夜雨聆风Lawrence Redding’s pistol.
“Very clear,” said Miss Marple, nodding her head in approval. “Veryclear indeed. Gentlemen always make such excellent memoranda.”
“You agree with what I have written?” I asked.
“Oh, yes—you have put it all beautifully.”
I asked her the question then that I had been meaning to put all along.
“Miss Marple,” I said. “Who do you suspect? You once said that therewere seven people.”
“Quite that, I should think,” said Miss Marple absently. “I expect everyone of us suspects someone different. In fact, one can see they do.”
She didn’t ask me who I suspected.
“The point is,” she said, “that one must provide an explanation foreverything. Each thing has got to be explained away satisfactorily. If youhave a theory that fits every fact—well, then, it must be the right one. Butthat’s extremely difficult. If it wasn’t for that note—”
“The note?” I said, surprised.
“Yes, you remember, I told you. That note has worried me all along. It’swrong, somehow.”
“Surely,” I said, “that is explained now. It was written at six thirty fiveand another hand—the murderer’s—put the misleading 6:20 at the top. Ithink that is clearly established.”
“But even then,” said Miss Marple, “it’s all wrong.”
“But why?”
“Listen.” Miss Marple leant forward eagerly. “Mrs. Protheroe passed mygarden, as I told you, and she went as far as the study window and shelooked in and she didn’t see Colonel Protheroe.”
“Because he was writing at the desk,” I said.
“And that’s what’s all wrong. That was at twenty past six. We agreedthat he wouldn’t sit down to say he couldn’t wait any longer until afterhalf past six—so, why was he sitting at the writing table then?”
“I never thought of that,” I said slowly.
“Let us, dear Mr. Clement, just go over it again. Mrs. Protheroe comes tothe window and she thinks the room is empty—she must have thought so,because otherwise she would never have gone down to the studio to meetMr. Redding. It wouldn’t have been safe. The room must have been abso-lutely silent if she thought it was empty. And that leaves us three alternat-ives, doesn’t it?”
“You mean—”
“Well, the first alternative would be that Colonel Protheroe was deadalready—but I don’t think that’s the most likely one. To begin with he’donly been there about five minutes and she or I would have heard theshot, and secondly, the same difficulty remains about his being at the writ-ing table. The second alternative is, of course, that he was sitting at thewriting table writing a note, but in that case it must have been a differentnote altogether. It can’t have been to say he couldn’t wait. And the third—”
“Yes?” I said.
“Well, the third is, of course, that Mrs. Protheroe was right, and that theroom was actually empty.”
“You mean that, after he had been shown in, he went out again andcame back later?”
“Yes.”
“But why should he have done that?”
