The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories Read online

  "I didn't want to appear vain," Miss Marple said,

  "but I couldn't help being just a teeny weeny bit

  pleased with myself, because, just by applying a

  little common sense, I believe I really did solve

  a problem that had baffled cleverer heads than

  mine. Though really I should have thought the

  whole thing was obvious from the beginning...

  "A woman had been stabbed in her hotel room

  and her husband was under suspicion. But the

  situation boiled down to this--no one but the hus-band

  and the chambermaid had entered the vic-tim's

  room.

  "I inquired about the chambermaid..."

  "The champion deceiver of our time."

  --NEW YORK TIMES

  Berkley books by Agatha Christie

  APPOINTMENT wITH DEATH

  THE BIG FOUR

  THE BOOMERANG CLUE

  CARDS ON THE TABLE

  DEAD MAN'S MIRROR

  DEATH IN THE AIR

  DOUBLE SIN AND OTHER STORIES

  ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER

  THE GOLDEN BALL AND OTHER STORIES

  THE HOLLOW

  THE LABORS OF HERCULES

  THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT

  MISS MARPLE: THE COMPLETE SHORT STORIES

  MR. PARKER PYNE, DETECTIVE

  THE MOVING FINGER

  THE MURDER AT HAZELMOOR

  THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE

  MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA

  MURDER IN RETROSPECT

  MURDER IN THREE ACTS

  THE MURDER ON THE LINKS

  THE MYSTERIOUS MR. QUIN

  N OR M?

  PARTNERS IN CRIME

  THE PATRIOTIC MURDERS

  POtROT LOSES A CLIENT

  THE REGATTA MYSTERY AND OTHER STORIES

  SAD CYPRESS

  THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS

  THERE 1S A TIDE...

  THEY CAME TO BAGHDAD

  THIRTEEN AT DINNER

  THREE BLIND MICE AND OTHER STORIES

  THE TUESDAY CLUB MURDERS

  THE UNDER DOG AND OTHER STORIES

  THE WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION AND OTHER STORIES

  AGATHA

  CHRL TIE

  THE REGATTA MYSW

  and Other Stories

  BERKLEY BOOKS, NEW YORK

  qhis Berkley book contains the complete

  text of the original hardcover edition.

  it has been completely reset in a typeface

  clesigned for easy reading and was printed

  from new film.

  THE REGATTA MYSTERY

  AND OTHER STORIES

  A

  rkley Book / published by arrangement with

  G. P. Putnam's Sons

  PRINTING HISTORY

  Dodd, Mead edition published 1939

  Dell edition / June 1976

  Berkley edition / June 1984

  C

  All rights reserved.

  t0yright 1932, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1939

  Colw ' by Agatha Christie Mallowan.

  -lht renewed 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1967

  by Agatha Christie Mallowan.

  This ' Book design by Virginia M. Smith.

  by m,idok may not be reproduced in whole or in part,

  ,

  eograph or any other means, without permission.

  21) information address: G. R Putnam's Sons,

  yadison Avenue, New York, New York 10016.

  ISBN: 0-425-10041-3

  Berkley 1 A BERKLEY BOOK ®TM 757,375

  2130ks are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,

  yiadison Avenue, New York New York 10016.

  are trale iae name "BERKLEY" an the "B" logo

  rks belonging to Berkley Publishing Corporation.

  tRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

  0 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10

  The Regatta Myster

  The Mystery of the

  How Does Your GoI'!

  Problem at Pollensa!

  Yellow Iris

  Miss Marple Tells

  The Dream

  In a Glass Darkly

  Problem at Sea

  Mr. Isaac Pointz removed a cigar from his lips and

  said approvingly:

  "Pretty little place."

  Having thus set the seal of his approval upon

  Dartmouth harbor, he .replaced the cigar and

  looked about him with the air of a man pleased

  with himself, his appearance, his surroundings

  and life generally.

  As regards the first of these, Mr. Isaac Pointz

  was a man of fifty-eight, in good health and con-dition

  with perhaps a slight tendency to liver. He

  was not exactly stout, but comfortable-looking,

  and a yachting costume, which he wore at the mo-ment,

  is not the most kindly of attires far a

  middle-aged man with a tendency to embonpoint.

  Mr. Pointz was very well turned outmcorrect to

  every crease and button--his dark and slightly

  4

  Agatha Christie

  Oriental face beaming out under the peak of his

  yachting cap. As regards his surroundings, these

  may have been taken to mean his companions--his

  partner Mr. Leo Stein, Sir George and Lady

  Maroway, an American business acquaintance

  Mr. Samuel Leathern and his schoolgirl daughter

  Eve, Mrs. Rustington and Evan Llewellyn.

  The party had just come ashore from Mr.

  Pointz' yacht--the Merrirnaid. In the morning

  they had watched the yacht racing and they had

  now come ashore to join for a while in the fun of

  the fair--Coconut shies, Fat Ladies, the Human

  Spider and the Merry-go-round. It is hardly to be

  doubted that these delights were relished most by

  Eve Leathern. When Mr. Pointz finally suggested

  that it was time to adjourn to the Royal George

  for dinner hers was the only dissentient voice.

  "Oh, Mr. Pointz--I did so want to have my fortune

  told by the Real Gypsy in the Caravan."

  Mr. Pointz had doubts of the essential Realness

  of the Gypsy in question but he gave indulgent assent.

  "Eve's just crazy about the fair," said her

  father apologetically. "But don't you pay any attention

  if you want to be getting along."

  "Plenty of time," said Mr. Pointz benignantly.

  "Let the little lady enjoy herself. I'll take you on

  at darts, Leo."

  "Twenty-five and over wins a prize," chanted

  the man in charge of the darts in a high nasal

  voice.

  "Bet you a river my total score beats yours,"

  said Pointz.

  "Done," said Stein with alacrity.

  THE REGATTA MYSTERY

  The two men were soon whole-heartedly engaged

  in their battle.

  Lady Marroway murmured to Evan Llewellyn:

  "Eve is not the only child in the party."

  Llewellyn smiled assent but somewhat absently.

  He had been absent-minded all that day. Once

  or twice his answers had been wide of the point.

  Pamela Marroway drew away from him and

  said to her husband:

  "That young man has something on his mind."

  Sir George murmured:

  "Or someone?"

  And his glance swept
quickly over Janet Rust-ington.

  Lady Marroway frowned a little. She was a tall

  woman exquisitely groomed. The scarlet of her

  fingernails was matched by the dark red coral

  studs in her ears. Her eyes were dark and watchful.

  Sir George affected a careless "hearty English

  gentleman" manner--but his bright blue eyes held

  the same watchful look as his wife's.

  Isaac Pointz and Leo Stein were Hat'ton Garden

  diamond merchants. Sir George and Lady Mar-roway

  came from a different world--the world of

  Antibes and Juan les Pins--of golf at St. JeandeLuz--of

  bathing from the rocks at Madeira in the

  winter.

  In outward seeming they were as the lilies that

  toiled not, neither did they spin. But perhaps this

  was not quite true. There are divers ways of toiling

  and also of spinning.

  "Here's the kid back again," said Evan Llewellyn

  to Mrs. Rustington.

  He was a dark young man--there was a faintly

  6

  Agatha Christie

  hungry wolfish look about him which some women

  found attractive.

  It was difficult to say whether Mrs. Rustington

  found him so. She did not wear her heart on her

  sleeve. She had married young--and the marriage

  had ended in disaster in less than a year. Since that

  time it was difficult to know what Janet Rusting-ton

  thought of anyone or anything--her manner

  was always the same--charming but completely

  aloof.

  Eve Leathern came dancing up to them, her

  lank fair hair bobbing excitedly. She was fifteen--an

  awkward child--but full of vitality.

  "I'm going to be married by the time I'm seventeen,"

  she exclaimed breathlessly. "To a very rich

  man and we're going to have six children and

  Tuesdays and Thursdays are my lucky days and I

  ought always to wear green or blue and an emerald

  is my lucky stone and--"

  "Why, pet, I think we ought to be getting

  along," said her father.

  Mr. Leathern was a tall, fair, dyspeptic-looking

  man with a somewhat mournful expression.

  Mr. Pointz and Mr. Stein were turning away

  from the darts. Mr. Pointz was chuckling and Mr.

  Stein was looking somewhat rueful.

  "It's all a matter of luck," he was saying.

  Mr. Pointz slapped his pocket cheerfully. "Took a river off you all right. Skill, my boy,

  skill. My old Dad was a first class dart player.

  Well, folks, let's be getting along. Had your fortune

  told, Eve? Did they tell you to beware of a

  dark man?"

  "A dark woman," corrected Eve. "She's got a

  THE REGATTA MYSTERY

  7

  cast in her eye and she'll be real mean to me if I

  give her a chance. And I'm to be married by the

  time I'm seventeen..."

  She ran on happily as the party steered its way

  to the Royal George.

  Dinner had been ordered beforehand by the

  forethought of Mr. Pointz and a bowing waiter

  led them upstairs and into a private room on the

  first floor. Here a round table was ready laid. The

  big bulging bow-window opened on the harbor

  square and was open. The noise of the fair came

  up to them, and the raucous squeal of three

  roundabouts each blaring a different tune.

  "Best shut that if we're to hear ourselves

  speak," observed Mr. Pointz drily, and suited the

  action to the word.

  They took their seats round the table and Mr.

  Pointz beamed affectionately at his guests. He felt

  he was doing them well and he liked to do people

  well. His eye rested on one after another. Lady

  Marroway--fine woman--not quite the goods, of

  course, he knew thatwhe was perfectly well aware

  that what he had called all his life the crrne de ia

  crrne would have very little to do with the Mar~

  roways--but then the crrne de la crrne were

  supremely unaware of his own existence. Anyway,

  Lady Marroway was a damned smart-looking

  woman--and he didn't mind if she did rook him a

  bit at Bridge. Didn't enjoy it quite so much from

  Sir George. Fishy eye the fellow had. Brazenly on

  the make. But he wouldn't make too much out of

  Isaac Pointz. He'd see to that all right.

  Old Leathern wasn't a bad fellow--longwinded,

  of course, like most Americans--fond of telling

  8

  Agatha Christie

  endless long stories. And he had that disconcerting

  habit of requiring precise information. What was

  the population of Dartmouth? In what year had

  the Naval College been built? And so on. Ex-pected

  his host to be a kind of walking Baedeker.

  Eve was a nice cheery kid--he enjoyed chaffing

  her. Voice rather like a corncrake, but she had all

  her wits about her. A bright kid.

  Young Llewellyn--he seemed a bit quiet.

  Looked as though he had something on his mind.

  Hard up, probably. These writing fellows usually

  were. Looked as though he might be keen on Janet

  Rustington. A nice woman--attractive and clever,

  too. But she didn't ram her writing down your

  throat. Highbrow sort of stuff she wrote but

  you'd never think it to hear her talk. And old Leo!

  He wasn't getting younger or thinner. And bliss-fully

  unaware that his partner was at that moment

  thinking precisely the same thing about him, Mr.

  Pointz corrected Mr. Leathern as to pilchards

  being connected with Devon and not Cornwall,

  and prepared to enjoy his dinner.

  "Mr. Pointz," said Eve when plates of hot

  mackerel had been set before them and the waiters

  had left the room.

  "Yes, young lady."

  "Have you got that big diamond with you right

  now? The one you showed us last night and said

  you always took about with you?"

  Mr. Pointz chuckled.

  "That's right. My mascot, I call it. Yes, I've got

  it with me all right."

  "I think that's awfully dangerous. Somebody

  THE REGATTA MYSTERY

  might get it away from you in the crowd at the

  fair. ' '

  "Not they," said Mr. Pointz. "I'll take good

  care of that."

  "But they might," insisted Eve. "You've got

  gangsters in England as well as we have, haven't you?"

  "They won't get the Morning Star," said Mr.

  Pointz. "To begin with it's in a special inner

  pocket. And anyway--old Pointz knows what he's

  about. Nobody's going to steal the Morning Star."

  Eve laughed.

  "Ugh-huh--bet I could steal it!"

  "I bet you couldn't," Mr. Pointz twinkled back

  at her.

  "Well, I bet I could. I was thinking about it last

  night in bed--after you'd handed it round the

  table for us all to look at. I thought of a real cute

  way to steal it."

  "And what's that?"

  Eve put her head on one side, her fair hair

  wagged excitedly. "I'm not telling you--now.

  What do you bet I couldn't?"

 
Memories of Mr. Pointz' youth rose in his

  mind.

  "Half a dozen pairs of gloves," he said.

  "Gloves," cried Eve disgustedly. "Who wears

  gloves?"

  "Well--do you wear silk stockings?"

  "Do I not? My best pair laddered this morning.''

  "Very well, then. Half a dozen pairs of the

  finest silk stockings--"

  10

  Agatha Christie

  "Oo-er," said Eve blissfully. "And what about

  you?"

  "Well, I need a new tobacco pouch."

  "Right. That's a deal. Not that you'll get your

  tobacco pouch. Now I'll tell you what you've got

  to do. You must hand it round like you did last

  night--"

  She broke off as two waiters entered to remove

  the plates. When they were starting on the next

  course of chicken, Mr. Pointz said:

  "Remember this, young woman, if this is to

  represent a real theft, I should send for the police

  and you'd be searched."

  "That's quite O.K. by me. You needn't be quite

  so lifelike as to bring the police into it. But Lady