Nemesis - Agatha Christie [46]
‘Possibly.’
‘There are other people here too who are interested in gardens.’
‘Or profess to be interested in gardens.’
‘Ah,’ said Professor Wanstead. ‘You have noticed that.’
He went on. ‘Well, it was my part, or at any rate to begin with, to observe you, to watch what you were doing, to be near at hand in case there was any possibility of — well, we might call it roughly — dirty work of any kind. But things are slightly altered now. You must make up your mind if I am your enemy or your ally.’
‘Perhaps you are right,’ said Miss Marple. ‘You put it very clearly but you have not given me any information about yourself yet on which to judge. You were a friend, I presume, of the late Mr Rafiel?’
‘No,’ said Professor Wanstead, ‘I was not a friend of Mr Rafiel. I had met him once or twice. Once on a committee of a hospital, once at some other public event. I knew about him. He, I gather, also knew about me. If I say to you, Miss Marple, that I am a man of some eminence in my own profession, you may think me a man of bounding conceit.’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Miss Marple. ‘I should say, if you say that about yourself, that you are probably speaking the truth. You are, perhaps, a medical man.’
‘Ah. You are perceptive, Miss Marple. Yes, you are quite perceptive. I have a medical degree, but I have a speciality too. I am a pathologist and psychologist. I don’t carry credentials about with me. You will probably have to take my word up to a certain point, though I can show you letters addressed to me, and possibly official documents that might convince you. I undertake mainly specialist work in connection with medical jurisprudence. To put it in perfectly plain everyday language, I am interested in the different types of criminal brain. That has been a study of mine for many years. I have written books on the subject, some of them violently disputed, some of them which have attracted adherence to my ideas. I do not do very arduous work nowadays, I spend my time mainly writing up my subject, stressing certain points that have appealed to me. From time to time I come across things that strike me as interesting. Things that I want to study more closely. This I am afraid must seem rather tedious to you.’
‘Not at all,’ said Miss Marple. ‘I am hoping perhaps, from what you are saying now, that you will be able to explain to me certain things which Mr Rafiel did not see fit to explain to me. He asked me to embark upon a certain project but he gave me no useful information on which to work. He left me to accept it and proceed, as it were, completely in the dark. It seemed to me extremely foolish of him to treat the matter in that way.’
‘But you accepted it?’
‘I accepted it. I will be quite honest with you. I had a financial incentive.’
‘Did that weigh with you?’
Miss Marple was silent for a moment and then she said slowly,
‘You may not believe it, but my answer to that is, “Not really”.’
‘I am not surprised. But your interest was aroused. That is what you are trying to tell me.’
‘Yes. My interest was aroused. I had known Mr Rafiel not well, casually, but for a certain period of time — some weeks in fact — in the West Indies. I see you know about it, more or less.’
‘I know that that was where Mr Rafiel met you and where — shall I say — you two collaborated.’
Miss Marple looked at him rather doubtfully. ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘he said that, did he?’ She shook her head.
‘Yes, he did,’ said Professor Wanstead. ‘He said you had a remarkable flair for criminal matters.’
Miss Marple raised her eyebrows as she looked at him.
‘And I suppose that seems to you most unlikely,’ she said. ‘It surprises you.’
‘I seldom allow myself to be surprised at what happens,’ said Professor Wanstead. ‘Mr Rafiel was a very shrewd and astute man, a good judge of people. He thought that you, too, were a good judge of people.