Agatha Christie: Nemesis

"You must have some sherry," said Mrs Glynne.

She went out of the room and presently returned. Anthea was with her, quite calm now, bringing glasses and a decanter of sherry, and they sat down together.

"I can't help wanting to know," said Mrs Glynne, "what really is going to happen in this business. I mean of poor Miss Temple. I mean, it seems so very impossible to know what the police think. They still seem to be in charge, and I mean the inquest being adjourned, so obviously they are not satisfied. I don't know if there's anything in the nature of the wound."

"I shouldn't think so," said Miss Barrow.

"I mean a blow on the head, bad concussion – well, I mean that came from the boulder. The only point is, Miss Marple, if the boulder rolled itself down or somebody rolled it."

"Oh," said Miss Cooke, "but surely you can't think that who on earth would want to roll a boulder down, do that sort of thing? I suppose there are always hooligans about. You know, some young foreigners or students. I really wonder, you know, whether well -"

"You mean," said Miss Marple, "you wondered if that someone was one of our fellow travellers."

"Well, I – I didn't say that," said Miss Cooke.

"But surely," said Miss Marple, "we can't help – well, thinking about that sort of thing. I mean, there must be some explanation. If the police seem sure it wasn't an accident, well then it must have been done by somebody and well, I mean, Miss Temple was a stranger to this place here. It doesn't seem as if anyone could have done it – anyone local I mean. So it really comes back to, well, I mean, to all of us who were in the coach, doesn't it?"

She gave a faint, rather whinnying old lady's laugh.

"Oh surely!"

"No, I suppose I ought not to say such things. But you know, really crimes are very interesting. Sometimes the most extraordinary things have happened."

"Have you any definite feeling yourself, Miss Marple? I should be interested to hear," said Clotilde.

"Well, one does think of possibilities."

"Mr Caspar," said Miss Cooke. "You know, I didn't like the look of that man from the first. He looked to me – well, I thought he might have something to do with espionage or something. You know, perhaps come to this country to look for atomic secrets or something."

"I don't think we've got any atomic secrets round here," said Mrs Glynne.

"Of course we haven't," said Anthea.

"Perhaps it was someone who was following her. Perhaps it was someone who was tracking her because she was a criminal of some kind."

"Nonsense," said Clotilde. "She was the retired Headmistress of a very well known school, she was a very fine scholar. Why should anyone be trying to track her down?"

"Oh, I don't know. She might have gone peculiar or something."

"I'm sure," said Mrs Glynne, "that Miss Marple has some ideas."

"Well, I have some ideas," said Miss Marple. "It seems to me that – well, the only people that could be… Oh dear, this is so difficult to say. But I mean there are two people who just spring into one's mind as possibilities logically. I mean, I don't think that it's really so at all because I'm sure they're both very nice people, but I mean there's nobody else really logically who could be suspected, should I say."

"Who do you mean? This is very interesting."

"Well, I don't think I ought to say such things. It's only a… sort of wild conjecture."

"Who do you think might have rolled the boulder down? Who do you think could have been the person that Joanna and Emlyn Price saw?"

"Well, what I did think was that that perhaps they hadn't seen anybody."

"I don't quite understand," said Anthea, "they hadn't seen anybody?"

"Well, perhaps they might have made it all up."

"What, about seeing someone?"

"Well, it's possible, isn't it."

"Do you mean as a sort of joke or a sort of unkind idea? What do you mean?"

"Well, I suppose one does hear of young people doing very extraordinary things nowadays," said Miss Marple. "You know, putting things in horses' eyes, smashing Legation windows and attacking people. Throwing stones, at people, and it's usually being done by somebody young, isn't it? And they were the only young people, weren't they?"

"You mean Emlyn Price and Joanna might have rolled over that boulder?"

"Well, they're the only sort of obvious people, aren't they?" said Miss Marple.

"Fancy!" said Clotilde. "Oh, I should never have thought of that. But I see yes, I just see that there could be something in what you say. Of course, I don't know what those two were like. I haven't been travelling with them."

"Oh, they were very nice," said Miss Marple. "Joanna seemed to me a particularly, you know, capable girl."

"Capable of doing anything?" asked Anthea.

"Anthea," said Clotilde, "do be quiet."

"Yes. Quite capable," said Miss Marple. "After all, if you're going to do what may result in murder, you'd have to be rather capable so as to manage not to be seen or anything."

"They must have been in it together, though," suggested Miss Barrow.

"Oh yes," said Miss Marple. "They were in it together and they told roughly the same story. They are the well, they are the obvious suspects, that's all I can say. They were out of sight of the others. All the other people were on the lower path. They could have gone up to the top of the hill, they could have rocked the boulder. Perhaps they didn't mean to kill Miss Temple specially. They may have meant it just as a well, just as a piece of anarchy or smashing something or someone – anyone in fact. They rolled it over. And then of course they told the story of seeing someone there. Some rather peculiar costume or other which also sounds very unlikely and well, I oughtn't to say these things but I have been thinking about it."

"It seems to me a very interesting thought," said Mrs Glynne. "What do you think, Clotilde?"

"I think it's a possibility. I shouldn't have thought of it myself."

"Well," said Miss Cooke, rising to her feet, "we must be going back to the Golden Boar now. Are you coming with us, Miss Marple?"

"Oh no," said Miss Marple. "I suppose you don't know. I've forgotten to tell you. Miss Bradbury-Scott very kindly asked me to come back and stay another night or two nights here."

"Oh, I see. Well, I'm sure that'll be very nice for you. Much more comfortable. They seem rather a noisy lot that have arrived at the Golden Boar this evening."

"Won't you come round and have some coffee with us after dinner?" suggested Clotilde. "It's quite a warm evening. We can't offer you dinner because I'm afraid we haven't got enough in the house, but if you'll come in and have some coffee with us…"

"That would be very nice," said Miss Cooke. "Yes, we will certainly avail ourselves of your hospitality."

Miss Cooke and Miss Barrow arrived very promptly at 8:45. One wore beige lace and the other one a shade of olive green. During dinner Anthea had asked Miss Marple about these two ladies.

"It seems very funny of them," she said, "to want to stay behind."

"Oh, I don't think so," said Miss Marple. "I think it is really quite natural. They have a rather exact plan, I imagine."

"What do you mean by a plan?" asked Mrs Glynne.

"Well, I should think they are always prepared for various eventualities and had a plan for dealing with them."

"Do you mean," said Anthea, with some interest, "do you mean that they had a plan for dealing with murder?"

"I wish," said Mrs Glynne, "that you wouldn't talk of poor Miss Temple 's death as murder."

"But of course it's murder," said Anthea.

"All I wonder is who wanted to murder her? I should think probably some pupils of hers at the school who always hated her and had it in for her."