The Sittaford Mystery - Agatha Christie [42]
‘Now, listen,’ she said. ‘I think I’ve got a kind of starting point. I may be wrong and I may be right, at any rate it’s an idea. I think a lot hinges on this table-turning business. You’ve done table-turning, haven’t you?’
‘Oh, yes, now and then. Not serious, you know.’
‘No, of course not. It’s the kind of thing one does on a wet afternoon, and everyone accuses everyone else of shoving. Well, if you’ve played it you know what happens. The table starts spelling out, say, a name, well, it’s a name somebody knows. Very often they recognize it at once and hope it isn’t going to be that, and all the time unconsciously they are what one calls shoving. I mean sort of recognizing things makes one give an involuntary jerk when the next letter comes and stops the thing. And the less you want to do that sometimes the more it happens.’
‘Yes, that’s true,’ agreed Mr Enderby.
‘I don’t believe for a moment in spirits or anything like that. But supposing that one of those people who were playing knew that Captain Trevelyan was being murdered at that minute—’
‘Oh, I say,’ protested Charles, ‘that’s awfully far fetched.’
‘Well, it needn’t be quite so crude as that. Yes, I think it must be. We are just taking a hypothesis—that’s all. We are asserting that somebody knew that Captain Trevelyan was dead and absolutely couldn’t hide their knowledge. The table betrayed them.’
‘It’s awfully ingenious,’ said Charles, ‘but I don’t believe for a minute it’s true.’
‘We’ll assume that it is true,’ said Emily firmly. ‘I am sure that in detection of crime you mustn’t be afraid to assume things.’
‘Oh, I’m quite agreeable,’ said Mr Enderby. ‘We’ll assume that it is true—anything you like.’
‘So what we have to do,’ said Emily, ‘is to consider very carefully the people who were playing. To begin with there’s Major Burnaby and Mr Rycroft. Well, it seems wildly unlikely that either of them should have an accomplice who was the murderer. Then there is this Mr Duke. Well, for the moment we know nothing about him. He has only just arrived here lately and of course, he might be a sinister stranger—part of a gang or something. We will put X against his name. And now we come to the Willetts. Charles, there is something awfully mysterious about the Willetts.’
‘What on earth have they got to gain from Captain Trevelyan’s death?’
‘Well, on the face of it, nothing. But if my theory is correct there must be a connection somewhere. We’ve got to find what is the connection.’
‘Right,’ said Mr Enderby. ‘And supposing it’s all a mare’s nest?’
‘Well, we’ll have to start all over again,’ said Emily.
‘Hark!’ cried Charles suddenly.
He held up his hand. Then he went over to the window and opened it, and Emily too, heard the sound which had aroused his attention. It was the far-off booming of a great bell.
As they stood listening, Mrs Curtis’s voice called excitedly from below:
‘Do you hear the bell, Miss—do you hear it?’
Emily opened the door.
‘D’you hear it? Plain as plan, isn’t it? Well now, now, to think of that!’
‘What is it?’ asked Emily.
‘It’s the bell at Princetown, Miss, near to twelve mile away. It means that a convict’s escaped. George, George, where is the man? D’you hear the bell? There’s a convict loose.’
Her voice died away as she went through the kitchen.
Charles shut the window and sat down on the bed again.
‘It’s a pity that things happen all wrong,’ he said dispassionately. ‘If only this convict had escaped on Friday, why, there would be our murderer nicely accounted for. No farther to look. Hungry man, desperate criminal breaks in. Trevelyan defends his Englishman’s castle—and desperate criminal biffs him one. All so simple.’
‘It would have been,’ said Emily with a sigh.
‘Instead of which,’ said Charles, ‘he escapes three days too late. It’s—it’s hopelessly inartistic.’
He shook his head sadly.
Chapter 16
Mr Rycroft
Emily woke early the next morning. Being a sensible young woman, she realized there was little