Detectives and Young Adventurers: The Complete Short Stories. Agatha Christie

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СКАЧАТЬ she has torn a small fragment from the costume. The murderer notices that – he is a man who pays great attention to detail. To make the case absolutely clear against his victim the fragment must seem to have been torn from Captain Hale’s costume. That would present great difficulties unless the two men happened to be living in the same house. Then, of course, the thing would be simplicity itself. He makes an exact duplicate of the tear in Captain Hale’s costume – then he burns his own and prepares to play the part of the loyal friend.’

      Tuppence paused.

      ‘Well, Sir Arthur?’

      Sir Arthur rose and made her a bow.

      ‘The rather vivid imagination of a charming lady who reads too much fiction.’

      ‘You think so?’ said Tommy.

      ‘And a husband who is guided by his wife,’ said Sir Arthur. ‘I do not fancy you will find anybody to take the matter seriously.’

      He laughed out loud, and Tuppence stiffened in her chair.

      ‘I would swear to that laugh anywhere,’ she said. ‘I heard it last in the Ace of Spades. And you are under a little misapprehension about us both. Beresford is our real name, but we have another.’

      She picked up a card from the table and handed it to him. Sir Arthur read it aloud.

      ‘International Detective Agency . . .’ He drew his breath sharply. ‘So that is what you really are! That was why Marriot brought me here this morning. It was a trap –’

      He strolled to the window.

      ‘A fine view you have from here,’ he said. ‘Right over London.’

      ‘Inspector Marriot,’ cried Tommy sharply.

      In a flash the Inspector appeared from the communicating door in the opposite wall.

      A little smile of amusement came to Sir Arthur’s lips.

      ‘I thought as much,’ he said. ‘But you won’t get me this time, I’m afraid, Inspector. I prefer to take my own way out.’

      And putting his hands on the sill, he vaulted clean through the window.

      Tuppence shrieked and clapped her hands to her ears to shut out the sound she had already imagined – the sickening thud far beneath. Inspector Marriot uttered an oath.

      ‘We should have thought of the window,’ he said. ‘Though, mind you, it would have been a difficult thing to prove. I’ll go down and – and – see to things.’

      ‘Poor devil,’ said Tommy slowly. ‘If he was fond of his wife –’

      But the Inspector interrupted him with a snort.

      ‘Fond of her? That’s as may be. He was at his wits’ end where to turn for money. Lady Merivale had a large fortune of her own, and it all went to him. If she’d bolted with young Hale, he’d never have seen a penny of it.’

      ‘That was it, was it?’

      ‘Of course, from the very start, I sensed that Sir Arthur was a bad lot, and that Captain Hale was all right. We know pretty well what’s what at the Yard – but it’s awkward when you’re up against facts. I’ll be going down now – I should give your wife a glass of brandy if I were you, Mr Beresford – it’s been upsetting like for her.’

      ‘Greengrocers,’ said Tuppence in a low voice as the door closed behind the imperturbable Inspector, ‘butchers, fishermen, detectives. I was right, wasn’t I? He knew.’

      Tommy, who had been busy at the sideboard, approached her with a large glass.

      ‘Drink this.’

      ‘What is it? Brandy?’

      ‘No, it’s a large cocktail – suitable for a triumphant McCarty. Yes, Marriot’s right all round – that was the way of it. A bold finesse for game and rubber.’

      Tuppence nodded.

      ‘But he finessed the wrong way round.’

      ‘And so,’ said Tommy, ‘exit the King.’

      Chapter 5

       The Case of the Missing Lady

      ‘The Case of the Missing Lady’ was first published in The Sketch, 15 October 1924. Sherlock Holmes was created by

       Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930).

      The buzzer on Mr Blunt’s desk – International Detective Agency, Manager, Theodore Blunt – uttered its warning call. Tommy and Tuppence both flew to their respective peepholes which commanded a view of the outer office. There it was Albert’s business to delay the prospective client with various artistic devices.

      ‘I will see, sir,’ he was saying. ‘But I’m afraid Mr Blunt is very busy just at present. He is engaged with Scotland Yard on the phone just now.’

      ‘I’ll wait,’ said the visitor. ‘I haven’t got a card with me, but my name is Gabriel Stavansson.’

      The client was a magnificent specimen of manhood, standing over six foot high. His face was bronzed and weatherbeaten, and the extraordinary blue of his eyes made an almost startling contrast to the brown skin.

      Tommy swiftly made up his mind. He put on his hat, picked up some gloves and opened the door. He paused on the threshold.

      ‘This gentleman is waiting to see you, Mr Blunt,’ said Albert.

      A quick frown passed over Tommy’s face. He took out his watch.

      ‘I am due at the Duke’s at a quarter to eleven,’ he said. Then he looked keenly at the visitor. ‘I can give you a few minutes if you will come this way.’

      The latter followed him obediently into the inner office, where Tuppence was sitting demurely with pad and pencil.

      ‘My confidential secretary, Miss Robinson,’ said Tommy. ‘Now, sir, perhaps you will state your business? Beyond the fact that it is urgent, that you came here in a taxi, and that you have lately been in the Arctic – or possibly the Antarctic, I know nothing.’

      The visitor stared at him in amazement.

      ‘But this is marvellous,’ he cried. ‘I thought detectives only did such things in books! Your office boy did not even give you my name!’

      Tommy sighed deprecatingly.

      ‘Tut, tut, all that was very easy,’ he said. ‘The rays of the midnight sun within the Arctic circle have a peculiar action upon the skin – the actinic rays have certain properties. I am writing a little monograph on the subject shortly. But all this is wide of the point. What is it that has brought you to me in such distress of mind?’

      ‘To begin with, Mr Blunt, my name is Gabriel Stavansson –’

      ‘Ah! of course,’ said Tommy. ‘The well-known explorer. You СКАЧАТЬ