Murder Is Easy - Agatha Christie [49]
“Now the others. Amy Gibbs. Why did Ellsworthy kill Amy Gibbs? The obvious reason—she was being a nuisance! Threatened an action for breach of promise, perhaps? Or had she assisted at a midnight orgy? Did she threaten to talk? Lord Whitfield has a good deal of influence in Wychwood and Lord Whitfield, according to Bridget, is a very moral man. He might have taken up the matter against Ellsworthy if the latter had been up to anything particularly obscene. So—exit Amy. Not, I think, a sadistic murder. The method employed is against that.
“Who’s next—Carter? Why Carter? Unlikely he would know about midnight orgies (or did Amy tell him?). Was the pretty daughter mixed up in it? Did Ellsworthy start making love to her? (Must have a look at Lucy Carter.) Perhaps he was just abusive to Ellsworthy, and Ellsworthy in his catlike feline way, resented it. If he’d already committed one or two murders he would be getting sufficiently callous to contemplate a killing for a very slight reason.
“Now Tommy Pierce. Why did Ellsworthy kill Tommy Pierce? Easy. Tommy had assisted at a midnight ritual of some kind. Tommy threatened to talk about it. Perhaps Tommy was talking about it. Shut Tommy’s mouth.
“Dr. Humbleby. Why did Ellsworthy kill Dr. Humbleby? That’s the easiest of the lot! Humbleby was a doctor and he’d noticed that Ellsworthy’s mental balance was none too good. Probably was getting ready to do something about it. So Humbleby was doomed. There’s a stumbling block there in the method. How did Ellsworthy ensure that Humbleby should die of blood poisoning? Or did Humbleby die of something else? Was the poisoned finger a coincidence?
“Last of all, Miss Pinkerton. Wednesday’s early closing. Ellsworthy might have gone up to town that day. Has he a car, I wonder? Never seen him in one, but that proves nothing. He knew she’d suspected him and he was going to take no chances of Scotland Yard believing her story. Perhaps they already knew something about him then?
“That’s the case against Ellsworthy! Now what is there for him? Well, for one thing, he’s certainly not the man Miss Waynflete thought Miss Pinkerton meant. For another, he doesn’t fit—quite—with my own vague impression. When she was talking I got a picture of a man—and it wasn’t a man like Ellsworthy. The impression she gave me was of a very normal man—outwardly, that is—the kind of man nobody would suspect. Ellsworthy is the kind of man you would suspect. No, I got more the impression of a man like—Dr. Thomas.
“Thomas, now. What about Thomas? I wiped him clean off the list after I’d had a chat with him. Nice unassuming fellow. But the whole point of this murderer—unless I’ve got the whole thing wrong—is that he would be a nice unassuming fellow. The last person you’d think ever would be a murderer! Which, of course, is exactly what one feels about Thomas.
“Now then, let’s go through it all again. Why did Dr. Thomas kill Amy Gibbs? Really, it seems most unlikely that he did! But she did go to see him that day, and he did give her that bottle of cough mixture. Suppose that was really oxalic acid. That would be very simple and clever! Who was called in, I wonder, when she was found poisoned—Humbleby or Thomas? If it was Thomas he might just come along with an old bottle of hat paint in his pocket, put it down unobtrusively on the table—and take off both bottles to be analysed as bold as brass! Something like that. It could be done if you were cool enough!
“Tommy Pierce? Again I can’t see a likely motive. That’s the difficulty with our Dr. Thomas—motive. There’s not even a crazy motive! Same with Carter. Why should Dr. Thomas want to dispose of Carter? One can only assume that Amy, Tommy and the publican all knew something about Dr. Thomas that it was unhealthy to know. Ah! Supposing now that that something was the death of Mrs. Horton. Dr. Thomas attended her. And she died of a rather unexpected