Elspeth, being a well-brought-up halfling lady, not to mention a member of the clergy (and DEFINITELY not to mention her having a good understanding of the legal complications around evidence tampering) steps back promptly the instant before the door opens, making it clear she has not disturbed anything.

Enter, in quick succession, three halflings. The first is Frumious Puddlestomp, the son of the deceased. Red-faced with emotion, he stomps into the room, and throws himself down next to his father's corpse. "Father!" he cries, almost theatrically "What tragedy is this!?" Elspeth cannot help but notice that Frumious happened to throw himself right on top of the sheaf of letters demanding money from his father.

Second is Constable Hopscotch, who as we've established is something of a bookworm. He follows Frumious in - clearly, they arrived together - and is instantly distracted by the sight of his copy of Death in the Dregs. He picks it up, finds the marked page, and stuffs the slip of paper into his pocket. He then sits down on the bed next to the corpse and starts reading away. "I love this bit", he says, eagerly pointing to the paragraph describing an almost identical murder scene to the one he's currently sitting in. "Where does Clarissa Medler (Elspeth's nom de plume) get such ideas?"

Third, following shortly thereafter, is Doctor Welldone. He examines the corpse, and confirms what Elspeth already knows - strychnine poisoning! He picks up the bottle of medicine he proscribed for Galumph, frowns, and pockets it. Everyone else is tampering with the evidence!

When Frumious hears that his father was murdered with strychnine, he leaps up! "I know who did this!" he shouts, and rushes out of the room in haste - taking, one must notice, the letters with him.

The bedroom window overlooks a yard at the back of the house. Frumious is in the middle of the yard, accusing one of the servants - Majorie's maidservant Polly - of poisoning his father's tea. Elspeth also sees, lurking at the side of the yard, a familiar but out-of-context face. It's Momerath Grable, a fellow student of Themology. Elspeth hasn't seen Momerath in years - and honestly, thank Them for that. He was always a slimy, conniving, sort. What's he doing here?

Hopscotch, seeing Frumious accost poor Polly, sighs and closes his book. "I should probably be down there," he says, in tones that suggest that doing his job is a terrible imposition on valuable reading time.

So, what's Elspeth's next move:
* Eavesdrop on Frumious' accusation of Polly
* Use Mischief to pick the bookmark from the constable
* Confront Doctor Weldon about the medicine bottle
* Go find poor Majorie and see how she's doing
* Sneak down and see what she can find out about Momerath

And our bonus question: in her novel Death in the Dregs, who actually dunnit?