Nemesis - Agatha Christie [95]
‘Ah,’ said Professor Wanstead, ‘I see you are an actress, Miss Marple, as well as an avenger.’ Then he said, ‘When did you first begin to discover what had happened ten years ago?’
‘To begin with,’ said Miss Marple, ‘I found things very difficult, almost impossible. In my mind I was blaming Mr Rafiel for not having made things clear to me. But I see now that he’d been very wise not to do so. Really, you know, he was extraordinarily clever. I can see why he was such a big financier and made so much money so easily. He laid his plans so well. He gave me just enough information in small packets each time. I was, as it were, directed. First my guardian angels were alerted to note what I looked like. Then I was directed on the tour and to the people on it.’
‘Did you suspect, if I may use that word, anyone on the tour at first?’
‘Only as possibilities.’
‘No feeling of evil?’
‘Ah, you have remembered that. No, I did not think there was any definite atmosphere of evil. I was not told who my contact was there, but she made herself known to me.’
‘Elizabeth Temple?’
‘Yes. It was like a searchlight,’ said Miss Marple, ‘illuminating things on a dark night. So far, you see, I had been in the dark. There were certain things that must be, must logically be, I mean, because of what Mr Rafiel had indicated. There must be somewhere a victim and somewhere a murderer. Yes, a killer was indicated because that was the only liaison that had existed between Mr Rafiel and myself. There had been a murder in the West Indies. Both he and I had been involved in it and all he knew of me was my connection with that. So it could not be any other type of crime. And it could not, either, be a casual crime. It must be, and show itself definitely to be, the handiwork of someone who had accepted evil. Evil instead of good. There seemed to be two victims indicated. There must be someone who had been killed and there must be clearly a victim of injustice. A victim who had been accused of a crime he or she had not committed. So now, while I pondered these things, I had no light upon them until I talked to Miss Temple. She was very intense, very compelling. There came the first link which I had with Mr Rafiel. She spoke of a girl she had known, a girl who had once been engaged to Mr Rafiel’s son. Here then was my first ray of light. Presently she also told me that the girl had not married him. I asked why not and she said “because she died”. I asked then how she died, what had killed her, and she said very strongly, very compellingly — I can hear her voice still, it was like the sound of a deep bell — she said Love. And she said after that “the most frightening word there can be is Love”. I did not know then exactly what she meant. In fact the first idea that came to me was that the girl had committed suicide as a result of an unhappy love affair. It can happen often enough, and a very sad tragedy it is when it does happen. That was the most I knew then. That and the fact that the journey she herself was engaged upon was no mere pleasure tour. She was going, she told me, on a pilgrimage. She was going to some place or to some person. I did not learn then who the person was, that only came later.’
‘Archdeacon Brabazon?’
‘Yes. I had no idea then of his existence. But from then on I felt that the chief characters — the chief actors — in the drama, whichever way you like to put it, were not on the tour. They were not members of the coach party. I hesitated just for a short time, hesitated over some particular persons. I hesitated, considering Joanna Crawford and Emlyn Price.’
‘Why fix on them?’
‘Because of their youth,’ said Miss Marple. ‘Because youth is so often associated with suicide, with violence, with intense jealousy and tragic love. A man kills his