The Mirror Crack'd - Agatha Christie [59]
‘Oh, there’s some attraction — for some people, that is, in Victorian stability.’
‘Stability? Well, perhaps you’ve got something there. Marina, I suppose, had a feeling for stability. It’s a thing she never had herself, poor girl, so I suppose that’s why she always covets it. Perhaps this place will satisfy her for a bit.’
‘You know her well, Mr Fenn?’
Ardwyck Fenn shrugged his shoulders.
‘Well? I don’t know that I’d say that. I’ve known her over a long period of years. Known her off and on, that is to say.’
Craddock looked at him appraisingly. A dark man, heavily built, shrewd eyes behind thick glasses, heavy jowl and chin, Ardwyck Fenn went on:
‘The idea is, I gather, from what I read in the newspapers, that this Mrs Whatever-her-name-was, was poisoned by mistake. That the dose was intended for Marina. Is that right?’
‘Yes. That’s it. The dose was in Marina Gregg’s cocktail. Mrs Badcock spilt hers and Marina handed over her drink to her.’
‘Well that seems pretty conclusive. I really can’t think, though, who would want to poison Marina. Especially as Lynette Brown wasn’t there.’
‘Lynette Brown?’ Craddock looked slightly at sea.
Ardwyck Fenn smiled. ‘If Marina breaks this contract, throws up the part — Lynette will get it and it would mean a good deal to Lynette to get it. But for all that, I don’t imagine she’d send some emissary along with poison. Much too melodramatic an idea.’
‘It seems a little far-fetched,’ said Dermot dryly.
‘Ah, you’d be surprised what women will do when they’re ambitious,’ said Ardwyck Fenn. ‘Mind you, death mayn’t have been intended. It may have been just to give her a fright — Enough to knock her out but not to finish her.’
Craddock shook his head. ‘It wasn’t a borderline dose,’ he said.
‘People make mistakes in doses, quite big ones.’
‘Is this really your theory?’
‘Oh no, it isn’t. It was only a suggestion. I’ve no theory. I was only an innocent bystander.’
‘Was Marina Gregg very surprised to see you?’
‘Yes, it was a complete surprise to her.’ He laughed amusedly. ‘Just couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw me coming up the stairs. She gave me a very nice welcome, I must say.’
‘You hadn’t seen her for a long time?’
‘Not for four or five years, I should say.’
‘And some years before that there was a time when you and she were very close friends, I believe?’
‘Are you insinuating anything in particular by that remark, Inspector Craddock?’
There was very little change in the voice but there was something there that had not been there before. A hint of steel, of menace. Dermot felt suddenly that this man would be a very ruthless opponent.
‘It would be as well, I think,’ said Ardwyck Fenn, ‘that you said exactly what you do mean.’
‘I’m quite prepared to do so, Mr Fenn. I have to inquire into the past relations of everyone who was there on that day with Marina Gregg. It seems to have been a matter of common gossip that at the time I have just referred to, you were wildly in love with Marina Gregg.’
Ardwyck Fenn shrugged his shoulders.
‘One has these infatuations, Inspector. Fortunately, they pass.’
‘It is said that she encouraged you and that later she turned you down and that you resented the fact.’
‘It is said — it is said! I suppose you read all that in Confidential?’
‘It has been told me by quite well informed and sensible people.’
Ardwyck Fenn threw back his head, showing the bull-like line of his neck.
‘I had a yen for her at one time, yes,’ he admitted. ‘She was a beautiful and attractive woman and still is. To say that I ever threatened her is going a little too far. I’m never pleased to be thwarted, Chief-Inspector, and most people who thwart me tend to be sorry that they have done so. But that principle applies mainly in my business life.’
‘You did, I believe, use your influence to have her dropped from a picture that she was making?’
Fenn shrugged his shoulders.
‘She was unsuitable for the role. There was conflict between