Elephants Can Remember - Agatha Christie [15]
Mrs Oliver said that anything was possible and thanked Mrs X very much and wrote it down.
‘So difficult, isn’t it, trying to find people’s addresses. They do send them to you usually. You know, a sort of postcard or something of that kind. Personally I always seem to lose it.’
Mrs Oliver said that she herself also suffered in this respect. She tried the Islington number. A heavy, foreign voice replied to her.
‘You want, yes – you tell me what? Yes, who live here?’
‘Miss Celia Ravenscroft?’ ‘Oh yes, that is very true. Yes, yes she lives here. She has a room on the second floor. She is out now and she not come home.’
‘Will she be in later this evening?’
‘Oh, she be home very soon now, I think, because she come home to dress for party and go out.’
Mrs Oliver thanked her for the information and rang off.
‘Really,’ said Mrs Oliver to herself, with some annoyance, ‘girls!’
She tried to think how long it was since she had last seen her goddaughter, Celia. One lost touch. That was the whole point. Celia, she thought, was in London now. If her boyfriend was in London, or if the mother of her boyfriend was in London – all of it went together. Oh dear, thought Mrs Oliver, this really makes my head ache. ‘Yes, Miss Livingstone?’ she turned her head.
Miss Livingstone, looking rather unlike herself and decorated with a good many cobwebs and a general coating of dust, stood looking annoyed in the doorway holding a pile of dusty volumes.
‘I don’t know whether any of these things will be any use to you, Mrs Oliver. They seem to go back for a great many years.’ She was disapproving.
‘Bound to,’ said Mrs Oliver.
‘I don’t know if there’s anything particular you want me to search for.’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Mrs Oliver, ‘if you’ll just put them on the corner of the sofa there I can look at them this evening.’
Miss Livingstone, looking more disapproving every moment, said, ‘Very good, Mrs Oliver. I think I will just dust them first.’
‘That will be very kind of you,’ said Mrs Oliver, just stopping herself in time from saying – ‘and for goodness’ sake dust yourself as well. You’ve got six cobwebs in your left ear.’
She glanced at her watch and rang the Islington number again. The voice that answered this time was purely Anglo-Saxon and had a crisp sharpness about it that Mrs Oliver felt was rather satisfactory.
‘Miss Ravenscroft? – Celia Ravenscroft?’
‘Yes, this is Celia Ravenscroft.’
‘Well, I don’t expect you’ll remember me very well. I’m Mrs Oliver. Ariadne Oliver. We haven’t seen each other for a long time, but actually I’m your godmother.’
‘Oh yes, of course. I know that. No, we haven’t seen each other for a long time.’
‘I wonder very much if I could see you, if you could come and see me, or whatever you like. Would you like to come to a meal or . . .’
‘Well, it’s rather difficult at present, where I’m working. I could come round this evening, if you like. About half past seven or eight. I’ve got a date later but . . .’
‘If you do that I shall be very, very pleased,’ said Mrs Oliver.
‘Well, of course I will.’
‘I’ll give you the address.’ Mrs Oliver gave it.
‘Good. I’ll be there. Yes, I know where that is, quite well.’
Mrs Oliver made a brief note on the telephone pad, and looked with some annoyance at Miss Livingstone, who had just come into the room struggling under the weight of a large album.
‘I wondered if this could possibly be it, Mrs Oliver?’
‘No, it couldn’t,’ said Mrs Oliver. ‘That’s got cookery recipes in it.’
‘Oh dear,’ said Miss Livingstone, ‘so it has.’
‘Well, I might as well look at some of them anyway,’ said Mrs Oliver, removing the volume firmly. ‘Go and have another look. You know, I’ve thought about the linen cupboard. Next door to the bathroom. You’d have to look on the top shelf above the bath towels. I do sometimes stick papers and books in there. Wait a minute. I’ll come up and look myself.’
Ten minutes later Mrs Oliver was looking through the pages of a faded album. Miss Livingstone, having entered her final stage of martyrdom, was standing by the door.