Agatha Christie. The Body in the Library. Chapter 1

Agatha Christie

The Body in the Library

Chapter 1

V A little breathless Miss Marple alighted from the Bantrys' car, the door of which was held open for her by the chauffeur. Colonel Bantry came out on the steps and looked a little surprised. " Miss Marple? Er - very pleased to see you. " " Your wife telephoned to me, " explained Miss Marple. " Capital, capital. She ought to have someone with her. She'll crack up otherwise. She's putting a good face on things at the moment, but you know what it is. " At this moment Mrs Bantry appeared and exclaimed, " Do go back and eat your breakfast, Arthur. Your bacon will get cold. " " I thought it might be the inspector ________, " explained Colonel Bantry. " He'll be here soon enough, " said Mrs Bantry. " That's why it's important to get your breakfast first. You need it. " " So do you. Much better come and eat something, Dolly. " " I'll come in a minute, " said Mrs Bantry. " Go on, Arthur. " Colonel Bantry was shooed back into the dining room rather like a recalcitrant hen. " Now! " said Mrs Bantry with an intonation of triumph. " Come on. " She ________ the way rapidly along the long corridor to the east of the house. Outside the library door Constable Palk stood on guard. He intercepted Mrs Bantry with a show of authority. " I'm afraid nobody is allowed in, madam. Inspector's orders. " " Nonsense, Palk, " said Mrs Bantry. " You know Miss Marple perfectly well. " Constable Palk ________ to knowing Miss Marple. " It's very important that she should see the body, " said Mrs Bantry. " Don't be stupid, Palk. After all, it's my library, isn't it? " Constable Palk gave way. His habit of giving in to the gentry was life-long. The ________, he reflected, need never know about it. " Nothing must be touched or handled in any way, " he warned the ladies. " Of course not, " said Mrs Bantry impatiently. " We know that. You can come in and watch, if you like. " Constable Palk availed himself of this permission. It had been his intention anyway. Mrs Bantry ________ her friend triumphantly across the library to the big old-fashioned fireplace. She said, with a dramatic sense of climax, " There! " Miss Marple understood then just what her friend had meant when she said the dead girl wasn't real. The library was a room very typical of ________ owners. It was large and shabby and untidy. It had big, sagging armchairs, and pipes and books and estate papers laid out on the big table. There were one or two good old family portraits on the walls, and some bad Victorian water colours, and some would-be-funny hunting scenes. There was a big vase of flowers in the corner. The whole room was dim and mellow and casual. It spoke of long ________ and familiar use and of links with tradition. And across the old bearskin hearth rug there was sprawled something new and crude and melodramatic. The flamboyant figure of a girl. A girl with unnaturally fair hair dressed up off her face in elaborate curls and rings. Her thin body was dressed in a backless evening dress of white spangled satin; the face was heavily made up, the powder standing out grotesquely on its blue, swollen surface, the mascara of the lashes lying ________ on the distorted cheeks, the scarlet of the lips looking like a gash. The fingernails were enamelled a deep blood red, and so were the toenails in their cheap silver sandal shoes. It was a cheap, tawdry, flamboyant figure, most incongruous in the solid, old-fashioned comfort of Colonel Bantry's library. Mrs Bantry said in a low voice, " You see what I mean? It just isn't true? " The old lady by her side ________ her head. She looked down long and thoughtfully at the huddled figure. She said at last in a gentle voice, " She's very young. " " Yes, yes, I suppose she is. " Mrs Bantry seemed almost surprised, like one ________ a discovery. There was the sound of a car crunching on the gravel outside. Constable Palk said with urgency, " That'll be the inspector. " True to his ________ belief that the gentry didn't let you down, Mrs Bantry immediately moved to the door. Miss Marple followed her. Mrs Bantry said, " That'll be all right, Palk". Constable Palk was immensely relieved. VI Hastily downing the last fragments of toast and marmalade with a drink of coffee Colonel Bantry hurried out into the hall and ________ to see Colonel Melchett, the chief constable of the county, descending from a car, with Inspector Slack in ________. Melchett was a friend of the colonel's; Slack he had never very much taken to. An energetic man who belied his name and who accompanied his bustling manner with a good deal of ________ for the feelings of anyone he did not consider important. " Morning, Bantry, " said the chief constable. " Thought I'd better come along myself. This seems an ________business. " " It's - it's -" Colonel Bantry struggled to express himself- " it's incredible -fantastic! " " No idea who the woman is? " " Not in the slightest. Never set eyes on her in my life. " " Butler knows anything? " asked Inspector Slack. " Lorrimer is just as taken aback as I am. " " Ah, " said Inspector Slack. " I wonder. " Colonel Bantry said, " There's breakfast in the dining room, Melchett, if you'd like anything. " " No, no, better get on with the job. Haydock ought to be here any minute now... Ah, here he is. " Another car drew up and big, broad-shouldered Doctor Haydock, who was also the police surgeon, got out. A second police car had disgorged two plain-clothes men, one with a camera. " All set, eh? " said the chief constable. " Right. We'll go along. In the library, Slack tells me. " Colonel Bantry groaned. " It's ________! You know, when my wife insisted this morning that the housemaid had come in and said there was a body in the library, I just wouldn't believe her. " " No, no, I can quite understand that. Hope your missus isn't too badly upset by it all. " " She's been wonderful, really wonderful. She's got old Miss Marple up here with her from the village, you know. " " Miss Marple? " The chief constable stiffened. " Why did she send for her? " " Oh, a woman wants another woman don't you think so? " Colonel Melchett said with a slight chuckle, " If you ask me, your wife's going to try her hand at a little amateur detecting. Miss Marple's quite the local sleuth. Put it over us ________once, didn't she Slack? " Inspector Slack said, " That was different. " " Different from what? " " That was a local case, that was, sir. The old lady knows everything that ________on in the village, that's true enough. But she'll be out of her depth here. " Melchett said ________, " You don't know very much about it yourself yet, Slack. " " Ah, you wait, sir. It won't take me long to get down to it. " VII In the dining room Mrs Bantry and Miss Marple, in their turn, were partaking of breakfast. After waiting on her guest, Mrs Bantry said urgently, " Well, Jane? " Miss Marple looked up at her slightly bewildered. Mrs Bantry said hopefully, " Doesn't it remind you of anything? " For Miss Marple had attained fame by her _______to link up trivial village happenings with graver problems in such a way as to throw light upon the latter. " No, " said Miss Marple thoughtfully. " I can't say that it does - not at the moment. I was reminded a little of Mrs Chetty's youngest Edie, you know, but I think that was just because this poor girl bit her nails and her front teeth stuck out a little. Nothing more than that. And of course, " went on Miss Marple, pursuing the parallel further, " Edie was fond of what I call cheap finery too. " " You mean her dress? " said Mrs Bantry. " Yes, very tawdry satin, poor quality. " Mrs Bantry said, " I know. One of those nasty little shops where everything is a guinea. " She went on hopefully, " Let me see. What happened to Mrs Chetty's Edie? " " She's just gone into her _______place, and doing very well, I believe, " said Miss Marple. Mrs Bantry felt slightly disappointed. The village parallel didn't seem to be exactly hopeful. " What I can't make out, " said Mrs Bantry, " is what she could possibly be doing in Arthur's study. The window was forced, Palk tells me. She might have come down here with a burglar, and then they quarrelled. But that seems such nonsense, doesn't it? " " She was hardly dressed for ________, " said Miss Marple thoughtfully. " No, she was dressed for _______or a party of some kind. But there's nothing of that kind down here or anywhere near. " " N-no, " said Miss Marple doubtfully. Mrs Bantry pounced. " Something's in your mind, Jane. " " Well, I was just wondering -" " Yes? " " Basil Blake. " Mrs Bantry cried impulsively, " Oh, no! " and added as though in _______, " I know his mother. " The two women looked at each other. Miss Marple sighed and shook her head. " I quite understand how you feel about it. " " Selina Blake is the nicest woman imaginable. Her herbaceous borders are simply marvellous; they make me green with envy. And she's frightfully generous with cuttings. " Miss Marple, passing over these claims to consideration on the part of Mrs Blake, said, " All the same, you know, there has been a lot of talk. " " Oh, I know, I know. And of course Arthur goes simply livid when he hears him mentioned. He was really very rude to Arthur, and since then Arthur won't hear a good word for him. He's got that silly slighting way of talking that _______boys have nowadays - sneering at people, sticking up for their school or the Empire or that sort of thing. And then, of course, the clothes he wears! People say, " continued Mrs Bantry, " that it doesn't matter what you wear in the country. I never heard such nonsense. It's just in the country that everyone _______. " She paused and added wistfully, " He was an adorable baby in his bath. " " There was a lovely picture of the Cheviot murderer as a baby in the paper last Sunday, " said Miss Marple. " Oh, but, Jane, you don't think he -" " No, no, dear, I didn't mean that at all. That would indeed be jumping to conclusions. I was just trying to account for the young woman's presence down here. St Mary Mead is such an _______place. And then it seemed to me that the only possible explanation was Basil Blake. He does have parties. People come down from London and from the studios. You remember last July? Shouting and singing, the most terrible noise, everyone very drunk, I'm afraid, and the mess and the broken glass next morning simply unbelievable. So old Mrs Berry told me and a young woman asleep in the bath with practically nothing on! " Mrs Bantry said indulgently, " I suppose they were young people. " " Very likely. And then what I expect you've heard several weekends lately he's brought down a young woman with him. A platinum blonde. " Mrs Bantry exclaimed, " You don't think it's this one? " " Well, I wondered. Of course, I've never seen her close, only just getting in and out of the car, and once in the cottage garden when she _______with just some shorts and a brassiere. I never really saw her face. And all these girls, with their make-up and their hair and their nails, look so alike. " " Yes. Still, it might be. It's an idea, Jane. "

ARRIVE LEAD ADMIT INSPECT BEAR IT OCCUPY THICK NOD MAKE GRAIN RELIEVE ATTEND REGARD ORDINARY CREDIBLE PROPER GO DRY ABLE TWO BURGLAR DANCE EXPLAIN THIS NOTICE LIKELY SUNBATHE

12 Следующая ⇒