Listerdale Mystery - Agatha Christie [32]
‘Naturally. But I can’t tell you anything–can I, William? I was asleep–on my bed–I only woke up when Martha screamed.’
Her hands continued to twitch.
‘Where is your room, Mrs Crabtree?’
‘It’s over this. But I didn’t hear anything–how could I? I was asleep.’
He could get nothing out of her but that. She knew nothing–she had heard nothing–she had been asleep. She reiterated it with the obstinacy of a frightened woman. Yet Sir Edward knew very well that it might easily be–probably was–the bare truth.
He excused himself at last–said he would like to put a few questions to Martha. William Crabtree volunteered to take him to the kitchen. In the hall, Sir Edward nearly collided with a tall dark young man who was striding towards the front door.
‘Mr Matthew Vaughan?’
‘Yes–but look here, I can’t wait. I’ve got an appointment.’
‘Matthew!’ It was his sister’s voice from the stairs. ‘Oh! Matthew, you promised–’
‘I know, sis. But I can’t. Got to meet a fellow. And, anyway, what’s the good of talking about the damned thing over and over again. We have enough of that with the police. I’m fed up with the whole show.’
The front door banged. Mr Matthew Vaughan had made his exit.
Sir Edward was introduced into the kitchen. Martha was ironing. She paused, iron in hand. Sir Edward shut the door behind him.
‘Miss Vaughan has asked me to help her,’ he said. ‘I hope you won’t object to my asking you a few questions.’
She looked at him, then shook her head.
‘None of them did it, sir. I know what you’re thinking, but it isn’t so. As nice a set of ladies and gentlemen as you could wish to see.’
‘I’ve no doubt of it. But their niceness isn’t what we call evidence, you know.’
‘Perhaps not, sir. The law’s a funny thing. But there is evidence–as you call it, sir. None of them could have done it without my knowing.’
‘But surely–’
‘I know what I’m talking about sir. There, listen to that–’
‘That’ was a creaking sound above their heads.
‘The stairs, sir. Every time anyone goes up or down, the stairs creak something awful. It doesn’t matter how quiet you go. Mrs Crabtree, she was lying on her bed, and Mr Crabtree was fiddling about with them wretched stamps of his, and Miss Magdalen she was up above again working her machine, and if any one of those three had come down the stairs I should have known it. And they didn’t!’
She spoke with a positive assurance which impressed the barrister. He thought: ‘A good witness. She’d carry weight.’
‘You mightn’t have noticed.’
‘Yes, I would. I’d have noticed without noticing, so to speak. Like you notice when a door shuts and somebody goes out.’
Sir Edward shifted his ground.
‘That is three of them acounted for, but there is a fourth. Was Mr Matthew Vaughan upstairs also?’
‘No, but he was in the little room downstairs. Next door. And he was typewriting. You can hear it plain in here. His machine never stopped for a moment. Not for a moment, sir, I can swear to it. A nasty irritating tap-tapping noise it is, too.’
Sir Edward paused a minute.
‘It was you who found her, wasn’t it?’
‘Yes, sir, it was. Lying there with blood on her poor hair. And no one hearing a sound on account of the tap-tapping of Mr Matthew’s typewriter.’
‘I understand you are positive that no one came into the house?’
‘How could they, sir, without my knowing? The bell rings in here. And there’s only the one door.’
He looked at her straight in the face.
‘You were attached to Miss Crabtree?’
A warm glow–genuine–unmistakable–came into her face.
‘Yes, indeed, I was, sir. But for Miss Crabtree–well, I’m getting on and I don’t mind speaking of it now. I got into trouble, sir, when I was a girl, and Miss Crabtree stood by me–took me back into her service, she did, when it was all over. I’d have died for her–I would indeed.’
Sir Edward knew sincerity when he heard it. Martha was sincere.
‘As far as you know, no one came to the door–?’
‘No one could have come.’
‘I said as far as you know. But if Miss Crabtree had been expecting someone–if she opened the door to that someone