Short Stories

by Agatha Christie

  "Iris," cried Porter. "Iris. For God's sake! What's that you've got in your hand?"

  She looked down at it then - with a kind of wonder, an unbelievable indifference.

  "It's a pistol," she said wonderingly. And then - after what seemed an interminable time, but was in reality only a few seconds, "I - picked it up."

  Mr Satterthwaite had gone forward to where Unkerton and Scott were kneeling on the turf.

  "A doctor," the latter was murmuring. "We must have a doctor."

  But it was too late for any doctor. Jimmy Allenson who had complained that the hand diviners hedged about the future, and Moira Scott to whom the gypsy had returned a shilling, lay there in the last great stillness.

  It was Richard Scott who completed a brief examination. The iron nerve of the man showed in this crisis. After the first cry of agony, he was himself again.

  He laid his wife gently down again.

  "Shot from behind," he said briefly. "The bullet has passed right through her."

  Then he handled Jimmy Allenson. The wound here was in the breast and the bullet was lodged in the body.

  John Porter came towards them.

  "Nothing should be touched," he said sternly. "The police must see it all exactly as it is now."

  "The police," said Richard Scott. His eyes lit up with a sudden flame as he looked at the woman standing by the holly hedge. He made a step in that direction, but at the same time John Porter also moved, so as to bar his way. For a moment it seemed as though there was a duel of eyes between the two friends.

  Porter very quietly shook his head "No, Richard," he said. "It looks like it - but you're wrong."

  Richard Scott spoke with difficulty, moistening his dry lips.

  "Then why - has she got that in her hand?"

  And again Iris Staverton said in the same lifeless tone - "I - picked it up."

  "The police," said Unkerton rising. "We must send for the police - at once. You will telephone perhaps, Scott? Someone should stay here yes, I am sure someone should stay here."

  In his quiet gentlemanly manner, Mr Satterthwaite offered to do so.

  His host accepted the offer with manifest relief.

  "The ladies," he explained. "I must break the news to the ladies, Lady Cynthia and my dear wife."

  Mr Satterthwaite stayed in the Privy Garden looking down on the body of that which had once been Moira Scott.

  "Poor child," he said to himself. "Poor child..."

  He quoted to himself the tag about the evil men do living after them.

  For was not Richard Scott in a way responsible for his innocent wife's death? They would hang Iris Staverton, he supposed, not that he liked to think of it, but was not it at least a part of the blame he laid at the man's door? The evil that men do -

  And the girl, the innocent girl, had paid.

  He looked down at her with a very deep pity. Her small face, so white and wistful, a half smile on the lips still. The ruffled golden hair, the delicate ear. There was a spot of blood on the lobe of it. With an inner feeling of being something of a detective, Mr Satterthwaite deduced an earring, torn away in her fall. He craned his neck forward. Yes, he was right, there was a small pearl drop hanging from the other ear.

  Poor child, poor child "And now, sir," said Inspector Winkfield They were in the library. The Inspector, a shrewd-looking forceful man of forty odd, was concluding his investigations. He had questioned most of the guests, and had by now pretty well made up his mind on the case. He was listening to what Major Porter and Mr Satterthwaite had to say. Mr Unkerton sat heavily in a chair, staring with protruding eyes at the opposite wall.

  "As I understand it, gentlemen," said the Inspector, "you'd been for a walk. You were returning to the house by a path that winds round the left side of what they call the Privy Garden. Is that correct?"

  "Quite correct, Inspector."

  "You heard two shots, and a woman's scream?"

  "Yes."

  "You then ran as fast as you could, emerged from the woods and made your way to the entrance of the Privy Garden. If anybody had left that garden, they could only do so by one entrance. The holly bushes are impassable. If anyone had run out of the garden and turned to the right, he would have been met by Mr Unkerton and Mr Scott. If he had turned to the left, he could not have done so without being seen by you. Is that right?"

  "That is so," said Major Porter. His face was very white.

  "That seems to settle it," said the Inspector. "Mr and Mrs Unkerton and Lady Cynthia Drage were sitting on the lawn, Mr Scott was in the Billiard Room which opens on to that lawn. At ten minutes past six, Mrs Staverton came out of the house, spoke a word or two to those sitting there, and went round the corner of the house towards the Privy Garden. Two minutes later the shots were heard. Mr Scott rushed out of the house and together with Mr Unkerton ran to the Privy Garden. At the same time you and Mr - er - Satterthwaite arrived from the opposite direction. Mrs Staverton was in the Privy Garden with a pistol in her hand from which two shots had been fired. As I see it, she shot the lady first from behind as she was sitting on the bench. Then Captain Allenson sprang up and went for her, and she shot him in the chest as he came towards her. I understand that there had been a - er - previous attachment between her and Mr Richard Scott -"

  "That's a damned lie," said Porter.

  His voice rang out hoarse and defiant. The Inspector said nothing, merely shook his head.

  "What is her own story?" asked Mr Satterthwaite.

  "She says that she went into the Privy Garden to be quiet for a little.

  Just before she rounded the last hedge, she heard the shots. She came round the corner, saw the pistol lying at her feet, and picked it up. No one passed her, and she saw no one in the garden but the two victims." The Inspector gave an eloquent pause. "That's what she says - and although I cautioned her, she insisted on making a statement."

  "If she said that," said Major Porter, and his face was still deadly white, "she was speaking the truth. I know Iris Staverton."

  "Well, sir," said the Inspector, "there'll be plenty of time to go into all that later. In the meantime, I've got my duty to do."

  With an abrupt movement, Porter turned to Mr Satterthwaite.

  "You! Can't you help? Can't you do something?"

  Mr Satterthwaite could not help feeling immensely flattered. He had been appealed to, he, most insignificant of men, and by a man like John Porter.

  He was just about to flutter out a regretful reply, when the butler, Thompson, entered, with a card upon a salver which he took to his master with an apologetic cough. Mr Unkerton was still sitting huddled up in a chair, taking no part in the proceedings.

  "I told the gentleman you would probably not be able to see him, sir," said Thompson. "But he insisted that he had an appointment and that it was most urgent."

  Unkerton took the card.

  "Mr Harley Quin," he read. "I remember, he was to see me about a picture. I did make an appointment, but as things are -"

  But Mr Satterthwaite had started forward.

  "Mr Harley Quin, did you say?" he cried. "How extraordinary, how very extraordinary. Major Porter, you asked me if I could help you. I think I can. This Mr Quin is a friend - or I should say, an acquaintance of mine. He is a most remarkable man."

  "One of these amateur solvers of crime, I suppose," remarked the Inspector disparagingly.

  "No," said Mr Satterthwaite. "He is not that kind of man at all. But he has a power - an almost uncanny power - of showing you what you have seen with your own eyes, of making clear to you what you have heard with your own ears. Let us, at any rate, give him an outline of the case, and hear what he has to say."

  Mr Unkerton glanced at the Inspector, who merely snorted and looked at the ceiling. Then the former gave a short nod to Thompson, who left the room and returned ushering in a tall, slim stranger.

  "Mr Unkerton?" The stranger shook him by the hand. "I am sorry to intrude upon you at such a time. We must leave our litt
le picture chat until another time. Ah! My friend Mr Satterthwaite. Still as fond of the drama as ever?"

  A faint smile played for a minute round the stranger's lips as he said these last words.

  "Mr Quin," said Mr Satterthwaite impressively, "we have a drama here, we are in the midst of one. I should like, and my friend, Major Porter, would like, to have your opinion of it."

  Mr Quin sat down. The red-shaded lamp threw a broad band of coloured light over the checked pattern of his overcoat, and left his face in shadow almost as though he wore a mask.

  Succinctly, Mr Satterthwaite recited the main points of the tragedy.

  Then he paused, breathlessly awaiting the words of the oracle.

  But Mr Quin merely shook his head.

  "A sad story," he said. "A very sad and shocking tragedy. The lack of motive makes it very intriguing."

  Unkerton stared at him.

  "You don't understand," he said. "Mrs Staverton was heard to threaten Richard Scott. She was bitterly jealous of his wife. Jealousy -"

  "I agree," said Mr Quin. "Jealousy or Demoniac Possession. It's all the same. But you misunderstand me. I was not referring to the murder of Mrs Scott, but to that of Captain Allenson."

  "You're right," cried Porter, springing forward. "There's a flaw there.

  If Iris had ever contemplated shooting Mrs Scott, she'd have got her alone somewhere. No, we're on the wrong tack. And I think I see another solution. Only those three people went into the Privy Garden. That is indisputable and I don't intend to dispute it. But I reconstruct the tragedy differently. Supposing Jimmy Allenson shoots first Mrs Scott and then himself. That's possible, isn't it? He flings the pistol from him as he falls - Mrs Staverton finds it lying on the ground and picks it up just as she said. How's that?"

  The Inspector shook his head.

  "Won't wash, Major Porter. If Captain Allenson had fired that shot close to his body, the cloth would have been singed."

  "He might have held the pistol at arm's length."

  "Why should he? No sense in it. Besides, there's no motive."

  "Might have gone off his head suddenly," muttered Porter, but without any great conviction. He fell to silence again, suddenly rousing himself to say defiantly - "Well, Mr Quin?"

  The latter shook his head.

  "I'm not a magician. I'm not even a criminologist. But I will tell you one thing - I believe in the value of impressions. In any time of crisis, there is always one moment that stands out from all the others, one picture that remains when all else has faded. Mr Satterthwaite is, I think, likely to have been the most unprejudiced observer of those present. Will you cast your mind back, Mr Satterthwaite, and tell us the moment that made the strongest impression on you? Was it when you heard the shots? Was it when you first saw the dead bodies?

  Was it when you first observed the pistol in Mrs Staverton's hand?

  Clear your mind of any preconceived standard of values, and tell us."

  Mr Satterthwaite fixed his eyes on Mr Quin's face, rather as a schoolboy might repeat a lesson of which he was not sure.

  "No," he said slowly. "It was not any of those. The moment that I shall always remember was when I stood alone by the bodies - afterwards - looking down on Mrs Scott. She was lying on her side. Her hair was ruffled. There was a spot of blood on her little ear."

  And instantly, as he said it, he felt that he had said a terrific, a significant thing.

  "Blood on her ear? Yes, I remember," said Unkerton slowly.

  "Her earring must have been torn out when she fell," explained Mr Satterthwaite.

  But it sounded a little improbable as he said it.

  "She was lying on her left side," said Porter. "I suppose it was that ear?"

  "No," said Mr Satterthwaite quickly. "It was her right ear."

  The Inspector coughed.

  "I found this in the grass," he vouchsafed. He held up a loop of gold wire.

  "But, my God, man," cried Porter. "The thing can't have been wrenched to pieces by a mere fall. It's more as though it had been shot away by a bullet."

  "So it was," cried Mr Satterthwaite. "It was a bullet. It must have been."

  "There were only two shots," said the Inspector. "A shot can't have grazed her ear and shot her in the back as well. And if one shot carried away the earring, and the second shot killed her, it can't have killed Captain Allenson as well - not unless he was standing close in front of her - very close - facing her as it might be. Oh - I - no, not even then, unless, that is -"

  "Unless she was in his arms, you were going to say," said Mr Quin, with a queer little smile. "Well, why not?"

  Everyone stared at each other. The idea was so vitally strange to them - Allenson and Mrs Scott - Mr Unkerton voiced the same feeling.

  "But they hardly knew each other," he said.

  "I don't know," said Mr Satterthwaite thoughtfully. "They might have known each other better than we thought. Lady Cynthia said he saved her from being bored in Egypt last winter, and you -" he turned to Porter - "you told me that Richard Scott met his wife in Cairo last winter. They might have known each other very well indeed out there..."

  "They didn't seem to be together much," said Unkerton.

  "No - they rather avoided each other. It was almost unnatural, now I come to think of it."

  They all looked at Mr Quin, as if a little startled at the conclusions at which they had arrived so unexpectedly.

  Mr Quin rose to his feet.

  "You see," he said, "what Mr Satterthwaite's impression has done for us." he turned to Unkerton, "It is your turn now."

  "Eh? I don't understand you."

  "You were very thoughtful when I came into this room. I should like to know exactly what thought it was that obsessed you. Never mind if it has nothing to do with the tragedy. Never mind if it seems to you superstitious -"

  Mr Unkerton started, ever so slightly. "Tell us."

  "I don't mind telling you," said Unkerton. "Though it's nothing to do with the business, and you'll probably laugh at me into the bargain. I was wishing that my Missus had left well alone and not replaced that pane of glass in the haunted window. I feel as though doing that has maybe brought a curse upon us."

  He was unable to understand why the two men opposite him stared so.

  "But she hasn't replaced it yet," said Mr Satterthwaite at last.

  "Yes, she has. Man came first thing this morning."

  "My God!" said Porter, "I begin to understand. That room, it's panelled, I supposed, not papered?"

  "Yes, but what does that -?"

  But Porter had swung out of the room. The other followed him. He went straight upstairs to the Scotts' bedroom. It was a charming room, panelled in cream with two windows facing south. Porter felt with his hands along the panels on the western wall.

  "There's a spring somewhere - must be. Ah!" There was a click, and a section of the panelling rolled back. It disclosed the grimy panes of the haunted window. One pane of glass was clean and new. Porter stooped quickly and picked up something. He held it out on the palm of his hand. It was a fragment of ostrich feather. Then he looked at Mr Quin. Mr Quin nodded.

  He went across to the hat cupboard in the bedroom. There were several hats in it - the dead woman's hats. He took out one with a large brim and curling feathers - an elaborate Ascot hat.

  Mr Quin began speaking in a gentle, reflective voice. "Let us suppose," said Mr Quin, "a man who is by nature intensely jealous. A man who has stayed here in bygone years and knows the secret of the spring in the panelling. To amuse himself he opens it one day, and looks out over the Privy Garden. There, secure as they think from being overlooked, he sees his wife and another man. There can be no possible doubt in his mind as to the relations between them.

  He is mad with rage. What shall he do? An idea comes to him. He goes to the cupboard and puts on the hat with the brim and feathers.

  It is growing dusk, and he remembers the story of the stain on the glass. Anyone looking up at the window will s
ee as they think the Watching Cavalier. Thus secure he watches them, and at the moment they are clasped in each other's arms, he shoots. He is a good shot - a wonderful shot. As they fall, he fires once more - that shot carries away the earring. He flings the pistol out of the window into the Privy Garden, rushes downstairs and out through the billiard room." Porter took a step towards him.

  "But he let her be accused!" he cried. "He stood by and let her be accused. Why? Why?"

  "I think I know why," said Mr Quin. "I should guess - it's only guesswork on my part, mind - that Richard Scott was once madly in love with Iris Staverton - so madly that even meeting her years afterwards stirred up the embers of jealousy again. I should say that Iris Staverton once fancied that she might love him, that she went on a hunting trip with him and another - and that she came back in love with the better man."

  "The better man," muttered Porter, dazed. "You mean -?"

  "Yes," said Mr Quin, with a faint smile. "I mean you." He paused a minute, and then said: "If I were you - I should go to her now."

  "I will," said Porter.

  He turned and left the room.

  Chapter 3

  AT THE "BELLS AND MOTLEY"

  Mr Satterthwaite was annoyed. Altogether it had been an unfortunate day. They had started late, there had been two punctures already, finally, they had taken the wrong turning and lost themselves amidst the wilds of Salisbury Plain. Now it was close on eight o'clock, they were still a matter of forty miles from Marswick

  Manor whither they were bound, and a third puncture had supervened to render matters still more trying.

  Mr Satterthwaite, looking like some small bird whose plumage had been ruffled, walked up and down in front of the village garage whilst his chauffeur conversed in hoarse undertones with the local expert.

  "Half an hour at least" said that worthy pronouncing judgment.

  "And lucky at that," supplemented Masters, the chauffeur. "More like three quarters if you ask me."

  "What is this place, anyway?" demanded Mr Satterthwaite fretfully.

  Being a little gentleman considerate of the feelings of others, he substituted the word "place" for "God-forsaken hole" which had first risen to his lips.