At Bertram's Hotel - Agatha Christie [73]
“Do you know, Mr. Malinowski, that this is the pistol which was used to shoot Michael Gorman on the night of November 26th?”
“Michael Gorman? I do not know a Michael Gorman.”
“The commissionaire from Bertram’s Hotel.”
“Ah yes, the one who was shot. I read about it. And you say my pistol shot him? Nonsense!”
“It’s not nonsense. The ballistic experts have examined it. You know enough of firearms to be aware that their evidence is reliable.”
“You are trying to frame me. I know what you police do!”
“I think you know the police of this country better than that, Mr. Malinowski.”
“Are you suggesting that I shot Michael Gorman?”
“So far we are only asking for a statement. No charge has been made.”
“But that is what you think—that I shot that ridiculous dressed-up military figure. Why should I? I didn’t owe him money, I had no grudge against him.”
“It was a young lady who was shot at. Gorman ran to protect her and received the second bullet in his chest.”
“A young lady?”
“A young lady whom I think you know. Miss Elvira Blake.”
“Do you say someone tried to shoot Elvira with my pistol?”
He sounded incredulous.
“It could be that you had had a disagreement.”
“You mean that I quarrelled with Elvira and shot her? What madness! Why should I shoot the girl I am going to marry?”
“Is that part of your statement? That you are going to marry Miss Elvira Blake?”
Just for a moment or two Ladislaus hesitated. Then he said, shrugging his shoulders:
“She is still very young. It remains to be discussed.”
“Perhaps she had promised to marry you, and then—she changed her mind. There was someone she was afraid of. Was it you, Mr. Malinowski?”
“Why should I want her to die? Either I am in love with her and want to marry her or if I do not want to marry her I need not marry her. It is as simple as that. So why should I kill her?”
“There aren’t many people close enough to her to want to kill her.” Davy waited a moment and then said, almost casually: “There’s her mother, of course.”
“What!” Malinowski sprang up. “Bess? Bess kill her own daughter? You are mad! Why should Bess kill Elvira?”
“Possibly because, as next of kin, she might inherit an enormous fortune.”
“Bess? You mean Bess would kill for money? She has plenty of money from her American husband. Enough, anyway.”
“Enough is not the same as a great fortune,” said Father. “People do do murder for a large fortune, mothers have been known to kill their children, and children have killed their mothers.”
“I tell you, you are mad!”
“You say that you may be going to marry Miss Blake. Perhaps you have already married her? If so, then you would be the one to inherit a vast fortune.”
“What more crazy, stupid things can you say! No, I am not married to Elvira. She is a pretty girl. I like her, and she is in love with me. Yes, I admit it. I met her in Italy. We had fun—but that is all. No more, do you understand?”
“Indeed? Just now, Mr. Malinowski, you said quite definitely that she was the girl you were going to marry.”
“Oh that.”
“Yes—that. Was it true?”
“I said it because—it sounded more respectable that way. You are so—prudish in this country—”
“That seems to me an unlikely explanation.”
“You do not understand anything at all. The mother and I—we are lovers—I did not wish to say so—I suggest instead that the daughter and I—we are engaged to be married. That sounds very English and proper.”
“It sounds to me even more far-fetched. You’re rather badly in need of money, aren’t you, Mr. Malinowski?”
“My dear Chief-Inspector, I am always in need of money. It is very sad.”
“And yet a few months ago I understand you were flinging money about in a very carefree way.”
“Ah. I had had a lucky flutter. I am a gambler. I admit it.”
“I find that quite easy to believe. Where did you have this ‘flutter’?”
“That I do not tell. You can hardly expect it.”
“I don’t expect it.”
“Is that all you have to ask me?”
“For the moment, yes. You have identified the pistol as