Agatha Christie: Crooked House

Yet I got the idea. It was a Greek | restauranteer's idea of something English.

It was meant to be an Englishman's home - built the size of a castle! I wondered what the first Mrs. Leonides had thought of it. She had not, I fancied, been consulted | or shown the plans. It was, most probably, her exotic husband's little surprise. I wondered if she had shuddered or smiled.

Apparently she had lived there quite happily.

"Bit overwhelming, isn't it?" said Inspector Taverner. "Of course, the old gentleman built on to it a good deal -making it into three separate houses, so to speak, with kitchens and everything. It's all tip top inside, fitted up like a luxury hotel."

Sophia came out of the front door. She was hatless and wore a green shirt and a tweed skirt.

She stopped dead when she saw me.

"You?" she exclaimed.

I said:

"Sophia, I've got to talk to you. Where can we go?"

For a moment I thought she was going to demur, then she turned and said: "This way."

We walked down across the lawn. There was a fine view across Swinly Dean's No 1 course - away to a clump of pine trees on a hill, and beyond it, to the dimness of hazy countryside.

Sophia led me to a rockgarden, now somewhat neglected, where there was a rustic wooden seat of great discomfort, and we sat down.

"Well?" she said.

Her voice was not encouraging.

I said my piece - all of it.

She listened very attentively. Her face gave little indication of what she was thinking, but when I came at last to a full stop, she sighed. It was a deep sigh.

"Your father," she said, "is a very clever man."

"The Old Man has his points. I think it's a rotten idea myself - but -"

She interrupted me.

"Oh no," she said. "It isn't a rotten idea at all. It's the only thing that might be any good. Your father, Charles, knows exactly what's been going on in my mind. He knows better than you do."

With sudden almost despairing vehemence, she drove one clenched hand into the palm of the other.

"I've got to have the truth. I've got to know."

"Because of us? But, dearest -"

"Not only because of us, Charles. I've got to know for my own peace of mind.

You see, Charles, I didn't tell you last night - but the truth is - I'm afraid."

"Afraid?"

"Yes - afraid - afraid - afraid. The police think, your father thinks, everybody thinks - that it was Brenda."

"The probabilities -"

"Oh yes, it's quite probable. It's possible.

But when I say, 'Brenda probably did it'

I'm quite conscious that it's only wishful thinking. Because, you see, I don't really think so." ^ "You don't think so?" I said slowly.

"I don't know. You've heard about it all from the outside as I wanted you to. Now I'll show it to you from the inside. I simply don't feel that Brenda is that kind of a person - she's not the sort of person, I a feel, who would ever do anything that might involve her in any danger. She's far too careful of herself."

"How about this young man? Laurence Brown."

"Laurence is a complete rabbit. He wouldn't have the guts."

"I wonder."

"Yes, we don't really know, do we? I mean, people are capable of surprising one frightfully. One gets an idea of them into one's head, and sometimes it's absolutely wrong. Not always - but sometimes. But all the same, Brenda -" she shook her head - "she's always acted so completely in character. She's what I call the harem type. Likes sitting about and eating sweets and having nice clothes and jewellery and reading cheap novels and going to the cinema. And it's a queer thing to say, when one remembers that he was eighty five, but I really think she was rather thrilled by grandfather. He had a power, you know. I should imagine he could make a woman feel - oh - rather like a queen - the Sultan's favourite! I think - I've always thought - that he made Brenda feel as though she were an exciting romantic person. He's been clever with women all his life - and that kind of thing is a sort of art - you don't lose the knack of it, however old you are." p I left the problem of Brenda for the (homent and harked back to a phrase of Sophia's which had disturbed me.

"Why did you say," I asked, "that you were afraid?" a Sophia shivered a little and pressed her hands together.

I? "Because it's true," she said in a low voice. "It's very important, Charles, that I should make you understand this. You see, we're a very queer family… There's a lot of ruthlessness in us - and - different kinds of ruthlessness. That's what's so disturbing. The different kinds."

She must have seen incomprehension in my face. She went on, speaking energetically.

"I'll try and make what I mean clear.

Grandfather, for instance. Once when he was telling us about his boyhood in Smyrna, he mentioned, quite casually, that he had stabbed two men. It was some kind of a brawl - there had been some unforgivable insult - I don't know - but it was just a thing that had happened quite naturally.

He'd really practically forgotten about it.

But it was, somehow, such a queer thing to hear about, quite casually, in England."

I nodded.

"That's one kind of ruthlessness," went on Sophia, "and then there was my grandmother.

I only just remember her, but I've heard a good deal about her. I think she might have had the ruthlessness that comes from having no imagination whatever. All those foxhunting forbears - and the old Generals, the shoot 'em down type. Full of rectitude and arrogance, and not a bit afraid of taking responsibility in matters of life and death."

"Isn't that a bit far fetched?"

"Yes, I daresay - but I'm always rather afraid of that type. It's full of rectitude but it is ruthless. And then there's my own mother - she's an actress - she's a darling, but she's got absolutely no sense of proportion.

She's one of those unconscious egoists who can only see things in relation as to how it affects them. That's rather frightening, sometimes, you know. And there's Clemency, Uncle Roger's wife. She's a scientist - she's doing some kind of very important research - she's ruthless too, in a kind of coldblooded impersonal way.

Uncle Roger's the exact opposite - he's the kindest and most lovable person in the world, but he's got a really terrific temper.

Things make his blood boil and then he hardly knows what he's doing. And there's father-"

She made a long pause.

"Father," she said slowly, "is almost too well controlled. You never know what he's thinking. He never shows any emotion at all. It's probably a kind of unconscious self defence against mother's absolute orgies of emotion, but sometimes - it worries me a I little."

"My dear child," I said, "you're working yourself up unnecessarily. What it comes to in the end is that everybody, perhaps, is B capable of murder."

"I suppose that's true. Even me."

"Not you!"

"Oh yes, Charles, you can't make me an exception. I suppose I could murder someone …" She was silent a moment or two, then added, "But if so, it would have to be for something really worth while!" | I laughed then. I couldn't help it. And Sophia smiled.

"Perhaps I'm a fool," she said, "but we've got to find out the truth about grandfather's death. We've got to. If only it was Brenda…"

I felt suddenly rather sorry for Brenda Leonides.

Along the path towards us came a tall figure walking briskly. It had on a battered old felt hat, a shapeless skirt 5 and a rather cumbersome jersey.

"Aunt Edith," said Sophia.

The figure paused once or twice, stooping to the flower borders, then it advanced upon us. I rose to my feet.

"This is Charles Hayward, Aunt Edith.

My aunt. Miss de Haviland."

Edith de Haviland was a woman of about seventy. She had a mass of untidy grey hair, a weather beaten face and a shrewd and piercing glance.