Twenty-three
WHICH OF THEM?
G iles and Gwenda had not gone with Inspector¹ Last and Dr. Kennedy to interview Mr. Kimble. They arrived homeabout seven o’clock. Gwenda looked white and ill. Dr. Kennedy had said to Giles: “Give her some brandy and makeher eat something, then get her to bed. She’s had a bad shock.”
“It’s so awful, Giles,” Gwenda kept saying. “So awful. That silly woman, making an appointment with themurderer, and going along so confidently—to be killed. Like a sheep to the slaughter².”
“Well, don’t think about it, darling. After all, we did know there was someone—a killer³.”
“No, we didn’t. Not a killer now. I mean, it was then—eighteen years ago. It wasn’t, somehow, quite real … Itmight all have been a mistake.”
“Well, this proves that it wasn’t a mistake. You were right all the time, Gwenda.”
Giles was glad to find Miss Marple at Hillside. She and Mrs. Cocker between them fussed over Gwenda whorefused brandy because she said it always reminded her of Channel steamers, but accepted some hot whisky andlemon, and then, coaxed⁴ by Mrs. Cocker, sat down and ate an omelette.
Giles would have talked determinedly⁵ of other things, but Miss Marple, with what Giles admitted to be superiortactics, discussed the crime in a gentle aloof⁶ manner.
“Very dreadful, my dear,” she said. “And of course a great shock, but interesting, one must admit. And of course Iam so old that death doesn’t shock me as much as it does you—only something lingering and painful like cancer reallydistresses me. The really vital thing is that this proves definitely and beyond any possible doubt that poor young HelenHalliday was killed. We’ve thought so all along and now we know.”
“And according to you we ought to know where the body is,” said Giles. “The cellar, I suppose.”
“No, no, Mr. Reed. You remember Edith Pagett said she went down there on the morning after because she wasdisturbed by what Lily had said, and she found no signs of anything of the kind—and there would be signs, you know,if somebody was really looking for them.”

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