"Poison..." Frodo spoke the word in a soft hiss. He had dealt with poisonings before, and knew what a horrible, insidious type of murder it was. The culprit would be difficult to find, since he or she could plant the poison days or even weeks in advance and need not be anywhere near the victim at the time of death. A poisoner could go silently and strike wherever they liked, and there was little hope of predicting their crimes nor preventing them. "How do you know?" he asked.
"I didn't know it, not at first. When you get to be my age, even the hardiest hobbit has to put up with certain infirmities. Old bones grow weary and the heart doesn't beat as strongly as it did when you were young. In June, I fell into a fit of some sort, and for two days afterwards, I lay as if dead. I'm sure my family thought it was the end of me, but my senses returned at last and I slowly recovered while abed. It was thought that I must have suffered some sort of stroke of the brain, which is not so remarkable in a hobbit of one-hundred-and-ten, but it was only when I resumed my duties, and again drank..." He glanced at the decanter.
Frodo followed the old hobbit's gaze, and a chill ran through him. "The wine?"
"It's a special vintage," Brabantius explained. "The Thain's Own, they call it. It's reserved for my private use, to be shared with favored guests and members of my family. I have my decanter here, and only let it be brought to the table on special occasions, such as my birthday and the birthday of my heir. Both were months ago, and my children and their families seem to have suffered no ill effects from the last time they drank it."
"Have you been the only one to drink the wine since?"
Brabantius nodded. "It sat here in this room all the time I lay abed, untouched. When I drank from it again, I had more such tremors and mild fits, not so bad as that first, but enough that I began to suspect my bouts of 'illness' weren't all that they seemed. Before I made up my mind to summon you, I gave some of the wine mixed with milk and bread to a dog from the stables, an old and sickly beast like myself, to find out whether or not my worst suspicions were true. He went into fits, just as I had, and was sick as a dog might be, but the poor creature didn't recover. He died that same night."
"Who comes into this room?" asked Frodo.
"Under normal circumstances, when the door is not locked, anybody might come and go when I am not in," said Brabantius. "The door was locked during my days of illness, so that the wine couldn't have been touched, or taken, until I was well enough to return and open the door myself. Since I've begun to suspect the truth, however, I am in here most of the day. I lock the door when I am out, and Tulipant has instructions that no one is to be admitted without my knowledge or permission. And yet, the poison might not have been added to the wine here, in this very room. It might be done at the butler's pantry, where Tulipant decants the wine."
"Who has access to the butler's pantry?"
"Tulipant keeps the keys to his pantry and the wine cellar, but I suppose they might easily be taken by anyone in the household. Before this, there was never a good reason to be particularly careful with them. I would have said that my servants were all perfectly trustworthy and I needn't worry that any one of them was drinking themselves into tipsiness on my stock of wine. You must speak to Tulipant, ask him."
"Yes, I intend to," said Frodo. "But you must tell him what all this is about. He will wonder when I begin asking questions about the keys and the wine, and might refuse to answer if he doesn't understand."
Brabantius nodded, agreeing to this. "I don't suppose this can be kept secret much longer. Yet I dislike the thought of telling all the household. The one who's done this is surely among them, and would be put on his guard if he knows why you've come here."
"My arrival will have put him, or her, on guard in any case. The others might not be able to guess why I'm here, but the one who's been putting poison in your wine surely will."
The old Thain smiled. "True. Very well. They must be told, and you may ask them all as many questions as you like. I will give whatever aid you require, to do what you must."
"Thank you," said Frodo. "I have one question for you, Thain Brabantius. Why?"
"Why?"
"Why would anyone wish to poison you? You must have given it some thought since you began to suspect it was so."
"Oh, I can guess why someone would wish me out of the way," said Brabantius. "When you met my family, Mr. Baggins, was my wife there as well?"
"Yes, sir, she was," Frodo answered.
"Then you see what's put them all into a flurry. Not one of them can abide Iris. They've never forgiven me for marrying a second time at my age--and to marry such a woman! Though I suppose it'd be just as likely for someone to poison her as well as me, if that were the reason. Oh, this is a terrible thing! Before you came, I've sat here day upon day, too frightened to know where to turn."
"I've had experience of poisonings before, sir," said Frodo. "I investigated a similar case just last year, and I was in fear of being a victim of poison myself."
"Have you?" The old Thain began to regard his guest with a new appreciation. "When did you run afoul of a poisoner before, Mr. Baggins?"
"It wasn't here in the Shire," Frodo told him. "I was summoned by the King in Gondor, to aid him when two Men of his court were murdered."
"And did you find the one responsible?"
"Yes, in the end, but it was terrible case. Two more people were killed before the poisoner was discovered, and many other people were in danger, myself included. I know how it is to be fearful of eating or drinking. Nothing tastes as it should."
Brabantius nodded eagerly. "Yes, that's so. It's as if every drop may be tainted."
"But you must eat. You need to keep your health and strength. My advice to you, sir, is to go out among your family," Frodo told him. "Do not eat alone. Unless this person wishes to harm the rest of your family--and I don't believe he does, if he's only poisoned your private stock of wine--then the food that everybody eats is the safest. Eat only what the others at the table have eaten. If there is any food known to be a particular favorite of yours, don't touch it."
"Yes..." He nodded again, even more appreciative of Frodo. "I shall take your advice, Mr. Baggins. And I would be happy to have you join my family at dinner tonight. You will have a better chance to look them over. But before that-" The Thain yanked the bell-pull; a minute later, Tulipant reappeared. "Ah, Tulipant, I have a special errand for you. You've been most circumspect, and obeyed all my most peculiar orders these past weeks without question or delay."
"It is always my pleasure to serve my Thain," Tulipant replied with a bow.
"I'm pleased to hear it. Mr. Baggins here has also agreed to aid me, and I wish you to give him every assistance. He acts with my authority. Show him your pantry and the wine cellar, and whatever other part of the kitchen offices or storerooms he would like to see. Answer his questions as if I had asked th
Tulipant looked somewhat perplexed by these orders, but he bowed again. "Will that be all, your Thainship?"
"For the moment, thank you, Tulipant," answered the Thain. "Oh, and I pray you take this decanter of wine from my sight. I've no desire to see it again."
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