A Murder is Announced

Chapter 16
Inspector Craddock Returns

Inspector Craddock had had a bad night on his night journey home. His dreams had been less dreams than nightmares. Again and again he was racing through the grey corridors of an old-world castle in a desperate attempt to get somewhere, or to prevent something, in time. Finally he dreamt that he awoke. An enormous relief surged over him. Then the door of his compartment slid slowly open, and Letitia Blacklock looked in at him with blood running down her face, and said reproachfully: 'Why didn't you save me? You could have if you'd tried.'

This time he really awoke.

Altogether, the Inspector was thankful finally to reach Milchester. He went straight away to make his report to Rydesdale who listened carefully.

'It doesn't take us much further,' he said. 'But it confirms what Miss Blacklock told you. Pip and Emma - h'm, I wonder.'

'Patrick and Julia Simmons are the right age, sir. If we could establish that Miss Blacklock hadn't seen them since they were children - '

With a very faint chuckle, Rydesdale said: 'Our ally, Miss Marple, has established that for us. Actually Miss Blacklock had never seen either of them at all until two months ago.'

'Then, surely, sir - '

'It's not so easy as all that, Craddock. We've been checking up. On what we've got, Patrick and Julia seem definitely to be out of it. His Naval record is genuine - quite a good record bar a tendency to "insubordination". We've checked with Cannes, and an indignant Mrs Simmons says of course her son and daughter are at Chipping Cleghorn with her cousin Letitia Blacklock. So that's that!'

'And Mrs Simmons is Mrs Simmons?'

'She's been Mrs Simmons for a very long time, that's all I can say,' said Rydesdale dryly.

'That seems clear enough. Only - those two fitted. Right age. Not known to Miss Blacklock, personally. If we wanted Pip and Emma - well, there they were.'

The Chief Constable nodded thoughtfully, then he pushed across a paper to Craddock.

'Here's a little something we've dug up on Mrs Easterbrook.'

The Inspector read with lifted eyebrows.

'Very interesting,' he remarked. 'Hoodwinked that old ass pretty well, hasn't she? It doesn't tie in with this business though, as far as I can see.'

'Apparently not.'

'And here's an item that concerns Mrs Haymes.'

Again Craddock's eyebrows rose.

'I think I'll have another talk with the lady,' he said.

'You think this information might be relevant?'

'I think it might be. It would be a long shot, of course...'

The two men were silent for a moment or two.

'How has Fletcher got on, sir?'

'Fletcher has been exceedingly active. He's made a routine search of the house by agreement with Miss Blacklock - but he didn't find anything significant. Then he's been checking up on who could have had the opportunity of oiling that door. Checking who was up at the house on the days that that foreign girl was out. A little more complicated than we thought, because it appears she goes for a walk most afternoons. Usually down to the village where she has a cup of coffee at the Bluebird. So that when Miss Blacklock and Miss Bunner are out - which is most afternoons - they go blackberrying - the coast is clear.'

'And the doors are always left unlocked?'

'They used to be. I don't suppose they are now.'

'What are Fletcher's results? Who's known to have been in the house when it was left empty?'

'Practically the whole lot of them.'

Rydesdale consulted a page in front of him.

'Miss Murgatroyd was there with a hen to sit on some eggs. (Sounds complicated but that's what she says.) Very flustered about it all and contradicts herself, but Fletcher thinks that's temperamental and not a sign of guilt.'

'Might be,' Craddock admitted. 'She flaps.'

'Then Mrs Swettenham came up to fetch some horse meat that Miss Blacklock had left for her on the kitchen table because Miss Blacklock had been in to Milchester in the car that day and always gets Mrs Swettenham's horse meat for her. That make sense to you?'

Craddock considered.

'Why didn't Miss Blacklock leave the horse meat when she passed Mrs Swettenham's house on her way back from Milchester?'

'I don't know, but she didn't. Mrs Swettenham says she (Miss B.) always leaves it on the kitchen table, and she (Mrs S.) likes to fetch it when Mitzi isn't there because Mitzi is sometimes so rude.'

'Hangs together quite well. And the next?'

'Miss Hinchcliffe. Says she wasn't there at all lately. But she was. Because Mitzi saw her coming out of the side door one day and so did a Mrs Butt (she's one of the locals). Miss H. then admitted she might have been there but had forgotten. Can't remember what she went for. Says she probably just dropped in.'

'That's rather odd.'

'So was her manner, apparently. Then there's Mrs Easterbrook. She was exercising the dear dogs out that way and she just popped in to see if Miss Blacklock would lend her a knitting pattern but Miss Blacklock wasn't in. She says she waited a little.'

'Just so. Might be snooping round. Or might be oiling a door. And the Colonel?'

'Went there one day with a book on India that Miss Blacklock had expressed a desire to read.'

'Had she?'

'Her account is that she tried to get out of having to read it, but it was no use.'

'And that's fair enough,' sighed Craddock. 'If anyone is really determined to lend you a book, you never can get out of it!'

'We don't know if Edmund Swettenham was up there. He's extremely vague. Said he did drop in occasionally on errands for his mother, but thinks not lately.'

'In fact, it's all inconclusive.'

'Yes.'

Rydesdale said, with a slight grin:

'Miss Marple has also been active. Fletcher reports that she had morning coffee at the Bluebird. She's been to sherry at Boulders, and to tea at Little Paddocks. She's admired Mrs Swettenham's garden - and dropped in to see Colonel Easterbrook's Indian curios.'

'She may be able to tell us if Colonel Easterbrook's a pukka Colonel or not.'

'She'd know, I agree - he seems all right. We'd have to check with the Far Eastern Authorities to get certain identification.'

'And in the meantime' - Craddock broke off - 'do you think Miss Blacklock would consent to go away?'

'Go away from Chipping Cleghorn?'

'Yes. Take the faithful Bunner with her, perhaps, and leave for an unknown destination. Why shouldn't she go up to Scotland and stay with Belle Goedler? It's a pretty unget-at-able place.'

'Stop there and wait for her to die? I don't think she'd do that. I don't think any nice-natured woman would like that suggestion.'

'If it's a matter of saving her life - '

'Come now, Craddock, it isn't quite so easy to bump someone off as you seem to think.'

'Isn't it, sir?'

'Well - in one way - it's easy enough I agree. Plenty of methods. Weed-killer. A bash on the head when she's out shutting up the poultry, a pot shot from behind a hedge. All quite simple. But to bump someone off and not be suspected of bumping them off - that's not quite so easy. And they must realize by now that they're all under observation. The original carefully planned scheme failed. Our unknown murderer has got to think up something else.'

'I know that, sir. But there's the time element to consider. Mrs Goedler's a dying woman - she might pop off any minute. That means that our murderer can't afford to wait.'

'True.'

'And another thing, sir. He - or she - must know that we're checking up on everybody.'

'And that takes time,' said Rydesdale with a sigh. 'It means checking with the East, with India. Yes, it's a long tedious business.'

'So that's another reason for - hurry. I'm sure, sir, that the danger is very real. It's a very large sum that's at stake. If Belle Goedler dies - '

He broke off as a constable entered.

'Constable Legg on the line from Chipping Cleghorn, sir.'

'Put him through here.'

Inspector Craddock, watching the Chief Constable, saw his features harden and stiffen.

'Very good,' barked Rydesdale. 'Detective-Inspector Craddock will be coming out immediately.'

He put the receiver down.

'Is it - ?' Craddock broke off.

Rydesdale shook his head.

'No,' he said. 'It's Dora Bunner. She wanted some aspirin. Apparently she took some from a bottle beside Letitia Blacklock's bed. There were only a few tablets left in the bottle. She took two and left one. The doctor's got that one and is sending it to be analysed. He says it's definitely not aspirin.'

'She's dead?'

'Yes, found dead in her bed this morning. Died in her sleep, doctor says. He doesn't think it was natural though her health was in a bad state. Narcotic poisoning, that's his guess. Autopsy's fixed for tonight.'

'Aspirin tablets by Letitia Blacklock's bed. The clever clever devil. Patrick told me Miss Blacklock threw away a half bottle of sherry - opened a new one. I don't suppose she'd have thought of doing that with an open bottle of aspirin. Who had been in the house this time - within the last day or two? The tablets can't have been there long.'

Rydesdale looked at him.

'All our lot were there yesterday,' he said. 'Birthday party for Miss Bunner. Any of them could have nipped upstairs and done a neat little substitution. Or of course anyone living in the house could have done it any time.'