The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries
Page 115
“I must tell you that I talked myself to these two friends of his. I did not like them. They were neither pleasant nor gentlemanly men, but I was quite certain of one thing, that they were speaking the absolute truth when they said that Sanders had been the whole time in their company.
“There was just one other little point that came up. It seems that while bridge was going on Mrs. Sanders was called to the telephone. A Mr. Littleworth wanted to speak to her. She seemed both excited and pleased about something—and incidentally made one or two bad mistakes. She left rather earlier than they had expected her to do.
“Mr. Sanders was asked whether he knew the name of Littleworth as being one of his wife’s friends, but he declared he had never heard of anyone of that name. And to me that seems borne out by his wife’s attitude—she too, did not seem to know the name of Littleworth. Nevertheless she came back from the telephone smiling and blushing, so it looks as though whoever it was did not give his real name, and that in itself has a suspicious aspect, does it not?
“Anyway, that is the problem that was left. The burglar story, which seems unlikely—or the alternative theory that Mrs. Sanders was preparing to go out and meet somebody. Did that somebody come to her room by means of the fire escape? Was there a quarrel? Or did he treacherously attack her?”
Miss Marple stopped.
“Well?” said Sir Henry. “What is the answer?”
“I wondered if any of you could guess.”
“I’m never good at guessing,” said Mrs. Bantry. “It seems a pity that Sanders had such a wonderful alibi; but if it satisfied you it must have been all right.”
Jane Helier moved her beautiful head and asked a question.
“Why,” she said, “was the hat cupboard locked?”
“How very clever of you, my dear,” said Miss Marple, beaming. “That’s just what I wondered myself. Though the explanation was quite simple. In it were a pair of embroidered slippers and some pocket handkerchiefs that the poor girl was embroidering for her husband for Christmas. That’s why she locked the cupboard. The key was found in her handbag.”
“Oh!” said Jane. “Then it isn’t very interesting after all.”
“Oh! but it is,” said Miss Marple. “It’s just the one really interesting thing—the thing that made all the murderer’s plans go wrong.”
Everyone stared at the old lady.
“I didn’t see it myself for two days,” said Miss Marple. “I puzzled and puzzled—and then suddenly there it was, all clear. I went to the inspector and asked him to try something and he did.”
“What did you ask him to try?”
“I asked him to fit that hat on the poor girl’s head—and of course he couldn’t. It wouldn’t go on. It wasn’t her hat, you see.”
Mrs. Bantry stared.
“But it was on her head to begin with?”
“Not on her head—”
Miss Marple stopped a moment to let her words sink in, and then went on.
“We took it for granted that it was poor Gladys’s body there; but we never looked at the face. She was face downwards, remember, and the hat hid everything.”
“But she was killed?”
“Yes, later. At the moment that we were telephoning to the police, Gladys Sanders was alive and well.”
“You mean it was someone pretending to be her? But surely when you touched her—”
“It was a dead body, right enough,” said Miss Marple gravely.
“But, dash it all,” said Colonel Bantry, “you can’t get hold of dead bodies right and left. What did they do with the—the first corpse afterwards?”
“He put it back,” said Miss Marple. “It was a wicked idea—but a very clever one. It was our talk in the drawing room that put it into his head. The body of poor Mary, the housemaid—why not use it? Remember, the Sanders’ room was up amongst the servants’ quarters. Mary’s room was two doors off. The undertakers wouldn’t come till after dark—he counted on that. He carried the body along the balcony (it was dark at five), dressed it in one of his wife’s dresses and her big red coat. And then he found the hat cupboard locked! There was only one thing to be done, he fetched one of the poor girl’s own hats. No one would notice. He put the sandbag down beside her. Then he went off to establish his alibi.
“He telephoned to his wife—calling himself Mr. Littleworth. I don’t know what he said to her—she was a credulous girl, as I said just now. But he got her to leave the bridge party early and not to go back to the Hydro, and arranged with her to meet him in the grounds of the Hydro near the fire escape at seven o’clock. He probably told her he had some surprise for her.
“He returns to the Hydro with his friends and arranges that Miss Trollope and I shall discover the crime with him. He even pretends to turn the body over—and I stop him! Then the police are sent for, and he staggers out into the grounds.
“Nobody asked him for an alibi after the crime. He meets his wife, takes her up the fire escape, they enter their room. Perhaps he has already told her some story about the body. She stoops over it, and he picks up his sandbag and strikes … Oh, dear! it makes me sick to think of, even now! Then quickly he strips off her coat and skirt, hangs them up, and dresses her in the clothes from the other body.
“But the hat won’t go on. Mary’s head is shingled—Gladys Sanders, as I say, had a great bun of hair. He is forced to leave it beside the body and hope no one will notice. Then he carries poor Mary’s body back to her own room and arranges it decorously once more.”
“It seems incredible,” said Dr. Lloyd. “The risks he took. The police might have arrived too soon.”
“You remember the line was out of order,” said Miss Marple. “That was a piece of his work. He couldn’t afford to have the police on the spot too soon. When they did come, they spent some time in the manager’s office before going up to the bedroom. That was the weakest point—the chance that someone might notice the difference between a body that had been dead two hours and one that had been dead just over half an hour; but he counted on the fact that the people who first discovered the crime would have no expert knowledge.”
Dr. Lloyd nodded.
“The crime would be supposed to have been committed about a quarter to seven or thereabouts, I suppose,” he said. “It was actually committed at seven or a few minutes later. When the police surgeon examined the body it would be about half-past seven at earliest. He couldn’t possibly tell.”
“I am the person who should have known,” said Miss Marple. “I felt the poor girl’s hand and it was icy cold. Yet a short time later the inspector spoke as though the murder must have been committed just before we arrived—and I saw nothing!”
“I think you saw a good deal, Miss Marple,” said Sir Henry. “The case was before my time. I don’t even remember hearing of it. What happened?”
“Sanders was hanged,” said Miss Marple crisply. “And a good job too. I have never regretted my part in bringing that man to justice. I’ve no patience with modern humanitarian scruples about capital punishment.”
Her stern face softened.
“But I have often reproached myself bitterly with failing to save the life of that poor girl. But who would have listened to an old woman jumping to conclusions? Well, well—who knows? Perhaps it was better for her to die while life was still happy than it would have been for her to live on, unhappy and disillusioned, in a world that would have seemed suddenly horrible. She loved that scoundrel and trusted him. She never found him out.”
“Well, then,” said Jane Helier, “she was all right. Quite all right. I wish—” she stopped.
Miss Marple looked at the famous, the beautiful, the successful Jane Helier and nodded her head gently.
“I see, my dear,” she said very gently. “I see.”
Permissions Acknowledgments
Catherine Aird: “Gold, Frankincense and Murder” by Catherine Aird, copyright © 1995 by Catherine Aird. Reprinted by permission of K. H. McKintosh and Aitken Alexa
nder Associates, Ltd.
Doug Allyn: “An Early Christmas” by Doug Allyn, copyright © 2009 by Douglas Allyn. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Isaac Asimov: “The Thirteenth Day of Christmas” by Isaac Asimov, copyright © 1981 by Isaac Asimov. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Isaac Asimov.
Robert Barnard: “Boxing Unclever” by Robert Barnard, copyright © 1995 by Robert Barnard. Reprinted by permission of Robert Barnard and Gregory and Company, Authors’ Agents.
Josephine Bell: “The Carol Singers” by Josephine Bell, copyright © 1964 by Josephine Bell. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown Group, Ltd., London, on behalf of the Estate of Josephine Bell.
Marjorie Bowen: “Cambric Tea” by Marjorie Bowen, copyright © 1928 by Marjorie Bowen. Reprinted by permission of Mrs. Sharon Eden.
Agatha Christie: “The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding” by Agatha Christie, copyright © 1923 by Agatha Christie and © 1961 by Agatha Christie Limited. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Ltd.
Agatha Christie: “A Christmas Tragedy” by Agatha Christie, copyright © 1932 by Agatha Christie Limited. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Ltd.
Mary Higgins Clark: “That’s the Ticket” by Mary Higgins Clark, copyright © 1989 by Mary Higgins Clark. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Max Allan Collins: “A Wreath for Marley” by Max Allan Collins, copyright © 1995. First published in Dante’s Disciples, edited by Edward Kramer and Peter Crowther; White Wolf Publishing. Reprinted by permission of Max Allan Collins and Dominick Abel Literary Agency, Inc.
Joseph Commings: “Serenade to a Killer” by Joseph Commings, copyright © 1957 by Joseph
Commings. Reprinted by permission of the Archdiocese of St. Petersburg, Florida, on behalf of the author’s sister’s estate.
Colin Dexter: “Morse’s Greatest Mystery” by Colin Dexter, copyright © 1993 by Colin Dexter. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Stanley Ellin: “Death on Christmas Eve” by Stanley Ellin, copyright © 1950 by Stanley Ellin. First appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.
Ed Gorman: “The Christmas Kitten” by Ed Gorman, copyright © 1997 by Ed Gorman. First published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Reprinted by permission of the author and Dominick Abel Literary Agency, Inc.
Ron Goulart: “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Ron Goulart, copyright © 1993 by Ron Goulart.
Cyril Hare: “Sister Bessie” by Cyril Hare, copyright © 1949 by Cyril Hare. Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate and A. P. Watt Ltd.
Edward D. Hoch: “The Christmas Client” by Edward D. Hoch, copyright © 1996 by Edward D. Hoch. Reprinted by permission of Patricia M. Hoch.
H. R. F. Keating: “A Present for Santa Sahib” by H. R. F. Keating, copyright © 1989 by H. R. F. Keating. Reprinted by permission of Sheila Mitchell.
Andrew Klavan: “The Killer Christian” by Andrew Klavan, copyright © 2007 by Amalgamated Metaphor. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Gillian Linscott: “A Scandal in Winter” by Gillian Linscott, copyright © 1996. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Dick Lochte: “Mad Dog” by Dick Lochte, copyright © 1993 by Dick Lochte. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Peter Lovesey: “The Haunted Crescent” by Peter Lovesey, copyright © 1989 by Peter Lovesey. Reprinted by permission of Peter Lovesey and Gelfman-Schneider Literary Agency.
Peter Lovesey: “The Proof of the Pudding” by Peter Lovesey, copyright © 1995 by Peter Lovesey. Reprinted by permission of Peter Lovesey and Gelfman-Schneider Literary Agency.
John Lutz: “The Live Tree” by John Lutz, copyright © 1989 by John Lutz. First published in Mistletoe Mysteries, edited by Charlotte MacLeod, the Mysterious Press. Reprinted by permission of John Lutz and Dominick Abel Literary Agency, Inc.
John D. MacDonald: “Dead on Christmas Street” by John D. MacDonald, copyright © 1952 by John D. MacDonald; copyright © renewed 1980 by Maynard MacDonald. Reprinted by permission of Maynard MacDonald and Diskant Associates.
Ngaio Marsh: “Death on the Air” by Ngaio Marsh, copyright © 1948. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Ngaio Marsh and Aitken Alexander Associates, Ltd.
Ed McBain: “And All Through the House” by Ed McBain, copyright © 1994 by Hui Corporation. Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate and Gelfman-Schneider Literary Agency.
Susan Moody: “More Than Flesh and Blood” by Susan Moody, copyright © 1995 by Susan Moody. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Bradford Morrow: “The Uninnocent” by Bradford Morrow, copyright © 2011 by Bradford Morrow. Reprinted by permission of the author.
John Mortimer: “Rumpole and the Spirit of Christmas” by John Mortimer, copyright © 1992 by John Mortimer. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of John Mortimer and United Agents.
Norvell Page: “Crime’s Christmas Carol” by Norvell Page, copyright © 1939 by Popular Publications, Inc. First published in Detective Tales; copyright © renewed 1967 and assigned to Argosy Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted by arrangement with Argosy Communications, Inc.
Sara Paretsky: “Three-Dot Po” by Sara Paretsky, copyright © 1984 by Sara Paretsky. First published in The Eyes Have It, edited by Robert J. Randisi, the Mysterious Press. Reprinted by permission of Sara Paretsky and Dominick Abel Literary Agency, Inc.
Ellis Peters: “The Price of Light” by Ellis Peters, copyright © 1979 by Ellis Peters. First published in Winter’s Crimes #11, Macmillan. Reprinted by permission of United Agents.
Ellis Peters: “The Trinity Cat” by Ellis Peters, copyright © 1976 by Ellis Peters. First published in Winter’s Crimes #8, Macmillan. Reprinted by permission of United Agents.
Ellery Queen: “The Adventure of the Dauphin’s Doll” by Ellery Queen, copyright © 1948 by The American Mercury, Inc.; copyright © renewed 1975 by Ellery Queen. Reprinted by permission of Frederic Dannay Literary Trust and the Manfred B. Lee Family Literary Property Trust, represented by Joshua Bilmes.
Mary Roberts Rinehart: “The Butler’s Christmas Eve” by Mary Roberts Rinehart, copyright © 1944 by The Mary Roberts Rinehart Literary Trust. Reprinted by permission of The Mary Roberts Rinehart Award.
Peter Robinson: “Blue Christmas” by Peter Robinson, copyright © 2005 by Eastvale Enterprises, Inc. First published by Crippen & Landru. Reprinted by permission of Peter Robinson and Dominick Abel Literary Agency, Inc.
Damon Runyon: “Dancing Dan’s Christmas” by Damon Runyon, copyright © 1932 by Damon Runyon. Copyright © 2008 by American Rights Management Co., LLC. Reprinted by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA), Inc.
Jonathan Santlofer: “The 74th Tale” by Jonathan Santlofer, copyright © 2008 by Jonathan Santlofer. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Joseph Shearing: “The Chinese Apple” by Joseph Shearing, copyright © 1949 by Joseph Shearing. Reprinted by permission of Mrs. Sharon Eden.
Rex Stout: “Christmas Party” by Rex Stout, copyright © 1957 by Rebecca Stout Bradbury and Barbara Stout; copyright © renewed 1985 by Rebecca Stout Bradbury and Barbara Stout. Reprinted by permission of Rebecca Stout Bradbury and Barbara Stout.
Julian Symons: “The Santa Claus Club” by Julian Symons, copyright © 1960 by Julian Symons. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown Group, Ltd, London, on behalf of the Estate of Julian Symons.
Donald E. Westlake: “The Burglar and the Whatsit” by Donald E. Westlake, copyright © 1996 by Donald E. Westlake. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Donald E. Westlake and Einstein-Thompson Literary Management.
Ethel Lina White: “Waxworks” by Ethel Lina White, copyright © 1930 by Ethel Lina White. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Ethel Lina White and Pollinger, Ltd.
ALSO EDITED BY OTTO PENZLER
The Big Book of Ghost Stories
Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!
The Big Book of Adv
enture Stories
The Vampire Archives
Agents of Treachery
Bloodsuckers
Fangs
Coffins
The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories
The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps