'Well, we must allow for exceptions,' said Craddock. 'Then there were two local and one London photographer, and two members of the Press. None of them seems likely but we will follow them up. There was the woman who was formerly married to Marina Gregg's second or third husband. She didn't like it when Marina Gregg took her husband away. Still, that's about eleven or twelve years ago. It seems unlikely that she'd make a visit here at this juncture on purpose to poison Marina because of that. Then there's a man called Ardwyck Fenn. He was once a very close friend of Marina Gregg's. He hasn't seen her for years. He was not known to be in this part of the world and it was a great surprise when he turned up on this occasion.'
'She would be startled then when she saw him?'
'Presumably yes.'
'Startled – and possibly frightened.'
''The doom has come upon me,'' said Craddock. 'That's the idea. Then there was young Hailey Preston dodging about that day, doing his stuff. Talks a good deal but definitely heard nothing, saw nothing and knew nothing. Almost too anxious to say so. Does anything there ring a bell?'
'Not exactly,' said Miss Marple. 'Plenty of interesting possibilities. But I'd still like to know a little more about the children.'
He looked at her curiously. 'You've got quite a bee in your bonnet about that, haven't you?' he said. 'All right, I'll find out.'
Chapter 13
I
'I suppose it couldn't possibly have been the mayor?' said Inspector Cornish wistfully.
He tapped the paper with the list of names on it with his pencil. Dermot Craddock grinned.
'Wishful thinking?' he asked.
'You could certainly call it that,' said Cornish. 'Pompous, canting old hypocrite!' he went on. 'Everybody's got it in for him. Throws his weight about, ultra sanctimonious, and neck deep in graft for years past!'
'Can't you ever bring it home to him?'
'No,' said Cornish. 'He's too slick for that. He's always just on the right side of the law.'
'It's tempting, I agree,' said Dermot Craddock, 'but I think you'll have to banish that rosy picture from your mind, Frank.'
'I know, I know,' said Cornish. 'He's a possible, but a wildly improbable. Who else have we got?'
Both men studied the list again. There were still eight names on it.
'We're pretty well agreed,' said Craddock, 'that there's nobody missed out from here?' There was a faint question in his voice. Cornish answered it.
'I think you can be pretty sure that's the lot. After Mrs Bantry came the vicar, and after that the Badcocks. There were then eight people on the stairs. The mayor and his wife, Joshua Grice and wife from Lower Farm. Donald McNeil of the Much Benham Herald Argus. Ardwyck Fenn, U.S.A., Miss Lola Brewster, U.S.A., Moving Picture Star. There you are. In addition there was an arty photographer from London with a camera set up on the angle of the stairs. If, as you suggest, this Mrs Bantry's story of Marina Gregg having a 'frozen look' was occasioned by someone she saw on the stairs, you've got to take your pick among that lot. Mayor regretfully out. Grices out – never been away from St Mary Mead I should say. That leaves four. Local journalist unlikely, photographer girl had been there for half an hour already, so why should Marina react so late in the day? What does that leave?'
'Sinister strangers from America,' said Craddock with a faint smile.
'You've said it.'
'They're our best suspects by far, I agree,' said Craddock. 'They turned up unexpectedly. Ardwyck Fenn was an old flame of Marina 's whom she had not seen for years. Lola Brewster was once married to Marina Gregg's third husband, who got a divorce from her in order to marry Marina. It was not, I gather, a very amicable divorce.'
'I'd put her down as Suspect Number One,' said Cornish.
'Would you, Frank? After a lapse of about fifteen years or so, and having remarried twice herself since then?'
Cornish said that you never knew with women. Dermot accepted that as a general dictum, but remarked that it seemed odd to him to say the least of it.
'But you agree that it lies between them?'
'Possibly. But I don't like it very much. What about the hired help who were serving the drinks?'
'Discounting the 'frozen look' we've heard so much about? Well, we've checked up in a general way. Local catering from Market Basing had the job – for the fete, I mean. Actually in the house, there was the butler, Giuseppe, in charge; and two local girls from the studios canteen. I know both of them. Not over-bright, but harmless.'
'Pushing it back at me, are you? I'll go and have a word with the reporter chap. He might have seen something helpful. Then to London. Ardwyck Fenn, Lola Brewster – and the photographer girl – what's her name? – Margot Bence. She also might have seen something.'
Cornish nodded. 'Lola Brewster is my best bet,' he said. He looked curiously at Craddock. 'You don't seem as sold on her as I am.'
'I'm thinking of the difficulties,' said Dermot slowly.
'Difficulties?'
'Of putting poison into Marina 's glass without anybody seeing her.'
'Well, that's the same for everybody, isn't it? It was a mad thing to do.'
'Agreed it was a mad thing to do, but it would be a madder thing for someone like Lola Brewster than for anybody else.'
'Why?' asked Cornish.
'Because she was a guest of importance. She's a somebody, a big name. Everyone would be looking at her.'
'True enough,' Cornish admitted.
'The locals would nudge each other and whisper and stare, and after Marina Gregg and Jason Rudd greeted her she'd have been passed on for the secretaries to look after. It wouldn't be easy, Frank. However adroit you were, you couldn't be sure someone wouldn't see you. That's the snag there, and it's a big snag.'
'As I say, isn't that snag the same for everybody?'
'No,' said Craddock. 'Oh no. Far from it. Take the butler now, Giuseppe. He's busy with the drinks and glasses, with pouring things out, with handing them. He could put a pinch or a tablet or two of Calmo in a glass easily enough.'
'Giuseppe?' Frank Cornish reflected. 'Do you think he did?'
'No reason to believe so,' said Craddock, 'but we might find a reason. A nice solid bit of motive, that is to say. Yes, he could have done it. Or one of the catering staff could have done it unfortunately they weren't on the spot – a pity.'
'Someone might have managed to get himself or herself deliberately planted in the firm for the purpose.'
'You mean it might have been as premeditated as all that?'
'We don't know anything about it yet,' said Craddock, vexedly. 'We absolutely don't know the first thing about it. Not until we can prise what we want to know out of Marina Gregg, or out of her husband. They must know or suspect – but they're not telling. And we don't know yet why they're not telling. We've a long way to go.'
He paused and then resumed: 'Discounting the 'frozen look' which may have been pure coincidence, there are other people who could have done it fairly easily. The secretary woman, Ella Zielinsky. She was also busy with glasses, with handing things to people. Nobody would be watching her with any particular interest. The same applies to that willow wand of a young man – I've forgotten his name. Hailey – Hailey Preston? That's right. There
