The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories
Page 2
Marroway or Mrs. Rustington can do all the
searching you like."
"Well, that's that then," said Mr. Pointz.
"What are you setting up to be? A first class jewel
thief?"
"I might take to it as a career--if it really
paid."
"If you got away with the Morning Star it
would pay you. Even after recutting that stone
would be worth over thirty thousand pounds."
"My!" said Eve, impressed. "What's that in
dollars?"
Lady Marroway uttered an exclamation.
"And you carry such a stone about with
you?" she said reproachfully. "Thirty thousand
pounds." Her darkened eyelashes quivered.
Mrs. Rustington said softly: "It's a lot of
money And
then there's the fascination of the
stone itself
It's beautiful."
THE REGATTA MYSTERY
"Just a piece of carbon," said Evan Llewellyn.
"I've always understood it's the 'fence' that'
the difficulty in jewel robberies," said Sir Georg
"He takes the lion's share--eh, what?"
"Come on," said Eve excitedly. "Let's star
Take the diamond out and say what you said la
night."
Mr. Leathern said in his deep melancholy voic
"I do apologize for my offspring. She ge
kinder worked up--"
"That'll do, Pops," said Eve. "Now then, M
Pointz--"
Smiling, Mr. Pointz fumbled in an inne
pocket. He drew something out. It lay on the pale
of his hand, blinking in the light.
A diamond ....
Rather stiffly, Mr. Pointz repeated as far as h
could remember his speech of the previous evenin
on the Merrirnaid.
"Perhaps you ladies and gentlemen would Ilk
to have a look at this? It's an unusually beautift
stone. I call it the Morning Star and it's by way c
being my mascot--goes about with me anywhere
Like to see it?"
He handed it to Lady Marroway, who took i
exclaimed at its beauty and passed it to Mr. Leatl
ern who said, "Pretty good--yes, pretty good," i
a somewhat artificial manner and in his tur,
passed it to Llewellyn.
The waiters coming in at that moment there wa
a slight hitch in the proceedings. When they hat
gone again, Evan said, "Very fine stone" ant
passed it to Leo Stein who did not trouble to mak,
any comment but handed it quickly on to Eve.
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Agatha Christie
"How perfectly lovely," cried Eve in a high affected
voice.
"Oh!" She gave a cry of consternation as it
slipped from her hand. "I've dropped it."
She pushed back her chair and got down to
grope under the table. Sir George at her right, bent
also. A glass got swept off the table in the confusion.
Stein, Llewellyn and Mrs. Rustington all
helped in the search. Finally Lady Marroway
joined in.
Only Mr. Pointz took no part in the proceedings.
He remained in his seat sipping his wine and
smiling sardonically.
"Oh, dear," said Eve, still in her artificial
manner. "How dreadful! Where can it have rolled
to? I can't find it anywhere."
One by one the assistant searchers rose to their
feet.
"It's disappeared all right, Pointz," said Sir
George, smiling.
"Very nicely done," said Mr. Pointz, nodding
approval. "You'd make a very good actress, Eve.
Now the question is, have you hidden it somewhere
or have you got it on you?"
"Search me," said Eve dramatically.
Mr. Pointz' eye sought out a large screen in the
corner of the room.
He nodded towards it and then looked at Lady
Marroway and Mrs. R.ustington.
"If you ladies will be so good--"
"Why, certainly," said Lady Marroway, smiling.
The two women rose.
Lady Marroway said,
THE REGATTA MYSTERY
13
"Don't be afraid, Mr. Pointz. We'll vet her
properly."
The three went behind the screen.
The room was hot. Evan Llewellyn flung open
the window. A news vender was passing. Evan
threw down a coin and the man threw up a paper.
Llewellyn unfolded it.
,'Hungarian situation none too good," he
said.
"That the local rag?" asked Sir George.
"There's a horse I'm interested in ought to have
run at Haldon today--Natty Boy."
"Leo," said Mr. Pointz. "Lock the door: We
don't want those damned waiters popping in and
out till this business is over."
"Natty Boy won three to one," said Evan.
"Rotten odds," said Sir George.
"Mostly Regatta news," said Evan, glancing
over the sheet.
The three young women came out from the
screen.
"Not a sign of it," said Janet Rustington.
"You can take it from me she hasn't got it on
her," said Lady Marroway.
Mr. Pointz thought he would be quite ready to
take it from her. There was a grim tone in her
voice and he felt no doubt that the search had been
thorough.
"Say, Eve, you haven't swallowed it?" asked
'i Mr. Leathern anxiously. "Because maybe that
wouldn't be too good for you."
"I'd have seen her do that," said Leo Stein
quietly. "I was watching her. She didn't put any-thing
in her mouth."
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Agatha Christie
"I couldn't swallow a great thing all points like
that," said Eve. She put her hands on her hips and
looked at Mr. Pointz. "What about it, big boy?"
she asked.
"You stand over there where you are and don't
.move," said that gentleman.
Among them, the men stripped the table and
turned it upside down. Mr. Pointz examined every
inch of it. Then he transferred his attention to the
chair on which Eve had been sitting and those on
either side of her.
The thoroughness of the search left nothing to
be desired. The other four men joined in and the
women also. Eve Leathern stood by the wall
near the screen and laughed with intense enjoy-ment.
Five minutes later Mr. Pointz rose with a slight
groan from his knees and dusted his trousers
sadly. His pristine freshness was somewhat im-paired.
"Eve," he said. "I take off my hat to you.
You're the finest thing in jewel thieves I've ever
come across. What you've done with that stone
beats me. As far as I can see it must be in the room
as it isn't on you. I give you best."
"Are the stockings mine?" demanded Eve.
"They're yours, young lady."
"Eve, my child, where can you have hidden it?"
demanded Mrs. Rustington curiously.
Eve pranced forward.
"I'll show you. You'll all be just mad with
yourselves."
She went across to the side table where the
things from the dinner table had been roughly
TH
E REGATTA MYSTERY
15
stacked. She picked up her little black evening
bag
''Right
under your eyes. Right..."
Her voice, gay and triumphant, trailed off sud-denly.
"Oh," she said. "Oh .... "
"What's the matter, honey?" said her father.
Eve whispered: "It's gone.., it's gone .... "
"What's all this?" asked Pointz, coming for-ward.
Eve turned to him impetuously.
"It was like this. This pochette of mine has a big
paste stone in the middle of the clasp. It fell out
last night and just when you were showing that
diamond round I noticed that it was much the
same size. And so I thought in the night what a
good idea for a robbery it would be to wedge your
diamond into the gap with a bit of plasticine. I felt
sure nobody would ever spot it. That's what I did
tonight. First I dropped it--then went down after
it with the bag in my hand, stuck it into the gap
with a bit of plasticine which I had handy, put my
bag on the table and went on pretending to look
for the diamond. I thought it would be like the
Purloined Letter--you know--lying there in full
view under all your noses--and just looking like a
common bit of rhinestone. And it was a good plan
--none of you did notice."
"I wonder," said Mr. Stein.
"What did you say?"
Mr. Pointz took the bag, looked at the empty
hole with a fragment of plasticine still adhering to
it and said slowly: "It may have fallen out. We'd
better look again."
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Agatha Christie
The search was repeated, but this time it was a
curiously silent business. An atmosphere of ten-sion
pervaded the room.
Finally everyone in turn gave it up. They stood
looking at each other.
"It's not in this room," said Stein.
"And nobody's left the room," said Sir George
significantly.
There was a moment's pause. Eve ,urst into
tears.
Her father patted her on the shoulder.
"There, there," he said awkwardly.
Sir George turned to Leo Stein.
"Mr. Stein," he said. "Just now you murmured
something under your breath. When I asked you
to repeat it, you said it was nothing. But as a
matter of fact I heard what you said. Miss Eve had
just said that none of us noticed the place where
she had put the diamond. The words you mur-mured
were: 'I wonder.' What we have to face is
the probability that one person did notice--that
that person is in this room now. I suggest that the
only fair and honorable thing is for every one
present to submit to a search. The diamond can-not
have left the room."
When Sir George played the part of the old
English gentleman, none could play it better. His
voice rang with sincerity and indignation.
"Bit unpleasant, alLthis," said Mr. Pointz
unhappily.
:,!
"It's all my fault," Sobbed Eve. "I didn't
mean--"
"Buck up, kiddo," said Mr. Stein kindly.
"Nobody's blaming you."
THE REGATTA MYSTERY
17
Mr. Leathern said in his slow pedantic manner,
"Why, certainly, I think that Sir George's sug-gestion
will meet with the fullest approval from all
of us. It does from me."
"I agree," said Evan Llewellyn.
Mrs. Rustington looked at Lady Marroway who
nodded a brief assent. The two of them went back
behind the screen and the sobbing Eve accom-panied
them.
A waiter knocked on the door and was told to
go away.
Five minutes later eight people looked at each
other incredulously.
The Morning Star had vanished into space ....
Mr. Parker Pyne looked thoughtfully at the
dark agitated face of the young man opposite him.
"Of course," he said. "You're Welsh, Mr.
Llewellyn."
"What's that got to do with it?"
Mr. Parker Pyne waved a large, well-cared-for
hand.
"Nothing at all, I admit. I am interested in the
classification of emotional reactions as exempli-fied
by certain racial types. That is all. Let us
return to the consideration of your particular
problem."
"I don't really know why I came to you," said
Evan Llewellyn. His hands twitched nervously,
and his dark face had a haggard look. He did not
look at Mr. Parker Pyne and that gentleman's
scrutiny seemed to make him uncomfortable. "I
don't know why I came to you," he repeated.
"But where the Hell can I go? And what the Hell
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Agatha Christie
can I do? It'9 the powerlessness of not being able
to do anythirg at all that gets me .... I saw your
advertisement and I remembered that a chap had
once spoken if you and said that you got results.
. . . And--w¢ll--I came! I suppose I was a fool.
It's the sort of position nobody can do anything
about."
"Not at all," said Mr. Parker Pyne. "I am the
proper persors to come to. I am a specialist in un.
happiness. This business has obviously caused you
a good deal of pain. You are sure the facts are
exactly as you have told me?"
"I don't tlaink I've left out anything. Pointz
brought out the diamond and passed it around--that
wretched American child stuck it on her
ridiculous bag and when we came to look at the
bag, the diamond was gone. It wasn't on anyone
--old Pointz himself even was searched--he suggested
it himself--and I'll swear it was nowhere in
that room I A nd nobody left the room
"No waiters, for instance?" suggested Mr.
Parker Pyne.
Llewellyn shook his head.
"They went out before the girl began messing
about with the diamond, and afterwards Pointz
locked the door so as to keep them out. No, it lies
between one of us."
"It would certainly seem so," said Mr. Parker
Pyne thoughtfully.
"That damned evening paper," said Evan Lewellyn
bitterly. "I saw it come into their minds--that
that was the only way--"
"Just tell me again exactly what occurred."
"It was perfectly simple. I threw open the win
THE REGATTA MYSTERY
19
dow, whistled to the man, threw down a copper
and he tossed me up the paper. And there it is; you
see--the only possible way the diamond could
have left the room--thrown by me to an accom-plice
waiting in the street below."
"Not the only possible way," said Mr. Parker
Pyne.
"What other way can you suggest?"
"If you didn't throw it out, there must have
been some other way."
"Oh, I see. I hoped you meant something more
definite than that. Well, I can only say that I
didn't throw it out. I can't expect you to believe
"Oh, yes, I believe you," said Mr. Parker Pyne.
"You do? Why?"
"Not a criminal type," said Mr. Parker Pyne.
"Not, that is, the particular criminal type that
steals jewelry. There are crimes, of course, that
you might commit--but we won't enter into that
subject. At any rate I do not see you as the pur-!oiner
of the Morning Star."
"Everyone else does though," said Llewellyn
bitterly.
"I see," said Mr. Parker Pyne.
"They looked at me in a queer sort of way at the
time. Marroway picked up the paper and just
glanced over at the window. He didn't say any-thing.
But Pointz cottoned on to it quick enough!
I could see what they thought. There hasn't been
any open accusation, that's the devil of it."
Mr. Parker Pyne nodded sympathetically.
"It is worse than that," he said.
"Yes. It's just suspicion. I've had a fellow
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Agatha Christie