It was a mild, grey day and the two of us pottered nicely, filling old seed trays with compost, sprinkling on seeds, watering them gently and putting them in the frame.
Maddie wanted a picnic lunch so I heated a tin of soup and we sipped it from mugs, along with cheese rolls. She chattered on about school, mainly about Miss Bryan, her teacher, who she was deeply in love with. She wanted to be exactly like Miss Bryan, she was going to be a teacher like Miss Bryan, Miss Bryan had three earrings in one ear. I watched a magpie pulling twigs from a tree in the adjoining garden and flying off with them.
I left Maddie playing with her bike and went in to ring Moira. What had happened with the police?
‘They got the gist of it over the phone,’ she said, ‘then they sent a chap round last night, had to repeat it all again. Said it’d be Monday at least before they’d be doing anything – no point in calling on people over the weekend. Not a high priority for them, anyway.’
I rang Agnes too. Lily was neither better nor worse. They thought it was pneumonia. Agnes had been there the previous evening. I told her what the results were on the tablets.
‘I knew there was something wrong with them.’ She was triumphant. ‘I just knew it. Four times too strong. It really is disgraceful. How did it happen? Did he write out a faulty prescription?’
‘No, the label’s got the correct dosage on – it’s the tablets that are stronger than the label says. You’d only know that if you had them analysed. The mistake must have been made when they were being prepared.’
‘It’s a clear case of negligence, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘Whoever’s got it wrong must be disciplined.’
‘Well, the police are involved now. My friend the GP who sent them to the lab had to report it so they’ll hopefully get to the bottom of it. But listen to this, they were made up at Malden’s, the place where Mrs Goulden works. I think Goulden’s covering up because Malden’s got it wrong. I bet he didn’t do anything after we went to see him, thought we were cranks, and now he’s realised…The others probably know too. It could ruin them, bad publicity and that, endangering life. But, Agnes, I think there’s more to it than just the tablets.’
‘Yes?’
‘I don’t believe it’s just a coincidence that all these people are involved, both in the firm and in Lily’s case. I’m not that gullible. I talked to Mrs Knight and I’m sure she knew nothing about it, she was completely fazed when I told her about the dosage and she only lied about the tablets turning up because Goulden had bullied her into it. But I checked on Ernest Theakston – the other resident from Homelea who’d gone to Kingsfield this year. His case was totally different from Lily’s. He’d been ill for a long time, the progress of the disease was slow and he never had any medication from Malden’s. I can’t see any motive either. Just suppose we’re right, there’s something going on, Goulden gets funny tablets made up at his wife’s lab, gives them to Lily, who’s got dementia any way. She becomes even more demented, they can’t control her so she’s referred to Montgomery for assessment at Kingsfield.’