Agatha Christie – A Murder Is Announced

‘You were quite right—no doubt you were pointed out to him at the Royal Spa Hotel and he pretended to recognize you. The Swiss police had begun to make his own country rather too hot for him, and he came over here with a very nice set of forged papers and took a job at the Royal Spa.’

‘Quite a good hunting ground,’ said Miss Blacklock dryly. ‘It’s extremely expensive and very well-off people stay there. Some of them are careless about their bills, I expect.’

‘Yes,’ said Craddock. ‘There were prospects of a satisfactory harvest.’

Miss Blacklock was frowning.

‘I see all that,’ she said. ‘But why come to Chipping Cleghorn? What does he think we’ve got here that could possibly be better than the rich Royal Spa Hotel?’

‘You stick to your statement that there’s nothing of especial value in the house?’

‘Of course there isn’t. I should know. I can assure you Inspector, we’ve not got an unrecognized Rembrandt or anything like that.’

‘Then it looks, doesn’t it, as though your friend Miss Bunner was right? He came here to attack you.’

(‘There, Letty, what did I tell you!’

‘Oh, nonsense, Bunny.’)

‘But is it nonsense?’ said Craddock. ‘I think, you know, that it’s true.’

Miss Blacklock stared very hard at him.

‘Now, let’s get this straight. You really believe that this young man came out here—having previously arranged by means of an advertisement that half the village would turn up agog at that particular time—’

‘But he mayn’t have meant that to happen,’ interrupted Miss Bunner eagerly. ‘It may have been just a horrid sort of warning—to you, Letty—that’s how I read it at the time—“A murder is announced”—I felt in my bones that it was sinister—if it had all gone as planned he would have shot you and got away—and how would anyone have ever known who it was?’

‘That’s true enough,’ said Miss Blacklock. ‘But—’

‘I knew that advertisement wasn’t a joke, Letty. I said so. And look at Mitzi—she was frightened, too!’

‘Ah,’ said Craddock, ‘Mitzi. I’d like to know rather more about that young woman.’

‘Her permit and papers are quite in order.’

‘I don’t doubt that,’ said Craddock dryly. ‘Scherz’s papers appeared to be quite correct, too.’

‘But why should this Rudi Scherz want to murder me? That’s what you don’t attempt to explain, Inspector Craddock.’

‘There may have been someone behind Scherz,’ said Craddock slowly. ‘Have you thought of that?’

He used the words metaphorically though it flashed across his mind that if Miss Marple’s theory was correct, the words would also be true in a literal sense. In any case they made little impression on Miss Blacklock, who still looked sceptical.

‘The point remains the same,’ she said. ‘Why on earth should anyone want to murder me?’

‘It’s the answer to that that I want you to give me, Miss Blacklock.’

‘Well, I can’t! That’s flat. I’ve no enemies. As far as I’m aware I’ve always lived on perfectly good terms with my neighbours. I don’t know any guilty secrets about anyone. The whole idea is ridiculous! And if what you’re hinting is that Mitzi has something to do with this, that’s absurd, too. As Miss Bunner has just told you she was frightened to death when she saw that advertisement in the Gazette. She actually wanted to pack up and leave the house then and there.’

‘That may have been a clever move on her part. She may have known you’d press her to stay.’

‘Of course, if you’ve made up your mind about it, you’ll find an answer to everything. But I can assure you that if Mitzi had taken an unreasoning dislike to me, she might conceivably poison my food, but I’m sure she wouldn’t go in for all this elaborate rigmarole.

‘The whole idea’s absurd. I believe you police have got an anti-foreigner complex. Mitzi may be a liar but she’s not a cold-blooded murderer. Go and bully her if you must. But when she’s departed in a whirl of indignation, or shut herself up howling in her room, I’ve a good mind to make you cook the dinner. Mrs Harmon is bringing some old lady who is staying with her to tea this afternoon and I wanted Mitzi to make some little cakes—but I suppose you’ll upset her completely. Can’t you possibly go and suspect somebody else?’