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Five Little Pigs :: Christie Agatha
Страница: 144 из 147He was furious with Elsa for blurting out things to Caroline, but he still optimistically thought it would be “all right”. Caroline would forgive him as she had done so often before, and Elsa-Elsa would just have to “lump it”. So simple are the problems of life to a man like Amyas Crale.
‘But I think that that last evening he became really worried. About Caroline, not about Elsa. Perhaps he went to her room and she refused to speak with him. At any rate, after a restless night, he took her aside after breakfast and blurted out the truth. He had been infatuated with Elsa, but it was all over. Once he’d finished the picture he’d never see her again.
‘And it was in answer to that that Caroline Crale cried out indignantly: “You and your women!” That phrase, you see, put Elsa in a class with others-those others who had gone their way. And she added indignantly: “Some day I’ll kill you.”
‘She was angry, revolted by his callousness and by his cruelty to the girl. When Philip Blake saw her in the hall and heard her murmur to herself, “It’s too cruel!” it was of Elsa she was thinking.
‘As for Crale, he came out of the library, found Elsa with Philip Blake, and brusquely ordered her down to go on with the sitting. What he did not know was that Elsa Greer had been sitting just outside the library window and had overheard everything. And the account she gave later of that conversation was not the true one. There is only her word for it, remember.
‘Imagine the shock it must have been to her to hear the truth, brutally spoken!
‘On the previous afternoon Meredith Blake has told us that whilst he was waiting for Caroline to leave this room he was standing in the doorway with his back to the room. He was talking to Elsa Greer. That means that she would have beenfacing him and thatshe could see exactly what Caroline was doing over his shoulder-and that shewas the only person who could do so.
‘She saw Caroline take that poison. She said nothing, but she remembered it as she sat outside the library window.
‘When Amyas Crale came out she made the excuse of wanting a pullover, and went up to Caroline Crale’s room to look for that poison. Women know where other women are likely to hide things. She found it, and being careful not to obliterate any fingerprints or to leave her own, she drew off the fluid into a fountain-pen filler.
‘Then she came down again and went off with Crale to the Battery garden. And presently, no doubt, she poured him out some beer and he tossed it down in his usual way.
‘Meanwhile, Caroline Crale was seriously disturbed.
‘But I think that that last evening he became really worried. About Caroline, not about Elsa. Perhaps he went to her room and she refused to speak with him. At any rate, after a restless night, he took her aside after breakfast and blurted out the truth. He had been infatuated with Elsa, but it was all over. Once he’d finished the picture he’d never see her again.
‘And it was in answer to that that Caroline Crale cried out indignantly: “You and your women!” That phrase, you see, put Elsa in a class with others-those others who had gone their way. And she added indignantly: “Some day I’ll kill you.”
‘She was angry, revolted by his callousness and by his cruelty to the girl. When Philip Blake saw her in the hall and heard her murmur to herself, “It’s too cruel!” it was of Elsa she was thinking.
‘As for Crale, he came out of the library, found Elsa with Philip Blake, and brusquely ordered her down to go on with the sitting. What he did not know was that Elsa Greer had been sitting just outside the library window and had overheard everything. And the account she gave later of that conversation was not the true one. There is only her word for it, remember.
‘Imagine the shock it must have been to her to hear the truth, brutally spoken!
‘On the previous afternoon Meredith Blake has told us that whilst he was waiting for Caroline to leave this room he was standing in the doorway with his back to the room. He was talking to Elsa Greer. That means that she would have beenfacing him and thatshe could see exactly what Caroline was doing over his shoulder-and that shewas the only person who could do so.
‘She saw Caroline take that poison. She said nothing, but she remembered it as she sat outside the library window.
‘When Amyas Crale came out she made the excuse of wanting a pullover, and went up to Caroline Crale’s room to look for that poison. Women know where other women are likely to hide things. She found it, and being careful not to obliterate any fingerprints or to leave her own, she drew off the fluid into a fountain-pen filler.
‘Then she came down again and went off with Crale to the Battery garden. And presently, no doubt, she poured him out some beer and he tossed it down in his usual way.
‘Meanwhile, Caroline Crale was seriously disturbed.