Agatha Christie - They Do It With Mirrors

by Murder

'Some tea, please, Gina. Nothing much to eat - just some toast.'

  She touched her nose and her eyes delicately with the handkerchief she held in one hand. Then she raised her eyes and looked in an unseeing way at the two brothers.

  Stephen and Alex became uncomfortable. Their voices dropped to almost a whisper and presently they got up and left.

  Mildred Strete said, whether to the universe or Miss Marple was not quite certain, 'Not even a black tie!'

  'I don't suppose,' said Miss Marple apologetically, 'that they knew beforehand that a murder was going to happen.'

  Gina made a smothered sound and Mildred Strete looked sharply at her.

  'Where's Walter this morning?' she asked.

  Gina flushed.

  'I don't know. I haven't seen him.'

  She sat there uneasily like a guilty child.

  Miss Marple got up.

  'I'll go to the library now,' she said.

  II Lewis Serrocold was standing by the window in the library.

  There was no one else in the room.

  He turned as Miss Marple came in and came forward to meet her, taking her hand in his.

  'I hope,' he said, 'that you are not feeling the worse for the shock. To be at close quarters with what is undoubt-edly murder must be a great strain on anyone who has not come in contact with such a thing before.'

  Modesty forbade Miss Marple to reply that she was, by now, quite at home with murder. She merely said that life in St Mary Mead was not quite so sheltered as outside people believed.

  'Very nasty things go on in a village, I assure you,' she said. 'One has an opportunity of studying things there that one would never have in a town.'

  Lewis Serrocold listened indulgently, but with only half an ear.

  He said very simply: 'I want your help.'

  'But of course, Mr Serrocold.'

  'It is a matter that affects my wife - affects Caroline. I think that you are really attached to her?'

  'Yes, indeed. Everyone is.'

  'That is what I believed. It seems that I am wrong.

  With the permission of Inspector Curry, I am going to tell you something that no one else as yet knows. Or perhaps I should say what only one person knows.'

  Briefly, he told her what he had told Inspector Curry the night before.

  Miss Marple looked horrified.

  'I can't believe it, Mr Serrocold. I really can't believe it.'

  'That is what I felt when Christian Gulbrandsen told me.'

  'I should have said that dear Carrie Louise had not got an enemy in the world.' 'It seems incredible that she should have. But you see the implication? P6isoning - slow poisoning - is an intimate family matter. It must be one of our closely-knit little household ' 'If it is true. Are you sure that Mr Gulbrandsen was not mistaken?' 'Christian was not mistaken. He is too cautious a man to make such a statement without foundation. Besides, the police took away Caroline's medicine bottle and a separate sample of its contents. There was arsenic in both of them - and arsenic was not prescribed. The actual quantitative tests will take longer - but the actual fact of arsenic being present is established.' 'Then her rheumatism - the difficulty in walking - all that ' 'Yes, leg cramps are typical, I understand. Also, before you came, Caroline has had one or two severe attacks of a gastric nature - I never dreamed until Christian came '.He broke off. Miss Marple said softly: 'So Ruth was right!' 'Ruth?' Lewis Serrocold sounded surprised. Miss Marple flushed.

  'There is something I have not told you. My coming here was not entirely fortuitous. If you will let me explain - I'm afraid I tell things so badly. Please have patience.' Lewis Serrocold listened whilst Miss Marple told him of Ruth's unease and urgency.

  'Extraordinary,' he commented. 'I had no idea of this.' 'It was all so vague,' said Miss Marple. 'Ruth herself didn't know why she had this feeling. There must be a reason - in my experience there always is - but "something wrong" was as near as she could get.'

  Lewis Serrocold said grimly: 'Well, it seems that she was right. Now, Miss Marple, you see how I am placed. Am I to tell Carrie Louise of this?' Miss Marple said quickly: 'Oh no,' in a distressed voice, and then flushed and stared doubtfully at Lewis.

  He nodded.

  'So you feel as I do? As Christian Gulbrandsen did.

  Should we feel like that with an ordinary woman?' 'Carrie Louise is not an ordinary woman. She lives by her trust, by her belief in human nature - oh dear, I am expressing myself very badly. But I do feel that until we know who ' 'Yes, that is the crux. But you do see, Miss Marple, that there is a risk in saying nothing ' 'And so you want me to - how shall I put it? - watch over her?' 'You see, you are the only person whom I can trust,' said Lewis Serrocold simply. 'Everyone here seems devoted. But are they? Now your attachment goes back many years.' 'And also I only arrived a few days ago,' said Miss Marple pertinently.

  Lewis Serrocold smiled.

  'Exactly.' 'It is a very mercenary question,' said Miss Marple apologetically. 'But who exactly would benefit if dear Carrie Louise were to die?' 'Money!' said Lewis bitterly. 'It always boils down to money, doesn't it?' 'Well, I really think it must be in this case. Because Carrie Louise is a very sweet person with a great deal of charm, and one cannot really imagine anyone disliking her. She couldn't, I mean, have an enemy. So then it does boil down, as you put it, to a question of money, because as you don't need me to tell you, Mr Serrocold, people will quite often do anything for money.' 'I suppose so, yes.' He went on: 'Naturally Inspector Curry has already taken up that point. Mr Gilfoy is coming down from London today and can give detailed information. Gilfoy, Gilfoy, Jaimes and Gilfoy are a very eminent firm of lawyers. This Gilfoy's father was one of the original trustees, and they drew up both Caroline's will and the original will of Eric Gulbrandsen. I will put it in simple terms for you ' 'Thank you,' said Miss Marple gratefully. 'So mystifying the law, I always think.' 'Eric Gulbrandsen, after endowment of the College and various fellowships and trusts and other charitable bequests, and having settled an equal sum on his daughter Mildred and on his adopted daughter Pippa (Gina's mother), left the remainder of his vast fortune in trust, the income from it to be paid to Caroline for her lifetime.' 'And after her death?' 'After her death it was to be divided equally between Mildred and Pippa - or their children if they themselves had predeceased Caroline.' 'So that in fact it goes to Mrs Strete and to Gina.' 'Yes. Caroline has also quite a considerable fortune of her own - though not in the Gulbrandsen class. Half of this she made over to me four years ago. Of the remaining amount, she left ten thousand pounds to Juliet Believer, and the rest equally divided between Alex and Stephen Restarick, her two stepsons.'

  'Oh dear,' said Miss Marple. 'That's bad. That's very bad.'

  'You mean?'

  'It means everyone in the house had a financial motive.'

  'Yes. And yet, you know, I can't believe that any of these people would do murder. I simply can't... Mildred is her daughter - and already quite well provided for.

  Gina is devoted to her grandmother. She is generous and extravagant, but has no acquisitive feelings. Jolly Bellever is fanatically devoted to Caroline. The two Restaricks care for Caroline as though she were really their mother.

  They have no money of their own to speak of, but quite a lot of Caroline's income has gone towards financing their enterprises - especially so with Alex. I simply can't believe either of those two would deliberately poison her for the sake of inheriting money at her death. I just can't · believe any of it, Miss Marple.'

  'There's Gina's husband, isn't there?'

  'Yes,' said Lewis gravely. 'There is Gina's husband.'

  'You don't really know much about him. And one can't help seeing that he's a very unhappy young man.' Lewis sighed.

  'He hasn't fitted in here - no. He's no interest in or sympathy for what we're trying to do. But after all, why should he? He's young, crude, and he comes from a country where a man is esteemed by the success he makes of life.'

  'Whilst here we are so very fond
of failures,' said Miss Marpl'e.'

  Lewis Serrocold looked at her sharply and suspiciously.

  She flushed a little and murmured rather incoherently: 'I think sometimes, you know, one can overdo things the other way... I mean the young people with a good heredity, and brought up wisely in a good home - and with grit and pluck and the ability to get on in life - well, they are really, when one comes down to it - the sort of people a country needs.' Lewis frowned and Miss Marple hurried on, getting pinker and pinker and more and more incoherent.

  'Not that I don't appreciate - I do indeed - you and Carrie Louise - a really noble work - real compassion and one should have compassion - because after all it's what people are that counts - good and bad luck - and much more expected (and rightly) of the lucky ones. But I do think sometimes one's sense of proportion - oh, I don't meanyou, Mr Serrocold. Really I don't know what I mean - but the English are rather odd that way. Even in war, so much prouder of their defeats and their retreats than of their victories. Foreigners never can understand why we're so proud of Dunkirk. It's the sort of thing they'd prefer not to mention themselves. But we always seem to be almost embarrassed by a victory - and treat it as though it weren't quite nice to boast about it. And look at all our poets! The Charge of the Light Brigade, and the little Revenge went down in the Spanish Main. It's really a very odd characteristic when you come to think of it!' Miss Marple drew a fresh breath.

  'What I really mean is that everything here must seem rather peculiar to young Walter Hudd.' 'Yes,' Lewis allowed. 'I see your point. And Walter has certainly a fine war record. There's no doubt about his bravery.' 'Not that that helps,' said Miss Marple candidly.

  'Because war is one thing, and everyday life is quite another. And actually to commit a murder, I think you do need bravery - or perhaps, more often, just conceit. Yes, conceit.' 'But I would hardly say that Walter Hudd had a sufficient motive.' 'Wouldn't you?' said Miss Marple. 'He hates it here.

  He wants to get away. He wants to get Gina away. And if it's really money he wants, it would be important for Gina to get all the money before she - er - definitely forms an attachment to someone else.' 'An attachment to someone else,' said Lewis, in an astonished voice.

  Miss Marple wondered at the blindness of enthusiastic social reformers.

  'That's what I said. BOth the Restaricks are in love with her, you know.' 'Oh, I don't think so,' said Lewis absently.

  He went on: 'Stephen's invaluable to us - quite invaluable. The way he's got those lads coming along - keen - interested. They gave a splendid show last month. Scenery, costumes, everything. It just shows, as I've always said to Maverick, that it's lack of drama in their lives that leads these boys to crime. To dramatize yourself is a child's natural instinct. Ma.erick says - ah yes, Maverick -' Lewis broke off.

  'I want Maverick to see Inspector Curry about Edgar.

  The whole thing is so ridiculous really.' 'What do you really know about Edgar Lawson, Mr Serrocold?' 'Everything,' said Lewis positively. 'Everything, that is, that one needs to know. His background, upbringing - his deep-seated lack of confidence in himself '

  Miss Marple interrupted.

  'Couldn't Edgar Lawson have poisoned Mrs Serro-cold?' she asked.

  'Hardly. He's only been here a few weeks. And anyway, it's ridiculous! Why should Edgar want to poison my wife? What could he possibly gain by doing SO?'

  'Nothing material, I know. But he might have - some odd reason. He is odd, you know.'

  'You mean unbalanced?'

  'I suppose so. No, I don't - not quite. What I mean is, he's all wrong.'

  It was not a very lucid exposition of what she felt.

  Lewis Serrocold accepted the words at their face value.

  'Yes,' he said with a sigh. 'He's all wrong, poor lad.

  And he was showing such marked improvement. I can't really understand why he had this sudden set-back...' Miss Marple leaned forward eagerly.

  'Yes, that's what I wondered. If-'

  She broke off as Inspector Curry came into the room.

  CHAPTER 12

  Lewis Serrocold went away, and Inspector Curry sat down and gave Miss Marple a rather peculiar smile.

  'So Mr Serrocold has been asking you to act as Watch dog,' he said.

  'Well, yes,' she added apologetically: 'I hope you don't mind ' 'I don't mind. I think it's a very good idea. Does Mr Serrocold know just how well qualified you are for the post?' 'I don't quite understand, Inspector.' 'I see. He thinks you're just a very nice elderly lady who was at school with his wife.' He shook his head at her. 'We know you're a bit more than that, Miss Marple, aren't you? Crime is right down your street. Mr Serro-cold only knows one aspect of crime - the promising beginners. Makes me a bit sick, sometimes. Daresay I'm wrong and old-fashioned. But there are plenty of good decent lads about, lads who could do with a start in life.

  But there, honesty has to be its own reward - millionaires don't leave trust funds to help the worthwhile. Well well, don't pay any attention to me. I'm old-fashioned.

  I've seen boys - and girls - with everything against them, bad homes, bad luck, every disadvantage, and they've had the grit to win through. That's the kind I shall leave my packet to, if I ever have one. But then, of course, that's what I never shall have. Just my pension and a nice bit of garden.'

  He nodded his head at Miss Marple.

  'Superintendent Blacker told me about you last night.

  Said you'd had a lot of experience of the seamy side of human nature. Well now, let's have your point of view.

  Who's the nigger in the woodpile? The G.I. husband?' 'That,' said Miss Marple, 'would be very convenient for everybody.' Inspector Curry smiled softly to himself.

  'A G.I. pinched my best girl,' he said reminiscently.

  'Naturally, I'm prejudiced. His manner doesn't help.

  Let's have the amateur point of view. Who's been secretly and systematically poisoning Mrs Serrocold?' 'Well,' said Miss Marple judicially, 'one is always inclined, human nature being what it is, to think of the husband. Or if it's the other way round, the wife. That's the first assumption, don't you think, in a poisoning case?' 'I agree with you every time,' said Inspector Curry.

  'But really - in this case -' Miss Marple shook her head. 'No, frankly - I can not seriously consider Mr Serrocold. Because you see, Inspector, he really is devoted to his wife. Naturally he would make a parade of being so - but it isn't a parade. It's very quiet, but it's genuine. He loves his wife, and I'm quite certain that he wouldn't poison her.' 'To say nothing of the fact that he wouldn't have any motive for doing so. She's made over her money to him already.' 'Of course,' said Miss Marple primly, 'there are other reasons for a gentleman wanting his wife out of the way.

  An attachment to a young woman, for instance. But I really don't see any signs of it in this case. Mr Serrocold does not act as though he had any romantic preoccupation. I'm really afraid,' she sounded quite regretful about it, 'we shall have to wash him out.' 'Regrettable, isn't it?' said the Inspector. He grinned. 'And anyway, he couldn't have killed Gulbrandsen. It seems to me that there's no doubt that the one thing hinges on the other. Whoever is poisoning Mrs Serrocold killed Gulbrandsen to prevent him spilling the beans.

  What we've got to get at now is who had an opportunity to kill Gulbrandsen last night. And our prize suspect -there's no doubt about it - is young Walter Hudd. It was he who switched on a reading lamp which resulted in a fuse going, thereby giving him the opportunity to leave the Hall and go to the fuse box. The fuse box is in the kitchen passage which opens off from the main corridor.

  It was during his absence from the Great Hall that the shot was heard. So that's suspect No. 1 perfectly placed for committing the crime.' 'And suspect No. 2?' asked Miss Marple.

  'Suspect No. 2 is Alex Restarick, who was alone in his car between the lodge and the house and took too long getting there.' 'Anybody else?' Miss Marple leaned forward eagerly remembering to add: 'It's very kind of you to tell me all this.' 'It's not kindness,
' said Inspector Curry. 'I've got to have your help. You put your finger on the spot when you said "Anybody else?" Because there I've got to depend onyou. You were there, in the Hall last night, and you can tell me who left it...' 'Yes - yes, I ought to be able to tell you... But can I?

  You see - the circumstances ' 'You mean that you were all listening to the argument going on behind the door of Mr Serrocold's study.'

  Miss Marple nodded vehemently.

  'Yes, you see we were all really very frightened. Mr Lawson looked - he really did - quite demented. Apart from Mrs Serrocold, who seemed quite unaffected, we all feared that he would do a mischief to Mr Serrocold. He was shouting, you know, and saying the most terrible things - we could hear them quite plainly - and what with that and with most of the lights being out - I didn't really notice anything else.' 'You mean that whilst that scene was going on, anybody could have slipped out of the Hall, gone along the corridor, shot Mr Gulbrandsen and slipped back again?' 'I think it would have been possible...' 'Could you say definitely that anybody was in the Great Hall the whole time?' Miss Marple considered.