Piece of Justice II

Imogen does a litle snooping around and finds that she knows the sister of the biographer who died. He was called Mark Zephyr. Imogen was at school with his sister. She talks to her and finds that Mark died suddenly of meningitis. She also finds the nephew of May Swann and he tells her that he is worried about his aunt's disappearance and feels she would never have abandoned her work in mid project. Imogen decides to go to Wales, where Gideon spent the missing time in the 70's. Fran had gone away to try and find the village, but has not come back. Imogen worries. When she gets to Wales, she finds that it is a little village where she used to go for holidays in childhood. She drives there, and meets Gwenny, a farmer's daughter who works on the farm where the Quys used to stay. She tries to get some information on English people who live or have houses in the area. Then when she is walking, someone shoots her. She breaks her leg and the farmer's dog bites her. But she is looked after and finds that the young farmer who shot at her thought that she was a woman who has been pestering his family for some time. This woman had been chasing them up, trying to persuade them to sell her a quilt that's been in their family for a long time. She had even kidnapped the farmer's son, to try and scare them into giving up the quilt. But they held firm and hoped she had given up. Imogen is recovering from her broken leg and sees the famous quilt. It has a pattern that seems very unusual. She talks to the local police, and, spurred on by her inquiries, they search for Fran. They are amazed to find a body of a woman buried in the valley, but to Imogen's relief, it isn't Fran. She guesses that it is the body of May Swann. She contacts Cambridge and finds that Fran has returned safely..She gets a friend from college to drive her back to her home and tells Fran and her police friend Mike that she thinks there is something really weird and bad going on. Imogen has learned from Fran that Janet Summerfield, as well as being violent tempered, has a weight problem. Her weight has gone up and down quite drastically over the years. She does a bit of research and finds there is a drug that is now off the market but which could be used to help people lose weight quickly.. and that it is poisonous. It produces symptoms that are rather like meningitis and then causes death and it can be mixed into food. She wonders if this could have been used to kill Mark Zephyr. She happens to meet Janet Summerfield and finds that the woman is obviously unbalanced and she makes an incoherent rambling admission that she poisoned her husband. In addition, she learns that Fran has been invited to dinner by a college fellow who professes a passionate devotion to the college, and she's very worried. She gets the police to go round to his house and they stop Fran from eating anything. They find that the dinner was poisoned with the drug that may have been used to kill Mark Zephyr and Gideon. The man, Meredith Bagadeuce, is arrested. He claims that he loves the college and will do anything to protect it. The police question Janet and she denies she made any confession, and says that Meredith was a friend of hers, who had the run of her house, so he might have had access to the drug which she kept for weight loss. Imogen contacts the Evans family who owned the quilt and learns that Mrs Evans, who made it is still alive, in a care home in Shrewsbury.