Third girl - Agatha Christie [37]
Frances was sitting up now in her chair and speaking in weary but elegant tones. Peter uttered a loud and miserable groan.
‘Now you’ve ruined the pose! Do you have to have all this wriggling about? Can’t you keep still?’
‘No, I couldn’t any longer. It was an awful pose. I’ve got the most frightful crick in my shoulder.’
‘I’ve been making experiments in following people,’ said Mrs Oliver. ‘It’s much more difficult than I thought. Is this an artist’s studio?’ she added, looking round her brightly.
‘That’s what they’re like nowadays, a kind of loft — and lucky if you don’t fall through the floor,’ said Peter.
‘It’s got all you need,’ said David. ‘It’s got a north light and plenty of room and a pad to sleep on, and a fourth share in the loo downstairs — and what they call cooking facilities. And it’s got a bottle or two,’ he added. Turning to Mrs Oliver, but in an entirely different tone, one of utter politeness, he said, ‘And can we offer you a drink?’
‘I don’t drink,’ said Mrs Oliver.
‘The lady doesn’t drink,’ said David. ‘Who would have thought it!’
‘That’s rather rude but you’re quite right,’ said Mrs Oliver. ‘Most people come up to me and say, “I always thought you drank like a fish”.’
She opened her handbag — and immediately three coils of grey hair fell on the floor. David picked them up and handed them to her.
‘Oh! thank you.’ Mrs Oliver took them. ‘I hadn’t time this morning. I wonder if I’ve got any more hairpins.’ She delved in her bag and started attaching the coils to her head.
Peter roared with laughter — ‘Bully for you,’ he said.
‘How extraordinary,’ Mrs Oliver thought to herself, ‘that I should ever have had this silly idea that I was in danger. Danger — from these people? No matter what they look like, they’re really very nice and friendly. It’s quite true what people always say to me. I’ve far too much imagination.’
Presently she said she must be going, and David, with Regency gallantry, helped her down the rickety steps, and gave her definite directions as to how to rejoin the King’s Road in the quickest way.
‘And then,’ he said, ‘you can get a bus — or a taxi if you want it.’
‘A taxi,’ said Mrs Oliver. ‘My feet are absolutely dead. The sooner I fall into a taxi the better. Thank you,’ she added, ‘for being so very nice about my following you in what must have seemed a very peculiar way. Though after all I don’t suppose private detectives, or private eyes or whatever they call them, would look anything at all like me.’
‘Perhaps not,’ said David gravely. ‘Left here — and then right, and then left again until you see the river and go towards it, and then sharp right and straight on.’
Curiously enough, as she walked across the shabby yard the same feeling of unease and suspense came over her. ‘I mustn’t let my imagination go again.’ She looked back at the steps and the window of the studio. The figure of David still stood looking after her. ‘Three perfectly nice young people,’ said Mrs Oliver to herself. ‘Perfectly nice and very kind. Left here, and then right. Just because they look rather peculiar, one goes and has silly ideas about their being dangerous. Was it right again? or left? Left, I think — Oh goodness, my feet. It’s going to rain, too.’ The walk seemed endless and the King’s Road incredibly far away. She could hardly hear the traffic now — And where on earth was the river? She began to suspect that she had followed the directions wrongly.
‘Oh! well,’ thought Mrs Oliver, ‘I’m bound to get somewhere soon — the river, or Putney or Wandsworth or somewhere.’ She asked her way to the King’s Road from a passing man who said he was a foreigner and didn’t speak English.
Mrs Oliver turned another corner wearily and there ahead of her was the gleam of the water. She hurried towards it down a narrow passageway, heard a footstep behind her, half turned, when she was struck from behind and the world went up in sparks.
Chapter 10
I
A voice said:
‘Drink this.’
Norma was shivering. Her eyes had a dazed look. She shrank