Ordeal by Innocence

by Agatha Christie

  Craig refused the offer of a drink and came straight to the point. "I'm badly worried, Mac."

  "Not more vitamin deficiencies, I hope," said Dr. MacMaster. From his point of view vitamin deficiency had been a good joke. It had once taken a veterinary surgeon to point out to young Craig that the cat belonging to a certain child patient was suffering with an advanced case of ringworm.

  "It's nothing to do with the patients," said Donald Craig. "It's my own private affairs."

  MacMaster's face changed immediately.

  "I'm sorry, my boy. Very sorry. Have you had bad news?"

  The young man shook his head.

  "It's not that. It's -look here, Mac, I've got to talk to someone about it and you know them all, you've been here for years, you know all about them. And I've got to know too. I've got to know where I stand, what I'm up against."

  MacMaster's bushy eyebrows rose slowly up his forehead. "Let's hear the trouble," he said.

  "It's the Argyles. You know -1 suppose everyone knows - that Hester Argyle and I-"

  The old doctor nodded his head.

  "A nice little understanding," he said approvingly. "That's the old-fashioned term they used to use, and it was a very good one."

  "I'm terribly in love with her," Donald said simply, "and I think - oh, I'm sure -that she cares too. And now all this happens."

  A look of enlightenment came into the older doctor's face.

  "Ah yes! Free pardon for Jacko Argyle," he said. "A free pardon that's come too late for him."

  "Yes. That's just what makes me feel -1 know it's an entirely wrong thing to feel, but I can't help it - that it would have been better if - if this new evidence hadn't come to light."

  "Oh, you're not the only one who seems to feel that," said MacMaster. "It's felt, as far as I can find out, from the Chief Constable through the Argyle family down to the man who came back from the Antarctic and supplied the evidence." He added: "He's been here this afternoon."

  Donald Craig looked startled. "Has he? Did he say anything?" "What did you expect him to say?" "Did he have any idea of who -" Slowly Dr. MacMaster shook his head.

  "No," he said. "He's no idea. How could he have - coming out of the blue and seeing them all for the first time? It seems," he went on, "that nobody has any idea."

  "No. No, I suppose not."

  "What's upset you so much, Don?"

  Donald Craig drew a deep breath.

  "Hester rang me up that evening when this fellow Calgary had been there. She and I were going in to Drymouth after the surgery to hear a lecture on criminal types in Shakespeare."

  "Sounds particularly suitable," said MacMaster.

  "And then she rang me up. Said she wouldn't be coming. Said there had been news of a peculiarly upsetting type."

  "Ah. Dr. Calgary's news."

  "Yes. Yes, although she didn't mention him at the time. But she was very upset. She sounded -1 can't explain to you how she sounded."

  "Irish blood," said MacMaster.

  "She sounded altogether stricken, terrified. Oh, I can't explain it."

  "Well, what do you expect?" the doctor asked. "She's not yet twenty, is she?"

  "But why is she so upset? I tell you, Mac, she's scared stiff of something."

  "M'm, yes, well - yes that might be so, I suppose," said MacMaster.

  "Do you think - what do you think?"

  "It's more to the point," MacMaster pointed out, "what you are thinking."

  The young man said bitterly:

  "I suppose, if I wasn't a doctor, I shouldn't even begin to think of such things. She'd be my girl and my girl could do no wrong. But as it is -"

  "Yes - come on. You'd better get it off your chest."

  "You see, I know something of what goes on in Hester's mind. She - she's a victim of early insecurity."

  "Quite so," said MacMaster. "That's the way we put it nowadays."

  "She hasn't had time yet to get properly integrated. She was suffering, at the time of the murder, from a perfectly natural feeling of an adolescent young woman - resentment of authority - an attempt to escape from smother-love which is responsible for so much harm nowadays. She wanted to rebel, to get away. She's told me all this herself. She ran away and joined a fourth-class touring theatrical company. Under the circumstances I think her mother behaved very reasonably. She suggested that Hester should go to London and go to RADA and study acting properly if she wanted to do so. But that wasn't what Hester wanted to do. This running away to act was just a gesture really. She didn't really want to train for the stage, or to take up the profession seriously. She just wanted to show she could be on her own. Anyway, the Argyles didn't try to coerce her. They gave her a quite handsome allowance."

  "Which was very clever of them," said MacMaster.

  "And then she had this silly love affair with a middle-aged member of the company. In the end she realised for herself that he was no good. Mrs. Argyle came along and dealt with him and Hester came home."

  "Having learnt her lesson, as they used to say in my young days," said MacMaster. "But of course one never liked learning one's lesson. Hester didn't."

  Donald Craig went on anxiously: "She was full, still, of pent-up resentment; all the worse because she had to acknowledge secretly, if not openly, that her mother had been perfectly right; that she was no good as an actress and that the man she had lavished her affections on wasn't worth it. And that, anyway, she didn't really care for him. 'Mother knows best' It's always galling to the young."

  "Yes," said MacMaster. "That was one of poor Mrs. Argyle's troubles, though she'd never have thought of it like that. The fact was she was nearly always right, that she did know best. If she'd been one of those women who run into debt, lose their keys, miss trains, and do foolish actions that other people have to help them out of, her entire family would have been much fonder of her. Sad and cruel, but there's life for you. And she wasn't a clever enough woman to get her own way by guile. She was complacent, you know. Pleased with her own power and judgment and quite, quite sure of herself. That's a very difficult thing to come up against when you're young."

  "Oh, I know," said Donald Craig. "I realise all that. It's because I realise it so well that I feel, that I wonder -" He stopped.

  MacMaster said gently: "I'd better say it for you, hadn't I, Don? You're afraid that it was your Hester who heard the quarrel between her mother and Jacko, who got worked up by hearing it, perhaps, and who, in a fit of rebellion against authority, and against her mother's superior assumption of omniscience, went into that room, picked up the poker and killed her. That's what you're afraid of, isn't it?"

  The young man nodded miserably.

  "Not really. I don't really believe it, but - but I feel -1 feel that it could have happened. I don't feel Hester has got the poise, the balance to -1 feel she's young for her age, uncertain of herself, liable to have brainstorms. I look at that household and I don't feel that any of them are likely to have done such a thing until I come to Hester. And then - then I'm not sure."

  "I see," said Dr. MacMaster. "Yes, I see."

  "I don't really blame her," said Don Craig quickly. "I don't think the poor child really knew what she was doing. I can't call it murder. It was just an act of emotional defiance, of rebellion, of a longing to be free, of the conviction that she would never be free until - until her mother wasn't there any longer."

  "And that last is probably true enough," said MacMaster. "It's the only kind of motive there is, and it's rather a peculiar one. Not the kind that looks strong in the eyes of the law. Wishing to be free. Free from the impact of a stronger personality. Just because none of them inherits a large sum of money on the death of Mrs. Argyle the law won't consider that they had a motive. But even the financial control, I should imagine, was very largely in Mrs. Argyle's hands through her influence with the Trustees. Oh yes, her death set them free all right. Not only Hester, my boy. It set Leo free to marry another woman. It set Mary free to look after her husband in the way sh
e liked, it set Micky free to live his own life in the way he cared about living it. Even little dark horse Tina sitting in her library may have wanted freedom."

  "I had to come and talk to you," said Donald. "I had to know what you thought, whether you thought that - that it could be true."

  "About Hester?"

  "Yes."

  "I think it could be true," said MacMaster slowly. "I don't know that it is."

  "You think it could have happened just as I say?"

  "Yes. I think what you've imagined is not farfetched and has an element of probability about it. But it's by no means certain, Donald."

  The young man gave a shuddering sigh.

  "But it's got to be certain, Mac. That's the one thing I do feel is necessary. I've got to know. If Hester tells me, if she tells me herself, then - then it will be all right. We'll get married as soon as possible. I'll look after her."

  "It's as well Superintendent Huish can't hear you," said MacMaster dryly.

  "I'm a law-abiding citizen as a rule," said Donald, "but you know very well yourself, Mac, how they treat psychological evidence in the law courts. In my view it was a bad accident, not a case of cold-blooded murder, or even hot-blooded murder for that matter."

  "You're in love with the girl," said MacMaster. "I'm talking to you in confidence, mind." "I understand that," said MacMaster.

  "All I'm saying is that if Hester tells me, and I know, we'll live it down together. But she must tell me. I can't go through life not knowing."

  "You mean, you're not prepared to marry her with this probability overshadowing things?"

  "Would you want to in my place?"

  "I don't know. In my day, if it happened to me, and I was in love with the girl, I should probably be convinced she was innocent."

  "It's not so much the guilt or innocence that matters, as that I've got to know."

  "And if she did kill her mother, you're quite prepared to marry her and live happily ever afterwards, as they say?"

  "Yes."

  "Don'tyou believe it!" said MacMaster. "You'll be wondering if the bitter taste in your coffee is only coffee and thinking that the poker in the grate is a bit too hefty a size. And she'll see you thinking it. It won't do."

  Chapter 10

  "I'm sure, Marshall, that you'll appreciate my reasons for asking you to come here and have this conference."

  "Yes, certainly," said Mr. Marshall. "The fact is that if you had not proposed it, Mr. Argyle, I should myself have suggested coming down. The announcement was in all the morning papers this morning and there is no doubt at all that it will lead to a revival of interest in the case on the part of the Press."

  "We've already had a few of them ringing up and asking for interviews," said Mary Durrant.

  "Quite so, it was only to be expected, I feel. I should advise that you take up the position that you have no comment to make. Naturally you are delighted and thankful, but you prefer not to discuss the matter."

  "Superintendent Huish, who was in charge of the case at the time, has asked to come and have an interview with us tomorrow morning," said Leo.

  "Yes. Yes, I'm afraid there will have to be a certain amount of reopening of the case, though I really cannot think that the police can have much hope of arriving at any tangible result. After all, two years have passed and anything that people might have remembered at the time - people in the village, I mean - will by now have been forgotten. A pity, of course, in some ways, but it can't be helped."

  "The whole thing seems quite clear," said Mary Durrant. "The house was securely locked up against burglars but if anyone had come appealing to my mother over some special case or pretending to be a friend or friends of hers I have no doubt that person would have been admitted. That, I think, is what must have happened. My father here thought he heard a ring at the bell just after seven o'clock."

  Marshall turned his head enquiringly to Leo.

  "Yes, I think I did say so," said Leo. "Of course, I can't remember very clearly now, but at the time I was under the impression that I heard the bell. I was ready to go down and then I thought I heard the door open and close. There was no sound of voices or any question of anyone forcing an entry or behaving abusively. That I think I should have heard."

  "Quite so, quite so," said Mr. Marshall. "Yes, I think there's no doubt that that is what must have happened. Alas, we know only too well the large number of unprincipled persons gaining admission to a house by a plausible tale of distress, and who having gained admission are willing to cosh the householder and make off with what money they can find. Yes, I think that we must assume now that that is what did happen."

  He spoke in too persuasive a voice. He looked round the little assembly as he spoke, noting them carefully, and labelling them in his meticulous mind. Mary Durrant, good-looking, unimaginative, untroubled, even slightly aloof, apparently quite sure of herself. Behind her in his wheel-chair, her husband. An intelligent fellow, Philip Durrant, Marshall thought to himself. A man who might have done a good deal and gone far had it not been for his unreliable judgment in all matters of business. He was not, Marshall thought, taking all this as calmly as his wife was. His eyes were alert and thoughtful. He realised, none better, the implications of the whole matter. Of course, though, Mary Durrant might not be as calm as she appeared to be. Both as a girl and a woman, she had always been able to conceal her feelings.

  As Philip Durrant moved slightly in his chair, his bright, intelligent eyes watching the lawyer with a faint mockery in them, Mary turned her head sharply. The complete adoration of the look she gave her husband almost startled the lawyer. He had known, of course, that Mary Durrant was a devoted wife, but he had so long considered her as a calm, rather passionless creature without strong affections or dislikes that he was surprised at this sudden revelation. So that was how she felt about the fellow, was it? As for Philip Durrant, he seemed uneasy. Apprehensive, Marshall thought, about the future. As well he might be!

  Opposite the lawyer sat Micky. Young, handsome, bitter. Why had he got to be so bitter, Marshall thought parenthetically? Hadn't everything been done for him always? Why did he have to have this look of one who was perpetually against the world. Beside him sat Tina looking rather like a small elegant black cat. Very dark, soft-voiced, big dark eyes and a rather sinuous grace of movement. Quiet, yet perhaps emotional behind the quietness? Marshall really knew very little about Tina. She had taken up the work suggested to her by Mrs. Argyle, as a librarian in the County Library. She had a flat in Redmyn and came home at week-ends. Apparently a docile and contented member of the family. But who knew? Anyway, she was out of it or ought to be. She had not been here that evening. Though, for all that, Redmyn was only twenty-five miles away.

  Still, presumably Tina and Micky had been out of it.

  Marshall swept a quick glance over Kirsten Lindstrom, who was watching him with a touch of belligerence in her manner. Supposing, he thought, it was she who had gone berserk and attacked her employer? It wouldn't really surprise him. Nothing really surprised you when you'd been in the law a number of years. They'd have a word for it in the modern jargon. Repressed spinster. Envious, jealous, nursing grievances real or fancied. Oh yes, they had a word for it. And how very convenient it would be, thought Mr. Marshall rather improperly. Yes, very convenient. A foreigner. Not one of the family. But would Kirsten Lindstrom have deliberately framed Jacko; have heard the quarrel and taken advantage of it? That was a great deal more difficult to believe. For Kirsten Lindstrom adored Jacko. She had always been devoted to all the children. No, he could not believe that of her. A pity because - but really he must not let his thoughts go along that line.

  His glance went on to Leo Argyle and Gwenda Vaughan. Their engagement had not been announced, which was just as well. A wise decision. He had actually written and hinted as much. Of course it was probably an open secret locally and no doubt the police were on to it. From the point of view of the police it was the right kind of answer. Innumerable precedents. Hu
sband, wife, and the other woman. Only, somehow or other, Marshall could not believe that Leo Argyle had attacked his wife. No, he really couldn't believe it. After all, he had known Leo Argyle for a number of years and he had the highest opinion of him. An intellectual. A man of warm sympathies, deep reading and an aloof philosophical outlook upon life. Not the sort of man to murder his wife with a poker. Of course, at a certain age, when a man fell in love - but no! That was newspaper stuff. Pleasant reading, apparently, for Sundays, all over the British Isles! But really, one could not imagine Leo...

  What about the woman? He didn't know so much about Gwenda Vaughan. He observed the full lips and the ripe figure. She was in love with Leo all right. Oh yes, probably been in love with him for a long time.