Agatha Christie - The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

'I haven't been able to find one so far,' said Craddock.

'That's very gratifying. I feel safer.'

'I'm just interested in what you may have seen that day.'

'You've had that already. The local police had that straight away. It's humiliating. There I was on the scene of a murder. I practically saw the murder committed, must have done, and yet I've no idea who did it. I'm ashamed to confess that the first I knew about it was seeing the poor, dear woman sitting on a chair gasping for breath and then pegging out. Of course it made a very good eye-witness account. It was a good scoop for me – and all that. But I'll confess to you that I feel humiliated that I don't know more. I ought to know more. And you can't kid me that the dose was meant for Heather Badcock. She was a nice woman who talked too much, but nobody gets murdered for that – unless of course they give away secrets. But I don't think anybody would ever have told Heather Badcock a secret. She wasn't the kind of woman who'd have been interested in other people's secrets. My view of her is of a woman who invariably talked about herself.'

'That seems to be the generally accepted view,' agreed Craddock.

'So we come to the famous Marina Gregg. I'm sure there are lots of wonderful motives for murdering Marina. Envy and jealousy and love tangles – all the stuff of drama. But who did it? Someone with a screw loose, I presume. There! You've had my valuable opinion. Is that what you wanted?'

'Not that alone. I understand that you arrived and came up the stairs about the same time as the vicar and the mayor.'

'Quite correct. But that wasn't the first time I'd arrived. I'd been there earlier.'

'I didn't know that.'

'Yes. I was on a kind of roving commission, you know, going here and there. I had a photographer with me. I'd gone down to take a few local shots of the mayor arriving and throwing a hoopla and putting in a peg for buried treasure and that kind of thing. Then I went back up again, not so much on the job, as to get a drink or two. The drink was good.'

'I see. Now can you remember who else was on the staircase when you went up?'

'Margot Bence from London was there with her camera.'

'You know her well?'

'Oh I just run against her quite often. She's a clever girl, who makes a success of her stuff. She takes all the fashionable things – First Nights, Gala Performances – specializes in photographs from unusual angles. Arty! She was in a corner of the half landing very well placed for taking anyone who came up and for taking the greetings going on at the top. Lola Brewster was just ahead of me on the stairs. Didn't know her at first. She's got a new rust-red hair-do. The very latest Fiji Islander type. Last time I saw her it was lank waves falling round her face and chin in a nice shade of auburn. There was a big dark man with her, American. I don't know who he was but he looked important.'

'Did you look at Marina Gregg herself at all as you were coming up?'

'Yes, of course I did.'

'She didn't look upset or as though she'd had a shock or was frightened?'

'It's odd you should say that. I did think for a moment or two she was going to faint.'

'I see,' said Craddock thoughtfully. 'Thanks. There's nothing else you'd like to tell me?'

McNeil gave him a wide innocent stare.

'What could there be?'

'I don't trust you,' said Craddock.

'But you seem quite sure I didn't do it. Disappointing. Suppose I turn out to be her first husband. Nobody knows who he was except that he was so insignificant that even his name's been forgotten.'

Dermot grinned.

'Married from your prep school?' he asked. 'Or possibly in rompers! I must hurry. I've got a train to catch.'

There was a neatly docketed pile of papers on Craddock's desk at New Scotland Yard. He gave a perfunctory glance through them, then threw a question over his shoulder.

'Where's Lola Brewster staying?'

'At the Savoy, sir. Suite 1800. She's expecting you.

'And Ardwyck Fern?'

'He's at the Dorchester. First floor, 190."

He picked up some cablegrams and read through them again before shoving them into his pocket. He smiled a moment to himself over the last one. 'Don't say I don't do my stuff, Aunt Jane,' he murmured under his breath.

He went out and made his way to the Savoy.

In Lola Brewster's suite Lola went out of her way to welcome him effusively. With the report he had just read in his mind, he studied her carefully. Quite a beauty still, he thought, in a lush kind of way, what you might call a trifle overblown, perhaps, but they still liked them that way. A completely different type, of course, from Marina Gregg. The amenities over, Lola pushed back her Fiji Islander hair, drew her generous lipsticked mouth into a provocative pout, and flickering blue eyelids over wide brown eyes, said:

'Have you come to ask me a lot more horrible questions? Like that local inspector did.'

'I hope they won't be too horrible, Miss Brewster.'

'Oh, but I'm sure they will be, and I'm sure the whole thing must have been some terrible mistake.'

'Do you really think so?'

'Yes. It's all such nonsense. Do you really mean that someone tried to poison Marina? Who on earth would poison Marina? She's an absolute sweetie, you know. Everybody loves her.'

'Including you?'

'I've always been devoted to Marina.'

'Oh come now, Miss Brewster, wasn't there a little trouble about eleven or twelve years ago?'

'Oh that.' Lola waved it away. 'I was terribly nervy and distraught, and Rob and I had been having the most frightful quarrels. We were neither of us normal at the moment. Marina just fell wildly in love with him and rushed him off his feet, the poor pet.'

'And you minded very much?'

'Well, I thought I did, Inspector. Of course I see now it was one of the best things that ever happened for me. I was really worried about the children, you know. Breaking up our home. I'm afraid I'd already realized that Rob and I were incompatible. I expect you know I got married to Eddie Groves as soon as the divorce went through? I think really I'd been in love with him for a long time, but of course I didn't want to break up my marriage, because of the children. It's so important, isn't it, that children should have a home?'

'Yet people say that actually you were terribly upset.'

'Oh, people always say things,' said Lola vaguely.

'You said quite a lot, didn't you, Miss Brewster? You went about threatening to shoot Marina Gregg, or so I understand.'

'I've told you one says things. One's supposed to say things like that. Of course I wouldn't really shoot anyone.'

'In spite of taking a pot-shot at Eddie Groves some few years later?'

'Oh, that was because we'd had an argument,' said Lola. 'I lost my temper.'

'I have it on very good authority, Miss Brewster, that you said – and these are your exact words or so I'm told,' (he read from a note-book) – 'That bitch needn't think she'll get away with it. If I don't shoot her now I'll wait and get her in some other way. I don't care how long I wait, years if need be, but I'll get even with her in the end.'

'Oh, I'm sure I never said anything of the kind,' Lola laughed.

'I'm sure, Miss Brewster, that you did.'

'People exaggerate so.' A charming smile broke over her face. 'I was just mad at the moment, you know,' she murmured confidentially. 'One says all sorts of things when one's mad with people. But you don't really think I'd wait fourteen years and come across to England, and look up Marina and drop some deadly poison into her cocktail glass within three minutes of seeing her again?'

Dermot Craddock didn't really think so. It seemed to him wildly improbable. He merely said:

'I'm only pointing out to you, Miss Brewster, that there had been threats in the past and that Marina Gregg was certainly startled and frightened to see someone who came up the stairs that day. Naturally one feels that that someone must have been you.'