Body in the Library - Agatha Christie [15]
“Oh!” Josie shuddered. But she also looked perplexed. She said, her brow creased: “I just can’t understand it! I can’t!”
“Well, we certainly can’t,” said Mrs. Bantry.
Josie said slowly:
“It isn’t the sort of place—” and broke off.
Miss Marple nodded her head gently in agreement with the unfinished sentiment.
“That,” she murmured, “is what makes it so very interesting.”
“Come now, Miss Marple,” said Colonel Melchett goodhumouredly, “haven’t you got an explanation?”
“Oh yes, I’ve got an explanation,” said Miss Marple. “Quite a feasible one. But of course it’s only my own idea. Tommy Bond,” she continued, “and Mrs. Martin, our new schoolmistress. She went to wind up the clock and a frog jumped out.”
Josephine Turner looked puzzled. As they all went out of the room she murmured to Mrs. Bantry: “Is the old lady a bit funny in the head?”
“Not at all,” said Mrs. Bantry indignantly.
Josie said: “Sorry; I thought perhaps she thought she was a frog or something.”
Colonel Bantry was just coming in through the side door. Melchett hailed him, and watched Josephine Turner as he introduced them to each other. But there was no sign of interest or recognition in her face. Melchett breathed a sigh of relief. Curse Slack and his insinuations!
In answer to Mrs. Bantry’s questions Josie was pouring out the story of Ruby Keene’s disappearance.
“Frightfully worrying for you, my dear,” said Mrs. Bantry.
“I was more angry than worried,” said Josie. “You see, I didn’t know then that anything had happened to her.”
“And yet,” said Miss Marple, “you went to the police. Wasn’t that—excuse me—rather premature?”
Josie said eagerly:
“Oh, but I didn’t. That was Mr. Jefferson—”
Mrs. Bantry said: “Jefferson?”
“Yes, he’s an invalid.”
“Not Conway Jefferson? But I know him well. He’s an old friend of ours. Arthur, listen—Conway Jefferson. He’s staying at the Majestic, and it was he who went to the police! Isn’t that a coincidence?”
Josephine Turner said:
“Mr. Jefferson was here last summer too.”
“Fancy! And we never knew. I haven’t seen him for a long time.” She turned to Josie. “How—how is he, nowadays?”
Josie considered.
“I think he’s wonderful, really—quite wonderful. Considering, I mean. He’s always cheerful—always got a joke.”
“Are the family there with him?”
“Mr. Gaskell, you mean? And young Mrs. Jefferson? And Peter? Oh, yes.”
There was something inhibiting Josephine Turner’s usual attractive frankness of manner. When she spoke of the Jeffersons there was something not quite natural in her voice.
Mrs. Bantry said: “They’re both very nice, aren’t they? The young ones, I mean.”
Josie said rather uncertainly:
“Oh yes—yes, they are. I—we—yes, they are, really.”
V
“And what,” demanded Mrs. Bantry as she looked through the window at the retreating car of the Chief Constable, “did she mean by that? ‘They are, really.’ Don’t you think, Jane, that there’s something—”
Miss Marple fell upon the words eagerly.
“Oh, I do—indeed I do. It’s quite unmistakable! Her manner changed at once when the Jeffersons were mentioned. She had seemed quite natural up to then.”
“But what do you think it is, Jane?”
“Well, my dear, you know them. All I feel is that there is something, as you say, about them which is worrying that young woman. Another thing, did you notice that when you asked her if she wasn’t anxious about the girl being missing, she said that she was angry! And she looked angry—really angry! That strikes me as interesting, you know. I have a feeling—perhaps I’m wrong—that that’s her main reaction to the fact of the girl’s death. She didn’t care for her, I’m sure. She’s not grieving in any way. But I do think, very definitely, that the thought of that girl, Ruby Keene, makes her angry. And the interesting point is—why?”
“We’ll find out!” said Mrs. Bantry. “We’ll go over to Danemouth and stay at the Majestic—yes, Jane, you too. I need a change for my nerves after what has happened here. A few days at the Majestic—that’s what we need. And you’ll meet Conway Jefferson. He’s a