Агата Кристи - Dumb Witness / Безмолвный свидетель. Книга для чтения на английском языке

Theresa spoke suddenly:

‘I’ll tell you the truth. I thought of it. I actually took some weed-killer from a tin down at Littlegreen House. But I couldn’t do it! I’m too fond of living—of being alive—I couldn’t do that to anyone—take life from them… I may be bad and selfish but there are things I can’t do! I couldn’t kill a living, breathing human creature!’

Poirot nodded.

‘No, that is true. And you are not as bad as you paint yourself, mademoiselle. You are only young—and reckless.’

He went on:

‘There remained Mrs Tanios. As soon as I saw her I realized that she was afraid. She saw that I realized that and she very quickly made capital [605] to make capital – извлекать выгоду out of that momentary betrayal. She gave a very convincing portrait of a woman who is afraid for her husband. A little later she changed her tactics. It was very cleverly done—but the change did not deceive me. A woman can be afraid for her husband or she can be afraid of her husband—but she can hardly be both. Mrs Tanios decided on the latter rôle—and she played her part cleverly—even to coming out after me into the hall of the hotel and pretending that there was something she wanted to tell me. When her husband followed her as she knew he would, she pretended that she could not speak before him.

‘I realized at once, not that she feared her husband, but that she disliked him. And at once, summing the matter up, I felt convinced that here was the exact character I had been looking for. Here was—not a self-indulgent woman—but a thwarted one. A plain girl, leading a dull existence, unable to attract the men she would like to attract, finally accepting a man she did not care for rather than be left an old maid. I could trace her growing dissatisfaction with life, her life in Smyrna exiled from all she cared for in life. Then the birth of her children and her passionate attachment to them.

‘Her husband was devoted to her but she came secretly to dislike him more and more. He had speculated with her money and lost it—another grudge against him.

‘There was only one thing that illuminated her drab life, the expectation of her Aunt Emily’s death. Then she would have money, independence, the means to educate her children as she wished—and remember education meant a lot to her—she was a Professor’s daughter!

‘She may have already planned the crime, or had the idea of it in her mind, before she came to England. She had a certain knowledge of chemistry, having assisted her father in the laboratory. She knew the nature of Miss Arundell’s complaint and she was well aware that phosphorus would be an ideal substance for her purpose.

‘Then, when she came to Littlegreen House, a simpler method presented itself to her. The dog’s ball—a thread or string across the top of the stairs. A simple, ingenious woman’s idea.

‘She made her attempt—and failed. I do not think that she had any idea that Miss Arundell was aware of the true facts of the matter. Miss Arundell’s suspicions were directed entirely against Charles. I doubt if her manner to Bella showed any alteration. And so, quietly and determinedly, this self-contained, unhappy, ambitious woman put her original plan into execution [606] to put into execution – осуществить . She found an excellent vehicle for the poison, some patent capsules that Miss Arundell was in the habit of taking after meals. To open a capsule, place the phosphorus inside and close it again, was child’s play [607] child’s play – пустяк .

‘The capsule was replaced among the others. Sooner or later Miss Arundell would swallow it. Poison was not likely to be suspected. Even if, by some unlikely chance it was, she herself would be nowhere near Market Basing at the time.

‘Yet she took one precaution [608] to take precautions – принимать меры предосторожности . She obtained a double supply of chloral hydrate at the chemist’s, forging her husband’s name to the prescription. I have no doubt of what that was for—to keep by her in case anything went wrong.

‘As I say, I was convinced from the first moment I saw her that Mrs Tanios was the person I was looking for, but I had absolutely no proof of the fact. I had to proceed carefully. If Mrs Tanios had any idea I suspected her, I was afraid that she might proceed to a further crime. Furthermore, I believed that the idea of that crime had already occurred to her. Her one wish in life was to shake herself free of her husband.

‘Her original murder had proved a bitter disappointment. The money, the wonderful all-intoxicating money, had all gone to Miss Lawson! It was a blow, but she set to work most intelligently. She began to work on Miss Lawson’s conscience which, I suspect, was already not too comfortable.’

There was a sudden outburst of sobs. Miss Lawson took out her handkerchief and cried into it.

‘It’s been dreadful,’ she sobbed. ‘I’ve been wicked! Very wicked. You see, I was very curious about the will—why Miss Arundell had made a new one, I mean. And one day, when Miss Arundell was resting, I managed to unlock the drawer in the desk. And then I found she’d left it all to me! Of course, I never dreamed it was so much. Just a few thousand—that’s all I thought it was. And why not? After all, her own relations didn’t really care for her! But then, when she was so ill, she asked for the will. I could see—I felt sure—she was going to destroy it… And that’s when I was so wicked. I told her she’d sent it back to Mr Purvis. Poor dear, she was so forgetful. She never remembered what she’d done with things. She believed me. Said I must write for it and I said I would.

‘Oh, dear—Oh, dear—and then she got worse and couldn’t think of anything. And she died. And when the will was read and it was all that money I felt dreadful. Three hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds. I’d never dreamed for a minute it was anything like that or I wouldn’t have done it.

‘I felt just as though I’d embezzled the money—and I didn’t know what to do. The other day [609] the other day – на днях , when Bella came to me, I told her that she should have half of it. I felt sure that then I would feel happy again.’

‘You see?’ said Poirot, ‘Mrs Tanios was succeeding in her object. That is why she was so averse to any attempt to contest the will. She had her own plans and the last thing she wanted to do was to antagonize Miss Lawson. She pretended, of course, to fall in [610] to fall in – поддерживать at once with her husband’s wishes, but she made it quite clear what her real feelings were.

‘She had at that time two objects, to detach herself and her children from Dr Tanios and to obtain her share of the money. Then she would have what she wanted— a rich contented life in England with her children.

‘As time went on she could no longer conceal her dislike for her husband. In fact, she did not try to. He, poor man, was seriously upset and distressed. Her actions must have seemed quite incomprehensible to him. Really, they were logical enough. She was playing the part of the terrorized woman. If I had suspicions—and she was fairly sure that that must be the case—she wished me to believe that her husband had committed the murder. And at any moment that second murder which I am convinced was already planned in her mind might occur. I knew that she had a lethal dose of chloral in her possession. I feared that she would stage a pretended suicide and confession on his part.

‘And still I had no evidence against her! And then, when I was quite in despair, I got something at last! Miss Lawson told me that she had seen Theresa Arundell kneeling on the stairs on the night of Easter Monday. I soon discovered that Miss Lawson could not have seen Theresa at all clearly— not clearly enough to recognize her features. Yet she was quite positive in her identification. On being pressed she mentioned a brooch with Theresa’s initials—T.A.