Unexpected Guest - Agatha Christie [41]
Taken aback, Starkwedder played for time. ‘Eh? What’s that?’ he responded.
‘Mrs Warwick–what’s she been saying?’ Miss Bennett asked again.
Avoiding a direct reply, Starkwedder merely remarked, ‘You seem upset.’
‘Of course I’m upset,’ she replied. ‘I know what she’s capable of.’
Starkwedder looked at the housekeeper steadily before asking, ‘What is Mrs Warwick capable of? Murder?’
Miss Bennett took a step towards him. ‘Is that what she’s been trying to make you believe?’ she asked. ‘It isn’t true, you know. You’ve got to realize that. It isn’t true.’
‘Well, one can’t be sure. After all, it might be,’ he observed judiciously.
‘But I tell you it isn’t,’ she insisted.
‘How can you possibly know that?’ Starkwedder asked.
‘I do know,’ Miss Bennett replied. ‘Do you think there’s anything I don’t know about the people in this house? I’ve been with them for years. Years, I tell you.’ She sat in the armchair. ‘I care for them very much, all of them.’
‘Including the late Richard Warwick?’ Starkwedder asked.
Miss Bennett seemed lost in thought for a moment. Then, ‘I used to be fond of him–once,’ she replied.
There was a pause. Starkwedder sat on the stool and regarded her steadily before murmuring, ‘Go on.’
‘He changed,’ said Miss Bennett. ‘He became–warped. His whole mentality became quite different. Sometimes he could be a devil.’
‘Yes, everybody seems to agree on that,’ Starkwedder observed.
‘But if you’d known him as he used to be–’ she began.
He interrupted her. ‘I don’t believe that, you know. I don’t think people change.’
‘Richard did,’ Miss Bennett insisted.
‘Oh, no, he didn’t,’ Starkwedder contradicted her. He resumed his prowling about the room. ‘You’ve got things the wrong way round, I’ll bet. I’d say he was always a devil underneath. I’d say he was one of those people who have to be happy and successful–or else! They hide their real selves as long as it gets them what they want. But underneath, the bad streak’s always there.’
He turned to face Miss Bennett. ‘His cruelty, I bet, was always there. He was probably a bully at school. He was attractive to women, of course. Women are always attracted by bullies. And he took a lot of his sadism out in his big-game hunting, I dare say.’ He indicated the hunting trophies on the walls.
‘Richard Warwick must have been a monstrous egoist,’ he continued. ‘That’s how he seems to me from the way all you people talk about him. He enjoyed building himself up as a good fellow, generous, successful, lovable and all the rest of it.’ Starkwedder was still pacing restlessly. ‘But the mean streak was there, all right. And when his accident came, it was just the façade that was torn away, and you all saw him as he really was.’
Miss Bennett rose. ‘I don’t see that you’ve got any business to talk,’ she exclaimed indignantly. ‘You’re a stranger, and you know nothing about it.’
‘Perhaps not, but I’ve heard a great deal about it,’ Starkwedder retorted. ‘Everyone seems to talk to me for some reason.’
‘Yes, I suppose they do. Yes, I’m talking to you now, aren’t I?’ she admitted, as she sat down again. ‘That’s because we none of us here dare talk to one another.’ She looked up at him, appealingly. ‘I wish you weren’t going away,’ she told him.
Starkwedder shook his head. ‘I’ve done nothing to help at all, really,’ he said. ‘All I’ve done is blunder in and discover a dead body for you.’
‘But it was Laura and I who discovered Richard’s body,’ Miss Bennett contradicted him. She paused and then suddenly added, ‘Or did Laura–did you–?’ Her voice trailed off into silence.
Chapter 18
Starkwedder looked at Miss Bennett and smiled. ‘You’re pretty sharp, aren’t you?’ he observed.
Miss Bennett stared at him fixedly. ‘You helped her, didn’t you?’ she asked, making it sound like an accusation.
He walked away from her. ‘Now you’re imagining things,’ he told her.
‘Oh, no, I’m not,’ Miss Bennett retorted. ‘I want Laura to be happy. Oh, I so very much want her to be happy!’
Starkwedder turned to her, exclaiming passionately, ‘Damn it, so do