Ten
IM iss Marple, sitting erect¹ against a background of china dogs and presents from Margate, smiled approvingly atInspector Dermot Craddock.
“I’m so glad,” she said, “that you have been assigned to the case. I hoped you would be.”
“When I got your letter,” said Craddock, “I took it straight to the A.C. As it happened he had just heard from theBrackhampton people calling us in. They seemed to think it wasn’t a local crime. The A.C. was very interested in whatI had to tell him about you. He’d heard about you, I gather, from my godfather.”
“Dear Sir Henry,” murmured Miss Marple affectionately.
“He got me to tell him all about the Little Paddocks business. Do you want to hear what he said next?”
“Please tell me if it is not a breach³ of confidence.”
“He said, ‘Well, as this seems a completely cockeyed business, all thought up by a couple of old ladies who’veturned out, against all probability, to be right, and since you already know one of these old ladies, I’m sending youdown on the case.’ So here I am! And now, my dear Miss Marple, where do we go from here? This is not, as youprobably appreciate, an official visit. I haven’t got my henchmen with me. I thought you and I might take down ourback hair together first.”
Miss Marple smiled at him.
“I’m sure,” she said, “that no one who only knows you officially would ever guess that you could be so human, andbetter-looking than ever—don’t blush… Now, what, exactly, have you been told so far?”
“I’ve got everything, I think. Your friend, Mrs. McGillicuddy’s original statement to the police at St. Mary Mead,confirmation⁴ of her statement by the ticket collector, and also the note to the stationmaster at Brackhampton. I may saythat all the proper inquiries⁵ were made by the people concerned—the railway people and the police. But there’s nodoubt that you outsmarted them all by a most fantastic process of guesswork.”
“Not guesswork,” said Miss Marple. “And I had a great advantage. I knew Elspeth McGillicuddy. Nobody else did.
There was no obvious confirmation of her story, and if there was no question of any woman being reported missing,then quite naturally they would think it was just an elderly lady imagining things—as elderly ladies often do—but notElspeth McGillicuddy.”

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