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Miss Marple lost herself in a train of thought that arose from her thoughts. It was quite possible that her actions in the Caribbean had saved Esther Walters from being murdered in the not far distant future. At any rate, that was Miss Marple’s belief, but probably Esther Walters had not believed any such thing. “A nice woman,” said Miss Marple, uttering the words in a soft tone aloud, “a very nice woman. The kind that would so easily marry a bad lot. In fact, the sort of woman that would marry a murderer if she were ever given half a chance. I still consider,” continued Miss Marple thoughtfully, sinking her voice still lower, “that I probably saved her life. In fact, I am almost sure of it, but I don’t think she would agree with that point of view. She probably dislikes me very much. Which makes it more difficult to use her as a source of information. Still, one can but try. It’s better than sitting here, waiting, waiting, waiting.”
Was Mr. Rafiel perhaps making fun of her when he had written that letter? He was not always a particularly kindly man—he could be very careless of people’s feelings.
“Anyway,” said Miss Marple, glancing at the clock and deciding that she would have an early night in bed, “when one thinks of things just before going to sleep, quite often ideas come. It may work out that way.”
V
“Sleep well?” asked Cherry, as she put down an early morning tea tray on the table at Miss Marple’s elbow.
“I had a curious dream,” said Miss Marple.
“Nightmare?”
“No, no, nothing of that kind. I was talking to someone, not anyone I knew very well. Just talking. Then when I looked, I saw it wasn’t that person at all I was talking to. It was somebody else. Very odd.”
“Bit of a mix up,” said Cherry, helpfully.
“It just reminded me of something,” said Miss Marple, “or rather of someone I once knew. Order Inch for me, will you? To come here about half past eleven.”
Inch was part of Miss Marple’s past. Originally the proprietor of a cab, Mr. Inch had died, been succeeded by his son “Young Inch,” then aged forty-four, who had turned the family business into a garage and acquired two aged cars. On his decease the garage acquired a new owner. There had been since then Pip’s Cars, James’s Taxis and Arthur’s Car Hire—old inhabitants still spoke of Inch.
“Not going to London, are you?”
“No, I’m not going to London. I shall have lunch perhaps in Haslemere.”
“Now what are you up to now?” said Cherry, looking at her suspiciously.
“Endeavouring to meet someone by accident and make it seem purely natural,” said Miss Marple. “Not really very easy, but I hope that I can manage it.”
At half past eleven the taxi waited. Miss Marple instructed Cherry.
“Ring up this number, will you, Cherry? Ask if Mrs. Anderson is at home. If Mrs. Anderson answers or if she is going to come to the telephone, say a Mr. Broadribb wants to speak to her. You,” said Miss Marple, “are Mr. Broadribb’s secretary. If she’s out, find out what time she will be in.”
“And if she is in and I get her?”
“Ask what day she could arrange to meet Mr. Broadribb at his office in London next week. When she tells you, make a note of it and ring off.”
“The things you think of! Why all this? Why do you want me to do it?”
“Memory is a curious thing,” said Miss Marple. “Sometimes one remembers a voice even if one hasn’t heard it for over a year.”
“Well, Mrs. What’s-a-name won’t have heard mine at any time, will she?”
“No,” said Miss Marple. “That is why you are making the call.”
Cherry fulfilled her instruction. Mrs. Anderson was out shopping, she learned, but would be in for lunch and all the afternoon.
“Well, that makes things easier,” said Miss Marple. “Is Inch here? Ah yes. Good morning, Edward,” she said, to the present driver of Arthur’s taxis whose actual name was George. “Now this is where I want you to go. It ought not to take, I think, more than an hour and a half.”
The expedition set off.
Four
ESTHER WALTERS
Esther Anderson came out of the Supermarket and went towards where she had parked her car. Parking grew more difficult every day, she thought. She collided with somebody, an elderly woman limping a little who was walking towards her. She apologized, and the other woman made an exclamation.
“Why, indeed, it’s—surely—it’s Mrs. Walters, isn’t it? Esther Walters? You don’t remember me, I expect. Jane Marple. We met in the hotel in St. Honoré, oh—quite a long time ago. A year and a half.”
“Miss Marple? So it is, of course. Fancy seeing you!”
“How very nice to see you. I am lunching with some friends near here but I have to pass back through Alton later. Will you be at home this afternoon? I should so like to have a nice chat with you. It’s so nice to see an old friend.”
“Yes, of course. Anytime after 3 o’clock.”
The arrangement was ratified.
“Old Jane Marple,” said Esther Anderson, smiling to herself. “Fancy her turning up. I thought she’d died a long time ago.”
Miss Marple rang the bell of Winslow Lodge at 3:30 precisely. Esther opened the door to her and brought her in.
Miss Marple sat down in the chair indicated to her, fluttering a little in the restless manner that she adopted when slightly flustered. Or at any rate, when she was seeming to be slightly flustered. In this case it was misleading, since things had happened exactly as she had hoped they would happen.
“It’s so nice to see you,” she said to Esther. “So very nice to see you again. You know, I do think things are so very odd in this world. You hope you’ll meet people again and you’re quite sure you will. And then time passes and suddenly it’s all such a surprise.”
“And then,” said Esther, “one says it’s a small world, doesn’t one?”
“Yes, indeed, and I think there is something in that. I mean it does seem a very large world and the West Indies are such a very long way away from England. Well, I mean, of course I might have met you anywhere. In London or at Harrods. On a railway station or in a bus. There are so many possibilities.”
“Yes, there are a lot of possibilities,” said Esther. “I certainly shouldn’t have expected to meet you just here because this isn’t really quite your part of the world, is it?”
“No. No, it isn’t. Not that you’re really so very far from St. Mary Mead where I live. Actually, I think it’s only about twenty-five miles. But twenty-five miles in the country, when one hasn’t got a car—and of course I couldn’t afford a car, and anyway, I mean, I can’t drive a car—so it wouldn’t be much to the point, so one really only does see one’s neighbours on the bus route, or else go by a taxi from the village.”
“You’re looking wonderfully well,” said Esther.
“I was just going to say you were looking wonderfully well, my dear. I had no idea you lived in this part of the world.”
“I have only done so for a short time. Since my marriage, actually.”
“Oh, I didn’t know. How interesting. I suppose I must have missed it. I always do look down the marriages.”
“I’ve been married four or five months,” said Esther. “My name is Anderson now.”
“Mrs. Anderson,” said Miss Marple. “Yes. I must try and remember that. And your husband?”
It would be unnatural, she thought, if she did not ask about the husband. Old maids were notoriously inquisitive.
“He is an engineer,” said Esther. “He runs the Time and Motion Branch. He is,” she hesitated—“a little younger than I am.”
“Much better,” said Miss Marple immediately. “Oh, much better, my dear. In these days men age so much quicker than women. I know it used not to be said so, but actually it’s true. I mean, they get more things the matter with them. I think, perhaps, they worry and work too much. And then they get high blood pressure or low blood pressure or sometimes a little heart trouble. They’re rather prone to gastr
ic ulcers, too. I don’t think we worry so much, you know. I think we’re a tougher sex.”
“Perhaps we are,” said Esther.
She smiled now at Miss Marple, and Miss Marple felt reassured. The last time she had seen Esther, Esther had looked as though she hated her and probably she had hated her at that moment. But now, well now, perhaps, she might even feel slightly grateful. She might have realized that she, herself, might even have been under a stone slab in a respectable churchyard, instead of living a presumably happy life with Mr. Anderson.
