'Oh, how lovely,' said Miranda.
A golden cup was put into her hand, and from a flask her companion poured a golden liquid into it.
'It tastes of fruit, of peaches. Drink it, Miranda, and you will be happier still.'
Miranda took the gilt cup. She sniffed at it.
'Yes. Yes, it does smell of peaches. Oh look, there's the sun. Really red gold looking as though it was lying on the edge of the world.'
He turned her towards it.
'Hold up the cup and drink.'
She turned obediently. One hand was still on the megalithic stone and its semi erased sign. Her companion now was standing behind her. From below the inclined stone down the hill, two figures slipped out, bent half double. Those on the summit had their backs to them, and did not even notice them. Quickly but stealthily they ran up the hill.
'Drink to beauty, Miranda.'
'Like hell she does!' said a voice behind them.
A rose velvet coat shot over a head, a knife was knocked from the hand that was slowly rising. Nicholas Ransom caught hold of Miranda, clasping her tightly and dragging her away from the other two who were struggling.
'You bloody little idiot,' said Nicholas Ransom. 'Coming up here with a barmy murderer. You should have known what you were doing.'
'I did in a way,' said Miranda.
'I was going to be a sacrifice, I think, because you see it was all my fault. It was because of me that Joyce was killed. So it was right for me to be a sacrifice, wasn't it? It would be a kind of ritual killing.'
'Don't start talking nonsense about ritual killings. They've found that other girl. You know, the au pair girl who has been missing so long. A couple of years or something like that. They all thought she'd run away because she'd forged a Will. She hadn't run away. Her body was found in the well.'
'Oh!' Miranda gave a sudden cry of anguish. 'Not in the wishing well? Not in the wishing well that I wanted to find so badly? Oh, I don't want her to be in the wishing well. Who who put her there?'
'The same person who brought you here.'
ONCE again four men sat looking at Poirot. Timothy Raglan, Superintendent Spence and the Chief Constable had the pleased expectant look of a cat who is counting on a saucer of cream to materialise at any moment. The fourth man still had the expression of one who suspends belief.
'Well, Monsieur Poirot,' said the Chief Constable, taking charge of the proceedings and leaving the DPP man to hold a watching brief.
'We're all here-' Poirot made a motion with his hand.
Inspector Raglan left the room and returned ushering in a woman of thirty odd, a girl, and two adolescent young men.
He introduced them to the Chief Constable.
'Mrs. Butler, Miss Miranda Butler, Mr. Nicholas Ransom and Mr. Desmond Holland.'
Poirot got up and took Miranda's hand.
'Sit here by your mother, Miranda-Mr. Richmond here who is what is called a Chief Constable, wants to ask you some questions. He wants you to answer them.
It concerns something you saw-over a year ago now, nearer two years.
You mention this to one person, and, so I understand, to one person only. Is that correct?'
'I told Joyce.'
'And what exactly did you tell Joyce?'
'That I'd seen a murder.'
'Did you tell anyone else?'
'No. But I think Leopold guessed. He listens, you know. At doors.
That sort of thing. He likes knowing people's secrets.'
'You have heard that Joyce Reynolds, on the afternoon before the Hallowe'en party, claimed that she herself had seen a murder committed.
Was that true?'
'No. She was just repeating what I'd told her-but pretending that it had happened to her.'
'Will you tell us now just what you did see.'
'I didn't know at first that it was a murder. I thought there had been an accident.
I thought she'd fallen from up above somewhere.'
'Where was this?'
'In the Quarry Garden in the hollow where the fountain used to be. I was up in the branches of a tree. I'd been looking at a squirrel and one has to keep very quiet, or they rush away. Squirrels are very quick.'
'Tell us what you saw.'
'A man and a woman lifted her up and were carrying her up the path. I thought they were taking her to a hospital or to the Quarry House. Then the woman stopped suddenly and said, 'Someone is watching us,' and stared at my tree. Somehow it made me feel frightened. I kept very still.
The man said 'Nonsense,' and they went on. I saw there was blood on a scarf and there was a knife with blood on that and I thought perhaps someone had tried to kill themselves and I went on keeping very still.'
'Because you were frightened?'
'Yes, but I don't know why.'
'You didn't tell your mother?'
'No. I thought perhaps I oughtn't to have been there watching. And then the next day nobody said anything about an accident, so I forgot about it. I never thought about it again until-' She stopped suddenly. The Chief Constable opened his mouth-then shut it.
He looked at Poirot and made a very slight gesture.
'Yes, Miranda,' said Poirot, 'until what?'
'It was as though it was happening all over again. It was a green woodpecker this time, and I was being very still, watching it from behind some bushes. And those two were sitting there talking- about an island-a Greek island. She said something like, 'It's all signed up.
It's ours, we can go to it whenever we like. But we'd better go slow still-not rush things.' And then the woodpecker flew away, and I moved. And she said- 'Hush-be quiet -somebody's watching us.' It was just the way she'd said it before, and she had just the same look on her face, and I was frightened again, and I remembered. And this time I knew. I knew it had been a murder I had seen and it had been a dead body they were carrying away to hide somewhere. You see, I wasn't a child any more. I knew-things and what they must mean the blood and the knife and the dead body all limp '
'When was this?' asked the Chief Constable. 'How long ago?'
Miranda thought for a moment.
'Last March just after Easter.'
'Can you say definitely who these people were, Miranda?'
'Of course I can.' Miranda looked bewildered.
'You saw their faces?'
'Of course.'
'Who were they?'
