The Body in the Library: A Miss Marple Mystery by Agatha Christie

Author:Agatha Christie
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780062073617
Published: 2010-06-23T04:00:00+00:00

The Body in the Library

Chapter 12

Mrs Bantry was with Adelaide Jefferson. The former came up to Sir Henry and exclaimed, “You!”

“I, myself.” He took both her hands and pressed them warmly. “I can't tell you how distressed I am at all this, Mrs B.”

Mrs Bantry said mechanically, “Don't call me Mrs B!” and went on, “Arthur isn't here. He's taking it all rather seriously. Miss Marple and I have come here to sleuth. Do you know Mrs Jefferson?”

“Yes, of course.”

He shook hands. Adelaide Jefferson said, “Have you seen my father-in-law?”

“Yes. I have.”

“I'm glad. We're anxious about him. It was a terrible shock”

Mrs Bantry said, “Let's go out on the terrace and have drinks and talk about it all.”

The four of them went out and joined Mark Gaskell, who was sitting at the extreme end of the terrace by himself.

After a few desultory remarks and the arrival of the drinks, Mrs Bantry plunged straight into the subject with her usual zest for direct action.

“We can talk about it, can't we?” she said. “I mean we're all old friends except Miss Marple, and she knows all about crime. And she wants to help.”

Mark Gaskell looked at Miss Marple in a somewhat puzzled fashion. He said doubtfully, “Do you... er... write detective stories?”

The most unlikely people, he knew, wrote detective stories. And Miss Marple, in her old-fashioned spinster's clothes, looked a singularly unlikely person.

“Oh, no, I'm not clever enough for that.”

“She's wonderful,” said Mrs Bantry impatiently. “I can't explain now, but she is... Now, Addie, I want to know all about things. What was she really like, this girl?”

“Well -” Adelaide Jefferson paused, glanced across at Mark and half laughed. She said, “You're so direct.”

“Did you like her?”

“No, of course I didn't.”

“What was she really like?” Mrs Bantry shifted her inquiry to Mark Gaskell.

Mark said deliberately, “Common or garden gold digger. And she knew her stuff. She'd got her hooks into Jeff all right.”

Both of them called their father-in-law 'Jeff'.

Sir Henry thought, looking disapprovingly at Mark, indiscreet fellow. Shouldn't be so outspoken. He had always disapproved a little of Mark Gaskell. The man had charm, but he was unreliable, talked too much, was occasionally boastful not quite to be trusted, Sir Henry thought. He had sometimes wondered if Conway Jefferson thought so too.

“But couldn't you do something about it?” demanded Mrs Bantry. Mark said dryly, “We might have, if we'd realized it in time.”

He shot a glance at Adelaide and she coloured faintly. There had been reproach in that glance.

She said, “Mark thinks I ought to have seen what was coming.”

“You left the old boy alone too much, Addie. Tennis lessons and all the rest of it.”

“Well, I had to have some exercise.” She spoke apologetically. “Anyway, I never dreamed -”

“No,” said Mark, “neither of us ever dreamed. Jeff has always been such a sensible, level-headed old boy.”

Miss Marple made a contribution to the conversation.

“Gentlemen,” she said with her old maid's way of referring to the opposite sex as though it were a species of wild animal, “are frequently not so level-headed as they seem.

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