Nemesis - Agatha Christie [93]
‘And why should I do that?’
‘Because you wanted the boy who had taken Verity away from you, the boy whom Verity had loved and who had loved Verity, you wanted him tried for murder. And so you hid that second body in a place where it would not be too easily discovered. When that was discovered, it would be thought to be the wrong girl. You would make sure that it was identified in the way you wanted. You dressed it in Verity’s clothes, put her handbag there; a letter or two, a bangle, a little cross on a chain — you disfigured her face.
‘A week ago you committed a third murder, the murder of Elizabeth Temple. You killed her because she was coming to this part of the world, and you were afraid of what she might have known, from what Verity might have written to her or told her, and you thought that if Elizabeth Temple got together with Archdeacon Brabazon, they might with what they both knew come at some appraisal of the truth. Elizabeth Temple must not be allowed to meet the Archdeacon. You are a very powerful woman. You could have rolled that boulder down the hillside. It must have taken some doing, but you are a very strong woman.’
‘Strong enough to deal with you,’ said Clotilde.
‘I don’t think,’ said Miss Marple, ‘that you will be allowed to do that.’
‘What do you mean, you miserable, shrivelled up old woman?’
‘Yes,’ said Miss Marple, ‘I’m an elderly pussy and I have very little strength in my arms or my legs. Very little strength anywhere. But I am in my own way an emissary of justice.’
Clotilde laughed, ‘And who’ll stop me from putting an end to you?’
‘I think,’ said Miss Marple, ‘my guardian angel.’
‘Trusting to your guardian angel, are you?’ said Clotilde, and laughed again.
She advanced towards the bed.
‘Possibly two guardian angels,’ said Miss Marple. ‘Mr Rafiel always did things on a lavish scale.’
Her hand slipped under the pillow and out again. In it was a whistle which she put to her lips. It was something of a sensation in whistles. It had the shrill fury which would attract a policeman from the end of a street. Two things happened almost simultaneously. The door of the room opened. Clotilde turned. Miss Barrow was standing in the doorway. At the same moment the large wardrobe hanging cupboard opened and Miss Cooke stepped out of it. There was a grim air of professionalism about them both which was very noticeable, in contrast to their pleasant social behaviour a little earlier in the evening.
‘Two guardian angels,’ said Miss Marple happily. ‘Mr Rafiel has done me very proud! as one used to say.’
Chapter 22
Miss Marple Tells Her Story
‘When did you find out,’ asked Professor Wanstead, ‘that those two women were private agents accompanying you for your protection?’
He leaned forward in his chair looking thoughtfully at the white-haired old lady who sat in an upright position in the chair opposite him. They were in an official Government building in London, and there were four other persons present.
An official from the Public Prosecutor’s Office; the Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard, Sir James Lloyd, the Governor of Manstone Prison, Sir Andrew McNeil. The fourth person was the Home Secretary.
‘Not until the last evening,’ said Miss Marple. ‘I wasn’t actually sure until then. Miss Cooke had come to St Mary Mead and I found out fairly quickly that she was not what she represented herself to be, which was a woman knowledgeable in gardening who had come there to help a friend with her garden. So I was left with the choice of deciding what her real object had been, once she had