocent person who unwittingly administered medicine that somebody else took the unexplained opportunity to poison. The lady you married was as good to me as you yourself have been, and I wish to see her killer apprehended."

"Thank you," said Valtos, "I wish I hadn't had to ask that."

The inspector came to the conclusion that a hearing would be necessary in order to determine the missing facts of the case, and decided to take the names of everyone present, in order to ensure that they all attend the hearing. He made up a dossier containing the names, addresses and telephone numbers of each of the people there, and then warned them all to attend the hearing after being notified of its date. He did not have sufficient evidence to imprison anyone, not even Skilton.

Then the inspector gathered his team and left.

"Do you mind if I have a private conversation with Anthony?" asked Percy.

"Not at all, if he doesn't mind," replied Valtos, as his guests expressed their condolences and departed for the night.

Percy and Anthony found a room for themselves and began to converse.

"Anthony, if you're hiding anything at all - or you can think of any piece of significant information - then you had better tell me."

"There is one irrelevant thing, but I will only reveal it to you, if you promise not to tell the master about it."

"Alright."

"I have always enjoyed my work. I feel proud to be a butler, and it has been particularly nice to work for the Valtos couple in one of the most attractive streets of Wahroonga. Irwin might need me more than ever now.  The thing is that, financially, I do not really need this job, since I won two million dollars in a lottery. I am now independantly wealthy, with a house of my own. Valtos doesn't know about this. He might feel like discharging me and employing somebody else. I want to keep my old job without Irwin thinking that I am patronising him."

"Well I cannot see anything important in that yet, but thank you anyway. I fear that Higgins has it in for you, but trust me. They won't take you away while I'm around."

Percy then had a private conversation with Valtos.

"I won't tell you why yet, but keep Skilton here until I get back. Find some work that simply must be done now. He's loyal and fond of you. So he will listen to any request you make. Perhaps just ask him for a shoulder to lean on."

"Alright, but what are you going to do?"

"You might find out later," said Percy, and he wandered over to Ingrid Castlecove.

"Ingrid, I think we might as well go home."

"Aren't you going to investigate any more?"

"There's nothing else I can do, until the hearing is over."

"But that's not like- .... mmm."

There are times in a man's life, when he will feel strongly inclined to kiss somebody purely for the benefit of expressing his romantic feelings. For Percy, this was not one of those times. His intention was only to silence Ingrid, in a pleasant sort of way, before she said too much.

Ingrid understood.

*          *          *          *

"I know you're cooking up something," said Ingrid, as they walked back to Percy's house in number 66, "So why don't you tell me, now that we're on our own?"

"I most certainly shall. I just wanted to dissuade the others from adopting any belief that I might be planning anything else."

"How are you going to do anything, if we go to your house? Surely we should have stayed at Irwin's house and waited for the murderer to make a mistake and give himself away."
"I think there is a good chance that the murderer is no longer in Irwin's house or anywhere near the place. I had a productive discussion with Valtos, an informative conversation with Skilton and a most interesting dialogue with Inspector Higgins, who no longer blames me for whatever happened at your old school, which is coincidentally where I met him. He might be hoping to pin this murder on me, but I'm fairly sure that he has decided to forget about that little scenario and concentrate on the killing of Mrs Valtos. There is no point in our staying there tonight. We have really heard all that anybody wants to say. The best thing we can do now is make a few preparations at Ordinairy Man Manor, and then have ourselves a look at the house currently owned by Anthony Skilton."

"Doesn't he live at the Valtos house?"

"No. He only works there in the evenings, when the couple are at home. He has a house of his own."