“What damned nonsense, what—” Tim Kendal shouted.
There was a sudden cry, a wild angry cry. Esther Walters detached herself from Mr. Rafter, almost flinging him down and rushed across the room. She pulled vainly at Jackson.
“Let go of him—let go of him. It’s not true. Not a word of it’s true. Tim— Tim darling, it’s not true. You could never kill anyone, I know you couldn’t. I know you wouldn’t. It’s that horrible girl you married. She’s been telling lies about you. They’re not true. None of them are true. I believe in you. I love you and trust in you. I’ll never believe a word anyone says. I’ll—”
Then Tim Kendal lost control of himself.
“For God’s sake, you damned bitch,” he said, “shut up, can’t you? D’you want to get me hanged? Shut up, I tell you. Shut that big, ugly mouth of yours.”
“Poor silly creature,” said Mr. Rafter softly. “So that’s what’s been going on, is it?”
25
MISS MARPLE USES HER IMAGINATION
“SO that’s what had been going on?” said Mr. Rafter. He and Miss Marple were sitting together in a confidential manner. “She’d been having an affair with Tim Kendal had she?”
“Hardly an affair, I imagine,” said Miss Marple, primly. “It was, I think, a romantic attachment with the prospect of marriage in the future.”
“What—after his wife was dead?”
“I don’t think poor Esther Walters knew that Molly was going to die,” said Miss Marple. “I just think she believed the story Tim Kendal told her about Molly having been in love with another man, and the man having followed her here, and I think she counted on Tim’s getting a divorce. I think it was all quite proper and respectable. But she was very much in love with him.”
“Well, that’s easily understood. He was an attractive chap. But what made him go for her, d’you know that too?”
“You know, don’t you?” said Miss Marple.
“I dare say I’ve got a pretty fair idea, but I don’t know how you should know about it. As far as that goes, I don’t see how Tim Kendal could know about it.”
“Well, I really think I could explain all that with a little imagination, though it would be simpler if you told me.”
“I’m not going to tell you,” said Mr. Rafter. “You tell me, since you’re being so clever.”
“Well, it seems to me possible,” said Miss Marple, “that as I have already hinted to you, your man Jackson was in the habit of taking a good snoop through your various business papers from time to time.”
“Perfectly possible,” said Mr. Rafter, “but I shouldn’t have said there was anything there that could do him much good. I took care of that.”
“I imagine,” said Miss Marple, “he read your will.”
“Oh I see. Yes, yes, I did have a copy of my will along.”
“You told me,” said Miss Marple, “you told me—(as Humpty Dumpty said—very loud and clear) that you had not left anything to Esther Walters in your will. You had impressed that fact upon her, and also upon Jackson. It was true in Jackson’s case, I should imagine. You have not left him anything, but you had left Esther Walters money, though you weren’t going to let her have any inkling of the fact. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes, it’s quite right, but I don’t know how you knew.”
“Well, it’s the way you insisted on the point,” said Miss Marple. “I have a certain experience of the way people tell lies.”
“I give in,” said Mr. Rafter. “All right. I left Esther 50,000 pounds. It would come as a nice surprise to her when I died. I suppose that, knowing this, Tim Kendal decided to exterminate his present wife with a nice dose of something or other and marry 50,000 pounds and Esther Walters. Possibly to dispose of her also in good time. But how did he know she was going to have 50,000 pounds?”
“Jackson told him, of course,” said Miss Marple. “They were very friendly, those two. Tim Kendal was nice to Jackson and, quite, I should imagine, without ulterior motive. But amongst the bits of gossip that Jackson let slip I think Jackson told him that unbeknown to herself, Esther Walters was going to inherit a fat lot of money, and he may have said that he himself hoped to induce Esther Walters to marry him though he hadn’t had much success so far in taking her fancy. Yes, I think that’s how it happened.”