Five Little Pigs - Agatha Christie [61]
I said: “But you know, Caroline, you know—that Amyas is really devoted to you?”
She said to that: “Does one ever know with men?” And then she laughed a little ruefully and said: “I’m a very primitive woman, Merry. I’d like to take a hatchet to that girl.”
I told her that the child probably didn’t understand in the least what she was doing. She had a great admiration and hero worship for Amyas, and she probably didn’t realize at all that Amyas was falling in love with her.
Caroline just said to me:
“Dear Merry!” and began to talk about the garden. I hoped that she was not going to worry any more about the matter.
Shortly afterwards, Elsa went back to London. Amyas was away too for several weeks. I had really forgotten all about the business. And then I heard that Elsa was back again at Alderbury in order that Amyas might finish the picture.
I was a little disturbed by the news. But Caroline, when I saw her, was not in a communicative mood. She seemed quite her usual self—not worried or upset in any way. I imagined that everything was all right.
That’s why it was such a shock to me to learn how far the thing had gone.
I have told you of my conversations with Crale and with Elsa. I had no opportunity of talking to Caroline. We were only able to exchange those few words about which I have already told you.
I can see her face now, the wide dark eyes and the restrained emotion. I can still hear her voice as she said:
“Everything’s finished….”
I can’t describe to you the infinite desolation she conveyed in those words. They were a literal statement of truth. With Amyas’s defection, everything was finished for her. That, I am convinced, was why she took the coniine. It was a way out. A way suggested to her by my stupid dissertation on the drug. And the passage I read from the Phaedo gives a gracious picture of death.
Here is my present belief. She took the coniine, resolved to end her own life when Amyas left her. He may have seen her take it—or he may have discovered that she had it later.
That discovery acted upon him with terrific force. He was horrified at what his actions had led her to contemplate. But notwithstanding his horror and remorse, he still felt himself incapable of giving up Elsa. I can understand that. Anyone who had fallen in love with her would find it almost impossible to tear himself away.
He could not envisage life without Elsa. He realized that Caroline could not live without him. He decided there was only one way out—to use the coniine himself.
And the manner in which he did it might be characteristic of the man, I think. His painting was the dearest thing in life to him. He chose to die literally with his brush in his hand. And the last thing his eyes would see was the face of the girl he loved so desperately. He might have thought, too, that his death would be the best thing for her….
I admit that this theory leaves certain curious facts unexplained. Why, for instance, were only Caroline’s fingerprints found on the empty coniine bottle. I suggest that after Amyas had handled it, all prints got smudged or rubbed off by the soft piles of stuffs that were lying over the bottle and that, after his death, Caroline handled it to see if anyone had touched it. Surely that is possible and plausible? As to the evidence about the fingerprints on the beer bottle, the witnesses for the defence were of opinion that a man’s hand might be distorted after taking poison and so could manage to grasp a beer bottle in a wholly unnatural way.
One other thing remains to be explained. Caroline’s own attitude throughout the trial. But I think I have now seen the cause for that. It was she who actually took the poison from my laboratory. It was her determination to do away with herself that impelled her husband to take his own life instead. Surely it is not unreasonable to suppose that in a morbid excess of responsibility she considered herself responsible for his