The Mirror Crack'd - Agatha Christie [76]
‘I wonder if she managed to get to see him before he went.’
‘Why did she want to see him, Cherry?’
‘It was just something which she felt was a bit funny,’ said Cherry.
Miss Marple looked at her inquiringly. She was able to take the word ‘funny’ at the valuation it usually had for the Gladyses of the neighbourhood.
‘She was one of the girls who helped at the party there,’ explained Cherry. ‘The day of the fête. You know, when Mrs Badcock got hers.’
‘Yes?’ Miss Marple was looking more alert than ever, much as a fox terrier might look at a waiting rat-hole.
‘And there was something that she saw that struck her as a bit funny.’
‘Why didn’t she go to the police about it?’
‘Well, she didn’t really think it meant anything, you see,’ explained Cherry. ‘Anyway she thought she’d better ask Mr Giuseppe first.’
‘What was it that she saw that day?’
‘Frankly,’ said Cherry, ‘what she told me seemed nonsense! I’ve wondered, perhaps, if she was just putting me off — and what she was going to see Mr Giuseppe about was something quite different.’
‘What did she say?’ Miss Marple was patient and pursuing.
Cherry frowned. ‘She was talking about Mrs Badcock and the cocktail and she said she was quite near her at the time. And she said she did it herself.’
‘Did what herself?’
‘Spilt her cocktail all down her dress, and ruined it.’
‘You mean it was clumsiness?’
‘No, not clumsiness. Gladys said she did it on purpose — that she meant to do it. Well, I mean, that doesn’t make sense, does it, however you look at it?’
Miss Marple shook her head, perplexed. ‘No,’ she said. ‘Certainly not — no, I can’t see any sense in that.’
‘She’d got on a new dress too,’ said Cherry. ‘That’s how the subject came up. Gladys wondered whether she’d be able to buy it. Said it ought to clean all right but she didn’t like to go and ask Mr Badcock herself. She’s very good at dressmaking, Gladys is, and she said it was lovely stuff. Royal blue artificial taffeta; and she said even if the stuff was ruined where the cocktail stained it, she could take out a seam — half a breadth say — because it was one of those full skirts.’
Miss Marple considered this dressmaking problem for a moment and then set it aside.
‘But you think your friend Gladys might have been keeping something back?’
‘Well, I just wondered because I don’t see if that’s all she saw — Heather Badcock deliberately spilling her cocktail over herself — I don’t see that there’d be anything to ask Mr Giuseppe about, do you?’
‘No, I don’t,’ said Miss Marple. She sighed. ‘But it’s always interesting when one doesn’t see,’ she added. ‘If you don’t see what a thing means you must be looking at it wrong way round, unless of course you haven’t got full information. Which is probably the case here.’ She sighed. ‘It’s a pity she didn’t go straight to the police.’
The door opened and Miss Knight bustled in holding a tall tumbler with a delicious pale yellow froth on top.
‘Now here you are, dear,’ she said, ‘a nice little treat. We’re going to enjoy this.’
She pulled forward a little table and placed it beside her employer. Then she turned a glance on Cherry. ‘The vacuum cleaner,’ she said coldly, ‘is left in a most difficult position in the hall. I nearly fell over it. Anyone might have an accident.’
‘Right-ho,’ said Cherry. ‘I’d better get on with things.’
She left the room.
‘Really,’ said Miss Knight, ‘that Mrs Baker! I’m continually having to speak to her about something or other. Leaving vacuum cleaners all over the place and coming in here chattering to you when you want to be quiet.’
‘I called her in,’ said Miss Marple. ‘I wanted to speak to her.’
‘Well, I hope you mentioned the way the beds are made,’ said Miss Knight. ‘I was quite shocked when I came to turn down your bed last night. I had to make it all over again.’
‘That was very kind of you,’ said Miss Marple.
‘Oh, I never grudge being helpful,’ said Miss Knight. ‘That’s why I’m here, isn’t it. To make a certain person we know as comfortable