Jackson frowned. ‘I’ll release him when I’m good and ready and I want to hear the answers from Fulford’s mouth, not yours, Mr McFarland.’
Marcus had started sweating profusely, which to Jackson was a sign he had lied to McFarland. The next minute Marcus leaned forward, clutching his stomach, and retched uncontrollably, before he suddenly collapsed, hitting his head against the interview-room table. He started convulsing and then seemed to hallucinate, shouting and screaming for his daughter to come home. They tried to give him first aid, called an ambulance immediately and told the crew he might be suffering from mushroom poisoning.
Deirdre hurried to Lena’s bedroom as soon as she got off the phone from an increasingly frantic Reid. The en-suite bathroom door was closed and the shower turned on. She called out for Lena, who shouted back that she was washing her hair and to please give her some privacy.
‘Lena, your husband has been taken to Kingston Hospital.’
Slowly the shower door opened and Lena, with shampoo frothed across her hair, leaned out. ‘What?’
Deirdre repeated what she’d said, and although Lena seemed to register what she had been told, there was little reaction and she simply closed the shower door and continued washing her hair.
‘Do you want me to call the hospital to see how he is?’ Deirdre asked in frustration.
‘I’ll dry my hair, get dressed and see you downstairs.’
Deirdre couldn’t believe her attitude and decided that she would call Kingston Hospital herself. She explained to the nurse in intensive care who she was.
‘He is in a very serious condition and unconscious,’ the nurse said. ‘The doctors are still treating him, so until I speak to them there is not much more I can tell you.’
Deirdre asked to be called as soon as there was more news as she was taking care of Mrs Fulford.
Reid pulled up outside the Henley property and parked beside a patrol car. Two uniformed officers were already there and they explained that there was no answer to repeated knocks on the door, and that the back door was locked. Reid, fearing for Grant’s safety, was about to break open the back door when he saw and heard a Porsche roar up the driveway. A young man got out with a panicked expression on his face, asking nervously what was happening and holding up a bag full of shopping, saying he’d been to the supermarket. Establishing that this was Mr Grant Delany, Reid suggested they went inside and Grant led them into the sitting room.
‘Marcus Fulford is seriously ill and in intensive care. We don’t know for certain yet, but it’s possible he has some kind of serious food poisoning,’ Reid explained, not wanting to unduly alarm Grant, who looked worried.
‘You’re joking; we did get a bit plastered last night, but we were celebrating because he’s been left three million quid by Simon.’ Globules of spittle formed at the sides of his mouth and he was talking very fast.
‘Can you just listen carefully please? Have you had any stomach pains, headaches, maybe feel as if you have flu-like symptoms?’
‘No, I’m fine, but you are starting to freak me out. I am a vegan so whatever I eat I prepare for myself.’
‘Can you recall exactly what Mr Fulford ate?’
‘He had a steak the night before last, but you lot turned up and arrested him before we ate properly yesterday. Earlier on we drove to London, met with Simon’s solicitors to discuss his will and Marcus had a beef burger and I had a veggie one on the way back here.’
‘And he wasn’t ill at all after the beef burger?’
‘No, and we started drinking when we got back. I mean he was ecstatic – three million quid. I got twenty-five grand, but then I’d only known Simon for a matter of months.’
Grant seemed unable to stop talking and Reid in irritation stood up, walking around the room, picking up one bottle after another.
‘What did you both drink?’
‘Dom Perignon champagne and red wine I got from the cellar. Well I sort of drank most of the bubbly as I don’t really like red wine, but Marcus opened a couple of bottles before he went on to the brandy,’ Grant said and pointed to the dusty bottle.
Reid saw that it was a vintage Napoleon in an elegant carved bottle, with just a small residue left in the bottom.
‘That’s a very expensive brandy – hundreds of quid – I brought it back from Simon’s place in Green Street.’
‘Was it open?’
‘Yeah, and about a quarter full. Simon loved his brandy, not that he told me to bring it back from his flat, I just did because I know he favoured the aged stuff and we didn’t have any in the cellar.’
‘Did Simon consume any of this?’
‘Not really – he wasn’t well so wasn’t drinking.’
‘What do you mean, not really?’
‘Well, I put a little splash in when I made him a hot toddy.’
Reid suspected that Amy must have put the poison in the brandy hoping her father would drink it at the flat, but as fate would have it the bottle ended up back at Boatly’s and both he and Marcus unwittingly drank from it.
‘Did you have any of the brandy?’
‘No way, can’t stand the stuff.’
‘Do you know how much of it Marcus had?’
Grant thought for a moment and said that as far as he recalled he maybe had one or two large ones before he got arrested. Reid asked to see the room Marcus was using and followed Grant up the wide staircase and into the master bedroom. There were piles of clothing in different sizes on the floor and bed.
‘You both sleep in here?’
His face flushed. ‘Er, yeah, but only the one night.’
On the floor were a jumble of discarded old-fashioned leather jewel boxes embossed with a monogrammed faded gold crown. Grant saw the way Reid looked at the cases and started to pick them up.
‘Simon’s lawyers mentioned the jewellery they would be collecting, but most of these were empty. That big one must have one time had a tiara or something inside – you can see the indentation on the old velvet.’
‘Where’s the jewellery from the boxes that weren’t empty then?’
‘Oh, uh, I’ve got it hidden away for the solicitors. I didn’t want a break-in and for it to be stolen.’
‘Very thoughtful of you,’ Reid said sarcastically. ‘This box you think a tiara was in…’
‘Well I’m not sure – it’s just the indentations made me think that.’
‘If it had been removed ages ago I’d have thought the indentations would be less pronounced.’
‘I swear I haven’t got it and Marcus was with me when we opened the boxes.’
‘Well let’s hope he comes round and can confirm that’s correct.’
Reid was certain Grant was lying and, along with Marcus, had probably helped himself to the contents of the empty boxes, but he had more pressing things to deal with. He instructed Grant to check the freezer for any opened bags or plastic cartons of food, not to eat from them and to put them to one side. Reid also told him to put aside any other bottles of opened drink he found and he would arrange for their collection later. Lastly he said he was taking the bottle of Napoleon brandy for forensics. Grant picked up on what Reid had just said.
‘Wait a minute, you think he was deliberately poisoned and it was in the brandy bottle. Oh my God, I gave it to Simon in the toddy and it must have killed him… oh my God.’
‘You didn’t know, and it wasn’t enough to kill him, Grant. The pathologist said he died of AIDS-related pneumonia.’
But Grant was in tears and could barely take in what Reid was saying when the detective asked him for a set of keys to the flat so he could search it for any other contaminated fluids.