By the Pricking of My Thumbs - Agatha Christie [79]
‘These dusty-looking things, diamonds?’
Tommy nodded.
‘It’s beginning to make sense now, you see, Tuppence. It ties up. The Canal House. The picture. You wait until Ivor Smith hears about that doll. He’s got a bouquet waiting for you already, Tuppence–’
‘What for?’
‘For helping to round up a big criminal gang!’
‘You and your Ivor Smith! I suppose that’s where you’ve been all this last week, abandoning me in my last days of convalescence in that dreary hospital–just when I wanted brilliant conversation and a lot of cheering up.’
‘I came in visiting hours practically every evening.’
‘You didn’t tell me much.’
‘I was warned by that dragon of a sister not to excite you. But Ivor himself is coming here the day after tomorrow, and we’ve got a little social evening laid on at the vicarage.’
‘Who’s coming?’
‘Mrs Boscowan, one of the big local landowners, your friend Miss Nellie Bligh, the vicar, of course, you and I–’
‘And Mr Ivor Smith–what’s his real name?’
‘As far as I know, it’s Ivor Smith.’
‘You are always so cautious–’ Tuppence laughed suddenly.
‘What’s amusing you?’
‘I was just thinking that I’d like to have seen you and Albert discovering secret drawers in Aunt Ada’s desk.’
‘All the credit goes to Albert. He positively delivered a lecture on the subject. He learnt all about it in his youth from an antique dealer.’
‘Fancy your Aunt Ada really leaving a secret document like that, all done up with seals all over. She didn’t actually know anything, but she was ready to believe there was somebody in Sunny Ridge who was dangerous. I wonder if she knew it was Miss Packard.’
‘That’s only your idea.’
‘It’s a very good idea if its a criminal gang we’re looking for. They’d need a place like Sunny Ridge, respectable and well run, with a competent criminal to run it. Someone properly qualified to have access to drugs whenever she needed them. And by accepting any deaths that occurred as quite natural, it would influence a doctor to think they were quite all right.’
‘You’ve got it all taped out, but actually the real reason you started to suspect Miss Packard was because you didn’t like her teeth–’
‘The better to eat you with,’ said Tuppence meditatively. ‘I’ll tell you something else, Tommy–Supposing this picture–the picture of the Canal House–never belonged to Mrs Lancaster at all–’
‘But we know it did.’ Tommy stared at her.
‘No, we don’t. We only know that Miss Packard said so–It was Miss Packard who said that Mrs Lancaster gave it to Aunt Ada.’
‘But why should–’ Tommy stopped–
‘Perhaps that’s why Mrs Lancaster was taken away–so that she shouldn’t tell us that the picture didn’t belong to her, and that she didn’t give it to Aunt Ada.’
‘I think that’s a very far-fetched idea.’
‘Perhaps–But the picture was painted in Sutton Chancellor–The house in the picture is a house in Sutton Chancellor–We’ve reason to believe that that house is–or was–used as one of their hidey-holes by a criminal association–Mr Eccles is believed to be the man behind this gang. Mr Eccles was the man responsible for sending Mrs Johnson to remove Mrs Lancaster. I don’t believe Mrs Lancaster was ever in Sutton Chancellor, or was ever in the Canal House, or had a picture of it–though I think she heard someone at Sunny Ridge talk about it–Mrs Cocoa perhaps? So she started chattering, and that was dangerous, so she had to be removed. And one day I shall find her! Mark my words, Tommy.’
‘The Quest of Mrs Thomas Beresford.’
II
‘You look remarkably well, if I may say so, Mrs Tommy,’ said Mr Ivor Smith.
‘I’m feeling perfectly well again,’ said Tuppence. ‘Silly of me to let myself get knocked out, I suppose.’
‘You deserve a medal–Especially for this doll business. How you get on to these things, I don’t know!’
‘She’s the perfect terrier,’ said Tommy. ‘Puts her nose down on the trail and off she goes.’
‘You’re not keeping me out of this party tonight,’ said Tuppence suspiciously.
‘Certainly not. A certain amount of things, you know, have been cleared up. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to you two. We were