Part 10

PC Honeychurch found them in the dinning room to advise them that the men from the coroner's office had arrived to collect Mr Goldberg's body. William confirmed they were fine to take the body, and told him to give them the two glasses the Goldberg's had been drinking from, so they could also test those for poison as well.

Afterwards, they both made their way into Rupert's drawing room and saw Tilly had found some cards, and had got the staff to move the armchairs back into the middle of the room, so all the ladies were sitting quietly together, drinking some tea and playing cards.

Arabella was sat quietly in the corner chair on her own. She had some cards in her hands as if she was playing, but it was clear from her demeanor that her mind was elsewhere.

"Ah Inspector," Mrs Rosenthal said, looking up from her position on the armchair, as she saw them walk into the room. "It is getting rather late. Do you know when you might be finished?" She asked him, politely, but also rather forcefully, as if waiting for him to be done was an inconvenience on her time.

Ordinarily, this kind of attitude would annoy William. The thought that he could somehow speed up an investigation into how someone had died, he always felt was rather disrespectful, not only to him, but to the person who's death he was investigating. However, it was getting late and he knew there was very little more they could do tonight.

"Yes, I think we're done for the evening. I'd like to ask my officers downstairs to take down your home addresses, so we can contact you should we have any more questions," William told them, before turning to look at Arabella. "Mrs Goldberg, if you don't mind, we just have a few more questions for you before you leave for the evening."

Arabella looked up from her seat, and quietly nodded. She was clearly exhausted, so Mrs Thompson looked over at her, and spoke gently to her.

"Perhaps Arabella, you might like myself and Mr Thompson to wait for you? We could escort you home?"

Arabella thought for a moment on the idea, and clearly decided it would be better then going home alone.

"Thank you, that would be most kind," she told her. Nodding as she slowly stood up, and appeared to almost reluctantly follow Eliza and the Inspector.

The three of them made their way up to the study room. This time, Eliza let William sit at the desk opposite Arabella and take the lead on the questions, while she leaned against the cold fireplace. Even though she had made a small breakthrough with her earlier, she wondered if perhaps William would have better luck with Arabella then she did.

"Mrs Goldberg, I've been speaking with Miss Scarlet regarding your husband's death…"

"What, did she tell you that I'm responsible?" Arabella said, with a roll of her eyes. She gave Eliza a glance over, but Eliza chose to ignore it.

"I can assure you, we have remained open to all possibilities." Arabella didn't look like she believed William, but he continued on regardless. "Now, how would you describe your relationship with your husband?" William asked, getting to his point rather quickly.

"It was fine. It wasn't perfect, but we knew to leave each other alone. He did what he wanted and so did I. I'd tell him when we had an event to attend together and he always showed up," she answered with a sigh, realizing there was no point pretending their marriage was perfect.

"And how exactly did he react to news of your child?" William asked gently.

"I told Eliza, he didn't care," she shrugged. She didn't seem overly concerned or bothered by the idea of how her husband reacted.

"But he didn't want any children of his own," William pressed.

"He didn't want many things Inspector, but he knew what I wanted, so he would go along with it to just keep me happy. Just like he would buy me gifts," she motioned to the expensive necklace and earrings she wore. "Not because he wanted to, but because it kept me happy. That was how our marriage worked."

"So he wasn't in anyway unhappy with this arrangement?" William confirmed.

Arabella shook her head and sighed at the question.

"I mean, he wasn't exactly jumping for joy at the prospect, but he wasn't angry. It's not like he was planning to kick me out and disown me if that's what you mean."

"And the child's father?"

"What of him?" She asked sounding tired.

"He was happy with this situation? Someone else raising his child?"

Arabella was slightly taken aback with this line of questioning. As far as she was concerned, the father had nothing to do with the evenings events, so why The Inspector would be asking about him.

"He understands my situation. He knew I wasn't able to leave my husband."

"Could he have wanted your husband dead?"

"No!" She said shocked. "He's the most kindest, gentlest person in the world. He'd never hurt anyone, ever!" She was insistent, and her words from her heart, and neither William nor Eliza had reason not to believe her.

"I will need his details, I'll need to speak with him tomorrow."

Arabella shook her head, and almost looked scared at the prospect.

"You can't, this is private, no one knows about us. No one can ever know about us," she told William, with a look of fear.

"I'm afraid I do have to speak with him. As I said, we have to look at all options, even if its to remove him from our enquires," William told her sternly.

"But he's not even here, he has nothing to do with this… I'm telling you Inspector, neither he nor I have a thing to do with what happened to my husband."

Eliza had been keeping quiet while William questioned Arabella, not wanting to overstep, but she finally stepped forward to ask her own question.

"Arabella, did your husband have any access to any drugs or other substances?"

Arabella looked at her confused by the question and shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know, possibly. He has friend who's a pharmacist, they've know each other since school. He's been giving my husband some medication recently, said he'd been struggling with his breathing."

Eliza and William shared a look. Mr Goldberg had access to someone who could potentially have given him the arsenic.

"What medication?" William asked

"I don't know, a powder of some sort. I never asked."

"We'll need the details for the pharmacist," William told her.

"Why?" Arabella asked. She looked between Eliza and William wondering what they weren't telling her.

"How much of your wine did you drink tonight?" William asked after a moment. Arabella shrugged her shoulders, and seemed even more confused by the line of questioning.

"Barely any, a few sips at most. Wine's not really agreeing with me at the moment."

Eliza and William shared another look, this one didn't go unmissed by Arabella.

"What has whether or not I drank my wine got to do with my husband's death?" she asked them, getting rather annoyed, that neither of them seemed willing to give her any answers.

William thought about how to put this all delicately, not wanting to upset a woman in her condition, but there really was no easy way to say that they suspected her own husband of trying to murder her.

"It's possible you're husband died from poisoning, we've asked for the coroner to do the appropriate tests to confirm it," William told her gently.

"You mean someone tried to kill him with poison?" Arabella asked, confused and shocked.

William and Eliza took a second to respond. They exchanged a glance. Eliza was silently asking if they should tell her and William nodded his agreement,

"Not exactly," Eliza told her finally. "We think he might have tried to poison you."

"ME!" she exclaimed. "Why would…" Arabella sighed and put a protective hand on her stomach. They watched the colour drain from her face as she realised what they were meaning.

"On the table there was a wine glass that was full and one that was empty. It looks like the one you drank from, was the empty one," Eliza said quietly.

"But I never drank it…" she whispered.

"It's possible your husband might have put the poison in your drink and then mistakenly drank from the wrong glass," William said quietly.

For once Arabella said nothing, and just held a hand over her mouth with her eyes closed.

"So Mrs Goldberg, was your husband truly okay with the news of your baby?" William pushed again.

Arabella continued to say nothing, and Eliza was sure it was the first time she'd ever seen her completely stunned into silence. Eventually she shook her head and shrugged.

"I told him a week ago. He said nothing about it. In fact, he's barely spoken a word to me since I told him. He wasn't mad or angry, he wasn't anything, he was just quiet. He stayed out of the house, or avoided me if he was home," she reluctantly told them. "We were cordial when we saw each other, but nothing to suggest he wanted me dead."

"Did he know, about your lover?" William asked.

"I knew he had other women in his life, I assumed he knew I had someone else too. There is no way the baby was his, so when I told him, I was shocked by how surprised he seemed. So maybe he didn't, I don't know."

Arabella paused for moment exhausted, and gave a heavy sigh.

"I'm incredibly tired Inspector, do you think I could go home now?" Arabella finally asked.

"I don't think there is anything further we need tonight. Please give all your details to Detective Phillips, including the Pharmacist's details on your way out. We will confirm everything, and then we will be in touch," William responded.

She nodded, and quietly got up and left the room to go home for the evening.

Eliza and William stayed quiet as they both processed their thoughts.

"I should go let Rupert know we're done for tonight," Eliza finally said.

"Fine, I'll check in with Phillips, make sure he's got everything then I'll walk you home." Eliza nodded in agreement.

Back down in the drawing room the guests had all left, Tilly and Rupert were instructing the staff to start the clear up of the evening, watching them using a snuffer to put out the various candles, and tidy them and the candlesticks all back into their boxes.

Eliza quietly watched them from the doorway for a moment, and for the first time Rupert didn't seem scared of Tilly, in fact they both seemed to be happily talking. Eliza had half expected Rupert to be in pieces somewhere, so it was a welcome surprise to see him so okay. Either that or perhaps the brandies and cigars had gone to his head.

"Rupert, Tilly," Eliza announced, making her presence in the room finally known.

"Ah Eliza, I see the guest have all gone now,"

"Yes, William's just finishing up with Detective Phillips, and then I think we'll be done for the evening."

"Any news regarding Mr Goldberg?" Rupert queried hopefully.

"Not as yet, William will know more once the coroner has done their part. I'll let you know more when I do." Eliza knew it would do no good to tell Rupert and Tilly what they believed, not until they had all their evidence.

"Thank you, it would be good to have something to tell mother once she finds out about this." Eliza laughed, and Rupert matched her with his own chuckle.

"Aside from the events with Mr Goldberg, thank you for inviting myself and Inspector Wellington. You put on a lovely evening, Fraulein Hildegard."

"Eh, not bad for my first dinner party," Tilly shrugged and gave a pleased smile.

"The first of many I'm sure," Eliza told her with sincerity.

"Thank you so much for coming Eliza," Rupert told her honestly. "I can hand on my heart say the second half of the evening would have been far worse had you and Inspector Wellington not been here."

Eliza nodded, and smiled as she went to leave. When she got to the doorway, she once more turned to watch Rupert and Tilly, as they smiled.

"Well Fraulein, perhaps you should like me to escort you home?" Rupert offered her kindly.

Tilly seemed rather shocked for a moment, before nodding, and quietly agreeing to Rupert's offer.

"Well thank you, that would be lovely," she told him.

Eliza smiled, perhaps the evening wasn't a total loss, perhaps this was to be the start of a lovely friendship between Rupert and Tilly. She turned on her heel and went in search of William to escort her home too.

To be continued….