Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie Read Free Book Online Page A

Bantry with immediate recognition. “Woman with a deep mournful voice who always sounded as though she was going to burst into tears. She was a good cook. Husband was a fat, rather lazy man. Arthur always said he watered the whisky. I don’t know. Pity there’s always one of a couple that’s unsatisfactory. They got left a legacy by some former employer and they went off and opened a boardinghouse on the south coast.”
    â€œThat’s just what I thought. Wasn’t it at Dillmouth?”
    â€œThat’s right. 14 Sea Parade, Dillmouth.”
    â€œI was thinking that as Dr. Haydock has suggested the seaside I might go to—was their name Saunders?”
    â€œYes. That’s an excellent idea, Jane. You couldn’t do better. Mrs. Saunders will look after you well, and as it’s out of the season they’ll be glad to get you and won’t charge very much. With good cooking and sea air you’ll soon pick up.”
    â€œThank you, Dolly,” said Miss Marple, “I expect I shall.”

Six
E XERCISE IN D ETECTION
    I
    â€œW here do you think the body was? About here?” asked Giles.
    He and Gwenda were standing in the front hall of Hillside. They had arrived back the night before, and Giles was now in full cry. He was as pleased as a small boy with his new toy.
    â€œJust about,” said Gwenda. She retreated up the stairs and peered down critically. “Yes—I think that’s about it.”
    â€œCrouch down,” said Giles. “You’re only about three years old, you know.”
    Gwenda crouched obligingly.
    â€œYou couldn’t actually see the man who said the words?”
    â€œI can’t remember seeing him. He must have been just a bit further back—yes, there. I could only see his paws.”
    â€œ Paws. ” Giles frowned.
    â€œThey were paws. Grey paws—not human.”
    â€œBut look here, Gwenda. This isn’t a kind of Murder in the Rue Morgue. A man doesn’t have paws.”
    â€œWell, he had paws.”
    Giles looked doubtfully at her.
    â€œYou must have imagined that bit afterwards.”
    Gwenda said slowly, “Don’t you think I may have imagined the whole thing? You know, Giles, I’ve been thinking. It seems to me far more probable that the whole thing was a dream. It might have been. It was the sort of dream a child might have, and be terribly frightened, and go on remembering about. Don’t you think really that’s the proper explanation? Because nobody in Dillmouth seems to have the faintest idea that there was ever a murder, or a sudden death, or a disappearance or anything odd about this house.”
    Giles looked like a different kind of little boy—a little boy who has had his nice new toy taken away from him.
    â€œI suppose it might have been a nightmare,” he admitted grudgingly. Then his face cleared suddenly.
    â€œNo,” he said. “I don’t believe it. You could have dreamt about monkeys’ paws and someone dead—but I’m damned if you could have dreamt that quotation from The Duchess of Malfi. ”
    â€œI could have heard someone say it and then dreamt about it afterwards.”
    â€œI don’t think any child could do that. Not unless you heard it in conditions of great stress—and if that was the case we’re back again where we were—hold on, I’ve got it. It was the paws you dreamt. You saw the body and heard the words and you were scared stiff and then you had a nightmare about it, and there were waving monkeys’ paws too—probably you were frightened of monkeys.”
    Gwenda looked slightly dubious—she said slowly: “I suppose that might be it….”
    â€œI wish you could remember a bit more … Come down here in the hall. Shut your eyes. Think … Doesn’t anything more come back to you?”
    â€œNo, it doesn’t, Giles … The more I think, the further it all