Unexpected Guest - Agatha Christie [44]
He turned back into the room. Miss Bennett involuntarily gave a start and clutched the door frame. Jan took a step towards her. ‘I know things you don’t know,’ Jan added, speaking more soberly.
‘What do you know that I don’t know?’ Miss Bennett asked. She tried not to sound too anxious.
Jan made no reply, but merely smiled mysteriously. Miss Bennett approached him. ‘Aren’t you going to tell me?’ she asked again, coaxingly. ‘Won’t you trust me with your secret?’
Jan drew away from her. ‘I don’t trust anybody,’ he said, bitterly.
Miss Bennett changed her tone to one of puzzlement. ‘I wonder, now,’ she murmured. ‘I wonder if perhaps you’ve been very clever.’
Jan giggled. ‘You’re beginning to see how clever I can be,’ he told her.
She regarded him speculatively. ‘Perhaps there are a lot of things I don’t know about you,’ she agreed.
‘Oh, lots and lots,’ Jan assured her. ‘And I know a lot of things about everybody else, but I don’t always tell. I get up sometimes in the night and I creep about the house. I see a lot of things, and I find out a lot of things, but I don’t tell.’
Adopting a conspiratorial air, Miss Bennett asked, ‘Have you got some big secret now?’
Jan swung one leg over the stool, sitting astride it. ‘Big secret! Big secret!’ he squealed delightedly. ‘You’d be frightened if you knew,’ he added, laughing almost hysterically.
Miss Bennett came closer to him. ‘Would I? Would I be frightened?’ she asked. ‘Would I be frightened of you, Jan?’ Placing herself squarely in front of Jan, she stared intently at him.
Jan looked up at her. The expression of delight left his face, and his voice was very serious as he replied, ‘Yes, you’d be very frightened of me.’
She continued to regard him closely. ‘I haven’t known what you were really like,’ she admitted. ‘I’m just beginning to understand what you’re like, Jan.’
Jan’s mood changes were becoming more pronounced. Sounding more and more wild, he exclaimed, ‘Nobody knows anything about me really, or the things I can do.’ He swung round on the stool, and sat with his back to her. ‘Silly old Richard, sitting there and shooting at silly old birds.’ He turned back to Miss Bennett, adding intensely, ‘He didn’t think anyone would shoot him, did he?’
‘No,’ she replied. ‘No, that was his mistake.’
Jan rose. ‘Yes, that was his mistake,’ he agreed. ‘He thought he could send me away, didn’t he? I showed him.’
‘Did you?’ asked Miss Bennett quickly. ‘How did you show him?’
Jan looked at her craftily. He paused, then finally said, ‘Shan’t tell you.’
‘Oh, do tell me, Jan,’ she pleaded.
‘No,’ he retorted, moving away from her. He went to the armchair and climbed into it, nestling the gun against his cheek. ‘No, I shan’t tell anyone.’
Miss Bennett went across to him. ‘Perhaps you’re right,’ she told him. ‘Perhaps I can guess what you did, but I won’t say. It will be just your secret, won’t it?’
‘Yes, it’s my secret,’ Jan replied. He began to move restlessly about the room. ‘Nobody knows what I’m like,’ he exclaimed excitedly. ‘I’m dangerous. They’d better be careful. Everybody had better be careful. I’m dangerous.’
Miss Bennett looked at him sadly. ‘Richard didn’t know how dangerous you were,’ she said. ‘He must have been surprised.’
Jan went back to the armchair, and looked into it. ‘He was. He was surprised,’ he agreed. ‘His face went all silly. And then–and then his head dropped down when it was done, and there was blood, and he didn’t move any more. I showed him. I showed him! Richard won’t send me away now!’
He perched on one end of the sofa, waving the gun at Miss Bennett who was trying to fight back her tears. ‘Look,’ Jan ordered her. ‘Look. See? I’ve put a notch on my gun!’ He tapped the gun with his knife.
‘So you have!’ Miss Bennett exclaimed, approaching him. ‘Isn’t that exciting?’ She tried to grab the gun, but he was too quick for her.
‘Oh, no, you don’t,’ he cried, as he danced away from her. ‘Nobody’s going to take my gun away from me. If the police come