them already. The cook. No, it wasnât that. It was more the question of what practical good you can accomplish, and Iâd be inclined to say to thatâNone. And yetâ¦.â
She stopped: âThere is a yet ⦠Iâm a little slow in thinking things out, but I have a feeling that there is somethingâsomething, perhaps, not very tangibleâthat would be worth taking risks forâeven that one should take risks forâbut I find it difficult to say just what that isâ¦.â
Giles began âIt seems to meââ and stopped.
Miss Marple turned to him gratefully.
âGentlemen,â she said, âalways seem to be able to tabulate things so clearly. Iâm sure you have thought things out.â
âIâve been thinking things out,â said Giles. âAnd it seems to me that there are just two conclusions one can come to. One is the same as I suggested before. Helen Halliday wasnât dead when Gwennie saw her lying in the hall. She came to, and went awaywith her lover, whoever he was. That would still fit the facts as we know them. It would square with Kelvin Hallidayâs rooted belief that he had killed his wife, and it would square with the missing suitcase and clothes and with the note that Dr. Kennedy found. But it leaves certain points unaccounted for. It doesnât explain why Kelvin was convinced he strangled his wife in the bedroom. And it doesnât cover the one, to my mind, really staggering questionâ where is Helen Halliday now? Because it seems to me against all reason that Helen should never have been heard of or from again. Grant that the two letters she wrote are genuine, what happened after that? Why did she never write again? She was on affectionate terms with her brother, heâs obviously deeply attached to her and always has been. He might disapprove of her conduct, but that doesnât mean that he expected never to hear from her again. And if you ask me, that point has obviously been worrying Kennedy himself. Letâs say he accepted at the time absolutely the story heâs told us. His sisterâs going off and Kelvinâs breakdown. But he didnât expect never to hear from his sister again. I think, as the years went on, and he didnât hear, and Kelvin Halliday persisted in his delusion and finally committed suicide, that a terrible doubt began to creep up in his mind. Supposing that Kelvinâs story was true? That he actually had killed Helen? Thereâs no word from herâand surely if she had died somewhere abroad, word would have come to him? I think that explains his eagerness when he saw our advertisement. He hoped that it might lead to some account of where she was or what she had been doing. Iâm sure itâs absolutely unnatural for someone to disappear asâas completely as Helen seems to have done. That, in itself, is highly suspicious.â
âI agree with you,â said Miss Marple. âBut the alternative, Mr. Reed?â
Giles said slowly, âIâve been thinking out the alternative. Itâs pretty fantastic, you know, and even rather frightening. Because it involvesâhow can I put itâa kind of malevolence â¦.â
âYes,â said Gwenda. âMalevolence is just right. Even, I think, something that isnât quite sane â¦â She shivered.
âThat is indicated, I think,â said Miss Marple. âYou know, thereâs a great deal ofâwell, queerness aboutâmore than people imagine. I have seen some of itâ¦.â
Her face was thoughtful.
âThere canât be, you see, any normal explanation,â said Giles. âIâm taking now the fantastic hypothesis that Kelvin Halliday didnât kill his wife, but genuinely thought he had done so. Thatâs what Dr. Penrose, who seems a decent sort of bloke, obviously wants to think. His first impression of Halliday was that there was a man who had killed
James Hadley Chase
Janet Cooper
Mary Norton
Katie Reus
James Ellroy
Alys Clare
Saundra Mitchell
Cheryl Dragon
Adam Rapp
Ron Perlman