Ordeal by Innocence - Agatha Christie [91]
Kirsten’s hands flew out pleadingly.
“I couldn’t help it—I could not help it … It was coming so near … They were all beginning to find out. Philip was finding out and Tina—I think Tina must have overheard Jacko talking to me outside the kitchen that evening. They were all beginning to know … I wanted to be safe. I wanted—one can never be safe!” Her hands dropped. “I didn’t want to kill Tina. As for Philip—”
Mary Durrant rose. She came across the room slowly but with increasing purpose.
“You killed Philip?” she said. “You killed Philip.”
Suddenly, like a tigress she sprang at the other woman. It was Gwenda, quick-witted, who sprang to her feet and caught hold of her. Calgary joined her and together they held her back.
“You—you!” cried Mary Durrant.
Kirsten Lindstrom looked at her.
“What business was it of his?” she asked. “Why did he have to snoop round and ask questions? He was never threatened. It was never a matter of life or death for him. It was just—an amusement.” She turned and walked slowly towards the door. Without looking at them she went out.
“Stop her,” cried Hester. “Oh, we must stop her.”
Leo Argyle said:
“Let her go, Hester.”
“But—she’ll kill herself.”
“I rather doubt it,” said Calgary.
“She has been our faithful friend for so long,” said Leo. “Faithful, devoted—and now this!”
“Do you think she’ll—give herself up?” said Gwenda.
“It’s far more likely,” said Calgary, “that she’ll go to the nearest station and take a train for London. But she won’t of course, be able to get away with it. She’ll be traced and found.”
“Our dear Kirsten,” said Leo again. His voice shook. “So faithful, so good to us all.”
Gwenda caught him by the arm and shook it.
“How can you, Leo, how can you? Think what she did to us all—what she has made us suffer!”
“I know,” said Leo, “but she suffered herself, you know, as well. I think it is her suffering we have felt in this house.”
“We might have gone on suffering for ever,” said Gwenda, “as far as she was concerned! If it hadn’t been for Dr. Calgary here.” She turned towards him gratefully.
“So at last,” said Calgary, “I have done something to help, though rather late in the day.”
“Too late,” said Mary, bitterly. “Too late! Oh, why didn’t we know—why didn’t we guess?” She turned accusingly on Hester. “I thought it was you. I always thought it was you.”
“He didn’t,” said Hester. She looked at Calgary.
Mary Durrant said quietly:
“I wish I were dead.”
“My dear child,” said Leo, “how I wish I could help you.”
“Nobody can help me,” said Mary. “It’s all Philip’s own fault, wanting to stay on here, wanting to mess about with this business. Getting himself killed.” She looked round at them. “None of you understand.” She went out of the room.
Calgary and Hester followed her. As they went through the door, Calgary, looking back, saw Leo’s arm pass round Gwenda’s shoulders.
“She warned me, you know,” said Hester. Her eyes were wide and scared. “She told me right at the beginning not to trust her, to be as afraid of her as I was of everyone else….”
“Forget it, my dear,” said Calgary. “That is the thing you have to do now. Forget. All of you are free now. The innocent are no longer in the shadow of guilt.”
“And Tina? Will she get well? She is not going to die?”
“I don’t think she will die,” said Calgary. “She’s in love with Micky, isn’t she?”
“I suppose she might be,” said Hester, in a surprised voice. “I never thought about it. They’ve always been brother and sister, of course. But they’re not really brother and sister.”
“By the way, Hester, would you have any idea what Tina meant when she said ‘The dove on the mast.’?”
“Dove on the mast?” Hester frowned. “Wait a minute. It sounds terribly familiar. The dove on the mast, as we