Parker Pyne Investigates - Agatha Christie [53]
‘I must begin–at the beginning. I–I was afraid of her. She was mad–not quite mad–just a little. She brought me out here with her. Like a fool I was delighted; I thought it was so romantic. Little fool. That’s what I was, a little fool. There was some business about a chauffeur. She was man-mad–absolutely man-mad. He wouldn’t have anything to do with her, and it got out; her friends got to know about it and laughed. And she broke loose from her family and came out here.
‘It was all a pose to save her face–solitude in the desert–all that sort of thing. She would have kept it up for a bit, and then gone back. But she got queerer and queerer. And then there was the pilot. She–took a fancy to him. He came here to see me, and she thought–oh well, you can understand. But he must have made it clear to her…’
‘And then she suddenly turned on me. She was awful, frightening. She said I should never go home again. She said I was in her power. She said I was a slave. Just that–a slave. She had the power of life and death over me.’
Mr Parker Pyne nodded. He saw the situation unfolding. Lady Esther slowly going over the edge of sanity, as others of her family had gone before her, and the frightened girl, ignorant and untravelled, believing everything that was said to her.
‘But one day something in me seemed to snap. I stood up to her. I told her that if it came to it I was stronger than she was. I told her I’d throw her down on to the stones below. She was frightened, really frightened. I suppose she’d just thought me a worm. I took a step toward her–I don’t know what she thought I meant to do. She moved backwards; she–she stepped back off the edge!’ Muriel King buried her face in her hands.
‘And then?’ Mr Parker Pyne prompted gently.
‘I lost my head. I thought they’d say I’d pushed her over. I thought nobody would listen to me. I thought I should be thrown into some awful prison out here.’ Her lips worked. Mr Parker Pyne saw clearly enough the unreasoning fear that had possessed her. ‘And then it came to me–if it were I! I knew that there would be a new British consul who’d never seen either of us. The other one had died.
‘I thought I could manage the servants. To them we were two mad Englishwomen. When one was dead, the other carried on. I gave them good presents of money and told them to send for the British consul. He came and I received him as Lady Esther. I had her ring on my finger. He was very nice and arranged everything. Nobody seemed to have the least suspicion.’
Mr Parker Pyne nodded thoughtfully. Lady Esther Carr might be mad as a hatter, but she was still Lady Esther Carr.
‘And then afterwards,’ continued Muriel, ‘I wished I hadn’t. I saw that I’d been quite mad myself. I was condemned to stay on here playing a part. I didn’t see how I could ever get away. If I confessed the truth now, it would look more than ever as though I’d murdered her. Oh, Mr Pyne, what shall I do? What shall I do?’
‘Do?’ Mr Parker Pyne rose to his feet as briskly as his figure allowed. ‘My dear child, you will come with me now to the British consul, who is a very amiable and kindly man. There will be certain unpleasant formalities to go through. I don’t promise you that it will be all plain sailing, but you won’t be hanged for murder. By the way, why was the breakfast tray found with the body?’
‘I threw it over. I–I thought it would look more like me to have a tray there. Was it silly of me?’
‘It was rather a clever touch,’ said Mr Parker Pyne. ‘In fact, it was the one point which made me wonder if you might, perhaps, have done away with Lady Esther–that is, until I saw you. When I saw you, I knew that whatever else you might do in your life, you would never kill anyone.’
‘Because I haven’t the nerve, you mean?’
‘Your reflexes wouldn’t work that way,’ said Mr Parker Pyne, smiling. ‘Now, shall we go? There’s an unpleasant job to be faced, but I’ll see you through it, and then–home to Streatham Hill–it is Streatham Hill, isn’t it? Yes, I thought so. I saw your face contract when I mentioned one particular bus number. Are