The Sittaford Mystery - Agatha Christie [75]
‘It’s an idea certainly,’ said Charles slowly.
They were both silent, each one deep in thought.
Suddenly Emily said:
‘Do you know that queer feeling you get when somebody is looking at you? I feel now as though someone’s eyes were burning the back of my neck. Is it all fancy or is there really someone staring at me now?’
Charles moved his chair an inch or two and looked round the café in a casual manner.
‘There’s a woman at a table in the window,’ he reported. ‘Tall, dark and handsome. She’s staring at you.’
‘Young?’
‘No, not very young. Hello!’
‘What is it?’
‘Ronnie Garfield. He has just come in and he’s shaking hands with her and he’s sitting down at her table. I think she’s saying something about us.’
Emily opened her handbag. Rather ostentatiously she powdered her nose, adjusting the small pocket mirror to a convenient angle.
‘It’s Aunt Jennifer,’ she said softly. ‘They are getting up.’
‘They are going,’ said Charles. ‘Do you want to speak to her?’
‘No,’ said Emily. ‘I think it’s better for me to pretend that I haven’t seen her.’
‘After all,’ said Charles, ‘why shouldn’t Aunt Jennifer know Ronnie Garfield and ask him to tea?’
‘Why should she?’ said Emily.
‘Why shouldn’t she?’
‘Oh, for goodness sake, Charles, don’t let’s go on and on like this, should—shouldn’t—should—shouldn’t. Of course it’s all nonsense, and it doesn’t mean anything! But we were just saying that nobody else at that séance had any relation with the family, and not five minutes later we see Ronnie Garfield having tea with Captain Trevelyan’s sister.’
‘It shows,’ said Charles, ‘that you never know.’
‘It shows,’ said Emily, ‘that you are always having to begin again.’
‘In more ways than one,’ said Charles.
Emily looked at him.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Nothing at present,’ said Charles.
He put his hand over hers. She did not draw it away.
‘We’ve got to put this through,’ said Charles. ‘Afterwards—’
‘Afterwards?’ said Emily softly.
‘I’d do anything for you, Emily,’ said Charles. ‘Simply anything—’
‘Would you?’ said Emily. ‘That’s rather nice of you, Charles dear.’
Chapter 26
Robert Gardner
It was just twenty minutes later when Emily rang the front door bell of The Laurels. It had been a sudden impulse.
Aunt Jennifer, she knew, would be still at Deller’s with Ronnie Garfield. She smiled beamingly on Beatrice when the latter opened the door to her.
‘It’s me again,’ said Emily. ‘Mrs Gardner’s out, I know, but can I see Mr Gardner?’
Such a request was clearly unusual. Beatrice seemed doubtful.
‘Well, I don’t know. I’ll go up and see, shall I?’
‘Yes, do,’ said Emily.
Beatrice went upstairs, leaving Emily alone in the hall. She returned in a few minutes to ask the young lady to please step this way.
Robert Gardner was lying on a couch by the window in a big room on the first floor. He was a big man, blue-eyed and fair-haired. He looked, Emily thought, as Tristan ought to look in the third act of Tristan and Isolde and as no Wagnerian tenor has ever looked yet.
‘Hello,’ he said. ‘You are the criminal’s spouse to be, aren’t you?’
‘That’s right, Uncle Robert,’ said Emily. ‘I suppose I do call you Uncle Robert, don’t I?’ she asked.
‘If Jennifer will allow it. What’s it like having a young man languishing in prison?’
A cruel man, Emily decided. A man who would take a malicious joy in giving you sharp digs in painful places. But she was a match for him. She said smilingly:
‘Very thrilling.’
‘Not so thrilling for Master Jim, eh?’
‘Oh, well,’ said Emily, ‘it’s an experience, isn’t it?’
‘Teach him life can’t be all beer and skittles,’ said Robert Gardner maliciously. ‘Too young to fight in the Great War, wasn’t he? Able to live soft and take it easily. Well, well…He got it in the neck from another source.’
He looked at her curiously.
‘What did you want to come and see me for,