'Why?' Daisy's eyes glittered. 'They were bad women.'
'Couldn't you just have taken Francie's money and left it at that?'
'No! She cursed me, and Janine cursed me along with the rest of you. They were evil women.'
'Daisy, I am honour bound to go to the police and tell them what I've heard.'
'They won't believe you. You've no proof.'
And I'm not going to remind you that you told me about the rolling pin in the garden, Agatha was just thinking when Mr. Martin walked in.
'I came up to talk to you, Mrs. Raisin, but I heard what was being said and I stayed to hear all of it. Mrs. Daisy Jones, I am going to take you to your room and lock you in until the police arrive. Come along.'
To Agatha's amazement, Daisy stood up and smoothed down her skirt and walked out past the hotel manager. Why had she gone so quietly?
Charles walked in and Agatha flew to him, her nerves suddenly shot, babbling all about Daisy and the murders.
'Here, calm down, Aggie,' he said, 'let's have it all--slowly.'
Agatha shakily summarized briefly what Daisy had told her, ending with, 'I cannot believe she went like that, so quietly.'
'Let's hope she doesn't remember telling you about that rolling pin.'
'Why?'
'Well, if she can find a way out of her room and down into the hotel garden, she'll do it.'
'The window!' gasped Agatha. 'The window in her room.' She hurtled out of the door and down the stairs and round to the side of the building. No Daisy in the garden.
'Up there!' cried Charles, suddenly appearing behind her.
Daisy was balancing on the ledge outside her window. Although her room was only one floor up, the downstairs ceilings were so high that she was a good distance from the ground.
She glared down at them. In the distance came the wail of police sirens.
'It's too late now,' shouted Agatha. 'Go back in your room. You'll only hurt yourself.'
But Daisy leaped from the window-ledge. She plummeted straight down onto a rockery. Her head struck one of the rocks with a vicious thud and she lay still.
Charles went up to her and bent down and stooped over her. 'I daren't move her,' he said over his shoulder to Agatha.
Agatha ran to the front of the hotel just as Jimmy Jessop was getting out of the first police car.
'It's Daisy,' said Agatha. 'She's in the garden. She's badly hurt.'
'Phone for an ambulance,' said Jimmy to a policeman. 'Lead the way, Mrs. Raisin.'
The police followed Agatha into the hotel garden. Jimmy motioned Charles aside and knelt down beside Daisy. He felt for her pulse.
He looked up at them. 'I think it's too late. Go back into the hotel, Mrs. Raisin, and you, too, sir. You will need to answer questions.'
Agatha felt sick and shaky. Supported by Charles, she went back into the hotel, to be met by Mary, Jennifer and Harry.
'Mr. Martin's saying it was Daisy who committed these murders,' said Harry.
'It can't be true,' wailed Mary, and despite her dizziness and sickness, Agatha registered somewhere in her mind that neither Jennifer nor Harry seemed to be surprised.
Agatha said to Mr. Martin, 'Tell the police I'll be in my room if they want me.'
She and Charles went upstairs. In their room, they both sat down on the bed. There was a plaintive mew from the bathroom. Agatha rose and let the cat out. Then she rejoined Charles.
'I don't know why you're so miserable, Aggie,' said Charles, taking her hand. 'If it hadn't been for your intuition and Scrabble's behavior, she would have got away with it. And can I tell you something? You were probably next in line for the chop. I think Daisy's obsession with the colonel, which had been going on for years and years, had turned her mind. Sooner or later she would feel that he might have lived, might have married her if you hadn't lured him away.'
Agatha shivered. 'All I do is blunder about in other people's lives. When I get back to Carsely, I'm going to settle down and do good works.'
'That'll be the day,' said Charles with a laugh.
'I mean it. I'm going to be like Mrs. Bloxby.'
Agatha rose. 'I'd better feed Scrabble. Any minute now they're going to come for us.'
'I'll do it.' Charles opened a can of cat food and then filled Scrabble's water bowl. 'Never mind, Aggie, we'll be out of here in the morning.'
There was a knock at the door. Charles answered it. A policeman stood there. 'If you would both accompany me to the police station...'
They collected their coats and followed him downstairs. 'Only one more night, please God,' said Agatha, looking out at the sea. 'Just one more night and then I will never come here again.'
At the police station, Agatha was interviewed by Jimmy and Detective Sergeant Peter Carroll.
She wearily began at the beginning and told them how Daisy had come to her room, the reaction of the cat, and how she'd suddenly known that Daisy had committed the murders.
'How did you know?' asked Carroll.
'I don't know,' said Agatha wretchedly. 'It was something Charles said about them all being mad. He was joking. But in that moment, I realized that Daisy was unbalanced.'
'In your statement about Mrs. Frances Juddle's death,' said Carroll, 'you said her cat flew at you. So why should you think that Daisy was the murderess?'
'Just intuition,' said Agatha miserably. 'Will she live?'
'She's dead,' said Jimmy.
Agatha put her hands up to her face. 'I forgot about the rolling-pin. That's why she was desperate to get down to the garden. She buried the rolling-pin there.'
'Wait a minute.' They both left the room.
Agatha's knees were trembling. She put her hands on her knees.
After some time they came back. 'She didn't say exactly where she had buried the rolling-pin?' asked Carroll.
'Only that it was in the hotel garden,' said Agatha.
'We'll find it. Now let's go over it again. By the way, whatever cat you have in your room, it does not belong to the late Mrs. Juddle.'
'What! Are you sure?'
'Cliff has the cat. We went to see him yesterday morning for another interview. He had the cat with him. So let's have it all from the beginning again.'
At last Agatha was free to go. 'I'll be leaving in the morning,' she said.
'I must ask you to be here for the coroner's inquest next week,' said Jimmy. 'You will be told of the time and place.'
'I'll never get out of here,' said Agatha bitterly.
'Leave us a minute,' said Jimmy to Carroll.
When they were alone, Jimmy said quietly, 'Sit down, Agatha.'
Agatha sat down, her eyes filling with tears.
'If it hadn't been for you, we might not have got her,' said Jimmy. 'The reason I want to speak to you is I have enough affection left for you to warn you.'
Agatha took a Kleenex out and dried her eyes. 'About what?'
'About Sir Charles.'
'What about him?' asked Agatha, turning pink.
'I assume that the fact he is a baronet and younger than you might have gone to your head, Agatha, but if you have any thoughts of becoming Lady Fraith, I would forget it.'
'I never thought for a moment--'
'Sir Charles said you were nothing more than casual friends who had an occasional fling. He said it meant
