Strong Poison: Chapter 7 - A Murder Plot Game in Holloway and Urquhart's Absent Office

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Chapter 7 Lord Peter Wimsey almost bounced into Holloway Prison next morning. Harriet Vane greeted him with a kind of rueful smile.

Harriet Vane (0:09)

So you've reappeared?

Lord Peter Wimsey (0:11)

Good Lord, yes. Surely you expected me to.

I fancied I'd left that impression. I say, I've thought of a good plot for a detective story.

Harriet Vane (0:22)

Really?

Lord Peter Wimsey (0:23)

Top hole. You know, the sort people bring out and say, I've often thought of doing it myself, if I could only find time to sit down and write it.

I gather that sitting down is all that is necessary for producing masterpieces. Just a moment, though. I must get through my business first. Let me see.

SPEAKER_1 (0:44)

He made believe to consult a notebook.

Lord Peter Wimsey (0:46)

Ah, yes. Do you happen to know whether Philip Boyes made a will?

Harriet Vane (0:50)

I believe he did, when we were living together.

Lord Peter Wimsey (0:53)

In whose favour?

Harriet Vane (0:55)

Oh, in mine. Not that he had much to leave, poor man.

It was chiefly that he wanted a literary executor.

Lord Peter Wimsey (1:03)

Are you, in point of fact, his executrix now?

Harriet Vane (1:07)

Good heavens! I never thought of that. I took it for granted he would have altered it when we parted.

I think he must have or I should have heard about it when he died, shouldn't I?

SPEAKER_1 (1:17)

She looked candidly at him, and Wimsey felt a little uncomfortable.

Lord Peter Wimsey (1:21)

You didn't know he had altered it, then? Before he died, I mean?

Harriet Vane (1:25)

I never thought a word more about it, as a matter of fact.

If I had thought, of course I should have assumed it. Why?

Lord Peter Wimsey (1:35)

Nothing, said Wimsey, only I'm rather glad the will wasn't brought up at the thing of me, Bob.

Harriet Vane (1:40)

Meaning the trial?

You needn't be so delicate about mentioning it. You mean if I had thought I was still his heir, I might have murdered him for his money. But it didn't amount to a hill of beans, you know. I was making four times as much as he was.

Lord Peter Wimsey (1:56)

Oh, yes, it was only this silly plot I'd got in my mind. But it is rather silly. Now I come to think of it.

Harriet Vane (2:03)

Tell me.

Lord Peter Wimsey (2:05)

Well, you see…

SPEAKER_1 (2:06)

Wimsey choked a little, and then rattled his idea out with an exaggerated lightness.

Lord Peter Wimsey (2:11)

Well, it's about a girl, or a man would do, but we'll call it a girl, who writes novels, crime stories, in fact, and she has a…

a friend who also writes. Neither of them bestsellers, you see, but just ordinary novelists.

Harriet Vane (2:28)

Yes, that's a kind of thing that might happen.

Lord Peter Wimsey (2:31)

And the friend makes a will, leaving his money, receipts from books and so on, to the girl.

Harriet Vane (2:37)

I see.

Lord Peter Wimsey (2:39)

And the girl, who has got rather fed up with him, you know, thinks of a grand scoop, that will make both of them bestsellers.

Harriet Vane (2:47)

Oh, yes?

Lord Peter Wimsey (2:49)

Yes. She polishes him off by the same method she has used in her latest crime thriller.

SPEAKER_1 (2:55)

A daring stroke, said Miss Vane with grave approval.

Lord Peter Wimsey (2:58)

Yes.

And of course, his books immediately become bestsellers. And she grabs the pool.

Harriet Vane (3:04)

That's really ingenious.

An entirely new motive for murder. The thing I've been looking for for years. But don't you think it would be a little dangerous? She might even be suspected of the murder.

Lord Peter Wimsey (3:15)

Then her books would become bestsellers too.

Harriet Vane (3:18)

How true that is. But possibly she wouldn't live to enjoy the profits.

Lord Peter Wimsey (3:24)

That of course, said Wimsey, is the snag.

Harriet Vane (3:27)

Because unless she were suspected and arrested and tried, the scoop would only half come off.

SPEAKER_1 (3:33)

There you are, said Wimsey.

Lord Peter Wimsey (3:35)

But as an experienced mystery-monger, couldn't you think of a way round that?

Harriet Vane (3:40)

I dare say.

She might prove an ingenious alibi, for instance. Or if she were very wicked, manage to push the blame on somebody else. Or lead people to suppose that her friend had made away with himself.

SPEAKER_1 (3:53)

Too vague, said Wimsey.

Lord Peter Wimsey (3:54)

How would she do that?

Harriet Vane (3:56)

I can't say off-hand. I'll give it careful thought and let you know. Or here's an idea.