She could back away and he would follow her until she stood there with her back to the nursery door and then — and then — those hands would fasten round her throat.
A pitiful little stifled whimper came from between her lips.
And then, suddenly. Dr. Kennedy stopped and reeled back as a jet of soapy water struck him between the eyes. He gasped and blinked and his hands went to his face.
“So fortunate,3′ said Miss Marple’s voice, rather breathless, for she had run violently up the back stairs, “that I was just syringing the green fly off your roses.”
25 POSTSCRIPT AT TORQUAY
“Of course, dear Gwenda, I should never have dreamed of going away and leaving you alone in the house,” said Miss Marple. “I knew there was a very dangerous person at large, and I was keeping an unobtrusive watch from the garden.” “Did you know it was—him—all along?” asked Gwenda.
They were all three. Miss Marple, Gwenda and Giles, sitting on the terrace of the Imperial Hotel at Torquay.
“A change of scene,” Miss Marple had said, and Giles had agreed, would be the best thing for Gwenda. So Inspector Primer had concurred and they had driven to Torquay forthwith.
Miss Marple said in answer to Gwenda’s question, “Well, he did seem indicated, my dear. Although unfortunately there was nothing in the way of evidence to go upon.
Just indications, nothing more.” Looking at her curiously, Giles said, “But I can’t see any indications even.” “Oh dear, Giles, think. He was on the spot., to begin with.” “On the spot?” “But certainly. When Kelvin Halliday came to him that night he had just come back from the hospital. And the hospital, at that time, as several people told us, was actually next door to Hillside, or St. Catherine’s as it was then called. So that, as you see, puts him in the right place at the right time. And then there were a hundred and one little significant facts. Helen Halliday told Richard Erskine she had gone out to marry Walter Fane because she wasn’t happy at home. Not happy, that is, living with her brother. Yet her brother was by all accounts devoted to her. So why wasn’t she happy?
Mr. Afflick told you that ‘he was sorry for the poor kid’. I think that he was absolutely truthful when he said that. He was sorry for her. Why did she have to go and meet young Afflick in that clandestine way?
Admittedly she was not wildly in love with him. Was it because she couldn’t meet young men in the ordinary normal way?
Her brother was ‘strict’ and ‘old-fashioned’. It is vaguely reminiscent, is it not, of Mr. Barrett of Wimpole Street?” Gwenda shivered. “He was mad,” she said. “Mad.” “Yes,” said Miss Marple. “He wasn’t normal. He adored his half-sister, and that affection became possessive and unwholesome.
That kind of thing happens oftener than you’d think. Fathers who don’t want their daughters to marry — or even to meet young men. Like Mr. Barrett. I thought of that when I heard about the tennis net.” “The tennis net?” “Yes, that seemed to me very significant.
Think of that girl, young Helen, coming home from school, and eager for all a young girl wants out of life, anxious to meet young men — to flirt with them — ” “A little sex-crazy.” “No,” said Miss Marple with emphasis. “That is one of the wickedest things about this crime. Dr. Kennedy didn’t only kill her physically. If you think back carefully, you’ll see that the only evidence for Helen Kennedy’s having been man mad or practically — what is the word you used, dear? oh yes, a nymphomaniac–came actually from Dr. Kennedy himself. I think, myself, that she was a perfectly normal young girl who wanted to have fun and a good time and flirt a little and finally settle down with the man of her choice — no more than that. And see what steps her brother took. First he was strict and oldfashioned about allowing her liberty. Then, when she wanted to give tennis parties — a most normal and harmless desire — he pretended to agree and then one night secretly cut the tennis net to ribbons–a very significant and sadistic action. Then, since she could still go out to play tennis or to dances, he took advantage of a grazed foot which he treated, to infect it so that it wouldn’t heal. Oh yes, I think he did that… in fact, I’m sure of it.