unlocked. Charles must be home. She walked in and called out, 'I'm back.' She saw two packets with bolts still on the table in the hall. 'I see you haven't fixed those bolts yet,' she shouted. 'Did you get anything out of Rosie? Was Lucy having an affair?'
Her two cats came up to her, their fur erect on their backs. She stooped down and patted them. 'There, now,' she crooned. 'What's frightened you? Where's Charles?'
And then she felt something hard shoved into her back and a man's voice said, 'Into the sitting-room, Mrs. Raisin.'
Agatha twisted around. Barry Jones was standing there holding a shotgun.
She walked into the sitting-room, her frightened mind racing. Mrs. Jackson was in a chair by the fireplace. 'Sit down and shut up,' she said.
'You!' Agatha sat down in the chair opposite.
Barry Jones stood behind the sofa, the shotgun levelled at Agatha.
'We're waiting for your friend,' said Mrs. Jackson.
'Why?' demanded Agatha through white lips.
'You'll see.'
'Lucy said the fools murdered Paul. That was you and your son.'
'She phoned and told us she thought you were beginning to figure it out.'
Agatha looked at Barry Jones, handsome Barry Jones, although he did not look handsome at that moment, with his eyes as hard as stones.
'You can't murder me and Charles,' said Agatha. 'You may think you can get away with two murders. But four!'
'There won't be any evidence,' said Mrs. Jackson. 'You'll just disappear, then we'll pack your stuff and bury it.'
Agatha had a sudden desperate desire to pee. But she would not mess herself in front of these killers. She tried to forget the peril she was in and concentrate on why they had done it.
She looked again at Barry Jones, handsome Barry Jones who didn't have the money to support a woman with expensive tastes like Lucy. Unless ...
She looked at him. 'I think you were having an affair with Lucy. I think she got you to kill Tolly. Wait a bit. You, Betty Jackson, told her about that will. So she stole the Stubbs and gave it to one of you to hide. Then what? A row with Tolly? Going to change his will again and leave everything to Lizzie? Or had he found out about Lucy and Barry? Anyway, Barry here slits his throat while Lucy goes to London to get an alibi. But why then dump the Stubbs on me? If you had burnt it, say, she would have got the insurance money.'
'No harm in you knowing,' said Mrs. Jackson. 'Lucy thought if we dumped it on you, police attention would switch to you and Lizzie. She said it was worth it. She said she'd get enough from selling the estate.'
'You think you've been very clever,' said Agatha, 'but you can't get away with making the pair of us disappear, as you put it. Charles is a baronet and the newspapers will have a field day. The case will go on and on. Lucy will have to wait a hell of a long time for her money, which means you will, too. And you've been silly. What made you think I knew anything?'
'Lucy phoned us and said you'd figured out Paul was blackmailing us and she said you would soon work it all out and tell the police.'
Agatha heard the cats patter into the hall, heard them purring and mewing. That'll be Charles, she thought. If only I could warn him. But then the cats fell silent.
Agatha clasped her hands tightly together to stop their trembling. They were going to kill her. Was there any way she could make a dash for it?
She got to her feet. 'I've got to go to the bathroom.'
'Sit down!' barked Mrs. Jackson. 'The only place you're going is the grave.'
'You can't shoot both of us,' pleaded Agatha. 'The blast of the shotgun will be heard.'
'Who by?' asked Barry Jones with a grin. 'You're at the end of the lane. Nothing nearby except the church.'
Agatha closed her eyes and prayed. Fright had made her deaf. She could only hear a roaring in her ears. Get me out of this and I'll give up smoking and I'll be a nicer person and I'll do good works. I know I haven't been very nice in the past, 0 Lord, but just get me out of this one and I'll be a saint. She suddenly knew she was going to pee herself and let out a low groan and opened her eyes. Then she blinked and stared again at the tableau in front of her.
The sitting-room was full of policemen. Barry Jones slowly dropped the shotgun onto the sofa. Detective Chief Inspector Hand stepped to the front as Jones and his mother were handcuffed.
'Where are you going, Mrs. Raisin?' he shouted as Agatha began to frantically push her way through to the door of the sitting-room.
'The bathroom!' shouted Agatha and fled up the stairs.
At two o'clock the following morning, Charles and Agatha returned from police headquarters. 'So that's that,' said Charles, walking into the sitting-room and beginning to put fire-lighters and logs on the fire. 'I couldn't believe it. You'd left the door open. I knew something was up because the cats' fur was standing on end. I backed out and took a peek into the sitting-room. I knew Hand and the police were at the pub, and we all came round.'
'Yes, you've told me all that, but you haven't told me why Rosie should tell you that she knew Lucy and Barry were having an affair, that she'd once spotted them out in the woods. Why tell you when she hadn't told the police?'
'We got friendly,' said Charles, his back to Agatha as he struck a match and lit the fire.
'Pillow talk?'
'You could say that.'
'You are amoral,' said Agatha.
'Come on, Agatha. I sussed she must know something. You didn't think I was going to clear off for Christmas and leave you here on your own? I did it for you.'
'The next thing is you'll be saying you did it for England!'
'That, too. Don't get mad at me, Aggie. Just think. The minute she told me about Barry Jones, I called on the police at the pub. Rosie was furious with me. She tried to claw my eyes out and called me a bastard.'
Agatha sat down and put her hands out to the blaze. 'But you weren't even going to wait to tell me first. You wanted all the glory for yourself.'
'I didn't know where you were. I came back looking for you.'
'I don't think I really know you, Charles.'
'Who ever knows anyone?' he said lightly. 'It's all solved. Just the way you told the police. So the glory is yours. Lucy worked Barry up to murdering Tolly. You're tired. Let's go to bed. You've had a bad fright.'
Tired as she was, Agatha lay awake for quite a long time. James. Her mind was full of James Lacey again. He was strong man, not a lightweight philanderer like Charles, thought Agatha, forgetting that James was just as capable of philandering as Charles. She could see James in her mind's eye-his strong face, his bright blue eyes, his tall rangy figure, his thick black hair going grey at the sides. She was suddenly desperate to get back to Carsely, to get him out of the clutches of the mysterious Mrs. Sheppard.
She was awakened at nine o'clock the following morning by Charles, shouting to her that a police car had arrived to take them to headquarters to make more statements. She hurriedly washed and dressed and went downstairs to join him, grumbling, 'I feel I talked to them all of last night.'
Agatha was interviewed by Chief Detective Inspector Hand. He took her all through the events of the previous day again. Then he said, 'You are lucky Sir Charles had the good sense to contact us. You put yourself at grave risk by keeping information to yourself.'
'I didn't know anything!' howled Agatha. 'How could I tell you when I didn't know?'
'You nearly got killed because you told Mrs. TrumpingtonJames that you thought Paul Redfern was a blackmailer, which happened to be the truth.'
'It only just occurred to me,' said Agatha huffily. 'How could I tell you anything when it only had just occurred to me?'
'Remember in the future to keep your nose out of police business.'
'If we had kept our noses out of police business,' snapped Agatha, 'then you would still be looking for a
