Parker Pyne Investigates - Agatha Christie [35]
‘You!’ said Hannah, alias Mrs Rymer. ‘You…’
It was some time before she got it all out, and when she had said her say, she was out of breath.
Mr Parker Pyne smiled blandly. ‘I quite agree with you,’ he said.
‘A cheat and a liar, that’s what you are!’ said Mrs Rymer, repeating herself. ‘You with your Constantines and your hypnotizing, and that poor girl Hannah Moorhouse shut up with–loonies.’
‘No,’ said Mr Parker Pyne, ‘there you misjudge me. Hannah Moorhouse is not in a lunatic asylum, because Hannah Moorhouse never existed.’
‘Indeed?’ said Mrs Rymer. ‘And what about the photograph of her that I saw with my own eyes?’
‘Faked,’ said Mr Pyne. ‘Quite a simple thing to manage.’
‘And the piece in the paper about her?’
‘The whole paper was faked so as to include two items in a natural manner which would carry conviction. As it did.’
‘That rogue, Doctor Constantine!’
‘An assumed name–assumed by a friend of mine with a talent for acting.’
Mrs Rymer snorted. ‘Ho! And I wasn’t hypnotized either, I suppose?’
‘As a matter of fact, you were not. You drank in your coffee a preparation of Indian hemp. After that, other drugs were administered and you were brought down here by car and allowed to recover consciousness.’
‘Then Mrs Gardner has been in it all the time?’ said Mrs Rymer.
Mr Parker Pyne nodded.
‘Bribed by you, I suppose! Or filled up with a lot of lies!’
‘Mrs Gardner trusts me,’ said Mr Pyne. ‘I once saved her only son from penal servitude.’
Something in his manner silenced Mrs Rymer on that tack. ‘What about the birthmark!’ she demanded.
Mr Pyne smiled. ‘It is already fading. In another six months it will have disappeared altogether.’
‘And what’s the meaning of all this tomfoolery? Making a fool of me, sticking me down here as a servant–me with all that good money in the bank. But I suppose I needn’t ask. You’ve been helping yourself to it, my fine fellow. That’s the meaning of all this.’
‘It is true,’ said Mr Parker Pyne, ‘that I did obtain from you, while you were under the influence of drugs, a power of attorney and that during your–er–absence, I have assumed control of your financial affairs, but I can assure you, my dear madam, that apart from that original thousand pounds, no money of yours has found its way into my pocket. As a matter of fact, by judicious investments your financial position is actually improved.’ He beamed at her.
‘Then why–?’ began Mrs Rymer.
‘I am going to ask you a question, Mrs Rymer,’ said Mr Parker Pyne. ‘You are an honest woman. You will answer me honestly, I know. I am going to ask you if you are happy.’
‘Happy! That’s a pretty question! Steal a woman’s money and ask her if she’s happy. I like your impudence!’
‘You are still angry,’ he said. ‘Most natural. But leave my misdeeds out of it for the moment. Mrs Rymer, when you came to my office a year ago today, you were an unhappy woman. Will you tell me that you are unhappy now? If so, I apologize, and you are at liberty to take what steps you please against me. Moreover, I will refund the thousand pounds you paid me. Come, Mrs Rymer, are you an unhappy woman now?’
Mrs Rymer looked at Mr Parker Pyne, but she dropped her eyes when she spoke at last.
‘No,’ she said. ‘I’m not unhappy.’ A tone of wonder crept into her voice. ‘You’ve got me there. I admit it. I’ve not been as happy as I am now since Abner died. I–I’m going to marry a man who works here–Joe Welsh. Our banns are going up next Sunday; that is, they were going up next Sunday.’
‘But now, of course, everything is different.’
Mrs Rymer’s face flamed. She took a step forward.
‘What do you mean, different? Do you think that if I had all the money in the world it would make me a lady? I don’t want to be a lady, thank you; a helpless good-for-nothing lot they are. Joe’s good enough for me and I’m good enough for him. We suit each other and we’re going to be happy. As you for, Mr Nosey Parker, you take yourself off and don’t interfere with what doesn’t concern you!’
Mr Parker Pyne took a