Ordeal by Innocence - Agatha Christie [83]
“Sometimes,” said Tina, “I think one does not know anybody.”
She turned away from him and walked slowly into the house. Micky looked after her, his head thrust forward, his hands in his pockets. He was scowling. Then he walked round the corner of the house looking up at it thoughtfully. All his boyhood memories came back to him. There was the old magnolia tree. He’d climbed up there many a time and through the landing window. There was the small plot of earth that had been supposed to be his own garden. Not that he’d ever taken very kindly to gardens. He’d always preferred taking any mechanical toys he had to pieces. “Destructive little devil,” he thought with faint amusement.
Ah well, one didn’t really change.
II
Inside the house, Tina met Mary in the hall. Mary looked startled at seeing her.
“Tina! Have you come over from Redmyn?”
“Yes,” said Tina. “Didn’t you know I was coming?”
“I’d forgotten,” said Mary. “I believe Philip did mention it.”
She turned away.
“I’m going into the kitchen,” she said, “to see if the Ovaltine has come. Philip likes it last thing at night. Kirsten is just taking him up some coffee. He likes coffee better than tea. He says tea gives him indigestion.”
“Why do you treat him like an invalid, Mary?” said Tina. “He’s not really an invalid.”
There was a touch of cold anger in Mary’s eyes.
“When you’ve got a husband of your own, Tina,” she said, “you’ll know better how husbands like to be treated.”
Tina said gently:
“I’m sorry.”
“If only we could get out of this house,” said Mary. “It’s so bad for Philip being here. And Hester’s coming back today,” she added.
“Hester?” Tina sounded surprised. “Is she? Why?”
“How should I know? She rang up last night and said so. I don’t know what train she’s coming by. I suppose it’ll be the express, as usual. Someone will have to go into Drymouth to meet her.”
Mary disappeared along the passage to the kitchen. Tina hesitated a moment, then she walked up the stairs. On the landing the first door to the right opened and Hester came through it. She looked startled at seeing Tina.
“Hester! I heard you were coming back but I’d no idea you’d arrived.”
“Dr. Calgary drove me down,” said Hester. “I came straight up to my room—I don’t think anyone knows I’ve arrived.”
“Is Dr. Calgary here now?”
“No. He just dropped me and went on into Drymouth. He wanted to see someone there.”
“Mary didn’t know you’d arrived.”
“Mary never knows anything,” said Hester. “She and Philip isolate themselves from everything that goes on. I suppose Father and Gwenda are in the library. Everything seems to be going on just the same as usual.”
“Why shouldn’t it?”
“I don’t really know,” said Hester vaguely. “I just suspected that it would all be different somehow.”
She moved past Tina and down the stairs. Tina went on past the library and along the passage to the suite at the end which the Durrants occupied. Kirsten Lindstrom, standing just outside Philip’s door with a tray in her hand, turned her head sharply.
“Why, Tina, you made me jump,” she said. “I was just taking Philip some coffee and biscuits.” She raised a hand to knock. Tina joined her.
After knocking, Kirsten opened the door and passed in. She was a little ahead of Tina and her tall angular frame blocked Tina’s view, but Tina heard Kirsten’s gasp. Her arms gave way and the tray crashed to the ground, cup and plates smashing against the fender.
“Oh, no,” cried Kirsten, “oh, no!”
Tina said:
“Philip?”
She passed the other woman and came forward to where Philip Durrant’s chair had been brought up to the desk. He had, she supposed, been writing. There was a ballpoint pen lying close to his right hand, but his head was dropped forward in a curious twisted attitude. And at the base of his skull she saw something that looked like a bright red lozenge staining the whiteness of his collar.
“He has been killed,” said Kirsten. “He has been killed—stabbed. There, through the bottom of the brain. One little stab and it is fatal.”
She added, her voice rising:
“I warned him. I did