Nemesis (Miss Marple Series) by Agatha Christie

Author:Agatha Christie [Agatha Christie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9780062073709
Amazon: 0062073702
Barnesnoble: 0062073702
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Published: 1992-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Mr Broadribb Wonders

‘Seen The Times this morning?’ said Mr Broadribb to his partner, Mr Schuster.

Mr Schuster said he couldn’t afford The Times, he took the Telegraph.

‘Well, it may be in that too,’ said Mr Broadribb. ‘In the deaths, Miss Elizabeth Temple, D.Sc.’

Mr Schuster looked faintly puzzled.

‘Headmistress of Fallowfield. You’ve heard of Fallowfield, haven’t you?’

‘Of course,’ said Schuster. ‘Girls’ school. Been going for fifty years or so. First class, fantastically expensive. So she was the Headmistress of it, was she? I thought the Headmistress had resigned some time ago. Six months at least. I’m sure I read about it in the paper. That is to say there was a bit about the new Headmistress. Married woman. Youngish. Thirty-five to forty. Modern ideas. Give the girls lessons in cosmetics, let ’em wear trouser suits. Something of that kind.’

‘Hum,’ said Mr Broadribb, making the noise that solicitors of his age are likely to make when they hear something which elicits criticism based on long experience. ‘Don’t think she’ll ever make the name that Elizabeth Temple did. Quite someone, she was. Been there a long time, too.’

‘Yes,’ said Mr Schuster, somewhat uninterested. He wondered why Broadribb was so interested in defunct school-mistresses.

Schools were not really of particular interest to either of the two gentlemen. Their own offspring were now more or less disposed of. Mr Broadribb’s two sons were respectively in the Civil Service and in an oil firm, and Mr Schuster’s rather younger progeny were at different universities where both of them respectively were making as much trouble for those in authority as they possibly could do. He said,

‘What about her?’

‘She was on a coach tour,’ said Mr Broadribb.

‘Those coaches,’ said Mr Schuster. ‘I wouldn’t let any of my relations go on one of those. One went off a precipice in Switzerland last week and two months ago one had a crash and twenty were killed. Don’t know who drives these things nowadays.’

‘It was one of those Country Houses and Gardens and Objects of Interest in Britain — or whatever they call it — tours,’ said Mr Broadribb. ‘That’s not quite the right name, but you know what I mean.’

‘Oh yes, I know. Oh the — er — yes, that’s the one we sent Miss What’s-a-name on. The one old Rafiel booked.’

‘Miss Jane Marple was on it.’

‘She didn’t get killed too, did she?’ asked Mr Schuster.

‘Not so far as I know,’ said Mr Broadribb. ‘I just wondered a bit, though.’

‘Was it a road accident?’

‘No. It was at one of the beauty spot places. They were walking on a path up a hill. It was a stiff walk. Up a rather steep hill with boulders and things on it. Some of the boulders got loose and came rushing down the mountainside. Miss Temple was knocked out and taken to hospital with concussion and died — ’

‘Bad luck,’ said Mr Schuster, and waited for more.

‘I only wondered,’ said Mr Broadribb, ‘because I happened to remember that — well, that Fallowfield was the school where the girl was at.

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