The Sittaford Mystery - Agatha Christie [32]
‘Did the police tell you all this?’
‘Practically,’ said Emily.
‘What do you mean by practically?’
‘The chambermaid told me, and her sister is married to Constable Graves, so, of course, she knows everything the police think.’
‘Very well,’ said Mr Enderby, ‘it wasn’t an outside job. It was an inside one.’
‘Exactly,’ said Emily. ‘The police—that is Inspector Narracott, who, by the way, I should think is an awfully sound man, have started investigating to find who benefits by Captain Trevelyan’s death, and with Jim sticking out a mile, so to speak, they won’t bother to go on with other investigations much. Well, that’s got to be our job.’
‘What a scoop it would be,’ said Mr Enderby, ‘if you and I discovered the real murderer. The crime expert of the Daily Wire—that’s the way I should be described. But it’s too good to be true,’ he added despondently. ‘That sort of thing only happens in books.’
‘Nonsense,’ said Emily, ‘it happens with me.’
‘You’re simply marvellous,’ said Enderby again.
Emily brought out a little notebook.
‘Now let’s put things down methodically. Jim himself, his brother and sister, and his Aunt Jennifer benefit equally by Captain Trevelyan’s death. Of course Sylvia—that’s Jim’s sister—wouldn’t hurt a fly, but I wouldn’t put it past her husband, he’s what I call a nasty kind of brute. You know—the artistic nasty kind, has affairs with women—all that sort of thing. Very likely to be in a hole financially. The money they’d come into would actually be Sylvia’s, but that wouldn’t matter to him. He would soon manage to get it out of her.’
‘He sounds a most unpleasant person,’ said Mr Enderby.
‘Oh! yes. Good-looking in a bold sort of way. Women talk about sex with him in corners. Real men hate him.’
‘Well, that’s suspect No. 1,’ said Mr Enderby, also writing in a little book. ‘Investigate his movements on Friday—easily done under the guise of interview with popular novelist connected with the crime. Is that all right?’
‘Splendid,’ said Emily. ‘Then there’s Brian, Jim’s younger brother. He’s supposed to be in Australia, but he might quite easily have come back. I mean, people do sometimes without saying.’
‘We could send him a cable.’
‘We will. I suppose Aunt Jennifer is out of it. From all I’ve heard she’s a rather wonderful person. She’s got character. Still, after all, she wasn’t very far away, she was only at Exeter. She might have come over to see her brother, and he might have said something nasty about her husband whom she adores, and she might have seen red and snatched up a sandbag and biffed him one.’
‘Do you really think so?’ said Mr Enderby dubiously.
‘No, not really. But one never knows. Then, of course, there’s the batman. He only gets £100 under the will and he seems all right. But there again, one never knows. His wife is Mrs Belling’s niece. You know Mrs Belling who keeps the Three Crowns. I think I shall weep on her shoulder when I get back. She looks rather a motherly and romantic soul. I think she would be terribly sorry for me with my young man probably going to prison, and she might let slip something useful. And then, of course, there’s Sittaford House. Do you know what struck me as queer?’
‘No, what?’
‘These people, the Willetts. The ones that took Captain Trevelyan’s house furnished in the middle of winter. It’s an awfully queer thing to do.’
‘Yes, it is odd,’ agreed Mr Enderby. ‘There might be something at the bottom of that—something to do with Captain Trevelyan’s past life.
‘That séance business was queer too,’ he added. ‘I’m thinking of writing that up for the paper. Get opinions from Sir Oliver Lodge and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and a few actresses and people about it.’
‘What séance business?’
Mr Enderby recounted