Harriett by Rebecca King

quivering voice. Her eyes silently
pleaded with him to tell her and he simply couldn’t
refuse.
    “ She choked on something in her drink?”
    “ Something in her drink? What?” Her eyes stared in horror at
him. The regret on his face was plain, as was the reassurance in
her eyes. She could see no accusation or suspicion, merely calm
authority that steadied her.
    “ There was something in her drink that got lodged in her
throat. It looks unlikely that it was an accident but, until we can
find out how it got into her drink, we need to treat this as an
unexplained death.”
    “ Murder,” she whispered.
    Mark
nodded solemnly.
    “ How awful,” her hands trembled and she felt tears well again.
She blinked rapidly to keep them at bay and took comfort from his
presence. “I will help in any way I can.”
    “ Excellent. Now I want you to slowly recount exactly what
happened last night, Harriett. Don’t leave anything out.” He
glanced at Isaac, pleased to note that he already had his pencil
poised to take notes.
    Harriett
slowly went through everything. She seemed to talk for a long time.
Babette only interjected occasionally with additional bits of
information here and there. Tea was replenished several times, and
nothing but crumbs were left of the Victoria sponge cake that
Babette had baked only that morning, but nobody seemed to notice as
the evening’s activities were recounted in minute
detail.
    “ Go through the messages again,” Mark asked with a frown and
drew out his own notebook. He wrote all of the messages down,
before focusing on the ‘H is in danger’.
    “ Did it give any indication as to who the ‘H’ was?”
    “ I am afraid not. Several people got a bit annoyed with the
vagueness of it. I don’t know if any of the messages have any
relevance to what happened because Minerva Bobbington doesn’t have
an H in her name and couldn’t take the message about the
cat.”
    Mark
sighed deeply. His instincts warned him that there was something he
had overlooked, if only he could figure out what. A strong,
protective urge to keep the woman in the chair opposite safe shook
him to the core and he briefly wondered if he really was the right
person to lead this particular investigation. He was fairly certain
that his impartiality, a valuable asset in his line of work, was
skewed by his keen interest in Harriett. Unfortunately though, he
really needed to have a valid reason to continue to see her, if
only to make sure that she was safe.
    “ So, let’s go through this. Who at the meeting last night has
an H in their name?”
    “ Madame Humphries, Gertrude Hepplethwaite, Harriet,” Isaac
hesitated and looked at the woman seated next to Mark. “Sorry,
Harriett. Hugo Montague and Miss Betty Haversham.”
    “ But if someone was trying to give a warning message to
someone whom they knew was in danger, would they use their surname,
or first name?” Harriett questioned with a frown.
    “ I have no idea but, until we can uncover a bit more
information, I think it is important that you take extreme caution
in everything you do, Harriett.” Mark stared hard across the table
and watched her squirm uncomfortably in her seat as though she
wanted to protest at his dictatorial manner. He knew that he was
being rather heavy handed with her, and ignored Isaac’s discrete
cough beside him. He felt compelled to do everything within his
power to ensure that Harriett didn’t become the killer’s next
victim and if it made him unprofessional so be it. “Don’t go out at
night alone, in the dark. When you are at home, make sure that the
door is locked and don’t answer it at night, especially if you are
alone in the house.” He lifted a hand when Harriett and Babette
both took a breath to speak and silenced them with a stern look.
“Right now, we have a death that looks suspicious. Someone at that
circle may have been the murderer, we just don’t know yet. Until we
do, you cannot take any chances. Not even with people