The Body in the Library (Miss Marple 3)

“But, my dear,” said Mrs. Bantry, “couldn’t Conway have advised him?”

“He didn’t want to be advised. The one thing he wanted was to do well on his own. That’s why we never let Mr. Jefferson know. When Frank died there was very little left—only a tiny income for me. And I—I didn’t let his father know either. You see—”

She turned abruptly.

“It would have felt like betraying Frank to him. Frank would have hated it so. Mr. Jefferson was ill for a long time. When he got well he assumed that I was a very-well-off widow. I’ve never undeceived him. It’s been a point of honour. He knows I’m very careful about money—but he approves of that, thinks I’m a thrifty sort of woman. And, of course, Peter and I have lived with him practically ever since, and he’s paid for all our living expenses. So I’ve never had to worry.”

She said slowly:

“We’ve been like a family all these years—only—only—you see (or don’t you see?) I’ve never been Frank’s widow to him—I’ve been Frank’s wife.”

Mrs. Bantry grasped the implication.

“You mean he’s never accepted their deaths?”

“No. He’s been wonderful. But he’s conquered his own terrible tragedy by refusing to recognize death. Mark is Rosamund’s husband and I’m Frank’s wife—and though Frank and Rosamund aren’t exactly here with us—they are still existent.”

Mrs. Bantry said softly:

“It’s a wonderful triumph of faith.”

“I know. We’ve gone on, year after year. But suddenly—this summer—something went wrong in me. I felt—I felt rebellious. It’s an awful thing to say, but I didn’t want to think of Frank anymore! All that was over—my love and companionship with him, and my grief when he died. It was something that had been and wasn’t any longer.

“It’s awfully hard to describe. It’s like wanting to wipe the slate clean and start again. I wanted to be me—Addie, still reasonably young and strong and able to play games and swim and dance—just a person. Even Hugo—(you know Hugo McLean?) he’s a dear and wants to marry me, but, of course, I’ve never really thought of it—but this summer I did begin to think of it—not seriously—only vaguely….”

She stopped and shook her head.

“And so I suppose it’s true. I neglected Jeff. I don’t mean really neglected him, but my mind and thoughts weren’t with him. When Ruby, as I saw, amused him, I was rather glad. It left me freer to go and do my own things. I never dreamed—of course I never dreamed—that he would be so—so—infatuated by her!”

Mrs. Bantry asked:

“And when you did find out?”

“I was dumbfounded—absolutely dumbfounded! And, I’m afraid, angry too.”

“I’d have been angry,” said Mrs. Bantry.

“There was Peter, you see. Peter’s whole future depends on Jeff. Jeff practically looked on him as a grandson, or so I thought, but, of course, he wasn’t a grandson. He was no relation at all. And to think that he was going to be—disinherited!” Her firm, well-shaped hands shook a little where they lay in her lap. “For that’s what it felt like—and for a vulgar, gold-digging little simpleton—Oh! I could have killed her!”

She stopped, stricken. Her beautiful hazel eyes met Mrs. Bantry’s in a pleading horror. She said:

“What an awful thing to say!”

Hugo McLean, coming quietly up behind them, asked:

“What’s an awful thing to say?”

“Sit down, Hugo. You know Mrs. Bantry, don’t you?”

McLean had already greeted the older lady. He said now in a low, persevering way:

“What was an awful thing to say?”

Addie Jefferson said:

“That I’d like to have killed Ruby Keene.”

Hugo McLean reflected a minute or two. Then he said:

“No, I wouldn’t say that if I were you. Might be misunderstood.”

His eyes—steady, reflective, grey eyes—looked at her meaningly.

He said:

“You’ve got to watch your step, Addie.”

There was a warning in his voice.

III

When Miss Marple came out of the hotel and joined Mrs. Bantry a few minutes later, Hugo McLean and Adelaide Jefferson were walking down the path to the sea together.

Seating herself, Miss Marple remarked:

“He seems very devoted.”

“He’s been devoted for years! One of those men.”

“I know. Like Major Bury. He hung round an Anglo-Indian widow for quite ten years. A joke among her friends! In the end she gave in—but unfortunately ten days before they were to have been married she ran away with the chauffeur! Such a nice woman, too, and usually so well balanced.”

“People do do very odd things,” agreed Mrs. Bantry. “I wish you’d been here just now, Jane. Addie Jefferson was telling me all about herself—how her husband went through all his money but they never let Mr. Jefferson know. And then, this summer, things felt different to her—”

Miss Marple nodded.

“Yes. She rebelled, I suppose, against being made to live in the past? After all, there’s a time for everything. You can’t sit in the house with the blinds down forever. I suppose Mrs. Jefferson just pulled them up and took off her widow’s weeds, and her father-in-law, of course, didn’t like it. Felt left out in the cold, though I don’t suppose for a minute he realized who put her up to it. Still, he certainly wouldn’t like it. And so, of course, like old Mr. Badger when his wife took up Spiritualism, he was just ripe for what happened. Any fairly nice-looking young girl who listened prettily would have done.”

“Do you think,” said Mrs. Bantry, “that that cousin, Josie, got her down here deliberately—that it was a family plot?”

Miss Marple shook her head.

“No, I don’t think so at all. I don’t think Josie has the kind of mind that could foresee people’s reactions. She’s rather dense in that way. She’s got one of those shrewd, limited, practical minds that never do foresee the future and are usually astonished by it.”

“It seems to have taken everyone by surprise,” said Mrs. Bantry. “Addie—and Mark Gaskell too, apparently.”

Miss Marple smiled.

“I dare say he had his own fish to fry. A bold fellow with a roving eye! Not the man to go on being a sorrowing widower for years, no matter how fond he may have been of his wife. I should think they were both restless under old Mr. Jefferson’s yoke of perpetual remembrance.

“Only,” added Miss Marple cynically, “it’s easier for gentlemen, of course.”

IV

At that very moment Mark was confirming this judgment on himself in a talk with Sir Henry Clithering.

With characteristic candour Mark had gone straight to the heart of things.

“It’s just dawned on me,” he said, “that I’m Favourite Suspect No. I to the police! They’ve been delving into my financial troubles. I’m broke, you know, or very nearly. If dear old Jeff dies according to schedule in a month or two, and Addie and I divide the dibs also according to schedule, all will be well. Matter of fact, I owe rather a lot … If the crash comes it will be a big one! If I can stave it off, it will be the other way round—I shall come out on top and be a very rich man.”

Sir Henry Clithering said:

“You’re a gambler, Mark.”

“Always have been. Risk everything—that’s my motto! Yes, it’s a lucky thing for me that somebody strangled that poor kid. I didn’t do it. I’m not a strangler. I don’t really think I could ever murder anybody. I’m too easygoing. But I don’t suppose I can ask the police to believe that! I must look to them like the answer to the criminal investigator’s prayer! I had a motive, was on the spot, I am not burdened with high moral scruples! I can’t imagine why I’m not in the jug already! That Superintendent’s got a very nasty eye.”

“You’ve got that useful thing, an alibi.”

“An alibi is the fishiest thing on God’s earth! No innocent person ever

has an alibi! Besides, it all depends on the time of death, or something like that, and you may be sure if three doctors say the girl was killed at midnight, at least six will be found who will swear positively that she was killed at five in the morning—and where’s my alibi then?”

“At any rate, you are able to joke about it.”

“Damned bad taste, isn’t it?” said Mark cheerfully. “Actually, I’m rather scared. One is—with murder! And don’t think I’m not sorry for old Jeff. I am. But it’s better this way—bad as the shock was—than if he’d found her out.”

“What do you mean, found her out?”

Mark winked.

“Where did she go off to last night? I’ll lay you any odds you like she went to meet a man. Jeff wouldn’t have liked that. He wouldn’t have liked it at all. If he’d found she was deceiving him—that she wasn’t the prattling little innocent she seemed—well—my father-in-law is an odd man. He’s a man of great self-control, but that self-control can snap. And then—look out!”

Sir Henry glanced at him curiously.