Unexpected Guest - Agatha Christie [25]
‘It’s hot,’ was the only response he got from Starkwedder, who then turned to Laura. ‘How are you today, Mrs Warwick?’ he asked. ‘Are you feeling better?’
‘Oh yes, thank you,’ Laura replied. ‘I’ve got over the shock now.’
‘Good,’ said Starkwedder.
The inspector had risen, and now approached Starkwedder on the sofa. ‘Your prints,’ he announced, ‘are on the window, decanter, glass and cigarette lighter. The prints on the table are not yours. They’re a completely unidentified set of prints.’ He looked around the room. ‘That settles it, then,’ he continued. ‘Since there were no visitors here–’ he paused and looked at Laura–‘last night–?’
‘No,’ Laura assured him.
‘Then they must be MacGregor’s,’ continued the inspector.
‘MacGregor’s?’ asked Starkwedder, looking at Laura.
‘You sound surprised,’ said the inspector.
‘Yes–I am, rather,’ Starkwedder admitted. ‘I mean, I should have expected him to have worn gloves.’
The inspector nodded. ‘You’re right,’ he agreed. ‘He handled the revolver with gloves.’
‘Was there any quarrel?’ Starkwedder asked, addressing his question to Laura Warwick. ‘Or was nothing heard but the shot?’
It was with an effort that Laura replied, ‘I–we–Benny and I, that is–we just heard the shot. But then, we wouldn’t have heard anything from upstairs.’
Sergeant Cadwallader had been gazing out at the garden through the small window in the alcove. Now, seeing someone approaching across the lawn, he moved to one side of the french windows. In through the windows there entered a handsome man in his mid-thirties, above medium height, with fair hair, blue eyes and a somewhat military aspect. He paused at the entrance, looking very worried. Jan, the first of the others in the room to notice him, squealed excitedly, ‘Julian! Julian!’
The newcomer looked at Jan and then turned to Laura Warwick. ‘Laura!’ he exclaimed. ‘I’ve just heard. I’m–I’m most terribly sorry.’
‘Good morning, Major Farrar,’ Inspector Thomas greeted him.
Julian Farrar turned to the inspector. ‘This is an extraordinary business.’ he said. ‘Poor Richard.’
‘He was lying here in his wheelchair,’ Jan told Farrar excitedly. ‘He was all crumpled up. And there was a piece of paper on his chest. Do you know what it said? It said “Paid in full”.’
‘Yes. There, there, Jan,’ Julian Farrar murmured, patting the boy’s shoulder.
‘It is exciting, isn’t it?’ Jan continued, looking eagerly at him.
Farrar moved past him. ‘Yes. Yes, of course it’s exciting,’ he assured Jan, looking enquiringly towards Starkwedder as he spoke.
The inspector introduced the two men to each other. ‘This is Mr Starkwedder–Major Farrar, who may be our next Member of Parliament. He’s contesting the by-election.’
Starkwedder and Julian Farrar shook hands, politely murmuring, ‘How do you do?’ The inspector moved away, beckoning to the sergeant who joined him. They conferred, as Starkwedder explained to Major Farrar, ‘I’d run my car into a ditch, and I was coming up to the house to see if I could telephone and get some help. A man dashed out of the house, almost knocking me over.’
‘But which way did this man go?’ Farrar asked.
‘No idea,’ Starkwedder replied. ‘He vanished into the mist like a conjuring trick.’ He turned away, while Jan, kneeling in the armchair and looking expectantly at Farrar, said, ‘You told Richard someone would shoot him one day, didn’t you, Julian?’
There was a pause. Everyone in the room looked at Julian Farrar.
Farrar thought for a moment. Then, ‘Did I? I don’t remember,’ he said brusquely.
‘Oh, yes, you did,’ Jan insisted. ‘At dinner one night. You know, you and Richard were having a sort of argument, and you said, “One of these days, Richard, somebody’ll put a bullet through your head.” ’
‘A remarkable prophecy,’ the inspector commented.
Julian Farrar moved to sit on one end of the footstool. ‘Oh well,’ he said, ‘Richard and his guns were pretty fair nuisance value, you know. People didn’t like it. Why, there was that fellow–you remember, Laura? Your gardener, Griffiths. You know–the one Richard sacked.