"You'll have to ask his Thainship," Sam said as they left the butler's pantry.
"I intend to," Frodo declared. "There are also a few other things I want to ask the Thain about."
"Such as what?"
"Aunt Diamanta and Pippin have each posed an astute question: Who else in this household besides Lady Iris has a reason to poison the Thain, and why have they chosen to do it now? Let's seek answers to these questions, and see where our inquiries lead. Then we can make a good list of our suspects."
They were on their way to see Brabantius, when they were intercepted by Alhasrus at the head of the tunnel that led to the Thain's study. "Mr. Baggins, a moment of your time, if you can spare it. I wondered if I might have a word with you, ah-" He looked at Sam. "alone, please."
"Shirriff Gamgee is completely in my confidence," Frodo told him, but Alhasrus was not inclined to confide in a shirriff. "Oh, very well." Frodo murmured to his friend, "Sam, will you go and talk to the other servants--the cook, the kitchen maids--while I speak with Mr. Took? They know the workings of the household nearly as well as Tulipant. Find out if they've had any visitors in the kitchens lately. I'll join you as soon as I've finished here."
Sam agreed to this, and turned to go back down the kitchen tunnel they had just come up. Frodo accompanied Alhasrus into the parlor where he had met the North-Took family the evening before; it was unoccupied now. The Thain's heir took a seat in one comfortable chair by the unlit fire, and invited Frodo to sit down as well. "Have you found anything- ah- conclusive yet, Mr. Baggins?"
"No, not yet," Frodo answered, and thought that this was not a question that required confidentiality. He expected to be asked it regularly by everyone involved until he could finally name the culprit.
"I'd like to believe it's all a wild fancy of a hobbit in his dotage," said Alhasrus, "but I've spoken to Father since he made his-ah- astonishing announcement last night, and I'm forced to accept that what he says is indeed so." He shook his head. "I can hardly believe any hobbit capable of such a thing. My wife says it must be Iris."
"Don't you think so, sir?"
"I don't like that woman but, to be fair, I can't call her a murderer without proof. Just because she's after Father's money, it doesn't follow that she'd poison him for it. What I wanted to say to you, Mr. Baggins, is this: I want this matter settled as quickly as possible, not only for Father's sake, but for the rest of us. We can't go on for many days with this terrible suspicion between us. It will tear us apart. I will be the head of the family one day, when Father passes on--though I hope it will not be too soon! But when that day comes, it will be my duty to ensure that we have peace in this household above all else. We must live with Iris and that son of hers in our midst... unless they are the ones who've done this."
Frodo took the hint that Alhasrus wouldn't be sorry if Iris did turn out to be the one who had poisoned her husband, but he was determined not to make accusations that might destroy the family peace for years to come. "I will find the person responsible as quickly as I can," he assured Alhasrus, "but you must understand that an investigation takes time. We have to find the information that will lead us to the culprit. The proof you need. My friends and I have begun our search already, inside the household as well as outside."
"Outside?" Alhasrus brightened at the suggestion that someone outside the household might be the poisoner.
"It may be so. It would be easier for someone within the household to have tampered with your Father's special wine, but so far as I can determine, only one decanter of wine has been poisoned. This most probably happened in the middle of June, if the bottle was not tampered with in the wine cellar long before it was opened. Can you tell me what visitors were at the Thain's Hall during that time, just before your father was taken ill?" Frodo asked.
"We did have guests in the house that week," Alhasrus said, then reconsidered and shook his head, "but it couldn't possible be any one of them."
"Who?"
"My sister Althaea, for one. She came to dinner the night before Father took ill."
Frodo hadn't known that the Thain also had a daughter. He recalled that Pippin had said that Diamond was visiting an aunt, but 'aunt' in hobbit-terms might be any older female relation regardless of the precise degree of kinship and not necessarily a mother's or father's sister. "Does she live far from here?"
"Althaea has her own home a mile or so up the Cleeve," Alhasrus answered. "Low-wood. She comes to visit us often, sometimes with her husband or her youngest daughter Vidalia."
"Were they here then?"
"Not that day, no. My cousin Alamaric and his daughter Diantha were also here, but they are in and out of the Hall all the time. Some other cousins, Gradantius Took and his wife Glovina, my daughter-in-law's parents, came to dinner one night. Oh, and Florisel Pumble-Took was here for a few days just before Father fell ill, but he didn't stay with us overnight. You see, it couldn't be one of them. We've had other callers, ladies to see Diamanta or Aspid or Iris, but no one who was free to wander around the house and get into Father's wine." Alhasrus seemed disturbed; an outsider would be a much more agreeable solution to the problem of who had poisoned the Thain, but the most likely 'outsiders' were as much family as the occupants of the Hall. "Is it possible that someone snuck into our kitchens?" he asked Frodo. "An acquaintance of our butler or cook, or one of the maids?"
"That is possible," Frodo agreed. "Mr. Gamgee has gone to ask your servants. Perhaps something of the sort will turn up."
Alhasrus's hopes were revived by this reassurance.
"I was going to ask your father a few questions, but perhaps you wouldn't mind answering them as well," Frodo continued. "It may help my investigation to move more swiftly."
"Yes, of course. What do you want to know?"
"I've heard there have been quarrels among the Tooks."
"Oh, yes. Since Iris and her son have been here, we've had many."
"No, not about them. I mean other quarrels between yourselves, between the Thain and his family, for other reasons. Before Lady Iris married your father."
"Oh." Alhasrus was taken aback, but quickly re-composed himself. "Yes, I suppose there were a few," he said. "What family doesn't have disagreements?"
"What did you disagree about?" asked Frodo.
"Nothing important," said Alhasrus. "Nothing that concerns you and your investigation, Mr. Baggins."
In spite of Alhasrus's declared determination to have things settled quickly, Frodo could see that he would supply nothing more helpful on this point.
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