Nemesis - Agatha Christie [87]
‘Then they found her. A long way from here. About thirty miles away. In a kind of ditchy hedgy spot down an unfrequented lane where anyone hardly ever went. Yes, I had to go and view the body in the mortuary. A terrible sight. The cruelty, the force that had been used. What did he want to do that to her for? Wasn’t it enough that he strangled her? He strangled her with her own scarf. I can’t — I can’t talk about it any more. I can’t bear it, I can’t bear it.’
Tears rained suddenly down her face.
‘I’m sorry for you,’ said Miss Marple. ‘I’m very, very sorry.’
‘I believe you are.’ Clotilde looked at her suddenly. ‘And even you don’t know the worst of it.’
‘In what way?’
‘I don’t know — I don’t know about Anthea.’
‘What do you mean about Anthea?’
‘She was so queer at that time. She was — she was very jealous. She suddenly seemed to turn against Verity. To look at her as though she hated her. Sometimes I thought — I thought perhaps — oh no, it’s an awful thing to think, you can’t think that about your own sister — she did once attack someone. You know, she used to get these storms of rage. I wondered if it could have been — oh, I mustn’t say such things. There’s no question of any such thing. Please forget what I’ve said. There’s nothing in it, nothing at all. But — but — well, she’s not quite normal. I’ve got to face that. When she was quite young queer things happened once or twice — with animals. We had a parrot. A parrot that said things, silly things like parrots do say and she wrung its neck and I’ve never felt the same since. I’ve never felt that I could trust her. I’ve never felt sure. I’ve never felt — oh, goodness, I’m getting hysterical, too.’
‘Come, come,’ said Miss Marple, ‘don’t think of these things.’
‘No. It’s bad enough to know — to know that Verity died. Died in that horrible way. At any rate, other girls are safe from that boy. Life sentence he got. He’s still in prison. They won’t let him out to do anything to anyone else. Though why they couldn’t bring it in as some mental trouble — diminished responsibility — one of these things they use nowadays. He ought to have gone to Broadmoor. I’m sure he wasn’t responsible for anything that he did.’
She got up and went out of the room. Mrs Glynne had come back and passed her sister in the doorway.
‘You mustn’t pay any attention to Clotilde,’ she said. ‘She’s never quite recovered from that ghastly business years ago. She loved Verity very much.’
‘She seems to be worried about your other sister.’
‘About Anthea? Anthea’s all right. She’s — er — well, she’s scatty, you know. She’s a bit — hysterical. Apt to get worked up about things, and she has queer fancies, imagination sometimes. But I don’t think there’s any need for Clotilde to worry so much. Dear me, who’s that passing the window?’
Two apologetic figures suddenly showed themselves in the french window.
‘Oh do excuse us,’ said Miss Barrow, ‘we were just walking round the house to see if we could find Miss Marple. We had heard she’d come here with you and I wonder — oh, there you are, my dear Miss Marple. I wanted to tell you that we didn’t get to that church after all this afternoon. Apparently it’s closed for cleaning, so I think we shall have to give up any other expedition today and go on one tomorrow. I do hope you don’t mind us coming in this way. I did ring at the front-door bell but it didn’t seem to be ringing.’
‘I’m afraid it doesn’t sometimes,’ said Mrs Glynne. ‘You know, it’s rather temperamental. Sometimes it rings and sometimes it doesn’t. But do sit down and talk to us a little. I’d no idea that you hadn’t gone with the coach.’
‘No, we thought we would do a little sight-seeing round here, as we had got so far, and going with the coach would really be rather — well, rather painful after what has happened just a day or two ago.’
‘You must have some sherry,’ said Mrs Glynne.
She went