‘I simply cannot believe it of Annabella,’ Paulette responded. ‘Not murder, anyway.’ ‘At the very least she’s a fraud and an accessory to arson,’ Susan insisted. ‘She’s a good actress, too. Keep an open mind.’ ‘But if Ruddock burnt the warehouse?’ Paulette said. ‘Then he’s probably the murderer,’ Susan admitted, ‘but all Paul says is that Ruddock owns a river cruiser, nothing more.’ ‘Still—’ ‘Okay,’ Susan interrupted, ‘so Ruddock’s our prime suspect. Look at it like this, though. It is highly improbable that the murderer kept a store of dried Destroying Angel just in case they needed to poison someone. It does occur in England, but it’s rare, whereas the related Death Cap, Amanita Phalloides, is much more common, grows in the same habitat and is even more deadly. All that argues for prior knowledge of a Destroying Angel site. It can’t have been collected before Sowerby told Annabella he thought that de Vergy Fine Wines were being ripped off, and we know that that was July the fifteenth, from his diary.’ Susan paused, pushing the guide to poisonous fungi aside and reaching for Alan Sowerby’s diary.
