Agatha Christie - Murder is Easy

He took a sheet of paper and wrote down a series of names. It ran as follows:

Doctor Thomas

Mr. Abbot

Major Horton

Mr. Ellsworthy

Mr. Wake

Amy's young man

The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, etc.

He then took another sheet of paper and headed it VICTIMS. Under this heading he wrote:

Amy Gibbs — Poisoned

Tommy Pierce — Pushed out of window

Harry Carter — Shoved off footbridge (drunk? drugged?)

Doctor Humbleby — Blood poisoning

Miss Fullerton — Run down by car

He added:

Mrs. Rose?

Old Ben?

And after a pause:

Mrs. Horton?

He considered his lists, smoked awhile, then took up his pencil once more.

Doctor Thomas. Possible case against him:

Definite motive in the case of Doctor Humbleby. Manner of latter's death suitable — namely, scientific poisoning by germs. Amy Gibbs visited him on afternoon of the day she died. Anything between them? Blackmail?

Tommy Pierce? No connection known. Did Tommy know of connection between him and Amy Gibbs?

Harry Carter? No connection known.

Was Doctor Thomas absent from Wychwood on the day Miss Fullerton went to London ?

Luke sighed and started a fresh heading.

Mr. Abbot. Possible case against him:

I feel a lawyer is definitely a suspicious person. Possibly prejudice. His personality, florid, genial, etc., would be definitely suspicious in a book — always suspect bluff genial men. Objection: This is not a book but real life.

Motive for Murder of Doctor Humbleby:

Definite antagonism existed between them. H. defies Abbot. Sufficient motive for a derranged brain. Antagonism could have been easily noted by Miss Fullerton.

Tommy Pierce? Latter snooped among Abbot's papers. Did he find out something he shouldn't have known?

Harry Carter? No definite connection.

Amy Gibbs? No connection known. Hat paint quite suitable to Abbot's mentality — an old-fashioned mind.

Was Abbot away from the village the day Miss Fullerton was killed?

Major Horton.

No connection known with Amy Gibbs, Tommy Pierce or Carter.

What about Mrs. Horton? Death sounds like it might be arsenical poisoning. If so, other murders might be result of that — blackmail?

N.B: Thomas was doctor in attendance. Suspicious for Thomas again.

Mr. Ellsworthy.

Nasty bit of goods — dabbles in black magic. Might be temperament of a bloodlust killer. Connection with Amy Gibbs. Any connection with Tommy Pierce? Carter? Nothing known. Humbleby? Might have tumbled to Ellsworthy's mental condition.

Miss Fullerton? Was Ellsworthy away from Wychwood when Miss Fullerton was killed?

Mr. Wake.

Very unlikely. Possibly religious mania? A mission to kill? Saintly old clergymen likely starters in books, but (as before) this is real life.

Note: Carter, Tommy, Amy, all definitely unpleasant characters. Better removed by divine decree?

Amy's young man.

Probably every reason to kill Amy, but seems unlikely on general grounds.

The etceteras?

Don't fancy them.

He read through what he had written. Then he shook his head. He murmured softly, "… which is absurd! How nicely Euclid put things." He tore up the lists and burnt them. He said to himself, "This job isn't going to be exactly easy."

Doctor Thomas leaned back in his chair and passed a long delicate hand over his thick fair hair. He was a young man whose appearance was deceptive. Immature as he might look, though, the diagnosis he had just pronounced on Luke's rheumatic knee agreed almost precisely with that delivered by an eminent Harley Street specialist only a week earlier.

"Thanks," said Luke. "Well, I'm relieved you think that electrical treatment will do the trick. I don't want to turn into a cripple at my age."

Doctor Thomas smiled boyishly. "Oh, I don't think there's any danger of that, Mr. Fitzwilliam."

"Well, you've relieved my mind," said Luke. "I was thinking of going to some specialist chap, but I'm sure there's no need now."

Doctor Thomas smiled again. "Go if it makes your mind easier. After all, it's always a good thing to have an expert's opinion."

Luke said quickly, "Men get the wind up pretty badly in these ways. I expect you find that? I often think a doctor must feel himself a medicine man — a kind of magician to most of his patients."

"The element of faith enters in very largely."

"I know. 'The doctor says so,' is a remark always uttered with something like reverence."

Doctor Thomas raised his shoulders. "If one's patients only knew," he murmured humorously.

Then he said, "You're writing a book on magic, aren't you, Mr. Fitzwilliam?"

"Now, how did you know that?" exclaimed Luke, perhaps with somewhat overdone surprise.

Doctor Thomas looked amused. "Oh my dear sir, news gets about very rapidly in a place like this. We have so little to talk about."

"It probably gets exaggerated too. You'll be hearing I'm raising the local spirits and emulating the witch of Endor."

"Rather odd you should say that."

"Why?"

"Well, the rumor has been going round that you had raised the ghost of Tommy Pierce."

"Pierce? Pierce? Is that the small boy who fell out of a window?"

"Yes."

"Now, I wonder how — Of course. I made some remark to the solicitor — what's his name? — Abbot."

"Yes, the story originated with Abbot."

"Don't say I've converted a hard-headed solicitor to a belief in ghosts?"

"You believe in ghosts yourself, then?"

"Your tone suggests that you do not, Doctor. No, I wouldn't say I actually 'believe in ghosts' — to put it crudely. But I have known curious phenomena in the case of sudden or violent death. But I'm more interested in the various superstitions pertaining to violent deaths — that a murdered man, for instance, can't rest in his grave. And the interesting belief that the blood of a murdered man flows if his murderer touches him. I wonder how that arose."

"Very curious," said Thomas. "But I don't suppose many people remember that nowadays."

"More than you would think. Of course, I don't suppose you have many murders down here, so it's hard to judge."

Luke had smiled as he spoke, his eyes resting with seeming carelessness on the other's face. But Doctor Thomas seemed quite unperturbed and smiled in return.

"No, I don't think we've had a murder for — oh, very many years — certainly not in my time!"

"No, this is a peaceful spot. Not conducive to foul play. Unless somebody pushed little Tommy What's-His-Name out of the window."

Luke laughed. Again Doctor Thomas' smile came in answer — a natural smile full of boyish amusement.

"A lot of people would have been willing to wring that child's neck," he said, "but I don't think they actually got to the point of throwing him out of windows."

"He seems to have been a thoroughly nasty child; the removal of him might have been conceived as a public duty."

"It's a pity one can't apply that theory fairly often."

"I've always thought a few wholesale murders would be beneficial to the community," said Luke. "I haven't the respect for human life that the normal Englishman has. Any man who is a stumbling block on the way of progress ought to be eliminated — that's how I see it."

Running his hand through his short fair hair, Doctor Thomas said, "Yes, but who is to be the judge of a man's fitness or unfitness?"

"You'd have to have a scientific man as judge," said Luke. "Someone with an unbiased but highly specialized mind — a doctor, for instance. Come to that, I think you'd be a pretty good judge yourself. Doctor."

"Of unfitness to live?"

"Yes."

Doctor Thomas shook his head. "My job is to make the unfit fit. Most of the time it's an uphill job, I'll admit."