Short Stories

by Agatha Christie

  She was tall and dark, and handsome in a sullen fashion of her own.

  Her likeness to the landlord of the "Bells and Motley" was apparent enough to proclaim her his daughter.

  "Good evening, Mary," said Mr Quin, "A stormy night"

  She nodded.

  "I hate these stormy nights," she muttered.

  "You are afraid of thunder, perhaps?" said Mr Satterthwaite kindly.

  "Afraid of thunder? Not me! There's little that I'm afraid of. No, but the storm sets them off. Talking, talking, the same thing over and over again, like a lot of parrots. Father begins it. 'It reminds me, this does, of the night poor Captain Harwell...' And so on, and so on." She turned on Mr Quin. "You've heard how he goes on. What's the sense of it? Can't anyone let past things be?"

  "A thing is only past when it is done with," said Mr Quin.

  "Isn't this done with? Suppose he wanted to disappear? These fine gentlemen do sometimes."

  "You think he disappeared of his own free will?"

  "Why not? It would make better sense than to suppose a kindhearted creature like Stephen Grant murdered him. What should he murder him for, I should like to know? Stephen had had a drop too much one day and spoke to him saucy like, and got the sack for it.

  But what of it? He got another place just as good. Is that a reason to murder a man in cold blood?"

  "But surely," said Mr Satterthwaite, "the police were quite satisfied of his innocence?"

  "The police! What do the police matter? When Stephen comes into the bar of an evening, every man looks at him queer like. They don't really believe he murdered Harwell, but they're not sure, and so they look at him sideways and edge away. Nice life for a man, to see people shrink away from you, as though you were something different from the rest of folks. Why won't Father hear of our getting married, Stephen and I? 'You can take your pigs to a better market, my girl. I've nothing against Stephen, but - well, we don't know, do we?'"

  She stopped, her breast heaving with the violence of her resentment.

  "It's cruel, cruel, that's what it is," she burst out. "Stephen, that wouldn't hurt a fly! And all through life there'll be people who'll think he did. It's turning him queer and bitter like. I don't wonder, I'm sure.

  And the more he's like that, the more people think there must have been something in it."

  Again she stopped. Her eyes were fixed on Mr Quin's face, as though something in it was drawing this outburst from her.

  "Can nothing be done?" said Mr Satterthwaite.

  He was genuinely distressed. The thing was, he saw, inevitable. The very vagueness and unsatisfactoriness of the evidence against Stephen Grant made it the more difficult for him to disprove the accusation.

  The girl whirled round on him.

  "Nothing but the truth can help him," she cried. "If Captain Harwell were to be found, if he was to come back. If the true rights of it were only known -"

  She broke off with something very like a sob, and hurried quickly from the room.

  "A fine-looking girl," said Mr Satterthwaite. "A sad case altogether. I wish - I very much wish that something could be done about it."

  His kind heart was troubled.

  "We are doing what we can," said Mr Quin. "There is still nearly half an hour before your car can be ready."

  Mr Satterthwaite stared at him.

  "You think we can come at the truth just by - talking it over like this?"

  "You have seen much of life," said Mr Quin gravely. "More than most people."

  "Life has passed me by," said Mr Satterthwaite bitterly.

  "But in so doing has sharpened your vision. Where others are blind you can see."

  "It is true," said Mr Satterthwaite. "I am a great observer."

  He plumed himself complacently. The moment of bitterness was passed.

  "I look at it like this," he said after a minute or two. "To get at the cause for a thing, we must study the effect."

  "Very good," said Mr Quin approvingly.

  "The effect in this case is that Miss Le Couteau - Mrs Harwell, I mean, is a wife and yet not a wife. She is not free - she cannot marry again.

  And look at it as we will, we see Richard Harwell as a sinister figure, a man from nowhere with a mysterious past."

  "I agree," said Mr Quin. "You see what all are bound to see, what cannot be missed, Captain Harwell in the limelight, a suspicious figure."

  Mr Satterthwaite looked at him doubtfully. The words seemed somehow to suggest a faintly different picture to his mind.

  "We have studied the effect," he said. "Or call it the result. We can now pass -"

  Mr Quin interrupted him.

  "You have not touched on the result on the strictly material side."

  "You are right," said Mr Satterthwaite, after a moment or two for consideration. "One should do the thing thoroughly. Let us say then that the result of the tragedy is that Mrs Harwell is a wife and not a wife, unable to marry again, that Mr Cyrus Bradburn has been able to buy Ashley Grange and its contents for - sixty thousand pounds, was it? - and that somebody in Essex has been able to secure John Mathias as a gardener! For all that we do not suspect 'somebody in Essex' or Mr Cyrus Bradburn of having engineered the disappearance of Captain Harwell."

  "You are sarcastic," said Mr Quin.

  Mr Satterthwaite looked sharply at him.

  "But surely you agree -?"

  "Oh! I agree," said Mr Quin. "The idea is absurd. What next?"

  "Let us imagine ourselves back on the fatal day. The disappearance has taken place, let us say, this very morning."

  "No, no," said Mr Quin, smiling. "Since, in our imagination, at least, we have power over time, let us turn it the other way. Let us say the disappearance of Captain Harwell took place a hundred years ago.

  That we, in the year two thousand and twenty-five are looking back."

  "You are a strange man," said Mr Satterthwaite slowly. "You believe in the past, not the present. Why?"

  "You used, not long ago, the word atmosphere. There is no atmosphere in the present."

  "That is true, perhaps," said Mr Satterthwaite thoughtfully. "Yes, it is true. The present is apt to be - parochial"

  "A good word," said Mr Quin.

  Mr Satterthwaite gave a funny little bow.

  "You are too kind," he said.

  "Let us take - not this present year, that would be too difficult, but say - last year," continued the other. "Sum it up for me, you who have the gift of the neat phrase."

  Mr Satterthwaite thought for a minute. He was jealous of his reputation.

  "A hundred years ago we have the age of powder and patches," he said. "Shall we say that 1924 was the age of Crossword Puzzles and Cat Burglars?"

  "Very good," approved Mr Quin. "You mean that nationally, not internationally, I presume?"

  "As to Crossword Puzzles, I must confess that I do not know," said Mr Satterthwaite. "But the Cat Burglar had a great innings on the Continent. You remember that series of famous thefts from French chßteaux? It is surmised that one man alone could not have done it.

  The most miraculous feats were performed to gain admission. There was a theory that a troupe of acrobats were concerned - the Clondinis. I once saw their performance - truly masterly. A mother, son and daughter. They vanished from the stage in a rather mysterious fashion. But we are wandering from our subject."

  "Not very far," said Mr Quin. "Only across the Channel."

  "Where the French ladies will not wet their toes, according to our worthy host," said Mr Satterthwaite, laughing.

  There was a pause. It seemed somehow significant.

  "Why did he disappear?" cried Mr Satterthwaite. "Why? Why? It is incredible, a kind of conjuring trick."

  "Yes," said Mr Quin. "A conjuring trick. That describes it exactly.

  Atmosphere again, you see. And wherein does the essence of a conjuring trick lie?"

  "The quickness of the hand deceives the eye," quoted Mr Satterthwaite glibly.

  "That is ever
ything, is it not? To deceive the eye? Sometimes by the quickness of the hand, sometimes - by other means. There are many devices, the pistol shot, the waving of a red handkerchief, something that seems important, but in reality is not. The eye is diverted from the real business, it is caught by the spectacular action that means nothing - nothing at all."

  Mr Satterthwaite leant forward, his eyes shining.

  "There is something in that. It is an idea."

  He went on softly. "The pistol shot. What was the pistol shot in the conjuring trick we were discussing? What is the spectacular moment that holds the imagination?"

  He drew in his breath sharply.

  "The disappearance," breathed Mr Satterthwaite. "Take that away, and it leaves nothing."

  "Nothing? Suppose things took the same course without that dramatic gesture?"

  "You mean - supposing Miss Le Couteau were still to sell Ashley Grange and leave - for no reason?"

  "Well."

  "Well, why not? It would have aroused talk, I suppose, there would have been a lot of interest displayed in the value of the contents in -

  Ah! Wait!"

  He was silent a minute, then burst out.

  "You are right, there is too much limelight, the limelight on Captain Harwell. And because of that, she has been in shadow. Miss Le Couteau! Everyone asking "Who was Captain Harwell? Where did he come from?" But because she is the injured party, no one makes inquiries about her. Was she really a French Canadian? Were those wonderful heirlooms really handed down to her? You were right when you said just now that we had not wandered far from our subject - only across the Channel. Those so-called heirlooms were stolen from the French chßteaux, most of them valuable objets d'art, and in consequence difficult to dispose of. She buys the house - for a mere song, probably. Settles down there and pays a good sum to an irreproachable English woman to chaperone her. Then he comes.

  The plot is laid beforehand. The marriage, the disappearance and the nine days' wonder! What more natural than that a brokenhearted woman should want to sell everything that reminds her of her past happiness. The American is a connoisseur, the things are genuine and beautiful, some of them beyond price. He makes an offer, she accepts it. She leaves the neighbourhood, a sad and tragic figure.

  The great coup has come off. The eye of the public has been deceived by the quickness of the hand and the spectacular nature of the trick."

  Mr Satterthwaite paused, flushed with triumph.

  "But for you, I should never have seen it," he said with sudden humility. "You have a most curious effect upon me. One says things so often without even seeing what they really mean. You have the knack of showing one. But it is still not quite clear to me. It must have been most difficult for Harwell to disappear as he did. After all, the police all over England were looking for him."

  "They were probably looking," said Mr Quin, "all over England."

  "It would have been simplest to remain hidden at the Grange," mused Mr Satterthwaite. "If it could be managed."

  "He was, I think, very near the Grange," said Mr Quin.

  His look of significance was not lost on Mr Satterthwaite.

  "Mathias' cottage?" he exclaimed. "But the police must have searched it?"

  "Repeatedly, I should imagine," said Mr Quin.

  "Mathias," said Mr Satterthwaite, frowning.

  "And Mrs Mathias," said Mr Quin.

  Mr Satterthwaite stared hard at him.

  "If that gang was really the Clondinis," he said dreamily, "there were three of them in it. The two young ones were Harwell and Eleanor Le Couteau. The mother now, was she Mrs Mathias? But in that case..."

  "Mathias suffered from rheumatism, did he not?" said Mr Quin innocently.

  "Oh!" cried Mr Satterthwaite. "I have it. But could it be done? I believe it could. Listen. Mathias was there a month. During that time, Harwell and Eleanor were away for a fortnight on a honeymoon. For the fortnight before the wedding, they were supposedly in town. A clever man could have doubled the parts of Harwell and Mathias.

  When Harwell was at Kirtlington Mallet, Mathias was conveniently laid up with rheumatism, with Mrs Mathias to sustain the fiction. Her part was very necessary. Without her, someone might have suspected the truth. As you say, Harwell was hidden in Mathias' cottage. He was Mathias. When at last the plans matured, and Ashley Grange was sold, he and his wife gave out that they were taking a place in Essex. Exit John Mathias and his wife - for ever."

  There was a knock at the coffee-room door, and Masters entered.

  "The car is at the door, sir," he said.

  Mr Satterthwaite rose. So did Mr Quin, who went across to the window, pulling the curtains. A beam of moonlight streamed into the room.

  "The storm is over," he said.

  Mr Satterthwaite was pulling on his gloves.

  "The Commissioner is dining with me next week," he said importantly. "I shall put my theory - ah! - before him."

  "It will be easily proved or disproved," said Mr Quin." A comparison of the objects at Ashley Grange with a list supplied by the French police -!"

  "Just so," said Mr Satterthwaite. "Rather hard luck on Mr Bradburn, but, well -"

  "He can, I believe, stand the loss," said Mr Quin, Mr Satterthwaite held out his hand.

  "Good-bye," he said. "I cannot tell you how much I have appreciated this unexpected meeting. You are leaving here tomorrow, I think you said?"

  "Possibly tonight. My business here is done... I come and go, you know."

  Mr Satterthwaite remembered hearing those same words earlier in the evening. Rather curious.

  He went out to the car and the waiting masters. From the open door into the bar the landlord's voice floated out, rich and complacent.

  "A dark mystery," he was saying. "A dark mystery, that's what it is."

  But he did not use the word "dark." The word he used suggested quite a different colour. Mr William Jones was a man of discrimination who suited his adjectives to his company. The company in the bar liked their adjectives full flavoured.

  Mr Satterthwaite reclined luxuriously in the comfortable limousine.

  His breast was swelled with triumph. He saw the girl Mary come out on the steps and stand under the creaking Inn sign.

  "She little knows," said Mr Satterthwaite to himself. "She little knows what I am going to do!"

  The sign of the "Bells and Motley" swayed gently in the wind.

  Chapter 4

  THE SIGN IN THE SKY

  The Judge was finishing his charge to the jury.

  "Now, gentlemen, I have almost finished what I want to say to you.

  There is evidence for you to consider as to whether this case is plainly made out against this man so that you may say he is guilty of the murder of Vivien Barnaby. You have had the evidence of the servants as to the time the shot was fired. They have one and all agreed upon it. You have had the evidence of the letter written to the defendant by Vivien Barnaby on the morning of that same day, Friday, September 13th - a letter which the defence has not attempted to deny. You have had evidence that the prisoner first denied having been at Deering Hill, and later, after evidence had been given by the police, admitted he had. You will draw your own conclusions from that denial. This is not a case of direct evidence.

  You will have to come to your own conclusions on the subject of motive - of means, of opportunity. The contention of the defence is that some person unknown entered the music room after the defendant had left it, and shot Vivien Barnaby with the gun which, by strange forgetfulness, the defendant had left behind him. You have heard the defendant's story of the reason it took him half an hour to get home. If you disbelieve the defendant's story and are satisfied, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the defendant did, upon Friday, September 13th, discharge his gun at close quarters to Vivien Barnaby's head with intent to kill her, then, gentlemen, your verdict must be Guilty. If, on the other hand, you have any reasonable doubt, it is your duty to acquit the prisoner. I will now ask you to retire to your room
and consider and let me know when you have arrived at a conclusion."

  The jury were absent a little under half an hour. They returned the verdict that to everyone had seemed a foregone conclusion, the verdict of "Guilty."

  Mr Satterthwaite left the court after hearing the verdict, with a thoughtful frown on his face.

  A mere murder trial as such did not attract him. He was of too fastidious a temperament to find interest in the sordid details of the average crime. But the Wylde case had been different. Young Martin Wylde was what is termed a gentleman - and the victim, Sir George Barnaby's young wife, had been personally known to the elderly gentleman.

  He was thinking of all this as he walked up Holborn, and then plunged into a tangle of mean streets leading in the direction of Soho. In one of these streets there was a small restaurant, known only to the few, of whom Mr Satterthwaite was one. It was not cheap it was, on the contrary, exceedingly expensive, since it catered exclusively for the palate of the jaded gourmet. It was quiet - no strains of jazz were allowed to disturb the hushed atmosphere - it was rather dark, waiters appeared soft-footed out of the twilight, bearing silver dishes with the air of participating in some holy rite.

  The name of the restaurant was Arlecchino.

  Still thoughtful, Mr Satterthwaite turned into the Arlecchino and made for his favourite table in a recess in the far corner. Owing to the twilight before mentioned, it was not until he was quite close to it that he saw it was already occupied by a tall dark man who sat with his face in shadow, and with a play of colour from a stained window turning his sober garb into a kind of riotous motley.

  Mr Satterthwaite would have turned back, but just at that moment the stranger moved slightly and the other recognised him.

  "God bless my soul," said Mr Satterthwaite, who was given to oldfashioned expressions. "Why, it's Mr Quin!"

  Three times before he had met Mr Quin, and each time the meeting had resulted in something a little out of the ordinary. A strange person, this Mr Quin, with a knack of showing you the things you had known all along in a totally different light.