Agatha Christie - The Unexpected Guest

Sergeant Cadwallader had been gazing out at the garden through the small window in the alcove. Now, seeing someone approaching across the lawn, he moved to one side of the french windows. In through the windows there entered a handsome man in his mid-thirties, above medium height, with fair hair, blue eyes and a somewhat military aspect. He paused at the entrance, looking very worried. Jan, the first of the others in the room to notice him, squealed excitedly, 'Julian! Julian!'

The newcomer looked at Jan and then turned to Laura Warwick. 'Laura!' he exclaimed. I've just heard. I'm – I'm most terribly sorry.'

'Good morning. Major Farrar,' Inspector Thomas greeted him.

Julian Farrar turned to the inspector. 'This is an extraordinary business.' he said. 'Poor Richard.' 'He was lying here in his wheelchair,' Jan told Farrar excitedly. 'He was all crumpled up. And there was a piece of paper on his chest. Do you know what it said? It said "Paid in full".'

'Yes. There, there, Jan,' Julian Farrar murmured, patting the boy's shoulder.

'It is exciting, isn't it?' Jan continued, looking eagerly at him.

Farrar moved past him. 'Yes. Yes, of course it's exciting,' he assured Jan, looking enquiringly towards Starkwedder as he spoke.

The inspector introduced the two men to each other. 'This is Mr Starkwedder – Major Farrar, who may be our next Member of Parliament. He's contesting the by-election.'

Starkwedder and Julian Farrar shook hands, politely murmuring, 'How do you do?' The inspector moved away, beckoning to the sergeant who joined him. They conferred, as Starkwedder explained to Major Farrar, 'I'd run my car into a ditch, and I was coming up to the house to see if I could telephone and get some help. A man dashed out of the house, almost knocking me over.'

'But which way did this man go?' Farrar asked.

'No idea,' Starkwedder replied. 'He vanished into the mist like a conjuring trick.' He turned away, while Jan, kneeling in the armchair and looking expectantly at Farrar, said, 'You told Richard someone would shoot him one day, didn't you, Julian?'

There was a pause. Everyone in the room looked at Julian Farrar.

Farrar thought for a moment. Then, 'Did I? I don't remember,' he said brusquely.

'Oh, yes, you did,' Jan insisted. 'At dinner one night. You know, you and Richard were having a sort of argument, and you said, "One of these days, Richard, somebody'll put a bullet through your head."'

'A remarkable prophecy,' the inspector commented.

Julian Farrar moved to sit on one end of the footstool. 'Oh well,' he said, 'Richard and his guns were pretty fair nuisance value, you know. People didn't like it. Why, there was that fellow – you remember, Laura? Your gardener, Griffiths. You know – the one Richard sacked. Griffiths certainly said to me – and on more than one occasion – "One of these days, look you, I shall come with my gun and I shall shoot Mr Warwick."'

'Oh, Griffiths wouldn't do a thing like that,' Laura exclaimed quickly.

Farrar looked contrite. 'No, no, of course not,' he admitted. 'I – I didn't mean that. I mean that it was the sort of thing that – er – people said about Richard.'

To cover his embarrassment, he took out his cigarette-case and extracted a cigarette.

The inspector sat in the desk chair, looking thoughtful. Starkwedder stood in a corner near the alcove, close to Jan who gazed at him with interest.

'I wish I'd come over here last night,' Julian Farrar announced, addressing no one in particular. 'I meant to.'

'But that awful fog,' Laura said quietly. 'You couldn't come out in that.'

'No,' Farrar replied. 'I had my committee members over to dine with me. When they found the fog coming on, they went home rather early. I thought then of coming along to see you, but I decided against it.' Searching in his pockets, he asked, 'Has anyone got a match? I seem to have mislaid my lighter.'

He looked around, and suddenly noticed the lighter on the table where Laura had left it the night before. Rising, he went across to pick it up, observed by Starkwedder. 'Oh, here it is,' said Farrar. 'Couldn't imagine where I'd left it.'

'Julian –' Laura began.

'Yes?' Farrar offered her a cigarette, and she took one. 'I'm most awfully sorry about all this, Laura,' he said. 'If there's anything I can do –' His voice trailed off indecisively.

'Yes. Yes, I know,' Laura replied, as Farrar lit their cigarettes.

Jan suddenly spoke, addressing Starkwedder. 'Can you shoot, Mr Starkwedder?' he asked. 'I can, you know. Richard used to let me try, sometimes. Of course, I wasn't as good as he was.'

'Did he, indeed?' said Starkwedder, turning to Jan. 'What sort of gun did he let you use?'

As Jan engaged Starkwedder's attention, Laura took the opportunity of speaking quickly to Julian Farrar.

'Julian, I must talk to you. I must,' she murmured softly.

Farrar's voice was equally low. 'Careful,' he warned her.

'It was a .22,' Jan was telling Starkwedder. 'I'm quite good at shooting, aren't I, Julian?' He went across to Julian Farrar. 'Do you remember the time you took me to the fair? I knocked two of the bottles down, didn't I?'

'You did indeed, my lad,' Farrar assured him. 'You've got a good eye, that's what counts. Good eye for a cricket ball, too. That was quite a sensational game, that match we had last summer,' he added.

Jan smiled at him happily, and then sat on the footstool, looking across at the inspector who was now examining documents on the desk. There was a pause. Then Starkwedder, as he took out a cigarette, asked Laura, 'Do you mind if I smoke?'

'Of course not,' replied Laura.

Starkwedder turned to Julian Farrar. 'May I borrow your lighter?'

'Of course,' said Farrar. 'Here it is.'

'Ah, a nice lighter, this,' Starkwedder commented, lighting his cigarette.

Laura made a sudden movement, and then stopped herself. 'Yes,' Farrar said carelessly. 'It works better than most.'

'Rather – distinctive,' Starkwedder observed. He gave a quick glance at Laura, and then returned the lighter to Julian Farrar with a murmured word of thanks.

Jan left his footstool, and stood behind the inspector's chair. 'Richard has lots of guns,' he confided. 'Air-guns, too. And he's got one gun that he used to use in Africa to shoot elephants. Would you like to see them? They're in Richard's bedroom through there.' He pointed the way.

'All right,' said the inspector, rising. 'You show them to us.' He smiled at Jan, adding genially, 'You know, you're being very helpful to us. Helping us quite a lot. We ought to take you into the police force.'

Putting a hand on the boy's shoulder, he steered him towards the door, which the sergeant opened for them. 'We don't need to keep you, Mr Starkwedder,' the inspector called from the door. 'You can go about your business now. Just keep in touch with us, that's all.'

'All right,' replied Starkwedder, as Jan, the inspector and the sergeant left the room, the sergeant closing the door behind them.

There was an awkward pause after the police officers had left the room with Jan. Then Starkwedder remarked, 'Well, I suppose I'd better go and see whether they've managed to get my car out of the ditch yet. We didn't seem to pass it on the way here.'

'No,' Laura explained. 'The drive comes up from the other road.'

'Yes, I see,' Starkwedder answered, as he walked across to the french windows. He turned. 'How different things look in the daylight,' he observed as he stepped out onto the terrace.

As soon as he had gone, Laura and Julian Farrar turned to each other. 'Julian!' Laura exclaimed. 'That lighter! I said it was mine.''

'You said it was yours? To the inspector?' Farrar asked.

'No. To him.'

'To – to this fellow –' Farrar began, and then stopped as they both noticed Starkwedder walking along the terrace outside the windows. 'Laura –' he began again.