Unexpected Guest - Agatha Christie [39]
A look of annoyance crossed Mrs Warwick’s face. ‘That is not what I mean,’ she told him. She cast another quick glance at the door, and then continued, ‘Julian Farrar did not shoot my son.’
Starkwedder rose from the arm of the sofa. ‘How can you possibly know that?’ he asked her.
‘I do know it,’ was Mrs Warwick’s reply. She looked steadily at him. ‘I am going to tell you, a stranger, something that none of my family know,’ she stated calmly. ‘It is this. I am a woman who has not very long to live.’
‘I am sorry–’ Starkwedder began, but Mrs Warwick raised her hand to stop him. ‘I am not telling you this for sympathy,’ she remarked. ‘I am telling you in order to explain what otherwise might be difficult of explanation. There are times when you decide on a course of action which you would not decide upon if you had several years of life before you.’
‘Such as?’ asked Starkwedder quietly.
Mrs Warwick regarded him steadily. ‘First, I must tell you something else, Mr Starkwedder,’ she said. ‘I must tell you something about my son.’ She went to the sofa and sat. ‘I loved my son very dearly. As a child, and in his young manhood, he had many fine qualities. He was successful, resourceful, brave, sunny-tempered, a delightful companion.’ She paused, and seemed to be remembering. Then she continued. ‘There were, I must admit, always the defects of those qualities in him. He was impatient of controls, of restraints. He had a cruel streak in him, and he had a kind of fatal arrogance. So long as he was successful, all was well. But he did not have the kind of nature that could deal with adversity, and for some time now I have watched him slowly go downhill.’
Starkwedder quietly seated himself on the stool, facing her.
‘If I say that he had become a monster,’ Richard Warwick’s mother continued, ‘it would sound exaggerated. And yet, in some ways he was a monster–a monster of egoism, of pride, of cruelty. Because he had been hurt himself, he had an enormous desire to hurt others.’ A hard note crept into her voice. ‘So others began to suffer because of him. Do you understand me?’
‘I think so–yes,’ Starkwedder murmured softly.
Mrs Warwick’s voice became gentle again as she went on. ‘Now, I am very fond of my daughter-in-law. She has spirit, she is warm-hearted, and she has a very brave power of endurance. Richard swept her off her feet, but I don’t know whether she was ever really in love with him. However, I will tell you this–she did everything a wife could do to make Richard’s illness and inaction bearable.’
She thought for a moment, and her voice was sad as she continued, ‘But he would have none of her help. He rejected it. I think at times he hated her, and perhaps that’s more natural than one might suppose. So, when I tell you that the inevitable happened, I think you will understand what I mean. Laura fell in love with another man, and he with her.’
Starkwedder regarded Mrs Warwick thoughtfully. ‘Why are you telling me all this?’ he asked.
‘Because you are a stranger,’ she replied, firmly. ‘These loves and hates and tribulations mean nothing to you, so you can hear about them unmoved.’
‘Possibly.’
As though she had not heard him, Mrs Warwick went on speaking. ‘So there came a time,’ she said, ‘when it seemed that only one thing would solve all the difficulties. Richard’s death.’
Starkwedder continued to study her face. ‘And so,’ he murmured, ‘conveniently, Richard died?’
‘Yes,’ Mrs Warwick answered.
There was a pause. Then Starkwedder rose, moved around the stool, and went to the table to stub out his cigarette. ‘Excuse me putting this bluntly, Mrs Warwick,’ he said, ‘but are you confessing to murder?’
Chapter 17
Mrs Warwick was silent for a few moments. Then she said sharply, ‘I will ask you a question, Mr Starkwedder. Can you understand that someone who has given life might also feel themselves entitled to take that life?’
Starkwedder paced around the room as he thought about this. Finally, ‘Mothers have been known to kill their children, yes,’ he admitted. ‘But it’s usually been for a sordid reason–insurance