At Bertram's Hotel - Agatha Christie [68]
A short telephone call to Elvira’s guardian, Colonel Luscombe, had been even more unproductive, though fortunately less wordy. “More Chinese monkeys,” he muttered to his sergeant as he put down the receiver. “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
“The trouble is that everyone who’s had anything to do with this girl has been far too nice—if you get my meaning. Too many nice people who don’t know anything about evil. Not like my old lady.”
“The Bertram’s Hotel one?”
“Yes, that’s the one. She’s had a long life of experience in noticing evil, fancying evil, suspecting evil and going forth to do battle with evil. Let’s see what we can get out of girlfriend Bridget.”
The difficulties in this interview were represented first, last, and most of the time by Bridget’s mamma. To talk to Bridget without the assistance of her mother took all Chief-Inspector Davy’s adroitness and cajolery. He was, it must be admitted, ably seconded by Bridget. After a certain amount of stereotyped questions and answers and expressions of horror on the part of Bridget’s mother at hearing of Elvira’s narrow escape from death, Bridget said, “You know it’s time for that committee meeting, Mum. You said it was very important.”
“Oh dear, dear,” said Bridget’s mother.
“You know they’ll get into a frightful mess without you, Mummy.”
“Oh they will, they certainly will. But perhaps I ought—”
“Now that’s quite all right, Madam,” said Chief-Inspector Davy, putting on his kindly old father look. “You don’t want to worry. Just you get off. I’ve finished all the important things. You’ve told me really everything I wanted to know. I’ve just one or two routine inquiries about people in Italy which I think your daughter, Miss Bridget, might be able to help me with.”
“Well, if you think you can manage, Bridget—”
“Oh, I can manage, Mummy,” said Bridget.
Finally, with a great deal of fuss, Bridget’s mother went off to her committee.
“Oh, dear,” said Bridget, sighing, as she came back after closing the front door. “Really! I do think mothers are difficult.”
“So they tell me,” said Chief-Inspector Davy. “A lot of young ladies I come across have a lot of trouble with their mothers.”
“I’d have thought you’d put it the other way round,” said Bridget.
“Oh I do, I do,” said Davy. “But that’s not how the young ladies see it. Now you can tell me a little more.”
“I couldn’t really speak frankly in front of Mummy,” explained Bridget. “But I do feel, of course, that it is really important that you should know as much as possible about all this. I do know Elvira was terribly worried about something and afraid. She wouldn’t exactly admit she was in danger, but she was.”
“I thought that might have been so. Of course I didn’t like to ask you too much in front of your mother.”
“Oh no,” said Bridget, “we don’t want Mummy to hear about it. She gets in such a frightful state about things and she’d go and tell everyone. I mean, if Elvira doesn’t want things like this to be known….”
“First of all,” said Chief-Inspector Davy, “I want to know about a box of chocolates in Italy. I gather there was some idea that a box was sent to her which might have been poisoned.”
Bridget’s eyes opened wide. “Poisoned,” she said. “Oh no. I don’t think so. At least….”
“There was something?”
“Oh yes. A box of chocolates came and Elvira did eat a lot of them and she was rather sick that night. Quite ill.”
“But she didn’t suspect poison?”
“No. At least—oh yes, she did say that someone was trying to poison one of us and we looked at the chocolates to see, you know, if anything had been injected into them.”
“And had it?”
“No, it hadn’t,” said Bridget. “At least, not as far as we could see.”
“But perhaps your friend, Miss Elvira, might still have thought so?”
“Well, she might—but she didn’t say anymore.”
“But you think she was afraid of someone?”
“I didn’t think so at the time or notice anything. It was only here, later.”
“What about this man, Guido?