Leonie died, it seems, very shortly after her return to Switzerland. Overdose of some sleeping tablets…. Oh no, he wasn’t taking any chances.n “Like trying to poison me with the brandy.” “You were very dangerous to him, you and Giles. Fortunately you never told him about your memory of seeing Helen dead in the hall. He never knew there had been an eyewitness.” “Those telephone calls to Fane and Afflick,” said Giles. “Did he put those through?” “Yes. If there was an inquiry as to who could have tampered with the brandy, either of them would make an admirable suspect, and if Jackie Afflick drove over in his car alone, it might tie him in with Lily Kimble’s murder. Fane would most likely have an alibi.3′ “And he seemed fond of me,” said Gwenda. “Little Gwennie.” “He had to play his part,” said Miss Marple. “Imagine what it meant to him.
After eighteen years, you and Giles come along, asking questions, burrowing into the past, disturbing a murder that had seemed dead but was only sleeping.
Murder in retrospect…. A horribly dangerous thing to do, my dears. I have been sadly worried.” “Poor Mrs. Cocker,” said Gwenda.
“She had a terribly near escape. I’m glad she’s going to be all right. Do you think she’ll ever come back to us, Giles? After all this?” “She will if there’s a nursery,” said Giles gravely, and Gwenda blushed, and Miss Marple smiled a little and looked out across Torbay.
“How very odd it was that it should happen the way it did,” mused Gwenda.
“My having those rubber gloves on, and looking at them, and then his coming into the hall and saying those words that sounded so like the others. Tace’… and then: ‘yes dazzled’ — ” She shuddered.
“Cover her face…. Mine eyes dazzle. she died young… that might have been me… if Miss Marple hadn’t been there.” She paused and said softly, “Poor Helen…. Poor lovely Helen, who died young…. You know, Giles, she isn’t there any more — in the house — in the hall. I could feel that yesterday before we left.
There’s just the house. And the house is fond of us. We can go back if we like…”
The End