Agatha Christie - Spider's Web

Clarissa gave him one of her most charming smiles.

"Don't you think, Inspector, that you ought to beg my pardon?" she suggested.

The Inspector injected a certain amount of charm into his voice as he responded. "I do apologise, Mrs. Hailsham-Brown," he said, "but it really is extremely odd, you know."

"Why? What do you mean?" Clarissa asked, as she replaced the document in the drawer.

"Well, it so happens," the Inspector replied, "that a lady and a gentleman were down in this area with orders to view this house, and the lady happened to lose a very valuable brooch somewhere in the vicinity. She called in at the police station to give particulars, and she happened to mention this house. She said the owners were asking an absurd price. She thought eighteen guineas a week for a house out in the country and miles from anywhere was ridiculous. I thought so too."

"Yes, that is extraordinary, very extraordinary," Clarissa agreed, with a friendly smile. "I understand why you were sceptical. But perhaps now you'll believe some of the other things I said."

"I'm not doubting your final story, Mrs. Hailsham-Brown," the Inspector assured her. "We usually know the truth when we hear it. I knew, too, that there would have to be some serious reason for those three gentlemen to cook up this hare-brained scheme of concealment."

"You mustn't blame them too much, Inspector," Clarissa pleaded. "It was my fault. I went on and on at them."

All too aware of her charm, the Inspector replied, "Ah, I've no doubt you did. But what I still don't understand is, who telephoned the police in the first place and reported the murder?"

"Yes, that is extraordinary!" said Clarissa, sounding startled. "I'd completely forgotten that."

"It clearly wasn't you," the Inspector pointed out, "and it wouldn't have been any of the three gentlemen..."

Clarissa shook her head. "Could it have been Elgin?" she wondered. "Or perhaps Miss Peake?"

"I don't think it could possibly have been Miss Peake," said the Inspector. "She clearly didn't know Costello's body was there."

"I wonder if that's so," said Clarissa thoughtfully.

"After all, when the body was discovered, she had hysterics," the Inspector reminded her.

"Oh, that's nothing. Anyone can have hysterics," Clarissa remarked incautiously. The Inspector shot her a suspicious glance, at which she felt it expedient to give him as innocent a smile as she could manage.

"Anyway, Miss Peake doesn't live in the house," the Inspector observed. "She has her own cottage in the grounds."

"But she could have been in the house," said Clarissa. "You know, she has keys to all the doors."

The Inspector shook his head. "No, it looks to me more like Elgin who must have called us," he said.

Clarissa moved closer to him and flashed him a somewhat anxious smile. "You're not going to send me to prison, are you?" she asked. "Uncle Roly said he was sure you wouldn't."

The Inspector gave her an austere look. "It's a good thing you changed your story in time and told us the truth, madam," he advised her sternly. "But, if I may say so, Mrs. Hailsham-Brown, I think you should get in touch with your solicitor as soon as possible and give him all the relevant facts. In the meantime, I'll get your statement typed out and read over to you, and perhaps you will be good enough to sign it."

Clarissa was about to reply when the hall door opened and Sir Rowland entered. "I couldn't keep away any longer," he explained. "Is it all right now, Inspector? Do you understand what our dilemma was?"

Clarissa went across to her guardian before he could say any more. "Roly, darling," she greeted him, taking his hand. "I've made a statement, and the police – or rather, Mr. Jones here – is going to type it out. Then I've got to sign it, and I've told them everything."

The Inspector went over to confer with his constable, and Clarissa continued speaking to Sir Rowland. "I told them how I thought it was a burglar," she said with emphasis, "and hit him on the head..."

When Sir Rowland looked at her in alarm and opened his mouth to speak, she quickly covered his mouth with her hands so that he could not get the words out. She continued hurriedly, "Then I told them how it turned out to be Oliver Costello, and how I got in a terrible flap and rang you, and how I begged and begged and at last you all gave in. I see now how wrong of me it was..."

The Inspector turned back to them, and Clarissa removed her hand from Sir Rowland's mouth just in time. "But when it happened," she was saying, "I was just scared stiff, and I thought it would be cosier for everybody – me, Henry and even Miranda – if Oliver was found in Marsden Wood."

Sir Rowland looked aghast. "Clarissa! What on earth have you been saying?" he gasped.

"Mrs. Hailsham-Brown has made a very full statement, sir," the Inspector said complacently.

Recovering himself somewhat, Sir Rowland replied drily, "So it seems."

"It's the best thing to do," said Clarissa. "In fact, it was the only thing to do. The Inspector made me see that. And I'm truly sorry to have told all those silly lies."

"It will lead to far less trouble in the end," the Inspector assured her. "Now, Mrs. Hailsham-Brown," he went on, "I shan't ask you to go into the recess while the body is still there, but I'd like you to show me exactly where the man was standing when you came through that way into this room."

"Oh... yes... well... he was..." Clarissa began hesitantly. She went across to the desk. "No," she continued, "I remember now. He was standing here like this." She stood at one end of the desk and leaned over it.

"Be ready to open the panel when I give you the word, Jones," said the Inspector, motioning to the Constable, who rose and put his hand on the panel switch.

"I see," the Inspector said to Clarissa. "That's where he was standing. And then the door opened and you came out. All right, I don't want you to have to look in there at the body now, so just stand in front of the panel when it opens. Now – Jones."

The Constable activated the switch, and the panel opened. The recess, however, was empty except for a small piece of paper on the floor, which Constable Jones retrieved, while the Inspector looked accusingly at Clarissa and Sir Rowland.

The Constable read out what was on the slip of paper. "Sucks to you!" As the Inspector snatched the paper from him, Clarissa and Sir Rowland looked at each other in astonishment.

Suddenly, the front-door bell began to peal loudly.

THE FRONT-DOOR bell was answered by Elgin, who came into the drawing-room to announce to the Inspector that the Divisional Surgeon had arrived. The Inspector and Constable Jones immediately accompanied the butler to the front door, where the Inspector had the unenviable task of confessing to the Divisional Surgeon that, as it turned out, there was at present no body to examine.

"Really, Inspector Lord," the Divisional Surgeon said irritably, "Do you realize how infuriating it is to have brought me all this way on a wild-goose chase?"

"But I assure you, Doctor," the Inspector attempted to explain, "we did have a body."

"The Inspector's right, Doctor," Constable Jones added his voice. "We certainly did have a body. It just happens to have disappeared."

The sound of their voices had brought Hugo and Jeremy out from the dining-room on the other side of the hall. Hearing now that the body had disappeared, they could not refrain from making their unhelpful comments. "I can't think how you policemen ever get anything done – losing bodies, indeed," Hugo expostulated, while Jeremy exclaimed, "I don't understand why a guard wasn't put on the body."

"Well, whatever has happened, if there's no body for me to examine, I'm not wasting any more time here," the Divisional Surgeon snapped at the Inspector. "I can assure you that you'll hear more about this, Inspector Lord."