happened,' said Mrs. Bloxby. 'Mr. Griggs is not saying anything. I hope nothing has happened to poor Mr. Cummings-Browne.' 'I hope something has,' said Agatha. 'Couldn't have happened to a nicer fellow,' and she marched on into the gloom of the church of St. Jude and left the vicar's wife staring after her. Agatha collected a prayer-book and a hymn-book and took a pew at the back of the church.
She was wearing her new red dress and on her head was a broad-brimmed black straw hat decorated with red poppies. As the congregation began to file in, Agatha realized she was overdressed. Everyone else was in casual clothes.
During the first hymn, Agatha could hear the wail of approaching police sirens. What on earth had happened? If one of the Cummings-Brownes had just dropped dead, surely it did not require more than an ambulance and the local policeman. The church was small, built in the fourteenth century, with fine stained-glass windows and beautiful flower arrangements. The old Book of Common Prayer was used. There were readings from the Old and New Testaments while Agatha fidgeted in the pew and wondered if she could escape outside to find out what was going on.
The vicar climbed into the pulpit to begin his sermon and all Agatha's thoughts of escape disappeared. The Reverend Alfred Bloxby was a small, thin, ascetic-looking man but he had a compelling presence. In a beautifully modulated voice he began to preach and his sermon was 'Love Thy Neighbour'. To Agatha, it seemed as if the whole sermon was directed at her. We were too weak and powerless to alter world affairs, he said, but if each one behaved to his or her neighbours with charity and courtesy and kindness, then the ripples would spread outwards. Charity began at home. Agatha thought of bribing Mrs. Simpson away from Mrs. Barr and squirmed. When communion came round, she stayed where she was, not knowing what the ritual involved.
Finally, with a feeling of release, she joined in the last hymn, 'My Country
'Tis of Thee', and impatiently shuffled out, giving the vicar's hand a perfunctory shake, not hearing his words of welcome to the village as her eyes fastened on the police cars filling the small space outside the Cummings- Brownes' house.
P.C. Griggs was on duty outside, warding off all questions with a placid
'Can't say anything now, I'm sure.'
Agatha went slowly home. She ate some breakfast and picked up an Agatha Christie mystery and tried to read, but could not focus on the words. What did fictional mysteries matter when there was a real-live one in the village? Had Mrs. Cummings-Browne hit him on the top of his pointy head with the poker?
She threw down the book and went along to the Red Lion. It was buzzing with rumour and speculation. Agatha found herself in the centre of a group of villagers eagerly discussing the death. To her disappointment, she learned that Mr. Cummings-Browne had suffered from high blood pressure.
'But it can't be natural causes,' protested Agatha. 'All those police cars!'
'Oh, we likes to do things thoroughly in Gloucestershire,' said a large beefy man. 'Not like Lunnon, where there's people dropping dead like flies every minute. My shout. What you ', Mrs. Raisin?'
Agatha ordered a gin and tonic. It was all very pleasurable to be in the centre of this cosy group. When the pub finally closed its doors at two in the afternoon, Agatha felt quite tipsy as she walked home.
The heavy Cotswolds air, combined with the unusually large amount she had drunk, sent her to sleep. When she awoke, she thought that Cummings-Browne had probably had an accident and it was not worth finding out about anyway. Agatha Christie now seemed much more interesting than anything that could happen in Carsley, and Agatha read until bedtime.
In the morning, she decided to go for a walk. Walks in the Cotswolds are all neatly signposted. She chose one at the end of the village beyond the council houses, opening a gate that led into some woods.
Trees with new green leaves arched over her and primroses nestled among their roots. There was a sound of rushing water from a hidden stream over to her left. The night's frost was slowly melting in shafts of sunlight which struck down through the trees. High above, a blackbird sang a heart-breaking melody and the air was sweet and fresh. The path led her out of the trees and along the edge of a field of new corn, bright green and shiny, turning in the breeze like the fur of some huge green cat. A lark shot up to the heavens, reminding Agatha of her youth, in the days when even the wastelands of Birmingham were full of larks and butterflies, the days before chemical spraying. She strode out, feeling healthy and well and very much alive.
By following the signs, she walked through fields and more woods, finally emerging on to the road that led down into Carsely. As she walked down under the green tunnels formed by the branches of the high hedges which met overhead and she saw the village lying below her, all her euphoria caused by healthy walking and fresh air left, to be replaced by an inexplicable sense of dread. She felt she was walking down into a sort of grave where Agatha Raisin would lie buried alive.
Again she was plagued with restlessness and loneliness.
This could not go on. The dream of her life was not what she had expected. She could sell up, although the market was still not very good. Perhaps she could travel. She had never travelled extensively before, only venturing each year on one of the more expensive packaged holidays designed for single people who did not want to mix with the riffraff rambling holidays in France, painting holidays in Spain, that sort of thing.
In the village street, a local woman gave her a broad smile and Agatha wearily waited for that usual greeting of
'Mawning,' wondering what the woman would do or say if she replied, 'Get stuffed.'
But to her surprise, the woman stopped, resting her shopping basket on one broad hip, and said, 'Police be looking for you. Plain clothes.'
'Don't know what they want with me,' said Agatha uneasily.
'Better go and find out, m'dear.'
Agatha hurried on, her mind in a turmoil. What could they want? Her driving licence was in order. Of course, there were those books she had never got around to returning to the Chelsea library ... As she approached her cottage, she saw Mrs. Barr standing in her front garden, staring avidly at a small group of three men who were waiting outside Agatha's cottage. When she saw Agatha, she scurried indoors and slammed the door but immediately took up a watching position at the window.
A thin, cadaverous man approached Agatha. 'Mrs. Raisin? I am Detective Chief Inspector Wilkes. May we have a word with you?
Indoors.'
Chapter Three.
Agatha led them indoors. Detective Chief Inspector Wilkes introduced a dark, silent man beside him as Detective Sergeant Friend, and a young tubby oriental who looked like a Buddha as Detective Constable Wong.
Agatha sat in an armchair by the fireplace and the three sat down on the sofa, side by side. 'We are here to ask you about your quiche, Mrs. Raisin,' said Wilkes. 'I understand the Cummings-Brownes took it home. What was in it?'
'What's all this about?' demanded Agatha.
'Just answer my questions,' said Wilkes stolidly.
What was in a quiche? wondered Agatha desperately. 'Eggs, flour, milk and spinach,' she volunteered hopefully.
Detective Constable Wong spoke up. He had a soft Gloucestershire accent. 'Perhaps it would be best if Mrs. Raisin took us into her kitchen and showed us the ingredients.'
The three detectives promptly stood up and towered over Agatha. Agatha got up, registering that her knees were trembling, and led the way into the kitchen while they crowded in after her.
Under their watching eyes, she opened the cupboards. 'Strange,' said Agatha. 'I seem to have used everything up. I am very thrifty.'
Wong, who had been watching her with amusement, said suddenly, 'If you will write down the recipe, Mrs. Raisin, I'll run down to Harvey's and buy the ingredients and then you can show us how you baked it.'
Agatha shot him a look of loathing. She took down a cookery book called French Provincial Cooking, opened it, wincing at the faint crack from its hitherto unopened spine, and looked up the index. She found the required recipe and wrote down a list of the ingredients. Wong took the list from her and went out.
'Now will you tell me what this is about?' asked Agatha.
'In a moment,' said Wilkes stolidly.
Had Agatha not been so very frightened, she would have screamed at him that she had a right to know, but
