Ordeal by Innocence by Ordeal by innocence

Author:Ordeal by innocence
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-06-27T08:54:34.438000+00:00

Kirsten Lindstrom said quickly: "Hester passed me in the car just as I got to the end of our road. She must have started almost immediately after me. She went on up the hill to the main road whilst I turned left to the village."

Hester opened her mouth as though to speak, then quickly shut it again.

Huish wondered. Was Kirsten Lindstrom trying to establish that Hester would not have had time to commit the crime? Wasn't it possible that instead of Hester's saying a quiet good night to Mrs. Argyle, there had been an argument -a quarrel, and that Hester had struck her down?

Smoothly he turned to Kirsten and said: "Now, Miss Lindstrom, let's have your account of what you remember."

She was nervous. Her hands twisted uncomfortably.

"We had tea. It was cleared away. Hester helped me. Then she went upstairs. Then Jacko came."

"You heard him?"

"Yes. I let him in. He said he had lost his key. He went straight in to his mother. He said at once, 'I'm in a jam. You've got to get me out of it' I did not hear any more. I went back into the kitchen. There were things to prepare for supper."

"Did you hear him leave?"

"Yes, indeed. He was shouting. I came from the kitchen. He was standing there in the front hall - very angry, shouting out that he'd come back, that his mother had better have the money ready for him. Or else! That is what he said: 'Or else!' It was a threat."

"And then?"

"He went off banging the door. Mrs. Argyle came out in the hall. She was very pale and upset. She said to me, 'You heard?'

"I said: 'He is in trouble?'

"She nodded. Then she went upstairs to the library to Mr. Argyle. I laid the table for supper, and then I went up to put my outdoor things on. The Women's Institute were having a Flower Arrangement Competition next day. There were some Flower Arrangement books we had promised them."

"You took the books to the Institute - what time did you return to the house?"

"It must have been about half past seven. I let myself in with my key. I went in at once to Mrs. Argyle's room - to give her a message of thanks and a note - she was at the desk, her head forward on her hands. And there was the poker, flung down - and drawers of the bureau pulled out. There had been a burglar, I thought. She had been licked. And I was right. Now you know that I was right. It was a burglar - someone from outside!"

"Someone whom Mrs. Argyle herself let in?"

"Why not?" said Kirsten defiantly. "She was kind - always very kind. And she was not afraid - of people or things. Besides it is not as though she were alone in the house. There were others - her husband, Gwenda, Mary. She had only to call out."

"But she didn't call out," Huish pointed out.

"No. Because whoever it was must have told her some very plausible story.

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