Evil Under the Sun - Agatha Christie [70]
“It was crude, childish, superstitious, but it revealed one thing: the desire to kill.
“Was there any possibility that there had been more than a desire? Could Linda Marshall have actually killed her stepmother?
“At first sight it seemed as though she had a perfect alibi—but in actuality, as I have just pointed out, the time evidence was supplied by Linda herself. She could easily have declared the time to be a quarter of an hour later than it really was.
“It was quite possible once Mrs. Redfern had left the beach for Linda to follow her up and then strike across the narrow neck of land to the ladder, hurry down it, meet her stepmother there, strangle her and return up the ladder before the boat containing Miss Brewster and Patrick Redfern came in sight. She could then return to Gull Cove, take her bathe and return to the hotel at her leisure.
“But that entailed two things. She must have definite knowledge that Arlena Marshall would be at Pixy Cove and she must be physically capable of the deed.
“Well, the first was quite possible—if Linda Marshall had written a note to Arlena herself in someone else’s name. As to the second, Linda has very large strong hands. They are as large as a man’s. As to the strength, she is at the age when one is prone to be mentally unbalanced. Mental derangement often is accompanied by unusual strength. There was one other small point. Linda Marshall’s mother had actually been accused and tried for murder.”
Kenneth Marshall lifted his head. He said fiercely: “She was also acquitted.”
“She was acquitted,” Poirot agreed.
Marshall said:
“And I’ll tell you this, M. Poirot. Ruth—my wife—was innocent. That I know with complete and absolute certainty. In the intimacy of our life I could not have been deceived. She was an innocent victim of circumstances.”
He paused.
“And I don’t believe that Linda killed Arlena. It’s ridiculous—absurd!”
Poirot said:
“Do you believe that letter, then, to be a forgery?”
Marshall held out his hand for it and Weston gave it to him. Marshall studied it attentively. Then he shook his head.
“No,” he said unwillingly. “I believe Linda did write this.”
Poirot said:
“Then if she wrote it, there are only two explanations. Either she wrote it in all good faith, knowing herself to be the murderess or—or, I say—she wrote it deliberately to shield someone else, someone whom she feared was suspected.”
Kenneth Marshall said:
“You mean me?”
“It is possible, is it not?”
Marshall considered for a moment or two, then he said quietly:
“No, I think that idea is absurd. Linda may have realized that I was regarded with suspicion at first. But she knew definitely by now that that was over and done with—that the police had accepted my alibi and turned their attention elsewhere.”
Poirot said:
“And supposing that it was not so much that she thought that you were suspected as that she knew you were guilty.”
Marshall stared at him. He gave a short laugh.
“That’s absurd.”
Poirot said:
“I wonder. There are, you know, several possibilities about Mrs. Marshall’s death. There is the theory that she was being blackmailed, that she went that morning to meet the blackmailer and that the blackmailer killed her. There is the theory that Pixy Cove and Cave were being used for drug running, and that she was killed because she accidentally learned something about that. There is a third possibility—that she was killed by a religious maniac. And there is a fourth possibility—you stood to gain a lot of money by your wife’s death, Captain Marshall?”
“I’ve just told