Nemesis - Agatha Christie [74]
‘Were the police worried about her when she disappeared?’
‘Yes. You see, she didn’t leave no word behind. She just went out one night and didn’t come back. She was seen getting into a car and nobody saw the car again and nobody saw her. Just at that time there’d been a good many murders, you know. Not specially round here, but all over the country. The police, they were rounding up a lot of young men and boys. Thought as Nora might be a body at the time we did. But not she. She was all right. I’d say as likely as not she’s making a bit of money still in London or one of these big towns doing a strip-tease, something of that kind. That’s the kind she was.’
‘I don’t think,’ said Miss Marple, ‘that if it’s the same person, that she’d be very suitable for my friend.’
‘She’d have to change a bit if she was to be suitable,’ said the girl.
Chapter 18
Archdeacon Brabazon
When Miss Marple, slightly out of breath and rather tired, got back to the Golden Boar, the receptionist came out from her pen and across to greet her.
‘Oh, Miss Marple, there is someone here who wants to speak to you. Archdeacon Brabazon.’
‘Archdeacon Brabazon?’ Miss Marple looked puzzled.
‘Yes. He’s been trying to find you. He had heard you were with this tour and he wanted to talk to you before you might have left or gone to London. I told him that some of them were going back to London by the later train this afternoon, but he is very, very anxious to speak to you before you go. I have put him in the television lounge. It is quieter there. The other is very noisy just at this moment.’
Slightly surprised, Miss Marple went to the room indicated. Archdeacon Brabazon turned out to be the elderly cleric whom she had noticed at the memorial service. He rose and came towards her.
‘Miss Marple. Miss Jane Marple?’
‘Yes, that is my name. You wanted — ’
‘I am Archdeacon Brabazon. I came here this morning to attend the service for a very old friend of mine, Miss Elizabeth Temple.’
‘Oh yes?’ said Miss Marple. ‘Do sit down.’
‘Thank you, I will, I am not quite as strong as I was.’ He lowered himself carefully into a chair.
‘And you — ’
Miss Marple sat down beside him.
‘Yes,’ she said, ‘you wanted to see me?’
‘Well, I must explain how that comes about. I’m quite aware that I am a complete stranger to you. As a matter of fact I made a short visit to the hospital at Carristown, talking to the matron before going on to the church here. It was she who told me that before she died Elizabeth had asked to see a fellow member of the tour. Miss Jane Marple. And that Miss Jane Marple had visited her and sat with her just a very, very short time before Elizabeth died.’
He looked at her anxiously.
‘Yes,’ said Miss Marple, ‘that is so. It surprised me to be sent for.’
‘You are an old friend of hers?’
‘No,’ said Miss Marple. ‘I only met her on this tour. That’s why I was surprised. We had expressed ideas to each other, occasionally sat next to each other in the coach, and had struck up quite an acquaintanceship. But I was surprised that she should have expressed a wish to see me when she was so ill.’
‘Yes. Yes, I can quite imagine that. She was, as I have said, a very old friend of mine. In fact, she was coming to see me, to visit me. I live in Fillminster, which is where your coach tour will be stopping the day after tomorrow. And by arrangement she was coming to visit me there, she wanted to talk to me about various matters about which she thought I could help her.’
‘I see,’ said Miss Marple. ‘May I ask you a question? I hope it is not too intimate a question.’
‘Of course, Miss Marple. Ask me anything you like.’
‘One of the things Miss Temple said to me was that her presence on the tour was not merely because she wished to visit historic homes and gardens. She described it by a rather unusual word to use, as a pilgrimage.’
‘Did she,’ said Archdeacon Brabazon. ‘Did she indeed now? Yes, that’s interesting. Interesting and perhaps significant.’
‘So what I am asking you is, do you think that the pilgrimage she spoke of was her visit to you?