Sleeping Murder mm-14

by Agatha Christie

  ‘Something of the kind, Mrs Reed.’

  The Inspector smiled again. He got up and unfastened the french windows. Then, just as he was about to step through them, he stopped. Rather, Gwenda thought, like a pointing dog.

  ‘Excuse me, Mrs Reed. That lady wouldn’t be a Miss Jane Marple, would she?’

  Gwenda had come to stand beside him. At the bottom of the garden Miss Marple was still waging a losing war with bindweed.

  ‘Yes, that’s Miss Marple. She’s awfully kind in helping us with the garden.’

  ‘Miss Marple,’ said the Inspector. ‘I see.’

  And as Gwenda looked at him enquiringly and said, ‘She’s rather a dear,’ he replied:

  ‘She’s a very celebrated lady, is Miss Marple. Got the Chief Constables of at least three counties in her pocket. She’s not got my Chief yet, but I dare say that will come. So Miss Marple’s got her finger in this pie.’

  ‘She’s made an awful lot of helpful suggestions,’ said Gwenda.

  ‘I bet she has,’ said the Inspector. ‘Was it her suggestion where to look for the deceased Mrs Halliday?’

  ‘She said that Giles and I ought to know quite well where to look,’ said Gwenda. ‘And it did seem stupid of us not to have thought of it before.’

  The Inspector gave a soft little laugh, and went down to stand by Miss Marple. He said: ‘I don’t think we’ve been introduced, Miss Marple. But you were pointed out to me once by Colonel Melrose.’

  Miss Marple stood up, flushed and grasping a handful of clinging green.

  ‘Oh yes. Dear Colonel Melrose. He has always beenmost kind. Ever since-’

  ‘Ever since a churchwarden was shot in the Vicar’s study. Quite a while ago. But you’ve had other successes since then. A little poison pen trouble down near Lymstock.’

  ‘You seem to know quite a lot about me, Inspector-’

  ‘Primer, my name is. And you’ve been busy here, I expect.’

  ‘Well, I try to do what I can in the garden. Sadly neglected. This bindweed, for instance, such nasty stuff. Its roots,’ said Miss Marple, looking very earnestly at the Inspector, ‘go down underground a long way. A very long way-they run along underneath the soil.’

  ‘I think you’re right about that,’ said the Inspector. ‘A long way down. A long way back…this murder, I mean. Eighteen years.’

  ‘And perhaps before that,’ said Miss Marple. ‘Running underground…And terribly harmful, Inspector, squeezing the life out of the pretty growing flowers…’

  One of the police constables came along the path. He was perspiring and had a smudge of earth on his forehead.

  ‘We’ve come to-something, sir. Looks as though it’s her all right.’

  ***

  And it was then, Gwenda reflected, that the nightmarish quality of the day had begun. Giles coming in, his face rather pale, saying: ‘It’s-she’s there all right, Gwenda.’

  Then one of the constables had telephoned and the police surgeon, a short, bustling man, had arrived.

  And it was then that Mrs Cocker, the calm and imperturbable Mrs Cocker, had gone out into the garden-not led, as might have been expected, by ghoulish curiosity, but solely in the quest of culinary herbs for the dish she was preparing for lunch. And Mrs Cocker, whose reaction to the news of a murder on the preceding day had been shocked censure and an anxiety for the effect upon Gwenda’s health (for Mrs Cocker had made up her mind that the nursery upstairs was to be tenanted after the due number of months), had walked straight in upon the gruesome discovery, and had been immediately ‘taken queer’ to an alarming extent.

  ‘Too horrible, madam. Bones is a thing I never could abide. Not skeleton bones, as one might say. And here in the garden, just by the mint and all. And my heart’s beating at such a rate-palpitations-I can hardly get my breath. And if I might make so bold, just a thimbleful of brandy…’

  Alarmed by Mrs Cocker’s gasps and her ashy colour, Gwenda had rushed to the sideboard, poured out some brandy and brought it to Mrs Cocker to sip.

  And Mrs Cocker had said: ‘That’s just what I needed, madam-’ when, quite suddenly, her voice had failed, and she had looked so alarming, that Gwenda had screamed for Giles, and Giles had yelled to the police surgeon.

  ‘And it’s fortunate I was on the spot,’ the latter said afterwards. ‘It was touch and go anyway. Without a doctor, that woman would have died then and there.’

  And then Inspector Primer had taken the brandy decanter, and then he and the doctor had gone into a huddle over it, and Inspector Primer had asked Gwenda when she and Giles had last had any brandy out of it.

  Gwenda said she thought not for some days. They’d been away-up North, and the last few times they’d had a drink, they’d had gin. ‘But I nearly had some brandy yesterday,’ said Gwenda. ‘Only it makes me think of Channel steamers, so Giles opened a new bottle of whisky.’

  ‘That was very lucky for you, Mrs Reed. If you’d drunk brandy yesterday, I doubt if you would be alive today.’

  ‘Giles nearly drank some-but in the end he had whisky with me.’

  Gwenda shivered.

  Even now, alone in the house, with the police gone and Giles gone with them after a hasty lunch scratched up out of tins (since Mrs Cocker had been removed to hospital), Gwenda could hardly believe in the morning turmoil of events.

  One thing stood out clearly: the presence in the house yesterday of Jackie Afflick and Walter Fane. Either of them could have tampered with the brandy, and what was the purpose of the telephone calls unless it was to afford one or other of them the opportunity to poison the brandy decanter? Gwenda and Giles had been getting too near the truth. Or had a third person come in from outside, through the open dining-room window perhaps, whilst she and Giles had been sitting in Dr Kennedy’s house waiting for Lily Kimble to keep her appointment? A third person who had engineered the telephone calls to steer suspicion on the other two?

  But a third person, Gwenda thought, didn’t make sense. For a third person, surely, would have telephoned to only one of the two men. A third person would have wanted one suspect, not two. And anyway, who could the third person be? Erskine had definitely been in Northumberland. No, either Walter Fane had telephoned to Afflick and had pretended to be telephoned to himself. Or else Afflick had telephoned Fane, and had made the same pretence of receiving a summons. One of those two, and the police, who were cleverer and had more resources than she and Giles had, would find out which. And in the meantime both of those men would be watched. They wouldn’t be able to-to try again.

  Again Gwenda shivered. It took a little getting used to-the knowledge that someone had tried to kill you. ‘Dangerous,’ Miss Marple had said long ago. But she and Giles had not really taken the idea of danger seriously. Even after Lily Kimble had been killed, it still hadn’t occurred to her that anyone would try and kill her and Giles. Just because she and Giles were getting too near the truth of what had happened eighteen years ago. Working out what must have happened then-and who had made it happen.

  Walter Fane and Jackie Afflick…

  Which?

  Gwenda closed her eyes, seeing them afresh in the light of her new knowledge.

  Quiet Walter Fane, sitting in his office-the pale spider in the centre of its web. So quiet, so harmless-looking. A house with its blinds down. Someone dead in the house. Someone dead eighteen years ago-but still there. How sinister the quiet Walter Fane seemed now. Walter Fane who had once flung himself murderously upon his brother. Walter Fane whom Helen had scornfully refused to marry, once here at home, and once again in India. A double rebuff. A double ignominy. Walter Fane, so quiet, so unemotional, who could express himself, perhaps, only in sudden murderous violence-as, possibly, quiet Lizzie Borden had once done…

  Gwenda opened her eyes. She had convinced herself, hadn’t she, that Walter Fane was the man?

  One might, perhaps, just consider Afflick. With her eyes open, not shut.

  His loud check suit, his domineering manner-just the opposi
te to Walter Fane-nothing repressed or quiet about Afflick. But possibly he had put that manner on because of an inferiority complex. It worked that way, experts said. If you weren’t sure of yourself, you had to boast and assert yourself, and be overbearing. Turned down by Helen because he wasn’t good enough for her. The sore festering, not forgotten. Determination to get on in the world. Persecution. Everyone against him. Discharged from his employment by a faked charge made up by an ‘enemy’. Surely that did show that Afflick wasn’t normal. And what a feeling of power a man like that would get out of killing. That good-natured, jovial face of his, it was a cruel face really. He was a cruel man-and his thin pale wife knew it and was afraid of him. Lily Kimble had threatened him and Lily Kimble had died. Gwenda and Giles had interfered-then Gwenda and Giles must die, too, and he would involve Walter Fane who had sacked him long ago. That fitted in very nicely.

  Gwenda shook herself, came out of her imaginings, and returned to practicality. Giles would be home and want his tea. She must clear away and wash up lunch.

  She fetched a tray and took the things out to the kitchen. Everything in the kitchen was exquisitely neat. Mrs Cocker was really a treasure.

  By the side of the sink was a pair of surgical rubber gloves. Mrs Cocker always wore a pair for washing up. Her niece, who worked in a hospital, got them at a reduced price.

  Gwenda fitted them on over her hands and began to wash up the dishes. She might as well keep her hands nice.

  She washed the plates and put them in the rack, washed and dried the other things and put everything neatly away.

  Then, still lost in thought, she went upstairs. She might as well, she thought, wash out those stockings and a jumper or two. She’d keep the gloves on.

  These things were in the forefront of her mind. But somewhere, underneath them, something was nagging at her.

  Walter Fane or Jackie Afflick, she had said. One or the other of them. And she had made out quite a good case against either of them. Perhaps that was what really worried her. Because, strictly speaking, it would be much more satisfactory if you could only make out a good case againstone of them. One ought to be sure, by now,which. And Gwenda wasn’t sure.

  If only there was someone else…But there couldn’t be anyone else. Because Richard Erskine was out of it. Richard Erskine had been in Northumberland when Lily Kimble was killed and when the brandy in the decanter had been tampered with. Yes, Richard Erskine was right out of it.

  She was glad of that, because she liked Richard Erskine. Richard Erskine was attractive, very attractive. How sad for him to be married to that megalith of a woman with her suspicious eyes and deep bass voice. Just like a man’s voice…

  Like a man’s voice…

  The idea flashed through her mind with a queer misgiving.

  A man’s voice…Could it have been Mrs Erskine, not her husband, who had replied to Giles on the telephone last night?

  No-no, surely not. No, of course not. She and Giles would have known. And anyway, to begin with, Mrs Erskine could have had no idea of who was ringing up. No, of course it was Erskine speaking, and his wife, as he said, was away.

  His wife was away…

  Surely-no, that was impossible…Could it have been Mrs Erskine? Mrs Erskine, driven insane by jealousy? Mrs Erskine to whom Lily Kimble had written? Was it a woman Leonie had seen in the garden that night when she looked out of the window?

  There was a sudden bang in the hall below. Somebody had come in through the front door.

  Gwenda came out from the bathroom on to the landing and looked over the banisters. She was relieved to see it was Dr Kennedy. She called down:

  ‘I’m here.’

  Her hands were held out in front of her-wet, glistening, a queer pinkish grey-they reminded her of something…

  Kennedy looked up, shading his eyes.

  ‘Is that you, Gwennie? I can’t see your face…My eyes are dazzled-’

  And then Gwenda screamed…

  Looking at those smooth monkey’s paws and hearing that voice in the hall-

  ‘It was you,’ she gasped. ‘You killed her…killed Helen…I-know now. It was you…all along…You…’

  He came up the stairs towards her. Slowly. Looking up at her.

  ‘Why couldn’t you leave me alone?’ he said. ‘Why did you have to meddle? Why did you have to bring-Her-back? Just when I’d begun to forget-to forget. You brought her back again-Helen-my Helen. Bringing it all up again. I had to kill Lily-now I’ll have to kill you. Like I killed Helen…Yes, like I killed Helen…’

  He was close upon her now-his hands out towards her-reaching, she knew, for her throat. That kind, quizzical face-that nice, ordinary, elderly face-the same still, but for the eyes-the eyes were not sane…

  Gwenda retreated before him, slowly, the scream frozen in her throat. She had screamed once. She could not scream again. And if she did scream no one would hear.

  Because there was no one in the house-not Giles, and not Mrs Cocker, not even Miss Marple in the garden. Nobody. And the house next door was too far away to hear if she screamed. And anyway, she couldn’t scream…Because she was too frightened to scream. Frightened of those horrible reaching hands…

  She could back away to the nursery door and then-and then-those hands would fasten round her throat…

  A pitiful little stifled whimper came from between her lips.

  And then, suddenly, Dr Kennedy stopped and reeled back as a jet of soapy water struck him between the eyes. He gasped and blinked and his hands went to his face.

  ‘So fortunate,’ said Miss Marple’s voice, rather breathless, for she had run violently up the back stairs, ‘that I was just syringing the greenfly off your roses.’

  Chapter 25 Postscript at Torquay

  ‘But, of course, dear Gwenda, I should never have dreamed of going away and leaving you alone in the house,’ said Miss Marple. ‘I knew there was a very dangerous person at large, and I was keeping an unobtrusive watch from the garden.’

  ‘Did you know it was-him-all along?’ asked Gwenda.

  They were all three, Miss Marple, Gwenda and Giles, sitting on the terrace of the Imperial Hotel at Torquay.

  ‘A change of scene,’ Miss Marple had said, and Giles had agreed, would be the best thing for Gwenda. So Inspector Primer had concurred and they had driven to Torquay forthwith.

  Miss Marple said in answer to Gwenda’s question, ‘Well, he did seem indicated, my dear. Although unfortunately there was nothing in the way of evidence to go upon. Just indications, nothing more.’

  Looking at her curiously, Giles said, ‘But I can’t see any indications even.’

  ‘Oh dear, Giles, think. He was on the spot, to begin with.’

  ‘On the spot?’

  ‘But certainly. When Kelvin Halliday came to him that night he had just come back from the hospital. And the hospital, at that time, as several people told us, was actually next door to Hillside, or St Catherine’s as it was then called. So that, as you see, puts him in the right place at the right time. And then there were a hundred and one little significant facts. Helen Halliday told Richard Erskine she had gone out to marry Walter Fane because she wasn’t happy at home. Not happy, that is, living with her brother. Yet her brother was by all accounts devoted to her. So why wasn’t she happy? Mr Afflick told you that “he was sorry for the poor kid”. I think that he was absolutely truthful when he said that. He was sorry for her. Why did she have to go and meet young Afflick in that clandestine way? Admittedly she was not wildly in love with him. Was it because she couldn’t meet young men in the ordinary normal way? Her brother was “strict” and “old-fashioned”. It is vaguely reminiscent, is it not, of Mr Barrett of Wimpole Street?’

  Gwenda shivered.

  ‘He was mad,’ she said. ‘Mad.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Miss Marple. ‘He wasn’t normal. He adored his half-sister, and that affection became possessive and unwholesome. That kind of thing happens oftener than you’d think. Fathers who don’t want the
ir daughters to marry-or even to meet young men. Like Mr Barrett. I thought of that when I heard about the tennis net.’

  ‘The tennis net?’

  ‘Yes, that seemed to me very significant. Think of that girl, young Helen, coming home from school, and eager for all a young girl wants out of life, anxious to meet young men-to flirt with them-’

  ‘A little sex-crazy.’

  ‘No,’ said Miss Marple with emphasis. ‘Thatis one of the wickedest things about this crime. Dr Kennedy didn’t only kill her physically. If you think back carefully, you’ll see that the only evidence for Helen Kennedy’s having been man mad or practically-what is the word you used, dear? oh yes, a nymphomaniac-came actually from Dr Kennedy himself. I think, myself, that she was a perfectly normal young girl who wanted to have fun and a good time and flirt a little and finally settle down with the man of her choice-no more than that. And see what steps her brother took. First he was strict and old-fashioned about allowing her liberty. Then, when she wanted to give tennis parties - a most normal and harmless desire - he pretended to agree and then one night secretly cut the tennis net to ribbons - a very significant and sadistic action. Then, since she could still go out to play tennis or to dances, he took advantage of a grazed foot which he treated, to infect it so that it wouldn’t heal. Oh yes, I think he did that…in fact, I’m sure of it.

  ‘Mind you. I don’t think Helen realized any of all this. She knew her brother had a deep affection for her and I don’t think she knew why she felt uneasy and unhappy at home. But she did feel like that and at last she decided to go out to India and marry young Fane simply in order to get away. To get away from what? She didn’t know. She was too young and guileless to know. So she went off to India and on the way she met Richard Erskine and fell in love with him. There again, she behaved not like a sex-crazy girl, but like a decent and honourable girl. She didn’t urge him to leave his wife. She urged him not to do so. But when she saw Walter Fane she knew that she couldn’t marry him, and because she didn’t know what else to do, she wired her brother for money to go home.