1M iss Marple climbed the stairs and tapped on the door of Mrs. Serrocold’s bedroom.
“May I come in, Carrie Louise?”
“Of course, Jane dear.”
Carrie Louise was sitting in front of the dressing1 table, brushing her silvery hair. She turned her head over hershoulder.
“Is it the police? I’ll be ready in a few minutes.”
“Are you all right?”
“Yes, of course. Jolly insisted on my having my breakfast in bed. And Gina came into the room with it on tiptoe asthough I might be at death’s door! I don’t think people realise that tragedies like Christian2’s death are much less shockto someone old. Because one knows by then how anything may happen—and how little anything really matters thathappens in this world.”
“Ye—es,” said Miss Marple dubiously3.
“Don’t you feel the same, Jane? I should have thought you would.”
Miss Marple said slowly:
“Christian was murdered.”
“Yes … I see what you mean. You think that does matter?”
“Don’t you?”
“Not to Christian,” said Carrie Louise simply. “It matters, of course, to whoever murdered him.”
“Have you any idea who murdered him?”
Mrs. Serrocold shook her head in a bewildered fashion.
“No, I’ve absolutely no idea. I can’t even think of a reason. It must have been something to do with his being herebefore—just over a month ago. Because otherwise I don’t think he would have come here suddenly again for noparticular reason. Whatever it was must have started off then. I’ve thought and I’ve thought, but I can’t rememberanything unusual.”
“Who was here in the house?”
“Oh! the same people who are here now—yes, Alex was down from London about then. And—oh yes, Ruth washere.”
“Ruth?”
“Her usual flying visit.”
“Ruth,” said Miss Marple again. Her mind was active. Christian Gulbrandsen and Ruth? Ruth had come awayworried and apprehensive4, but had not known why. Something was wrong was all that Ruth could say. ChristianGulbrandsen had also been worried and apprehensive, but Christian Gulbrandsen had known or suspected somethingthat Ruth did not. He had known or suspected that someone was trying to poison Carrie Louise. How had ChristianGulbrandsen come to entertain those suspicions? What had he seen or heard? Was it something that Ruth also hadseen or heard but which she had failed to appreciate at its rightful significance? Miss Marple wished that she knewwhat it could possibly have been. Her own vague hunch5 that it (whatever it was) had to do with Edgar Lawson seemedunlikely since Ruth had not even mentioned him.
She sighed.
“You’re all keeping something from me, aren’t you?” asked Carrie Louise.
Miss Marple jumped a little as the quiet voice spoke6.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because you are. Not Jolly. But everyone else. Even Lewis. He came in while I was having my breakfast, and heacted very oddly. He drank some of my coffee and even had a bit of toast and marmalade. That’s so unlike him,because he always has tea, and he doesn’t like marmalade, so he must have been thinking of something else—and Isuppose he must have forgotten to have his own breakfast. He does forget things like meals, and he looked soconcerned and preoccupied7.”
“Murder—” began Miss Marple.
Carrie Louise said quickly:
“Oh, I know. It’s a terrible thing. I’ve never been mixed up in it before. You have, haven’t you, Jane?”
“Well—yes—actually I have,” Miss Marple admitted.
“So Ruth told me.”
“Did she tell you that last time she was down here?” asked Miss Marple curiously8.
“No, I don’t think it was then. I can’t really remember.”
Carrie Louise spoke vaguely9, almost absentmindedly.
“What are you thinking about, Carrie Louise?”
Mrs. Serrocold smiled and seemed to come back from a long way away.
“I was thinking of Gina,” she said. “And of what you said about Stephen Restarick. Gina’s a dear girl, you know,and she does really love Wally. I’m sure she does.”
Miss Marple said nothing.
“Girls like Gina like to kick up their heels a bit.” Mrs. Serrocold spoke in an almost pleading voice. “They’reyoung and they like to feel their power. It’s natural, really. I know Wally Hudd isn’t the sort of man we imagined Ginamarrying. Normally she’d never have met him. But she did meet him, and fell in love with him—and presumably sheknows her own business best.”
“Probably she does,” said Miss Marple.
“But it’s so very important that Gina should be happy.”
Miss Marple looked curiously at her friend.
“It’s important, I suppose, that everyone should be happy.”
“Oh yes. But Gina’s a very special case. When we took her mother—when we took Pippa—we felt that it was anexperiment that had simply got to succeed. You see, Pippa’s mother—”
Carrie Louise paused.
Miss Marple said, “Who was Pippa’s mother?”
Carrie Louise said, “Eric and I agreed that we would never tell anybody that. She never knew herself.”
“I’d like to know,” said Miss Marple.
Mrs. Serrocold looked at her doubtfully.
“It isn’t just curiosity,” said Miss Marple. “I really—well—need to know. I can hold my tongue, you know.”
“You could always keep a secret, Jane,” said Carrie Louise with a reminiscent smile. “Dr. Galbraith—he’s theBishop of Cromer now—he knows. But no one else. Pippa’s mother was Katherine Elsworth.”
“Elsworth? Wasn’t that the woman who administered arsenic11 to her husband? Rather a celebrated12 case.”
“Yes.”
“She was hanged?”
“Yes. But you know it’s not at all sure that she did it. The husband was an arsenic eater—they didn’t understand somuch about those things then.”
“She soaked flypapers.”
“The maid’s evidence, we always thought, was definitely malicious13.”
“And Pippa was her daughter?”
“Yes. Eric and I determined14 to give the child a fresh start in life—with love and care and all the things a childneeds. We succeeded. Pippa was—herself. The sweetest, happiest creature imaginable.”
Miss Marple was silent a long time.
Carrie Louise turned away from the dressing table.
“I’m ready now. Perhaps you’ll ask the Inspector15 or whatever he is to come up to my sitting room. He won’t mind,I’m sure.”
2Inspector Curry16 did not mind. In fact, he rather welcomed the chance of seeing Mrs. Serrocold on her own territory.
As he stood there waiting for her, he looked round him curiously. It was not his idea of what he termed to himself“a rich woman’s boudoir.”
It had an old-fashioned couch and some rather uncomfortable looking Victorian chairs with twisted woodworkbacks. The chintzes were old and faded but of an attractive pattern displaying the Crystal Palace. It was one of thesmaller rooms, though even then it was larger than the drawing room of most modern houses. But it had a cosy17, rathercrowded appearance with its little tables, its bric-a-brac, and its photographs. Curry looked at an old snapshot of twolittle girls, one dark and lively, the other plain, and staring out sulkily on the world from under a heavy fringe. He hadseen that same expression that morning. “Pippa and Mildred” was written on the photograph. There was a photographof Eric Gulbrandsen hanging on the wall, with a gold mount and a heavy ebony frame. Curry had just found aphotograph of a good-looking man with eyes crinkling with laughter, whom he presumed was John Restarick, whenthe door opened and Mrs. Serrocold came in.
She wore black, a floating and diaphanous18 black. Her little pink-and-white face looked unusually small under itscrown of silvery hair, and there was a frailness19 about her that caught sharply at Inspector Curry’s heart. Heunderstood, at that moment, a good deal that had perplexed20 him earlier in the morning. He understood why peoplewere so anxious to spare Caroline Louise Serrocold everything that could be spared her.
And yet, he thought, she isn’t the kind that would ever make a fuss….
She greeted him, asked him to sit down, and took a chair near him. It was less he who put her at her ease than shewho put him at his. He started to ask his questions and she answered them readily and without hesitation21. The failureof the lights, the quarrel between Edgar Lawson and her husband, the shot they had heard….
“It did not seem to you that the shot was in the house?”
“No, I thought it came from outside. I thought it might have been the backfire of a car.”
“During the quarrel between your husband and this young fellow Lawson in the study, did you notice anybodyleaving the Hall?”
“Wally had already gone to see about the lights. Miss Bellever went out shortly afterwards—to get something, but Ican’t remember what.”
“Who else left the Hall?”
“Nobody, so far as I know.”
“Would you know, Mrs. Serrocold?”
She reflected a moment.
“No, I don’t think I should.”
“You were completely absorbed in what you could hear going on in the study?”
“Yes.”
“And you were apprehensive as to what might happen there?”
“No—no, I wouldn’t say that. I didn’t think anything would really happen.”
“But Lawson had a revolver?”
“Yes.”
“And was threatening your husband with it?”
“Yes. But he didn’t mean it.”
Inspector Curry felt his usual slight exasperation22 at this statement. So she was another of them!
“You can’t possibly have been sure of that, Mrs. Serrocold.”
“Well, but I was sure. In my own mind, I mean. What is it the young people say—putting on an act? That’s what Ifelt it was. Edgar’s only a boy. He was being melodramatic and silly and fancying himself as a bold desperatecharacter. Seeing himself as the wronged hero in a romantic story. I was quite sure he would never fire that revolver.”
“But he did fire it, Mrs. Serrocold.”
Carrie Louise smiled.
“I expect it went off by accident.”
Again exasperation mounted in Inspector Curry.
“It was not by accident. Lawson fired that revolver twice—and fired it at your husband. The bullets only justmissed him.”
Carrie Louise looked startled and then grave.
“I can’t really believe that. Oh yes—” she hurried on to forestall23 the Inspector’s protest. “Of course, I have tobelieve it, if you tell me so. But I still feel there must be a simple explanation. Perhaps Dr. Maverick24 can explain it tome.”
“Oh yes, Dr. Maverick will explain it all right,” said Curry grimly. “Dr. Maverick can explain anything. I’m sure ofthat.”
Unexpectedly Mrs. Serrocold said:
“I know that a lot of what we do here seems to you foolish and pointless, and psychiatrists25 can be very irritatingsometimes. But we do achieve results, you know. We have our failures, but we have successes too. And what we try todo is worth doing. And though you probably won’t believe it, Edgar is really devoted26 to my husband. He started thissilly business about Lewis’ being his father because he wants so much to have a father like Lewis. But what I can’tunderstand is why he should suddenly get violent. He had been so very much better—really practically normal.
Indeed, he has always seemed normal to me.”
The Inspector did not argue the point.
He said, “The revolver that Edgar Lawson had was one belonging to your granddaughter’s husband. PresumablyLawson took it from Walter Hudd’s room. Now tell me, have you ever seen this weapon before?”
On the palm of his hand he held out the small black automatic.
Carrie Louise looked at it.
“No, I don’t think so.”
“I found it in the piano stool. It has recently been fired. We haven’t had time to check on it fully10 yet, but I shouldsay that it is almost certainly the weapon with which Mr. Gulbrandsen was shot.”
She frowned.
“And you found it in the piano stool?”
“Under some very old music. Music that I should say had not been played for years.”
“Hidden, then?”
“Yes. You remember who was at the piano last night?”
“Stephen Restarick.”
“He was playing?”
“Yes. Just softly. A funny, melancholy27 little tune28.”
“When did he stop playing, Mrs. Serrocold?”
“When did he stop? I don’t know.”
“But he did stop? He didn’t go on playing all through the quarrel?”
“No. The music just died down.”
“Did he get up from the piano stool?”
“I don’t know. I’ve no idea what he did until he came over to the study door to try and fit a key to it.”
“Can you think of any reason why Stephen Restarick should shoot Mr. Gulbrandsen?”
“None whatever,” she added thoughtfully, “I don’t believe he did.”
“Gulbrandsen might have found something discreditable about him.”
“That seems to me very unlikely.”
Inspector Curry had a wild wish to reply:
“Pigs may fly but they’re very unlikely birds.” It had been a saying of his grandmother’s. Miss Marple, he thought,was sure to know it.
3Carrie Louise came down the broad stairway, and three people converged29 upon her from different directions, Ginafrom the long corridor, Miss Marple from the library, and Juliet Bellever from the Great Hall.
Gina spoke first.
“Darling!” she exclaimed passionately30. “Are you all right? They haven’t bullied31 you or given you third degree oranything?”
“Of course not, Gina. What odd ideas you have! Inspector Curry was charming and most considerate.”
“So he ought to be,” said Miss Bellever. “Now, Cara, I’ve got all your letters here and a parcel. I was going tobring them up to you.”
“Bring them into the library,” said Carrie Louise.
All four of them went into the library.
Carrie Louise sat down and began opening her letters. There were about twenty or thirty of them.
As she opened them, she handed them to Miss Bellever who sorted them into heaps, explaining to Miss Marple asshe did so, “Three main categories. One—from relations of the boys. Those I hand over to Dr. Maverick. Beggingletters I deal with myself. And the rest are personal—and Cara gives me notes on how to deal with them.”
The correspondence once disposed of, Mrs. Serrocold turned her attention to the parcel, cutting the string withscissors.
Out of the neat wrappings, there appeared an attractive box of chocolates tied up with a gold ribbon.
“Someone must think it’s my birthday,” said Mrs. Serrocold with a smile.
She slipped off the ribbon and opened the box. Inside was a visiting card. Carrie Louise looked at it with slightsurprise.
“With love from Alex,” she read. “How odd of him to send me a box of chocolates by post on the same day he wascoming down here.”
Uneasiness stirred in Miss Marple’s mind.
She said quickly:
“Wait a minute, Carrie Louise. Don’t eat one yet.”
Mrs. Serrocold looked faintly surprised.
“I was going to hand them round.”
“Well, don’t. Wait while I ask—is Alex about the house, do you know, Gina?”
Gina said quickly, “Alex was in the Hall just now, I think.”
She went across, opened the door, and called him.
Alex Restarick appeared in the doorway32 a moment later.
“Madonna darling! So you’re up. None the worse?”
He came across to Mrs. Serrocold and kissed her gently on both cheeks.
Miss Marple said:
“Carrie Louise wants to thank you for the chocolates.”
Alex looked surprised.
“What chocolates?”
“These chocolates,” said Carrie Louise.
“But I never sent you any chocolates, darling.”
“The box has got your card in,” said Miss Bellever.
Alex peered down.
“So it has. How odd. How very odd … I certainly didn’t send them.”
“What a very extraordinary thing,” said Miss Bellever.
“They look absolutely scrumptious,” said Gina, peering into the box. “Look, Grandam, there are your favouriteKirsch ones in the middle.”
Miss Marple gently but firmly took the box away from her. Without a word she took it out of the room and went tofind Lewis Serrocold. It took her some time because he had gone over to the College — she found him in Dr.
Maverick’s room there. She put the box on the table in front of him. He listened to her brief account of thecircumstances. His face grew suddenly stern and hard.
Carefully, he and the doctor lifted out chocolate after chocolate and examined them.
“I think,” said Dr. Maverick, “that these ones I have put aside have almost certainly been tampered33 with. You seethe34 unevenness35 of the chocolate coating underneath36? The next thing to do is to get them analysed.”
“But it seems incredible,” said Miss Marple. “Why, everyone in the house might have been poisoned!”
Lewis nodded. His face was still white and hard.
“Yes. There is a ruthlessness—a disregard—” he broke off. “Actually, I think all these particular chocolates areKirsch flavouring. That is Caroline’s favourite. So, you see, there is knowledge behind this.”
Miss Marple said quietly:
“If it is as you suspect—if there is—poison—in these chocolates, then I’m afraid Carrie Louise will have to knowwhat is going on. She must be put upon her guard.”
Lewis Serrocold said heavily:
“Yes. She will have to know that someone wants to kill her. I think that she will find it almost impossible tobelieve.”
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1
dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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dubiously
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| adv.可疑地，怀疑地 | |
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apprehensive
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| adj.担心的，恐惧的，善于领会的 | |
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hunch
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| n.预感，直觉 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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7
preoccupied
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| adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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arsenic
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| n.砒霜，砷；adj.砷的 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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curry
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| n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革 | |
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cosy
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| adj.温暖而舒适的，安逸的 | |
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diaphanous
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| adj.(布)精致的，半透明的 | |
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frailness
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| n.脆弱，不坚定 | |
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perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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exasperation
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| n.愤慨 | |
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forestall
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| vt.抢在…之前采取行动；预先阻止 | |
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maverick
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| adj.特立独行的；不遵守传统的；n.持异议者，自行其是者 | |
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psychiatrists
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| n.精神病专家，精神病医生( psychiatrist的名词复数 ) | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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converged
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| v.（线条、运动的物体等）会于一点( converge的过去式 )；（趋于）相似或相同；人或车辆汇集；聚集 | |
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passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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bullied
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| adj.被欺负了v.恐吓，威逼( bully的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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tampered
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| v.窜改( tamper的过去式 )；篡改；（用不正当手段）影响；瞎摆弄 | |
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seethe
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| vi.拥挤，云集；发怒，激动，骚动 | |
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unevenness
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| n. 不平坦，不平衡，不匀性 | |
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underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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