At Bertram's Hotel (Miss Marple 11)

There was more screaming as the car came round the corner on two wheels, a great roar, and the beautiful white monster came tearing up the street.

“She’ll kill someone,” said Father, “she’ll kill a lot of people…even if she doesn’t kill herself.”

“I wonder,” said Miss Marple.

“She’s a good driver, of course. A damn good driver. Whoof, that was a near one!”

They heard the roar of the car racing away with the horn blaring, heard it grow fainter. Heard cries, shouts, the sound of brakes, cars hooting and pulling up and finally a great scream of tyres and a roaring exhaust and—

“She’s crashed,” said Father.

He stood there very quietly waiting with the patience that was characteristic of his whole big patient form. Miss Marple stood silent beside him. Then, like a relay race, word came down along the street. A man on the pavement opposite looked up at Chief-Inspector Davy and made rapid signs with his hands.

“She’s had it,” said Father heavily. “Dead! Went about ninety miles an hour into the park railings. No other casualties bar a few slight collisions. Magnificent driving. Yes, she’s dead.” He turned back into the room and said heavily, “Well, she told her story first. You heard her.”

“Yes,” said Miss Marple. “I heard her.” There was a pause. “It wasn’t true, of course,” said Miss Marple quietly.

Father looked at her. “You didn’t believe her, eh?”

“Did you?”

“No,” said Father. “No, it wasn’t the right story. She thought it out so that it would meet the case exactly, but it wasn’t true. She didn’t shoot Michael Gorman. D’you happen to know who did?”

“Of course I know,” said Miss Marple. “The girl.”

“Ah! When did you begin to think that?”

“I always wondered,” said Miss Marple.

“So did I,” said Father. “She was full of fear that night. And the lies she told were poor lies. But I couldn’t see a motive at first.”

“That puzzled me,” said Miss Marple. “She had found out her mother’s marriage was bigamous, but would a girl do murder for that? Not nowadays! I suppose there was a money side to it?”

“Yes, it was money,” said Chief-Inspector Davy. “Her father left her a colossal fortune. When she found out that her mother was married to Michael Gorman she realized that the marriage to Coniston hadn’t been legal. She thought that meant that the money wouldn’t come to her because, though she was his daughter, she wasn’t legitimate. She was wrong, you know. We had a case something like that before. Depends on the terms of a will. Coniston left it quite clearly to her, naming her by name. She’d get it all right, but she didn’t know that. And she wasn’t going to let go of the cash.”

“Why did she need it so badly?”

Chief-Inspector Davy said grimly, “To buy Ladislaus Malinowski. He would have married her for her money. He wouldn’t have married her without it. She wasn’t a fool, that girl. She knew that. But she wanted him on any terms. She was desperately in love with him.”

“I know,” said Miss Marple. She explained: “I saw her face that day in Battersea Park….”

“She knew that with the money she’d get him, and without the money she’d lose him,” said Father. “And so she planned a cold-blooded murder. She didn’t hide in the area, of course. There was nobody in the area. She just stood by the railings and fired a shot and screamed, and when Michael Gorman came racing down the street from the hotel, she shot him at close quarters. Then she went on screaming. She was a cool hand. She’d no idea of incriminating young Ladislaus. She pinched his pistol because it was the only way she could get hold of one easily; and she never dreamed that he would be suspected of the crime, or that he would be anywhere in the neighbourhood that night. She thought it would be put down to some thug taking advantage of the fog. Yes, she was a cool hand. But she was afraid that night—afterwards! And her mother was afraid for her….”

“And now—what will you do?”

“I know she did it,” said Father, “but I’ve no evidence. Maybe she’ll have beginner’s luck…Even the law seems to go on the principle now of allowing a dog to have one bite—translated into human terms. An experienced counsel could make great play with the sob stuff—so young a girl, unfortunate upbringing—and she’s beautiful, you know.”

“Yes,” said Miss Marple. “The children of Lucifer are often beautiful—And as we know, they flourish like the green bay tree.”

“But as I tell you, it probably won’t even come to that—there’s no evidence—take yourself—you’ll be called as a witness—a witness to what her mother said—to her mother’s confession of the crime.”

“I know,” said Miss Marple. “She impressed it on me, didn’t she? She chose death for herself, at the price of her daughter going free. She forced it on me as a dying request….”

The connecting door to the bedroom opened. Elvira Blake came through. She was wearing a straight shift dress of pale blue. Her fair hair fell down each side of her face. She looked like one of the angels in an early primitive Italian painting. She looked from one to the other of them. She said:

“I heard a car and a crash and people shouting…Has there been an accident?”

“I’m sorry to tell you, Miss Blake,” said Chief-Inspector Davy formally, “that your mother is dead.”

Elvira gave a little gasp. “Oh no,” she said. It was a faint uncertain protest.

“Before she made her escape,” said Chief-Inspector Davy, “because it was an escape—she confessed to the murder of Michael Gorman.”

“You mean—she said—that it was she—”

“Yes,” said Father. “That is what she said. Have you anything to add?”

Elvira looked for a long time at him. Very faintly she shook her head.

“No,” she said, “I haven’t anything to add.”

Then she turned and went out of the room.

“Well,” said Miss Marple. “Are you going to let her get away with it?”

There was a pause, then Father brought down his fist with a crash on the table.

“No,” he roared—“No, by God I’m not!”

Miss Marple nodded her head slowly and gravely.

“May God have mercy on her soul,” she said.

* * *