Death at the Bar Trivia Quiz

Answer: Car crash

On his way to meet his friend and cousin for a few weeks holiday in Ottercombe, a village by the sea, a car crashes into Watchman's vehicle. The damage is minor, but Watchman loses his temper at the other driver, Bob Legge. Legge had been driving recklessly and was only mildly apologetic. Later on, Watchman and Legge meet again as they are both staying at the same inn: The Plume of Feathers.

Answer: Blood

Luke Watchman grows nervously uncomfortable when his cousin Sebastian Parish and his friend Norman Cubitt begin talking about poison. It has long been one of Watchman's fears that he would be poisoned. Just the talk of it turned his skin pallid. Watchman also despises blood. Parish tells a story of how Luke once fainted from just a tiny scratch when he was younger.

Answer: Landing darts between Watchman's fingers

Legge is an expert at darts and never misses. Watchman loses a bet with Legge and allows his opponent to throw the darts so they land in between Watchman's fingers when the lawyer has his hand open on the dartboard. Legge initially declines but Watchman insists.

The first three throws go off swell but the fourth misses and knicks Watchman's finger. Legge, while admitting to being a bit tipsy, insists Watchman moved his finger. The lawyer panics from the blood and somehow dies of cyanide poisoning shortly afterward.

Answer: Decima Moore

Decima Moore once had a brief fling with Watchman when he last visited Ottercombe. However, she has now taken up Communist views and is engaged to Will Pomeroy, the son of the proprietor of the Plume of Feathers. Shortly before his death, Watchman tried to rekindle his relationship with Decima but it goes poorly and the two argue.

After Legge's dart punctures Watchman's finger, Decima grabs the nearest glass of brandy and gives it to him. She says he drank only a few drops and whispered the word "poisoned" to her.

Answer: Sebastian Parish and Norman Cubitt

As Watchman's cousin, it made sense that he left most of his estate to Sebastian Parish. The remainder goes to Norman, Watchman's close friend. Although neither man appeared to be in need for the money, their newfound wealth raises suspicions because there doesn't appear to be any other motive for killing Watchman.

Answer: Abel Pomeroy

Pomeroy visits Alleyn in Scotland Yard and asks him to investigate because there are rumors swirling around that Watchman died due to Pomeroy's neglect. Pomeroy is the owner of the Plume of Feathers pub where Watchman was staying. The garage was infested with rats which Pomeroy killed using cyanide. Since then, local drunkard George Nark has insisted everything in the pub is poisoned, although it doesn't stop him from drinking there.

Answer: Sherry

Abel Pomeroy offered Alleyn and Fox an old and expensive sherry to partake in as a thank you for agreeing to look into Watchman's death. He poured a glass for both of them which Fox drank but Alleyn never did. Fox quickly falls ill and a doctor is called in.

He recovers quickly but Alleyn is now more determined than ever to uncover what is going on in Ottercombe after his best friend was nearly killed.

Answer: To give the appearance of an accident

As several people suggest, it would be incredibly stupid for the killer to murder the investigating officers. Alleyn reasons that the poisoning of Fox was done simply to push the myth that Watchman's death was an accident. Although the inquest provided no solid answers, several people spoke openly about how Watchman's death must have been accident caused by Pomeroy's carelessness with the rat poison. Fox was poisoned to create another such "accident".

Answer: It was in the iodine that was poured into his wound.

Much of Alleyn's investigation focuses on just how the poison entered Watchman's body. The police found traces of poison on the dart but the dart couldn't have been poisoned until after it struck Luke because it came fresh out of the package. The brandy couldn't have been poisoned because Decima grabbed a random glass to give to him so the killer wouldn't have known which glass to poison and witnesses insist Decima couldn't have tampered with it.

The only possible option is the iodine bottle. However, the iodine bottle Abel Pomeroy kept in the cabinet tested negative for cyanide. Alleyn learns there was actually a second bottle of iodine that Pomeroy kept upstairs of the Plume of Feathers but has since gone missing. It was this bottle that was poisoned.

Answer: Bob Legge

Bob Legge was really Montague Thringle, a man Watchman previously used as a scapegoat to save his own client from a stiff sentence for embezzlement. Thringle went to prison for years and when he saw Watchman at Ottercombe, he planned his revenge.

Watchman, on several occasions, urged Legge (whom he failed to recognize) to perform several dart tricks but Legge refused. However, this put an idea in his head. Earlier in the day, Legge borrowed a bottle of iodine from Abel Pomeroy which he then poisoned before Pomeroy returned it to the upstairs first aid kit. That evening, Legge "accidentally" struck Watchman with a dart which prompted Pomeroy to use the poisoned iodine on Watchman. Alleyn and Fox struggle to find definite proof of this, however, until they locate the eyedropper Legge used to put the poison in the iodine. Alleyn said it didn't matter anyway because the iodine being poisoned was enough. Since no one but Legge could have known Watchman would be injured before time, he had to be the killer.