Unexpected Guest - Agatha Christie [28]
‘For quite some time now,’ Laura said quietly.
‘But you didn’t ever decide to leave Warwick and go away together?’
‘No,’ Laura answered. ‘There’s Julian’s career, for one thing. It might ruin him politically.’
Starkwedder sat himself down ill-temperedly at one end of the sofa. ‘Oh, surely not, these days,’ he snapped. ‘Don’t they all take adultery in their stride?’
‘These would have been special circumstances,’ Laura tried to explain. ‘He was a friend of Richard’s, and with Richard being a cripple–’
‘Oh yes, I see. It certainly wouldn’t have been good publicity!’ Starkwedder retorted.
Laura came over to the sofa and stood looking down at him. ‘I suppose you think I ought to have told you this last night?’ she observed, icily.
Starkwedder looked away from her. ‘You were under no obligation,’ he muttered.
Laura seemed to relent. ‘I didn’t think it mattered–’ she began. ‘I mean–all I could think of was my having shot Richard.’
Starkwedder seemed to warm to her again, as he murmured, ‘Yes, yes, I see.’ After a pause, he added, ‘I couldn’t think of anything else, either.’ He paused again, and then looked up at her. ‘Do you want to try a little experiment?’ he asked. ‘Where were you standing when you shot Richard?’
‘Where was I standing?’ Laura echoed. She sounded perplexed.
‘That’s what I said.’
After a moment’s thought, Laura replied, ‘Oh–over there.’ She nodded vaguely towards the french windows.
‘Go and stand where you were standing,’ Starkwedder instructed her.
Laura rose and began to move nervously about the room. ‘I–I can’t remember,’ she told him. ‘Don’t ask me to remember.’ She sounded scared now. ‘I–I was upset. I–’
Starkwedder interrupted her. ‘Your husband said something to you,’ he reminded her. ‘Something that made you snatch up the gun.’
Rising from the sofa, he went to the table by the armchair and put his cigarette out. ‘Well, come on, let’s act it out,’ he continued. ‘There’s the table, there’s the gun.’ He took Laura’s cigarette from her, and put it in the ashtray. ‘Now then, you were quarrelling. You picked up the gun–pick it up–’
‘I don’t want to!’ Laura cried.
‘Don’t be a little fool,’ Starkwedder growled. ‘It’s not loaded. Come on, pick it up. Pick it up.’
Laura picked up the gun, hesitantly.
‘You snatched it up,’ he reminded her. ‘You didn’t pick it up gingerly like that. You snatched it up, and you shot him. Show me how you did it.’
Holding the gun awkwardly, Laura backed away from him. ‘I–I–’ she began.
‘Go on. Show me,’ Starkwedder shouted at her.
Laura tried to aim the gun. ‘Go on, shoot!’ he repeated, still shouting. ‘It isn’t loaded.’
When she still hesitated, he snatched the gun from her in triumph. ‘I thought so,’ he exclaimed. ‘You’ve never fired a revolver in your life. You don’t know how to do it.’ Looking at the gun, he continued, ‘You don’t even know enough to release the safety catch.’
He dropped the gun on the footstool, then walked to the back of the sofa, and turned to face her. After a pause, he said quietly, ‘You didn’t shoot your husband.’
‘I did,’ Laura insisted.
‘Oh no, you didn’t,’ Starkwedder repeated with conviction.
Sounding frightened, Laura asked, ‘Then why should I say I did?’
Starkwedder took a deep breath and then exhaled. Coming round the sofa, he threw himself down on it heavily. ‘The answer to that seems pretty obvious to me. Because it was Julian Farrar who shot him,’ he retorted.
‘No!’ Laura exclaimed, almost shouting.
‘Yes!’
‘No!’ she repeated.
‘I say yes,’ he insisted.
‘If it was Julian,’ Laura asked him, ‘why on earth should I say I did it?’
Starkwedder looked at her levelly. ‘Because,’ he said, ‘you thought–and thought quite rightly–that I’d cover up for you. Oh yes, you were certainly right about that.’ He lounged back into the sofa before continuing, ‘Yes, you played me along very prettily. But I’m through, do you hear? I’m through. I’m damned if I’m going to tell a pack of lies to save Major