The Sittaford Mystery - Agatha Christie [44]
‘That’s the reason why, if you will allow me to do so, I should like to associate myself with you in this matter. To study a crime at first hand has long been an unrealized dream of mine. Will you place your confidence in me, Miss Trefusis, and allow me to place my experience at your disposal? I have read and studied this subject deeply.’
Emily was silent for a minute. She was congratulating herself on the way events were playing into her hand. Here was first-hand knowledge being offered her of life as it had been lived at Sittaford. ‘Angle of attack,’ Emily repeated the phrase that had crept into her mind so short a time before. She had had Major Burnaby’s angle—matter of fact—simple—direct. Taking cognizance of facts and completely oblivious of subtleties. Now, she was being offered another angle which she suspected might open up a very different field of vision. This little, shrivelled, dried-up gentleman had read and studied deeply, was well versed in human nature, had that devouring interested curiosity in life displayed by the man of reflection as opposed to the man of action.
‘Please help me,’ she said simply. ‘I am so very worried and unhappy.’
‘You must be, my dear, you must be. Now, as I understand the position, Trevelyan’s eldest nephew has been arrested or detained—the evidence against him being of a somewhat simple and obvious nature. I, of course, have an open mind. You must allow me that.’
‘Of course,’ said Emily. ‘Why should you believe in his innocence when you know nothing about him?’
‘Most reasonable,’ said Mr Rycroft. ‘Really, Miss Trefusis, you yourself are a most interesting study. By the way, your name—is it Cornish like our poor friend Trevelyan?’
‘Yes,’ said Emily. ‘My father was Cornish, my mother was Scottish.’
‘Ah!’ said Mr Rycroft, ‘very interesting. Now to approach our little problem. On the one hand we assume that young Jim—the name is Jim, is it not? We assume that young Jim had a pressing need of money, that he came down to see his uncle, that he asked for money, that his uncle refused, that in a moment of passion he picked up a sandbag that was lying at the door and that he hit his uncle over the head. The crime was unpremeditated—was in fact a foolish irrational affair most deplorably conducted. Now, all that may be so; on the other hand he may have parted with his uncle in anger and some other person may have stepped in shortly afterwards and committed the crime. That is what you believe—and to put it a little differently, that is what I hope. I do not want your fiancéto have committed the crime, for from my point of view it is so uninteresting that he should have done so. I am therefore backing the other horse. The crime was committed by someone else. We will assume that and go at once to a most important point. Was that someone else aware of the quarrel that had just taken place? Did that quarrel, in fact, actually precipitate the murder? You see my point? Someone is meditating doing away with Captain Trevelyan and seized this opportunity, realizing that suspicion is bound to fall on young Jim.’
Emily considered the matter from this angle.
‘In that case,’ she said slowly—
Mr Rycroft took the words out of her mouth.
‘In that case,’ he said briskly, ‘the murderer would have to be a person in close association with Captain Trevelyan. He would have to be domiciled in Exhampton. In all probability he would have to be in the house, either during or after the quarrel. And since we are not in a court of law and can bandy about names freely, the name of the servant, Evans, leaps to our minds as a person who could satisfy our conditions. A man who quite possibly might have been in the house, have overheard the quarrel and seized the opportunity. Our next point is to discover whether Evans benefits in any way from his master’s death.’
‘I believe he gets a small legacy,’ said Emily.
‘That may or may not constitute a sufficient motive. We shall have to discover whether or not Evans had a pressing need of money. We must also consider Mrs Evans—there is