Death Comes as End - Agatha Christie [57]
‘What does Hori know about you, Henet?’
‘Nothing–nothing at all. You’d better ask what do I know about him?’
Esa’s eyes grew sharp.
‘Well, what do you know?’
Henet tossed her head.
‘Ah, you all despise poor Henet! You think she’s ugly and stupid. But I know what’s going on! There are a lot of things I know–indeed there’s not much I don’t know of what goes on in this house. I may be stupid, but I can count how many beans are planted to a row. Maybe I see more than clever people like Hori do. When Hori meets me anywhere he has a trick of looking as though I didn’t exist, as though he saw something behind me, something that isn’t there. He’d better look at me, that’s what I say! He may think me negligible and stupid–but it’s not always the clever ones who know everything. Satipy thought she was clever, and where is she now, I should like to know?’
Henet paused triumphantly–then a qualm seemed to pass over her, and she visibly cringed a little, glancing nervously at Esa.
But Esa seemed lost in some train of thought of her own. She had a shocked, almost frightened look of bewilderment on her face. She said slowly and musingly:
‘Satipy…’
Henet said in her old whining tone:
‘I’m sorry, Esa, I’m sure, for losing my temper. Really, I don’t know what came over me. I didn’t mean anything of what I’ve been saying…’
Looking up, Esa cut her short.
‘Go away, Henet. Whether you meant what you said, or did not mean what you said does not really matter. But you have uttered one phrase which has awakened new thoughts in my mind…Go, Henet, and I warn you–Be careful of your words and actions. We want no more deaths in this house. I hope you understand.’
IV
Everything is fear…
Renisenb had found those words rising to her lips automatically during the consulation by the lake. It was only afterwards that she began to realize their truth.
She set out mechanically to join Kait and the children where they were clustered by the little pavilion, but found that her footsteps lagged and then ceased as if of their own volition.
She was afraid, she found, to join Kait, to look into that plain and placid face, in case she might fancy she saw there the face of a poisoner. She watched Henet bustle out on the porch and back again and her usual sense of repulsion was, she found, heightened. Desperately she turned towards the doorway of the courtyard, and a moment later encountered Ipy striding in, his head held high and a gay smile on his impudent face.
Renisenb found herself staring at him. Ipy, the spoilt child of the family, the handsome, wilful little boy she remembered when she had gone away with Khay…
‘Why, Renisenb, what is it? Why are you looking at me so strangely?’
‘Was I?’
Ipy laughed.
‘You are looking as half-witted as Henet.’
Renisenb shook her head.
‘Henet is not half-witted. She is very astute.’
‘She has plenty of malice, that I know. In fact she’s a nuisance about the house. I mean to get rid of her.’
Renisenb’s lips opened and closed. She whispered, ‘Get rid of her?’
‘My dear sister, what is the matter with you? Have you, too, been seeing evil spirits like that miserable, half-witted black child?’
‘You think everyone is half-witted!’
‘That child certainly was. Well, it’s true I’m inclined to be impatient of stupidity. I’ve had too much of it. It’s no fun, I can tell you, being plagued with two slow-going elder brothers who can’t see beyond their own noses! Now that they are out of the way, and there is only my father to deal with, you will soon see the difference. My father will do what I say.’
Renisenb looked up at him. He looked unusually handsome and arrogant. There was a vitality about him, a sense of triumphant life and vigour, that struck her as above the normal. Some inner consciousness seemed to be affording him this vital sense of well-being.
Renisenb said sharply:
‘My brothers are not both out of the way, as you