You helped Victor solve this mystery, so read on to find out who did it...
I have now come to a conclusion as to how Clifton Westcliffe met his death.
This case has been one of the most confusing I have ever encountered. Due mainly to the strong substances that were being banded around tonight. Tablets, pills, soil and potions. It has been a huge task sorting out all the red herrings from the real clues. But at last I have reached a solution.
The one mercy in this investigation has been the limited number of suspects. Only six could have possibly poisoned Clifton. And, since every crime needs a motive, I first studied the relationships between these people and Clifton Westcliffe. I came to the conclusion that of these six people, two were anxious to keep him alive, one was indifferent to his existence, and three people could be said to have a motive to desire his death.
The two people that wanted to keep him alive were his brother, Professor Poole, and his girlfriend, Lady Ferndown. Professor Poole wanted the next Springbourne Soup product to be developed commerically to be Springborne Soup tea towels. He was so determined for this to happen, he was prepared to kill Lady Ferndown. With her dead, her shares of the company would have gone to Clifton, and Professor Poole was counting on Clifton to then develop the tea towel design. Lady Ferndown has realised that Clifton was the man she wanted to spend her life with, and was so desperate to keep him and his love that she spiked his drink with the love potion.
Mavis Moordown had no strong opinion whether Clifton lived or died, though as she was investing in the company, she would prefer him alive. The other three suspects could all be said to have a motive for wanting him dead.
Sir Winton had been importing Brownsea soil into Dorset, the levels are low and monitored closely. Clifton knew this and was blackmailing Sir Winton to sell him soup at greatly reduced prices. A jealous Billy Boscombe suspected that Clifton was having an affair with his wife, Sally Sandbanks. Earlier Prof Poole had told Sally Sandbanks that he would write her a cheque now if he was managing director. Sally knew this could only happen if Clifton was dead.
So having worked out who wanted Clifton dead and who wanted him alive, let us take a look at all the vehicles in which the poison might have been administered. Starting with Sir Wintons hipflask.
Sir Winton spiked Clifton’s drink with the contents of his hipflask. Sir Winton says that the hipflask contained Brownsea soil, not poison, and that spiking Clifton’s drink was part of a long campaign to get him addicted. But do we have any evidence to support this?
Well the answer is yes. Because Mavis Moordowns’s glass was also spiked with the hip flask’s contents. And she is still alive. Also, when drinking the toast tonight, she became all flustered and giggly. All classic signs of Brownsea soil at work. And finally, we have evidence that Sir Winton is telling the truth about his campaign of making Clifton become and addict. Because tonight Clifton told Sally that he was suffering from ‘blinding headaches and blinding lights’, all classic symptoms of long term Brownsea soil use. I am convinced there was not any poison in Sir Wintons hipflask, he did not kill Clifton Westcliffe.
But when Clifton told Sally he had a headache, she gave him a tablet. And she told us he swallowed this before drinking the toast. Could this tablet have been poisoned, and is sally the killer?
Again, the answer is ‘no’. Firstly Sally, as a marketing consultant, would have found it difficult to obtain the poison. Secondly from clue number 2, Mavis’s list, we know that the poison came as a liquid, not a tablet. Thirdly, if Sally had poisoned Clifton with a tablet, why would she tell us that she saw him take immediately before he died. Far more sensible to lie and say that he took it early on in the evening, long before the murder. And finally Sally only found out tonight that if Clifton died, Professor Poole would spend more on his Springbourne Soups marketing campaign, I conclude that Sally did not kill Clifton.
But we do know someone who came here tonight prepared to kill with poison. Professor Poole. And although he had every motive for keeping his brother alive, could Clifton have died due to Professor Poole’s planned murder going horribly wrong?
Professor Poole came here tonight intending to kill Lady Ferndown. He poisoned her drink with poison. But Lady Ferndown did not drink it. She says she passed the glass on to Billy Boscombe. So why isn’t out athlete lying lifeless on the carpet.
The answer, Billy Boscombe is the luckiest man alive. Because by a miracle, fate stepped in tonight to prevent him being killed.
Billy is a hurdler who is prepared to cheat. To gain gold at the Olympic games, he persuaded his wife, Sally Sandbanks, to obtain the Springbourne Soup recipe for Stamina Power and have it made up by Sir Winton. Sally gave Billy the powder tonight when he arrived at the Pig and Whistle. He put it in his coat pocket.
Now remember what Professor Poole told us. He said that he brought poison here tonight, but he told us that, as a precaution, he bought some of the antidote. Which we can see from Mavis’s product table, is also powder. And Professor Poole told us that he also put the antidote powder in the pocket of his coat.
When Billy and Professor Poole left the Pig and Whistle, they picked up each other’s coats. Checking in his coat at the cloakroom here, Billy transferred the powder in the pocket to his wallet. He thought it was the stamina drug, really it was the poison antidote. And, just before the toast, when Lady Ferndown handed him her poisoned drink, Billy added the antidote to it.
And this explains his curious behaviour during the toast, he was being poisoned and resuscitated all in one mouthful.
But if Billy Boscombe drank the poisoned glass of wine, where did the poison come from that killed Clifton? And who administered it?
And here we come to the final irony. Clifton Westcliffe was killed by the person who most wanted to keep him alive. Clifton was killed by Lady Ferndown.
We know that Lady Ferndown was worried that Clifton was becoming besotted with Sally Sandbanks. To keep Clifton’s love she took the reckless step of adding to his wine the love potion.
But let us take a look at how she obtained that potion.
She persuaded Mavis Moordown to send her the password. The Lady Ferndown paid a hacker to break into the company’s computer system and obtain the recipe. She then have the recipe to Sir Winton who made it up for us.
We can see from the stamina powder recipe that there is nothing on any of the Springbourne Soup recipes to indicate what the recipe is for. This is one of Professor Pooles security procedures. When the hacker broke into the computer system, he obtained printout.
Earlier tonight we heard that Mavis Moordown wrote the password in the centre of a plain piece of paper and sent it to Lady Ferndown. If we look at the list of passwords, we see that the password for the love potion is ‘wool’. A word connected with the textile industry.
Unfortunately the piece of paper was read the wrong way, if you turn it upside down, it becomes ‘loom’ also a word connected with the textile industry. By tragic accident, this is another of Professor Poole’s passwords. The password for the poison!
When Lady Ferndown’s hacker broke into the computer system, he entered the wrong password. The recipe he downloaded and gave to Lady Ferndown was for the poison. Sir Winton made up the potion for her and believing it was the love potion, she added it to Clifton’s drink.
Lady Ferndown killed Clifton, but it was a tragic accident.
