Third girl - Agatha Christie [75]
‘Indeed? When you say “disappeared”, I presume you mean that she has left home without telling her parents where she was going. Oh, I believe her mother is dead, so without telling her father where she was going. That is really not at all uncommon nowadays, M. Poirot. Mr Restarick has not consulted the police?’
‘He is adamant on that subject. He refuses definitely.’
‘I can assure you that I have no knowledge as to where the girl is. I have heard nothing from her. Indeed, I have had no news from her since she left Meadowfield. So I fear I cannot help you in any way.’
‘It is not precisely that kind of information that I want. I want to know what kind of a girl she is — how you would describe her. Not her personal appearance. I do not mean that. I mean as to her personality and characteristics.’
‘Norma, at school, was a perfectly ordinary girl. Not scholastically brilliant, but her work was adequate.’
‘Not a neurotic type?’
Miss Battersby considered. Then she said slowly: ‘No, I would not say so. Not more, that is, than might be expected considering her home circumstances.’
‘You mean her invalid mother?’
‘Yes. She came from a broken home. The father, to whom I think she was very devoted, left home suddenly with another woman — a fact which her mother quite naturally resented. She probably upset her daughter more than she need have done by voicing her resentment without restraint.’
‘Perhaps it may be more to the point if I ask you your opinion of the late Mrs Restarick?’
‘What you are asking me for is my private opinion?’
‘If you do not object?’
‘No, I have no hesitation at all in answering your question. Home conditions are very important in a girl’s life and I have always studied them as much as I can through the meagre information that comes to me. Mrs Restarick was a worthy and upright woman, I should say. Self-righteous, censorious and handicapped in life by being an extremely stupid one!’
‘Ah,’ said Poirot appreciatively.
‘She was also, I would say, a malade imaginaire. A type that would exaggerate her ailments. The type of woman who is always in and out of nursing homes. An unfortunate home background for a girl — especially a girl who has no very definite personality of her own. Norma had no marked intellectual ambitions, she had no confidence in herself, she was not a girl to whom I would recommend a career. A nice ordinary job followed by marriage and children was what I would have hoped for her.’
‘You saw — forgive me for asking — no signs at any time of mental instability?’
‘Mental instability?’ said Miss Battersby. ‘Rubbish!’
‘So that is what you say. Rubbish! And not neurotic?’
‘Any girl, or almost any girl, can be neurotic, especially in adolescence, and in her first encounters with the world. She is still immature, and needs guidance in her first encounters with sex. Girls are frequently attracted to completely unsuitable, sometimes even dangerous young men. There are, it seems, no parents nowadays, or hardly any, with the strength of character to save them from this, so they often go through a time of hysterical misery, and perhaps make an unsuitable marriage which ends not long after in divorce.’
‘But Norma showed no signs of mental instability?’ Poirot persisted with the question.
‘She is an emotional but normal girl,’ said Miss Battersby. ‘Mental instability! As I said before — rubbish! She’s probably run away with some young man to get married, and there’s nothing more normal than that!’
Chapter 21
Poirot sat in his big square armchair. His hands rested on the arms, his eyes looked at the chimney-piece in front of him without seeing it. By his elbow was a small table and on it, neatly clipped together, were various documents. Reports from Mr Goby, information obtained from his friend, Chief Inspector Neele, a series of separate pages under the heading of ‘Hearsay, gossip, rumour’ and the sources from which it had been obtained.
At the moment he had no need to consult these documents. He had, in fact, read them through carefully and laid them there in case