Agatha Christie - By the pricking of my thumbs

'They did a lot of alterations,' said Mrs Lancaster. 'Sit down, do. Do you like a high chair or a low one? I like a high one myself. I'm rather rheumatic, you know. I suppose you thought there might have been a child's body there,' added Mrs Lancaster. 'An absurd idea really, don't you think so?'

'Yes, perhaps.'

'Cops and robbers,' said Mrs Lancaster, with an indulgent air. 'One is so foolish when one is young, you know. All that sort of thing. Gangs - big robberies - it has such an appeal for one when one is young. One thinks being a gunman's moll would be the most wonderful thing in the world. I thought so once. Believe me -' she leaned forward and tapped Tuppence on the knee ' - believe me, it's not true. It isn't really. I thought so once, but one wants more than that, you know. There's no thrill really in just stealing things and getting away with it. It needs good organization, of course.'

'You mean Mrs Johnson or Miss Bligh - whichever you call her.'

'Well, of course, she's always Nellie Bligh to me. But for some reason or other - to facilitate things, she says - she calls herself Mrs Johnson now and then. But she's never been married, you know. Oh no. She's a regular spinster.'

A sound of knocking came to them from below.

'Dear me,' said Mrs Lancaster, 'that must be the Perrys back again. I'd no idea they were going to be back so soon.'

The knocking went on.

'Perhaps we ought to let them in,' suggested Tuppence.

'No, dear, we won't do that,' said Mrs Lancaster. 'I can't stand people always interfering. We're having such a nice little talk up here, aren't we? I think we'll just stay up here - oh dear, now they're calling under the window. Just look out and see who it is.'

Tuppence went to the window.

'It's Mr Perry,' she said.

From below, Mr Perry shouted, 'Julia! Julia!'

'Impertinence,' said Mrs Lancaster. 'I don't allow people like Amos Perry to call me by my Christian name. No, indeed. Don't worry, dear,' she added, 'we're quite safe here. And we can have a nice little talk. I'll tell you all about myself. I've really had a very interesting life. Eventful. Sometimes I think I ought to write it down. I was mixed up, you see. I was a wild girl, and I was mixed up with - well, really just a common gang of criminals. No other word for it. Some of them very undesirable people. Mind you, there were nice people among them. Quite good class.'

'Miss Bligh?'

'No, no, Miss Bligh never had anything to do with crime. Not Nellie Bligh. Oh no, she's very churchy, you know. Religious. All that. But there are different ways of religion. Perhaps you know that, do you?'

'I suppose there are a lot of different sects,' Tuppence suggested.

'Yes, there have to be, for ordinary people. But there are others besides ordinary people. There are some special ones, under special commands. There are special legions. Do you understand what I mean, my dear?'

'I don't think I do,' said Tuppence. 'Don't you think we ought to let the Perrys into their own house? They're getting rather upset.'

'No, we're not going to let the Perrys in. Not till - well, not till I've told you all about it. You mustn't be frightened, my dear. It's all quite - quite natural, quite harmless. There's no pain of any kind. It'll be just like going to sleep. Nothing worse.'

Tuppence stared at her, then she jumped up and went towards the door in the wall.

'You can't get out that way' said Mrs Lancaster. 'You don't know where the catch is. It's not where you think it is at all. Only I know that. I know all the secrets of this place. I lived here with the criminals when I was a girl until I went away from them all and got salvation. Special salvation. That's what was given to me - to expiate my sin. The child, you know - I killed it. I was a dancer. I didn't want a child. Over there, on the wall - that's my picture - as a dancer.'

Tuppence followed the pointing finger. On the wall hung an oil painting, full length, of a girl in a costume of white satin leaves with the legend 'Waterlily'.

'Waterlily was one of my best rôles. Everyone said so.'

Tuppence came back slowly and sat down. She stared at Mrs Lancaster. As she did so words repeated in her head. Words heard at Sunny Ridge. 'Was it your poor child?' She had been frightened then, frightened. She was frightened now. She was as yet not quite sure what she was frightened of, but the same fear was there. Looking at that benignant face, that kindly smile.

'I had to obey the commands given me. There have to be agents of destruction. I was appointed to that. I accepted my appointment. They go free of sin, you see. I mean, the children went free of sin. They were not old enough to sin. So I sent them to Glory as I was appointed to do. Still innocent. Still not knowing evil. You can see what a great honour it was to be chosen. To be one of the specially chosen. I always loved children. I had none of my own. That was very cruel, wasn't it, or it seemed cruel. But it was retribution really for what I'd done. You know perhaps what I'd done.'

'No,' said Tuppence.

'Oh, you seem to know so much. I thought perhaps you'd know that too. There was a doctor. I went to him. I was only seventeen then and I was frightened. He said it would be all right to have the child taken away so that nobody would ever know. But it wasn't all right, you see. I began to have dreams. I had dreams that the child was always there, asking me why it had never had life. The child told me it wanted companions. It was a girl, you know. Yes, I'm sure it was a girl. She came and she wanted other children. Then I got the command. I couldn't have any children. I'd married and I thought I'd have children, then my husband wanted children passionately but the children never came, because I was cursed, you see. You understand that, don't you? But there was a way, a way to atone. To atone for what I'd done. What I'd done was murder, wasn't it, and you could only atone for murder with other murders, because the other murders wouldn't be really murders, they would be sacrifices. They would be offered up. You do see the difference, don't you? The children went to keep my child company. Children of different ages but young.'

'The command would come and then -' she leaned forward and touched Tuppence ' - it was such a happy thing to do. You understand that, don't you? It was so happy to release them so that they'd never know sin like I knew sin. I couldn't tell anyone, of course, nobody was ever to know. That was the thing I had to be sure about. But there were people sometimes who got to know or to suspect. Then of course - well, I mean it had to be death for them too, so that I should be safe. So I've always been quite safe. You understand, don't you?'

'Not - not quite.'

'But you do know. That's why you came here, isn't it? You knew. You knew the day I asked you at Sunny Ridge. I saw by your face. I said "Was it your poor child?" I thought you'd come, perhaps because you were a mother. One of those whose children I'd killed. I hoped you'd come back another time and then we'd have a glass of milk together. It was usually milk. Sometimes cocoa. Anyone who knew about me.'

She moved slowly across the room and opened a cupboard in a corner of the room.

'Mrs Moody -' said Tuppence, 'was she one?'

'Oh, you know about her - she wasn't a mother - she'd been a dresser at the theatre. She recognized me so she had to go.'

Turning suddenly she came towards Tuppence holding a glass of milk and smiling persuasively.

'Drink it up,' she said. 'Just drink it up.'

Tuppence sat silent for a moment, then she leapt to her feet and rushed to the window. Catching up a chair, she crashed the glass. She leaned her head out and screamed: 'Help! Help!'

Mrs Lancaster laughed. She put the glass of milk down on a table and leant back in her chair and laughed.