Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh

servant.’
    â€˜You didn’t think of that when you picked his door lock,’ Fabian pointed out.
    â€˜I didn’t pick the lock, Fabian, and anyhow that was entirely different.’
    â€˜Did Mrs Rubrick tackle him?’ Alleyn asked.
    â€˜I presume so. She said nothing to me, and I wasn’t going to ask and be ticked off again.’
    Douglas lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply. ‘Obviously,’ Alleyn thought, ‘he still has something up his sleeve.’
    â€˜As a matter of fact,’ said Douglas lightly, ‘I’m quite positive she did tackle him, and I believe it’s because of what she said that Markins killed her.’

    â€˜And there,’ said Fabian cheerfully, ‘you have it. Flossie says to Markins, “I understand from my nephew that you’re an enemy agent. Take a week’s wages in lieu of notice and expect to be arrested and shot when you get to the railway station!” “No, you don’t,” says Markins to himself. He serves up the soup with murder in his heart, takes a stroll past the wool-shed, hears Flossie in the full spate of her experimental oratory, nips in and—does it. To me it just doesn’t make sense.’
    â€˜You deliberately make it sound silly,’ said Douglas hotly.
    â€˜It is silly. Moreover, it’s not in her character, as I read it, to accuse Markins. It would have been the action of a fool and, bless my soul, Flossie was no fool.’
    â€˜It was her deliberately expressed intention.’
    â€˜To “tackle Markins.” That was, her phrase, wasn’t it? That is, to tackle l’affaire Markins . She wanted to get rid of you and think. And, upon my soul, I don’t blame her.’
    â€˜But how would she tackle Markins?’ Terence objected, ‘except by questioning him?’ She spoke so seldom that the sound of her voice, cool and incisive, came as a little shock.
    â€˜She was a bit of a Polonius, was Flossie. I think she went round to work. She may even,’ said Fabian, giving a curious inflection to the phrase, ‘she may even have consulted Uncle Arthur.’
    â€˜No,’ said Douglas.
    â€˜How on earth can you tell?’ asked Ursula.
    There was a moment’s silence.
    â€˜It would not have been in her character,’ said Douglas.
    â€˜Her character, you see,’ Fabian said to Alleyn. ‘Always her character.’
    â€˜Ever since fifth column trouble started in this country,’ said Douglas, ‘Flossie had been asking questions about it in the House. Markins knew that as well as we did. If she gave him so much as an inkling that she suspected him, how d’you suppose he’d feel?’
    â€˜And even if she decided not to accuse him straight out,’ Ursula said, ‘don’t you think he’d notice some change in her manner?’
    â€˜Of course he would, Ursy,’ Douglas agreed. ‘How could she help herself?’
    â€˜Quite easily,’ said Fabian. ‘She was as clever as a bagful of monkeys.’
    â€˜I agree,’ said Terence.
    â€˜Well, now,’ said Alleyn, ‘did any of you, in fact, notice any change in her manner towards Markins?’
    â€˜To be quite honest,’ said Fabian slowly, ‘we did. But I think we all put it down to her row with Cliff Johns. She was extremely cantankerous with all hands and the cook during that last week, was poor Flossie.’
    â€˜She was unhappy,’ Ursula declared. ‘She was wretchedly unhappy about Cliff. She used to tell me everything. I’m sure if she’d had a row with Markins she’d have told me about it. She used to call me her Safety Valve.’
    â€˜Mrs Arthur Rubrick,’ said Fabian, ‘accompanied by Miss U. Harme, SV, ADC, etc., etc.!’
    â€˜She may have waited to talk to him until that night,’ said Douglas. ‘The night she disappeared, I mean. She may have written for advice to a