William Arthur Mayor greeted his family with suspicion.

He knew that something was going to happen, something that he would not like. Of course, he made this prediction without any evidence, nevertheless, he knew that something was wrong.

He could feel the tension between them as they all sat in his living room with him. It was so solid, you could have cut it with a knife.

For instance, his son’s fiancée, Eva Henton, loathed him. Again, he had no proof but he was sure.

Eva, was what William called an ‘artificial blonde’. She had dyed her dynamic, short hair a peroxide colour. She was quite small, even her high heels couldn’t hide that.

Eva’s clothes were pristine - because they were brand new. She wore clothes like people use tissues, use them once and throw them away. The only thing she really treasured (apart from her fiancée, although, even that was questionable) was a yellow beryl ring, a family heirloom. It was once owned by her grandmother, Florence, who left the ring to her only grand-daughter. However, it was too big for her slender fingers and as a result was very loose.

“Good,” Eva finalised, relaxing back into the settee she shared with Gary. William turned his attention back to his daughter. Fiona was an average height, taller than Eva. She had chestnut-brown hair which fell to her shoulders and a wise, mature face.

“When is Victoria coming?” William asked Fiona.

“She should be here by lunch-time,” Fiona answered, getting up and returning to her arm-chair.

Victoria was Fiona’s daughter, William’s grand-daughter. She was a lovely girl who truly cared for her grandfather.

William’s wife had passed away exactly twenty years ago. Victoria was named after her. She was now eighteen.

The family reunion was in memory of the late Victoria Mayor.

“Where is she now?” William persisted.

“She is staying with a friend of hers, Rosalind.” Fiona explained, sipping her white wine.

“Well that’s lovely isn’t it?” Eva swiftly changed the subject, “We loved our fortnight in Spain didn’t we darling,”

“Oh yes,” Gary confirmed, a damp splash on the bottom half of his shirt, he had spilt water on it.

“It was fabulous! The hotel was perfect and just look at my beautiful tan!” Eva stood up and twirled around. Fiona rolled her eyes.

Eva was right, her tan was healthy and spread evenly across her body. The family continued to make ‘small talk’ until William announced that lunch was ready. William, who was now at the grand age of seventy-two, was very good at cooking.

At that moment, Victoria arrived.

Victoria was remarkably like her mother. Her hair was much longer and her face was fresh and youthful but it was obvious that they were related.

She was greeted by her mother, then her grandfather. Her favourite uncle gave her a smile and Eva managed a stiff nod of acknowledgement.

They sat at the dinner table for a buffet lunch. Victoria sat between her mother and her grandfather. To her disgust, Fiona was forced to sit next to Eva (as well as Victoria). Gary and Eva spoke quietly to each other whilst Victoria eagerly talked about her experiences at University. She was studying to become a Pharmacist. Her grandfather was very supportive of Victoria as she had looked after him well in the past. Even as a child she had made time for him. She loved him and he knew it.

“I’m ever so proud of her,” Fiona said, lovingly.

William was aware that Fiona had been through rough times. Her husband, Andrew, died eleven months prior to the reunion. His death had devastated the lives of both Fiona and Victoria. They had both moved on but they still could not talk about him.

Victoria was a bright girl; William favoured her the most.

The family finished lunch. Eva dragged Gary to the sink so they could do the washing-up. They did very little and put a saucepan away and then retreated to the living room. Fiona instinctively followed them. Even though they were both adults, she still felt that she had to protect her little brother, Gary.

So Victoria and William were left to do the washing-up.

“That was a delicious lunch,” Victoria said, politely.

“Just wait until dinner!” William replied, a twinkle in his eye.

In very little time, Victoria and her grandfather had finished cleaning after lunch. Victoria rejoined the rest of the family and William started to prepare dinner. Time flew by. For a while, since the golden sun shone so brightly, they sat outside, on the patio. Wafts of the smell of cooking greeted them from the kitchen window. William joined them for awhile.

William looked up at his son, Gary, who proceeded to spill a pint of beer down his front. Gary stood up, shaking his hands wildly. Beer formed a puddle on the floor.

“Sorry dad,” Gary apologised.

Fiona quickly knelt on her hands and knees and started to wipe up the mess, muttered, “Butterfingers.”

“What was that?” Eva snarled sharply.

“Nothing, nothing,” Fiona said airily.

William returned to the kitchen to start making a soup.

Fiona, the most curious of the lot, went into the kitchen first.

She leaned over the saucepan and smiled as the smell hit her. She returned to the patio, “Delicious - at least, that’s what it smells like! But perhaps it might not be to my taste.”

Eva trotted off next. She, like Fiona, leaned over the saucepan. She came back, “Not to my taste.”

Gary, who was getting hungry, followed his nose to the saucepan and leaned over it. He cupped his hands, lowered them into the saucepan and then brought them back up again, breathing in the sweet aroma. He retreated to the patio.

Lastly, Victoria met her grandfather in the kitchen.

“Hello Victoria, want a taste?”

“If that’s okay with you,”

“Only if I have a taste first,”

He took a tablespoon out of the drawer and dipped it into the saucepan. He ate it. He was fine for a few seconds but then it started.

He dropped the spoon - it fell with a clatter.

He clutched his throat, he seemed to be choking. He struggled for breath.

It only took half a minute for William Arthur Mayor to die.

Victoria, who had been frozen with shock, let out a scream.

Her mother, Fiona, arrived first. Victoria ran into her arms; she couldn’t bear to look at her grandfather’s lifeless body. Gary came next, Eva just behind him. He didn’t see the body until it was too late, Eva had seen it. He looked at her, expecting her to become hysterical, but she didn’t. Instead, she calmly walked towards the body and made the last attempt to find a pulse but they all knew that he was dead.

“I will call the police.” Eva finalised.

“Is there any need for that?” Fiona questioned.

“Of course,” Eva continued. “The old fool didn’t die of a heart attack,”

At her words, Victoria started to sob her heart out.

“You should take her home,” Eva advised Fiona.

“I am perfectly capable of looking after my daughter,” Fiona snapped.

“Would you too stop it? No more arguing. It won’t help Victoria and Dad wouldn’t have wanted us to fight so stop it!” Gary interrupted.

The women fell silent. Victoria continued to weep and ran out onto the patio.

Victoria was supported by her mother’s shoulder and saw a yellow sparkle on the floor. She dismissed it immediately and allowed her mother to take her home.

Victoria sat in the living room of her mother’s house in silence. Her eyes were puffed up and sore. She had been turning the events of that day over and over in her mind. These thoughts dominated the rest of the evening; she refused to eat or drink anything. Even her mother, Fiona could not convince her.

As darkness engulfed the light, Fiona turned the lamp on. It was not the lamp itself, but rather the colour of the light that reminded Victoria.

“Mum,” she called, “I’m going out.”

She drove as fast as she could with a clear head and determination. She arrived at the scene of the crime and demanded the attention of the officer in charge.

DS Matthews attended to her.

“Have you found anything bright and yellow?” Victoria asked intently.

“Yes,” he replied cautiously, “A ring I believe.”

“Ah, it must be Eva’s.”

“Who is Eva?”

“She called the police when my grandfather, the man who lived here, died suddenly. Oh, perhaps Gary spoke to you.”

The Detective Sergeant flipped through his notebook and shook his head, “Are you wasting my time Madam?”

“Of course not!” Victoria replied, offended. “Gary is my uncle and Eva is Gary’s fiancée, it really is quite simple. Today, before I left the house with my mother I saw what must have been that yellow ring of Eva’s. Wait a minute, if Eva and Gary did not call the police, who did?”

“The neighbours across the road.” DS Matthews confirmed.

Victoria glanced over to their house. There was a middle-aged couple staring at her, through their window, watching her (and the police’s) every move.

“I understand. Can you tell me how my grandfather died?”

“I shouldn’t really tell you but between you and me, we found traces of poison, Cyanide I think, in the saucepan.”

“I remember something. When she came back she said, ‘not to my taste’ but when he tasted it…” Victoria trailed off then suddenly she bolted towards her car.

“Where are you going?” DS Matthews shouted.

“To trap a killer,” she called, sliding into her car. “Coming?”

She picked up the telephone.

“Hello. I know who you are,” a masked voice spoke. “I have what you left behind. Careless of you really. Meet me outside the poisoned man’s house.”

The masked voice hung up.

She dialled a familiar number on her mobile, “We’ve been rumbled.”

Victoria and DS Matthews were stationary inside the car, just outside William Mayor’s old home. Had they done enough? Would the murderer really turn up? Victoria sincerely hoped so.

Out in the distance, a taxi drew up. As soon as it had stopped, the door opened and a pair of legs swung round and a figure jumped out. The figure wore a huge, beige overcoat with a hat which covered most of their face.

They waited outside a certain house. A house in which a terrible event had taken place that very day. It was the ‘poisoned man’s house’.

Victoria got out of her car, DS Matthews also got out but lingered behind the car. Victoria walked across the road to the shadowy character, clutching a brown paper bag. Victoria had concealed her face with a scarf.

“You have it. The yellow evidence.”

“Yes. I do.”

“Well? Give it to me then!”

“I can’t. More to the point, I won’t.”

“What?” Eva ripped the scarf away from Victoria, “You little brat.”

Then she saw DS Matthews or to be precise, she felt him when he fastened a pair of handcuffs to her.

As he arrested her, she screamed, “You can’t prove anything!”

“Then why are you here Eva?”

“I was called and told to come here.”

“That was me but why did you come to this house? Unless you were the killer, you wouldn’t have known that my grandfather had been poisoned. So I think I can prove you murdered him.”

DS Matthews returned to Victoria, “Save journey home, Miss. Mayor. We will go and arrest Gary now.”

Victoria drove back to her mother’s house. Of course, she had to explain herself.

“I only put it together when we came home. I realised two things, (1) no one else had actually ‘tasted’ the soup before Grandfather did and (2) that Grandfather had something to do with it. I saw a yellow sparkle which could only be one thing, Eva’s ring. When uncle Gary spilt the beer, he dropped the ring which Eva had given to him. Inside the ring was the Cyanide. It was the only accessible place for it. They placed the cyanide either in the saucepan or all of the spoons when they ’washed-up’ also he might have put it in when he smelt the dinner. Eva provided the perfect alibi, she said that she had tasted it but, of course, she didn’t realise that I was going to ask for a taste. Instead Grandfather did. Only Gary would be trusted with her ring. As to why they did it, I have only one motive, money. Having met Eva, I should imagine that she had spent most of Gary’s savings in Spain.”

Fiona sat stunned of a few minutes then spoke, “Only Gary and I knew of your Grandfather’s vast wealth. He chose not to buy a large house or anything like that, he just saved it for his will.”

William Arthur Mayor was dearly missed by his daughter and Granddaughter and his money went solely to them. They lived happily and four years later Victoria graduated in Pharmacology.