Problem at Pollensa Bay - Agatha Christie [50]
‘I’ve come to tell you–to tell you–’
Her voice was low and rich. Mr Satterthwaite was so entranced with the dramatic value of the scene that he had forgotten its reality.
‘Please, Lady Dwighton–’ Melrose had an arm round her, supporting her. He took her across the hall into a small anteroom, its walls hung with faded silk. Quin and Satterthwaite followed. She sank down on the low settee, her head resting back on a rust-coloured cushion, her eyelids closed. The three men watched her. Suddenly she opened her eyes and sat up. She spoke very quietly.
‘I killed him,’ she said. ‘That’s what I came to tell you. I killed him!’
There was a moment’s agonized silence. Mr Satterthwaite’s heart missed a beat.
‘Lady Dwighton,’ said Melrose. ‘You’ve had a great shock–you’re unstrung. I don’t think you quite know what you’re saying.’
Would she draw back now–while there was yet time?
‘I know perfectly what I’m saying. It was I who shot him.’
Two of the men in the room gasped, the other made no sound. Laura Dwighton leaned still farther forward.
‘Don’t you understand? I came down and shot him. I admit it.’
The book she had been holding in her hand clattered to the floor. There was a paper cutter in it, a thing shaped like a dagger with a jewelled hilt. Mr Satterthwaite picked it up mechanically and placed it on the table. As he did so he thought, That’s a dangerous toy. You could kill a man with that.
‘Well–’ Laura Dwighton’s voice was impatient. ‘–what are you going to do about it? Arrest me? Take me away?’
Colonel Melrose found his voice with difficulty.
‘What you have told me is very serious, Lady Dwighton. I must ask you to go to your room till I have–er–made arrangements.’
She nodded and rose to her feet. She was quite composed now, grave and cold.
As she turned toward the door, Mr Quin spoke. ‘What did you do with the revolver, Lady Dwighton?’
A flicker of uncertainty passed across her face. ‘I–I dropped it there on the floor. No, I think I threw it out of the window–oh! I can’t remember now. What does it matter? I hardly knew what I was doing. It doesn’t matter, does it?’
‘No,’ said Mr Quin. ‘I hardly think it matters.’
She looked at him in perplexity with a shade of something that might have been alarm. Then she flung back her head and went imperiously out of the room. Mr Satterthwaite hastened after her. She might, he felt, collapse at any minute. But she was already halfway up the staircase, displaying no sign of her earlier weakness. The scared-looking maid was standing at the foot of the stairway, and Mr Satterthwaite spoke to her authoritatively.
‘Look after your mistress,’ he said.
‘Yes, sir.’ The girl prepared to ascend after the blue-robed figure. ‘Oh, please, sir, they don’t suspect him, do they?’
‘Suspect whom?’
‘Jennings, sir. Oh! Indeed, sir, he wouldn’t hurt a fly.’
‘Jennings? No, of course not. Go and look after your mistress.’
‘Yes, sir.’
The girl ran quickly up the staircase. Mr Satterthwaite returned to the room he had just vacated.
Colonel Melrose was saying heavily, ‘Well, I’m jiggered. There’s more in this than meets the eye. It–it’s like those dashed silly things heroines do in many novels.’
‘It’s unreal,’ agreed Mr Satterthwaite. ‘It’s like something on the stage.’
Mr Quin nodded. ‘Yes, you admire the drama, do you not? You are a man who appreciates good acting when you see it.’
Mr Satterthwaite looked hard at him.
In the silence that followed a far-off sound came to their ears.
‘Sounds like a shot,’ said Colonel Melrose. ‘One of the keepers, I daresay. That’s probably what she heard. Perhaps she went down to see. She wouldn’t go close or examine the body. She’d leap at once to the conclusion–’
‘Mr Delangua, sir.’ It was the old butler who spoke, standing apologetically in the doorway.
‘Eh?’ said Melrose. ‘What’s that?’
‘Mr Delangua is here, sir, and would like to speak to you if he may.’
Colonel Melrose leaned back in his chair. ‘Show him in,’ he said grimly.
A moment later Paul Delangua stood in the doorway. As Colonel Melrose had hinted, there was something un-English about