米兰体育下载Yes,” Craddock agreed

The point was a little complicated—and rather touch and go. The ideawas that Mitzi whilst admitting, as though casually, that blackmail hadbeen in her mind, was now so worked up and terrified that she was will-ing to come out with the truth. She’d seen, through the keyhole of the din-ing room, Miss Blacklock in the hall with a revolver behind Rudi Scherz.

She’d seen, that is, what had actually taken place. Now the only danger wasthat Charlotte Blacklock might have realized that, as the key was in thekeyhole, Mitzi couldn’t possibly have seen anything at all. But I banked onthe fact that you don’t think of things like that when you’ve just had a badshock. All she could take in was that Mitzi had seen her.”

Craddock took over the story.

“But—and this was essential—I pretended to receive this with scepti-cism, and I made an immediate attack as though unmasking my batteriesat last, upon someone who had not been previously suspected. I accusedEdmund—”

“And very nicely I played my part,” said Edmund. “Hot denial. All ac-cording to plan. What wasn’t according to plan, Phillipa, my love, was youthrowing in your little chirp and coming out into the open as ‘Pip.’ Neitherthe Inspector nor I had any idea you were Pip. I was going to be Pip! Itthrew us off our stride for the moment, but the Inspector made a masterlycomeback and made some perfectly filthy insinuations about my wantinga rich wife which will probably stick in your subconscious and make irre-parable trouble between us one day.”

“I don’t see why that was necessary?”

“Don’t you? It meant that, from Charlotte Blacklock’s point of view, theonly person who suspected or knew the truth, was Mitzi. The suspicions ofthe police were elsewhere. They had treated Mitzi for the moment as aliar. But if Mitzi were to persist, they might listen to her and take her seri-ously. So Mitzi had got to be silenced.”

“Mitzi went straight out of the room and back to the kitchen—just like Ihad told her,” said Miss Marple. “Miss Blacklock came out after her almostimmediately. Mitzi was apparently alone in the kitchen. Sergeant Fletcherwas behind the scullery door. And I was in the broom cupboard in the kit-chen. Luckily I’m very thin.”