Agatha Christie - They Do It With Mirrors

You like having men in love with you, don't you, cruel Gina? Even miserable little Edgar Lawson?'

Gina looked at him steadily.

She said in a quiet serious tone: 'It doesn't last very long, you know. Women have a much worse time of it in the world than men do. They're more vulnerable. They have children, and they mind terribly - about their children. As soon as they lose their looks, the men they love don't love them any more.

They're betrayed and deserted and pushed aside. I don't blame men. I'd be the same myself. I don't like people who are old or ugly or ill or who whine about their troubles or who are ridiculous like Edgar, strutting about and pretending he's important and worthwhile. You say I'm cruel? It's a cruel world! Sooner or later it will be cruel to me! But now I'm young and I'm nice looking and people find me attractive.' Her teeth flashed out in her peculiar warm sunny smile. 'Yes, I enjoy it, Alex. Why shouldn't I?'

'Why indeed?' said Alex. 'What I want to know is what are you going to do about it. Are you going to marry Stephen or are you going to marry me?'

'I'm married to Wally.'

'Temporarily. Every woman should make one mistake matrimonially - but there's no need to dwell on it.

Having tried out the show in the provinces, the time has come to bring it to the West End.'

'And you're the West End?'

'Indubitably.'

'Do you really want to marry me? I can't imagine you married.'

'I insist on marriage. Affaires, I always think, are so very old-fashioned. Difficulties with passports and hotels and all that. I shall never have a mistress unless I can't get her any other way!' Gina's laugh rang out fresh and clear.

'You do amuse me, Alex.'

'It is my principal asset. Stephen is much better looking than I am. He's extremely handsome and very intense which, of course, women adore. But intensity is fatiguing in the home. With me, Gina, you will find life entertaining.'

'Aren't you going to say you love me madly?'

'However true that may be, I shall certainly not say it.

It would be one up to you and one down to me if I did.

No, all I am prepared to do is to make you a businesslike offer of marriage.'

'I shall have to think about it,' said Gina smiling.

'Naturally. Besides, you've got to put Wally out of his misery first. I've a lot of sympathy with Wally. It must be absolute hell for him to be married to you and trailed along at your chariot wheels into this heavy family atmosphere of philanthropy.'

'What a beast you are, Alex?

'A perceptive beast.'

'Sometimes,' said Gina, 'I don't think Wally cares for me one little bit. He just doesn't notice me any more.'

'You've stirred him up with a stick and he doesn't respond? Most annoying.'

Like a flash Gina swung her palm and delivered a ringing slap on Alex's smooth cheek.

'Touch!' cried Alex.

With a quick deft movement he gathered her into his arms and before she could resist, his lips fastened on hers in a long ardent kiss. She struggled a moment and then relaxed…

'Gina!'

They sprang apart. Mildred Strete, her face red, her lips quivering, glared at them balefully. For a moment the eagerness of her words choked their utterance.

'Disgusting… disgusting… you abandoned beastly girl…, you're just like your mother… You're a bad lot.

I always knew you were a bad lot…, utterly depraved. and you're not only an adulteress - you're a murderess too. Oh yes, you are. I know what I know!'

'And what do you know? Don't be ridiculous, Aunt Mildred.'

'I'm no aunt of yours, thank goodness. No blood relation to you. Why, you don't even know who your mother was or where she came from! But you know well enough what my father was like and my mother. What sort of a child do you think they would adopt? A criminal's child or prostitute's probably! That's the sort of people they were. They ought to have remembered that bad blood will tell. Though I daresay that it's the

Italian in you that makes you turn to poison.'

'How dare you say that?'

'I shall say what I like. You can't deny now, can you, that somebody tried to poison mother? And who's the most likely person to do that? Who comes into an enormous fortune if mother dies? You do, Gina, and you may be sure that the police have not overlooked that fact.' Still trembling, Mildred moved rapidly away.

'Pathological,' said Alex. 'Definitely pathological.

Really most interesting. It makes one wonder about the late Canon Strete… religious scruples, perhaps?… Or would you say impotent?'

'Don't be disgusting, Alex. Oh I hate her, I hate her, I hate her.'

Gina clenched her hands and shook with fury.

'Lucky you hadn't got a knife in your stocking,' said Alex. 'If you had, dear Mrs Strete might have known something about murder from the point of view of the victim. Calm down, Gina. Don't look so melodramatic and like Italian Opera.'

'How dare she say I tried to poison Grandam?'

'Well, darling, somebody tried to poison her. And from the point of view of motive you're well in the picture, aren't you?'

'Alex!' Gina stared at him, dismayed. 'Do the police think so?'

'It's extremely difficult to know what the police think.

… They keep their own counsel remarkably well.

They're by no means fools, you know. That reminds me '

'Where are you going?'

'To work out an idea of mine.'

'You say somebody has been trying to poison me?' Carrie Louise's voice held bewilderment and disbelief.

'You know,' she said, 'I can't really believe it…' She waited a few moments, her eyes half closed.

Lewis said gently, 'I wish I could have spared you this, dearest.'

Almost absently she stretched out a hand to him and he took it.

Miss Marple, sitting close by, shook her head sympathetically.

Carrie Louise opened her eyes.

'Is it really true, Jane?' she asked.

'I'm afraid so, my dear.'

'Then everything -' Carrie Louise broke off.

She went on:

'I've always thought I knew what was real and what wasn't… This doesn't seem real - but it is… So I may be wrong everywhere… But who could want to do such a thing to me? Nobody in this house could want to - kill me?'

Her voice still held incredulity.

'That's what I would have thought,' said Lewis. 'I was wrong.'

'And Christian knew about it? That explains it.'

'Explains what?' asked Lewis.

'His manner,' said Carrie Louise. 'It was very odd, you know. Not at all his usual self. He seemed - upset about me - as though he was wanting to say something to me and then not saying it. And he asked me if my heart was strong? And if I'd been well lately? Trying to hint to me, perhaps. But why not say something straight out? It's so much simpler just to say it straight out.'

'He didn't want to - cause you pain, Caroline.'

'Pain? But why - Oh I see…' Her eyes widened. 'So that's what you believe. But you're wrong, Lewis, quite wrong. I can assure you of that.' Her husband avoided her eyes.

'I'm sorry,' said Mrs Serrocold after a moment or two.

'But I can't believe anything of what has happened lately is true. Edgar shooting at you. Gina and Stephen. That ridiculous box of chocolates. It just isn't true.'

Nobody spoke.

Caroline Louise Serrocold sighed.

'I suppose,' she said, 'that I must have lived outside reality for a long time… Please, both of you, I think I would like to be alone… I've got to try and understand…'

Miss Marple came down the stairs and into the Great Hall to find Alex Restarick standing near the large arched entrance door with his hand flung out in a somewhat flamboyant gesture.

'Come in, come in,' said Alex happily and as though he were the owner of the Great Hall. 'I'm just thinking about last night.' Lewis Serrocold, who had followed Miss Marple down from Carrie Louise's sitting-room, crossed the Great Hall to his study and went in and shut the door.