Mrs McGinty's Dead - Agatha Christie [78]
Really, thought Poirot, one might as well let him be hanged since he does not seem to care…
No, he would not go quite as far as that.
Superintendent Spence’s voice broke into these reflections.
‘Our interview,’ said Poirot, ‘was, if I might say so, singularly unproductive. Anything useful that Bentley might have remembered he did not remember—what he did remember is so vague and uncertain that one cannot build upon it. But at any rate it seems fairly certain that Mrs McGinty was excited by the article in the Sunday Comet and spoke about it to Bentley with special reference to “someone connected with the case,” living in Broadhinny.’
‘With which case?’ asked Superintendent Spence sharply.
‘Our friend could not be sure,’ said Poirot. ‘He said, rather doubtfully, the Craig case—but the Craig case being the only one he had ever heard of, it would, presumably, be the only one he could remember. But the “someone” was a woman. He even quoted Mrs McGinty’s words. Someone who had “not so much to be proud of if all’s known.”’
‘Proud?’
‘Mais oui,’ Poirot nodded his appreciation. ‘A suggestive word, is it not?’
‘No clue as to who the proud lady was?’
‘Bentley suggested Mrs Upward—but as far as I can see for no real reason!’
Spence shook his head.
‘Probably because she was a proud masterful sort of woman—outstandingly so, I should say. But it couldn’t have been Mrs Upward, because Mrs Upward’s dead, and dead for the same reason as Mrs McGinty died—because she recognized a photograph.’
Poirot said sadly: ‘I warned her.’
Spence murmured irritably:
‘Lily Gamboll! So far as age goes, there are only two possibilities, Mrs Rendell and Mrs Carpenter. I don’t count the Henderson girl—she’s got a background.’
‘And the others have not?’
Spence sighed.
‘You know what things are nowadays. The war stirred up everyone and everything. The approved school where Lily Gamboll was, and all its records, were destroyed by a direct hit. Then take people. It’s the hardest thing in the world to check on people. Take Broadhinny—the only people in Broadhinny we know anything about are the Summerhayes family, who have been there for three hundred years, and Guy Carpenter, who’s one of the engineering Carpenters. All the others are—what shall I say—fluid? Dr Rendell’s on the Medical Register and we know where he trained and where he’s practised, but we don’t know his home background. His wife came from near Dublin. Eve Selkirk, as she was before she married Guy Carpenter, was a pretty young war widow. Anyone can be a pretty young war widow. Take the Wetherbys—they seem to have floated round the world, here, there and everywhere. Why? Is there a reason? Did he embezzle from a bank? Or did they occasion a scandal? I don’t say we can’t dig up about people. We can—but it takes time. The people themselves won’t help you.’
‘Because they have something to conceal—but it need not be murder,’ said Poirot.
‘Exactly. It may be trouble with the law, or it may be a humble origin, or it may be common or garden scandal. But whatever it is, they’ve taken a lot of pains to cover up—and that makes it difficult to uncover.’
‘But not impossible.’
‘Oh no. Not impossible. It just takes time. As I say, if Lily Gamboll is in Broadhinny, she’s either Eve Carpenter or Shelagh Rendell. I’ve questioned them—just routine—that’s the way I put it. They say they were both at home—alone. Mrs Carpenter was the wide-eyed innocent, Mrs Rendell was nervous—but then she’s a nervous type, you can’t go by that.’
‘Yes,’ said Poirot thoughtfully. ‘She is a nervous type.’
He was thinking of Mrs Rendell in the garden at Long Meadows. Mrs Rendell had received an anonymous letter, or so she said. He wondered, as he had wondered before, about that statement.
Spence went on:
‘And we have to be careful—because even if one of them is guilty, the other is innocent.’
‘And Guy Carpenter is a prospective Member of Parliament and an important local figure.’
‘That wouldn’t help him if he was guilty of murder or accessory