Postern of Fate (Tommy and Tuppence Series) - Agatha Christie [53]
‘Oh,’ said Tommy, ‘that wasn’t very helpful.’
‘Well, yes it was, in a way, because they said they’d always remember that evening. So I said why would they always remember that evening and they said it was because of the census.’
‘What–a census?’
‘Yes. You know what a census is, surely, Tommy? Why, we had one only last year, or was it the year before last? You know–having to say, or making everyone sign or enter particulars. Everyone who slept under your roof on a certain night. You know the sort of thing. On the night of November 15th who did you have sleeping under your roof? And you have to put it down, or they have to sign their names. I forget which. Anyway, they were having a census that day and so everyone had to say who was under their roof, and of course a lot of people were at the party and they talked about it. They said it was very unfair and a very stupid thing to have and that anyway they thought it was really a most disgraceful thing to go on having nowadays, because you had to say if you had children and if you were married, or if you were not married but did have children, and things like that. You had to put down a lot of very difficult particulars and you didn’t think it was nice. Not nowadays. So they were very upset about it. I mean, they were upset, not about the old census because nobody minded then. It was just a thing that happened.’
‘The census might come in useful if you’ve got the exact date of it,’ said Tommy.
‘Do you mean you could check up about the census?’
‘Oh yes. If one knows the right people I think one could check up fairly easily.’
‘And they remembered Mary Jordan being talked about. Everyone said what a nice girl she had seemed and how fond everyone was of her. And they would never have believed–you know how people say things. Then they said, Well, she was half German so perhaps people ought to have been more careful in engaging her.’
II
Tuppence put down her empty coffee cup and settled back in her chair.
‘Anything hopeful?’ said Tommy.
‘No, not really,’ said Tuppence, ‘but it might be. Anyway, the old people talked about it and knew about it. Most of them had heard it from their elderly relations or something. Stories of where they had put things or found things. There was some story about a will that was hidden in a Chinese vase. Something about Oxford and Cambridge, though I don’t see how anyone would know about things being hidden in Oxford or Cambridge. It seems very unlikely.’
‘Perhaps someone had a nephew undergraduate,’ said Tommy, ‘who took something back with him to Oxford or Cambridge.’
‘Possible, I suppose, but not likely.’
‘Did anyone actually talk about Mary Jordan?’
‘Only in the way of hearsay–not of actually knowing definitely about her being a German spy, only from their grandmothers or great-aunts or sisters or mothers’ cousins or Uncle John’s naval friend who knew all about it.’
‘Did they talk about how Mary died?’
‘They connected her death with the foxglove and spinach episode. Everyone recovered, they said, except her.’
‘Interesting,’ said Tommy. ‘Same story different setting.’
‘Too many ideas perhaps,’ said Tuppence. ‘Someone called Bessie said, “Well. It was only my grandmother who talked about that and of course it had all been years before her time and I expect she got some of the details wrong. She usually did, I believe.” You know, Tommy, with everyone talking at once it’s all muddled up. There was all the talk about spies and poison on picnics and everything. I couldn’t get any exact dates because of course nobody ever knows the exact date of anything your grandmother tells you. If she says, “I was only sixteen at the time and I was terribly thrilled,” you probably don’t know now how old your grandmother really was. She’d probably