The Floating Admiral. Агата Кристи

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СКАЧАТЬ poor and one thing and another, I’m putting in the electricity this year. Old-world is old-world, but some things people won’t stand. Hot water system last year and electricity this. But there, I’m wandering off the point again. I was just going to say—what was I going to say?”

      The Inspector assured her that he had no idea.

      “Admiral Penistone was a friend of Sir Wilfrid Denny, was he not?” he asked.

      “Now there’s a nice gentleman for you—Sir Wilfrid Denny. Always a cheery word and a joke. A shame he should be so hard up, poor gentleman. Oh! yes, he and the Admiral were acquainted. They do say that’s why the Admiral came down here to live. But I don’t know about that. There’s those who say that Sir Wilfrid was none too pleased when he heard his friend was coming down here to live. But there, people will say anything, won’t they? I’m never one to say a word myself. Too much harm done by gossiping. Keep a still tongue in your head and you can’t go far wrong. That’s my motto. And one thing I will say is a wicked shame. To take the Vicar’s boat to do their dirty work in. Trying to drag him into it, poor gentleman. As if he hadn’t had trouble enough in his life.”

      “Had a bit of trouble, has he?”

      “Well, it’s a long time ago now. Six and four the little boys were, and how she could do it! Depend upon it, a woman who leaves her husband and her children—well, there’s not much to be said for her—not when it’s a good Christian husband like the Vicar. (There’s some I could name as deserve to be left.) Leaving her little children, that’s what I can’t get over. And a pretty gentle lady too, by all accounts. I never saw her myself. It happened before Mr. Mount came here. And who it was she went off with, I’ve forgotten. But a very handsome gentleman, I’ve always heard. Those handsome ones have a way with them, there’s no denying it. Well, well, I wonder what’s become of her? Dear, dear, life’s a sad mix-up. And if I haven’t gone right away from the subject again! Talking about Mr. Holland we were—and he’s a handsome fellow if you like. And yet they say Miss Fitzgerald doesn’t seem to think so, for all they’re engaged to be married.”

      “So that’s what they say?”

      Mrs. Davis nodded very significantly.

      “And what the Admiral wanted to see Mr. Holland about, I’ve no idea,” she went on. “But it’s crossed my mind that maybe the young lady wanted the engagement off, and sent her uncle to do the dirty work for her. Though why it couldn’t have waited till the morning … I dare say that’s exactly what the Admiral thought, and why he changed his mind and said he had a train to catch.”

      Inspector Rudge made a valiant effort and interpreted this cryptic pronouncement.

      “Do you mean,” he said, “that Admiral Penistone called here last night?”

      “Why, of course he did. Asked the Boots for Mr. Holland. And then, just as the man was going off, called him back again, hemmed and hawed and looked at his watch, and said he had a train to catch, there wouldn’t be time for him to see Mr. Holland.”

      “What time was this?”

      “I couldn’t say exactly. It was after eleven o’clock. I was in bed, and glad to be there. Such a day as we’d had. Really, these charabancs—they do take it out of one! There were a lot of people about still. These warm nights you can’t get the people to bed.”

      “A train to catch,” mused the Inspector.

      “That would be the 11.25 I expect,” said Mrs. Davis. “The up train for London. Six in the morning it gets there. But he didn’t go by it. What I mean is, he couldn’t have gone by it, because if he had, he wouldn’t have been lying murdered in the Vicar’s boat.”

      And she looked at Inspector Rudge triumphantly.

      CHAPTER V

      By John Rhode

      INSPECTOR RUDGE BEGINS TO FORM A THEORY

      INSPECTOR RUDGE assumed an expression of profound admiration. “My word, Mrs. Davis, it takes a woman like you to put two and two together like that!” he exclaimed. “Of course the Admiral could not have caught the train, now I come to think of it!”

      Mrs. Davis chuckled good-humouredly. “There, now you’re laughing at me,” she said. “I don’t know how it is, but most of my visitors always seem to find a joke in something or other I say to them. Perhaps it’s just as well, it keeps them cheerful and contented, and what I always say is: make your visitors happy as long as you’re sure they have got enough money to pay their bills. Not that they often manage to hoodwink me—”

      “I’m sure they don’t,” interrupted the Inspector politely. “It would take a clever man to do that, I’m certain. By the way, how was it you knew all about the murder of Admiral Penistone before I got here?”

      “It isn’t always those that get about the most that hears the most,” replied Mrs. Davis roguishly. “Here am I, not been outside the house this blessed morning, and I warrant I know more about it than anybody else in Whynmouth, barring the police, of course, Inspector. You see, it’s this way: you came in by the hotel entrance, and you wouldn’t have noticed it. But if you go up the side street there’s another door that leads into the Shades. It’s put there, apart from the house, so that it won’t interfere with the hotel visitors. They get their drinks in the smoking-room, and pay more for them, too. It’s the outside customers that use the Shades, fishermen and the like of that, such as the gentlemen who use the smoking-room wouldn’t care to associate with. Not that there’s anything amiss with them, bar that they’re a bit free with their language sometimes. They’re polite enough to me when I go in there in the mornings at opening time to see that all’s right and comfortable.”

      “Ah, so you heard about the murder in the Shades this morning, did you, Mrs. Davis?” suggested the Inspector.

      “Why! that’s just what I was going to tell you about!” exclaimed Mrs. Davis, in a slightly hurt tone. “But you gentlemen in the police are all the same. You’re so short with your questions that a body can hardly get a word in edgeways. As I was going to say, I was in there this morning when Billy the barman was taking down the shutters, and as soon as he unlocked the door in walked a couple of chaps with ambulance badges on. I asked them if there had been an accident, and they told me how Mr. Ware of Lingham had found the Admiral’s body in the Vicar’s boat, which was floating about, with no one in sight.”

      At this moment, as though in answer to Inspector Rudge’s inward prayer, an agitated-looking cook appeared from the back regions and muttered something in Mrs. Davis’s ear. “Why, there now! if it hadn’t altogether slipped my memory,” she exclaimed. “I’ve been so interested hearing you talk, Inspector, that I’ve never ordered the joint for lunch. You’ll excuse me if I run off and see to it, won’t you, Mr. Rudge?”

      The Inspector waited till Mrs. Davis had disappeared, then, when he was satisfied that she was out of hearing, rang a bell marked “Porter.” In a few minutes a bald-headed individual hustled into the entrance hall, still struggling with the short jacket which he had hastily thrust on over his rolled-up shirt sleeves. From his appearance he seemed to have been interrupted in the act of stoking the central heating system. He looked at Inspector Rudge enquiringly. “Yessir,” he remarked.

      “I’m Inspector Rudge, and I came here to make certain enquiries. You knew Admiral Penistone, I believe?”

      The man scratched his head. СКАЧАТЬ