AGATHA CHRISTIE. By the Pricking of My Thumbs

Tuppence did not follow him. She remained in the hall, frowning and thinking. She looked up suddenly as the door at the end of the hall opened and Miss Bligh came through it. She was holding up a very heavy metal vase.

Several things ricked together in Tuppence’s head.

‘Of course,’ said Tuppence, ‘of course.’ ‘Oh, can I help – I – oh, it’s Mrs Beresford.’ ‘Yes,’ said Tuppence, and added, ‘And it’sMrs.ohnson, isn’t it?’ The heavy vase fell to the floor. Tuppence stooped and picked it up. She stood weighing it in her hand. ‘Quite a handy weapon,’ she said. She put it down. ‘Just the thing to cosh anyone with from behind,’ she said – ‘That’s what you did to me, didn’t you, Mrs ohnson.’ ‘I – I – what did you say? I – I – I never ‘ But Tuppence had no need to stay longer. She had seen the effect of her words. At the second mention of Mrs Johnson, Miss Bligh had given herself away in an unmistakable fashion.

She was shaking and panic-stricken.

‘There was a letter on your hall table the other day,’ said Tuppence, ‘addressed to a Mrs Yorke at an address in Cumberland. That’s where you took her, isn’t it, Mrs Johnson, when you took her away from Sunny Ridge? That’s where she is now. Mrs Yorke or Mrs Lancaster – you used either name -York and Lancaster like the striped red and white rose in the Perrys’ garden ‘ She turned swiftly and went out of the house leaving Miss Bligh in the hall, still supporting herself on the stair rail, her mouth open, staring after her. Tuppence ran down the path to the gate, jumped into her car and drove away. She looked back towards the front door, but no one emerged. Tuppence drove past the church and back towards Market Basing, but suddenly changed her mind. She turned the car, drove back the way she had come, and took the left-hand road leading to the Canal House bridge. She abandoned the car, looked over the gate to see if either of the Perrys were in the garden, but there was no sign of them. She went through the gate and up the path to the back door. That was closed too and the windows were shut.

Tuppence felt annoyed. Perhaps Alice Perry had gone to Market Basing to shop. She particularly wanted to see Alice Perry. Tuppence knocked at the door, rapping fLrSt gently then loudly. Nobody answered. She turned the handle but the door did not give. It was locked. She stood there, undecided.

There were some questions she wanted badly to ask Alice Perry. Possibly Mrs Perry might be in Sutton Chancellor. She might go back there. The difficulty of Canal House was that there never seemed to be anyone in sight and hardly any traffic came over the bridge. There was no one to ask where the Perrys might be this morning.

CHAPTER 17 Mrs Lancaster

Tuppence stood there frowning, and then, suddenly, quite unexpectedly, the door opened. Tuppence drew back a step and gasped. The person confronting her was the last person in the world she expected to see. In the doorway, dressed exactly the same as she had been at Sunny Ridge, and smiling the same way with that air of vague amiability, was Mrs Lancaster in person.

‘Oh,’ said Tuppence.

‘Good morning. Were you wanting Mrs Perry?’ said Mrs Lancaster. ‘It’s market day, you know. So lucky I was able to let you in. I conlcln’t fred the key for some time. I think it must be a duplicate anyway, don’t you? But do come in. Perhaps you’d like a cup of tea or something.’

Like one in a dream, Tuppence crossed the threshold. Mrs

/ / Lancaster, still retaining the gracious air of a hostess, led Tuppence along into the sitting-room.

‘Do sit down,’ she said. ‘I’m afraid I don’t know where all the cups and things are. I’ve only been here a day or two. Now – let me see… But – surely – I’ve met you before, haven’t I?’ ‘Yes,’ said Tuppence, ‘when you were at Sunny Ridge., ‘Sunny Ridge, now Sunny Ridge. That seems to remind me of something. Oh, of course, dear Miss Packard. Yes, a very nice place.’ ‘You left it in rather a hurry, didn’t you?’ said Tuppence.

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