Third girl - Agatha Christie [13]
‘She left here Sunday night as usual.’ She added in an angry voice, ‘Why didn’t you ring the bell and let us know you were here? What are you doing roaming about the house?’
‘Really, darling, you seem to be thinking I’m going to pinch the spoons or something. Surely it’s natural to walk into a house in broad daylight. Why ever not?’
‘Well, we’re old-fashioned and we don’t like it.’
‘Oh dear, dear.’ David sighed. ‘The fuss everyone makes. Well, my dear, if I’m not going to have a welcome and you don’t seem to know where your stepdaughter is, I suppose I’d better be moving along. Shall I turn out my pockets before I go?’
‘Don’t be absurd, David.’
‘Ta-ta, then.’ The young man passed them, waved an airy hand and went on down and out through the open front door.
‘Horrible creature,’ said Mary Restarick, with a sharpness of rancour that startled Poirot. ‘I can’t bear him. I simply can’t stand him. Why is England absolutely full of these people nowadays?’
‘Ah, Madame, do not disquiet yourself. It is all a question of fashion. There have always been fashions. You see less in the country, but in London you meet plenty of them.’
‘Dreadful,’ said Mary. ‘Absolutely dreadful. Effeminate, exotic.’
‘And yet not unlike a Vandyke portrait, do you not think so, Madame? In a gold frame, wearing a lace collar, you would not then say he was effeminate or exotic.’
‘Daring to come down here like that. Andrew would have been furious. It worries him dreadfully. Daughters can be very worrying. It’s not even as though Andrew knew Norma well. He’s been abroad since she was a child. He left her entirely to her mother to bring up, and now he finds her a complete puzzle. So do I for that matter. I can’t help feeling that she is a very odd type of girl. One has no kind of authority over them these days. They seem to like the worst type of young men. She’s absolutely infatuated with this David Baker. One can’t do anything. Andrew forbade him the house, and look, he turns up here, walks in as cool as a cucumber. I think — I almost think I’d better not tell Andrew. I don’t want him to be unduly worried. I believe she goes about with this creature in London, and not only with him. There are some much worse ones even. The kind that don’t wash, completely unshaven faces and funny sprouting beards and greasy clothes.’
Poirot said cheerfully, ‘Alas, Madame, you must not distress yourself. The indiscretions of youth pass.’
‘I hope so, I’m sure. Norma is a very difficult girl. Sometimes I think she’s not right in the head. She’s so peculiar. She really looks sometimes as though she isn’t all there. These extraordinary dislikes she takes —’
‘Dislikes?’
‘She hates me. Really hates me. I don’t see why it’s necessary. I suppose she was very devoted to her mother, but after all it’s only reasonable that her father should marry again, isn’t it?’
‘Do you think she really hates you?’
‘Oh, I know she does. I’ve had ample proof of it. I can’t say how relieved I was when she went off to London. I didn’t want to make trouble —’ She stopped suddenly. It was as though for the first time she realised that she was talking to a stranger.
Poirot had the capacity to attract confidences. It was as though when people were talking to him they hardly realised who it was they were talking to. She gave a short laugh now.
‘Dear me,’ she said, ‘I don’t really know why I’m saying all this to you. I expect every family has these problems. Poor stepmothers, we have a hard time of it. Ah, here we are.’
She tapped on a door.
‘Come in, come in.’
It was a stentorian roar.
‘Here is a visitor to see you, Uncle,’ said Mary Restarick, as she walked into the room, Poirot behind her.
A broad-shouldered, square-faced, red-cheeked, irascible looking elderly man had been pacing the floor. He stumped forward towards them. At the table behind him a girl was sitting sorting letters and papers. Her head was bent over them, a sleek, dark head.
‘This is Monsieur Hercule Poirot, Uncle Roddy,’ said Mary Restarick.
Poirot stepped forward gracefully into action and speech. ‘Ah, Sir Roderick,