The Mirror Crack'd - Agatha Christie [63]
‘I know, of course, that you answered some questions at the time as to whether you’d seen anything unusual, anything that might be helpful. They were general questions.’
‘Have you got more specialized ones?’
‘A little more specialized, I think. You had a good view of Marina Gregg from where you were standing?’
She nodded. ‘Excellent.’
‘And of Jason Rudd?’
‘Occasionally. But he was moving about more. Drinks and things and introducing people to one another. The locals to the celebrities. That kind of thing, I should imagine. I didn’t see this Mrs Baddeley —’
‘Badcock.’
‘Sorry, Badcock. I didn’t see her drink the fatal draught or anything like that. In fact I don’t think I really know which she was.’
‘Do you remember the arrival of the mayor?’
‘Oh, yes. I remember the mayor all right. He had on his chain and his robes of office. I got one of him coming up the stairs — a close-up — rather a cruel profile, and then I got him shaking hands with Marina.’
‘Then you can fix that time at least in your mind. Mrs Badcock and her husband came up the stairs to Marina Gregg immediately in front of him.’
She shook her head. ‘Sorry. I still don’t remember her.’
‘That doesn’t matter so much. I presume that you had a pretty good view of Marina Gregg and that you had your eyes on her and were pointing the camera at her fairly often.’
‘Quite right. Most of the time. I’d wait till I got just the right moment.’
‘Do you know a man called Ardwyck Fenn by sight?’
‘Oh yes. I know him well enough. Television network — films too.’
‘Did you take a photograph of him?’
‘Yes. I got him coming up with Lola Brewster.’
‘That would be just after the mayor?’
She thought a minute then agreed. ‘Yes, about then.’
‘Did you notice that about that time Marina Gregg seemed to feel suddenly ill? Did you notice any unusual expression on her face?’
Margot Bence leant forward, opened a cigarette box and took out a cigarette. She lit it. Although she had not answered Dermot did not press her. He waited, wondering what it was she was turning over in her mind. She said at last, abruptly:
‘Why do you ask me that?’
‘Because it’s a question to which I am very anxious to have an answer — a reliable answer.’
‘Do you think my answer’s likely to be reliable?’
‘Yes I do, as a matter of fact. You must have the habit of watching people’s faces very closely, waiting for certain expressions, certain propitious moments.’
She nodded her head.
‘Did you see anything of that kind?’
‘Somebody else saw it too, did they?’
‘Yes. More than one person, but it’s been described rather differently.’
‘How did the other people describe it?’
‘One person has told me that she was taken faint.’
Margot Bence shook her head slowly.
‘Someone else said that she was startled.’ He paused a moment then went on, ‘And somebody else describes her as having a frozen look on her face.’
‘Frozen,’ said Margot Bence thoughtfully.
‘Do you agree to that last statement?’
‘I don’t know. Perhaps.’
‘It was put rather more fancifully still,’ said Dermot. ‘In the words of the late poet, Tennyson. “The mirror crack’d from side to side; ‘The doom has come upon me,’ cried the Lady of Shalott.” ’
‘There wasn’t any mirror,’ said Margot Bence, ‘but if there had been it might have cracked.’ She got up abruptly. ‘Wait,’ she said. ‘I’ll do something better than describe it to you. I’ll show you.’
She pushed aside the curtain at the far end and disappeared for some moments. He could hear her uttering impatient mutterings under her breath.
‘What hell it is,’ she said as she emerged again, ‘one never can find things when one wants them. I’ve got it now though.’
She came across to him and put a glossy print into his hand. He looked down at it. It was a very good photograph of Marina Gregg. Her hand was clasped in the hand of a woman standing in front of her, and therefore with her back to the camera. But Marina Gregg was not looking at the woman. Her eyes stared not quite into the camera but slightly obliquely to the left.