Midwinter Murder Read online

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Introduction: Christmas at Abney Hall

  Three Blind Mice

  The Chocolate Box

  A Christmas Tragedy

  The Coming of Mr Quin

  The Clergyman’s Daughter/Red House

  The Plymouth Express

  Problem at Pollensa Bay

  Sanctuary

  The Mystery of Hunter’s Lodge

  The World’s End

  The Manhood of Edward Robinson

  Christmas Adventure

  Bibliography

  About the Author

  Also by Agatha Christie

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Introduction

  Christmas at Abney Hall

  Christmas we used to spend in Cheshire, going up to the Watts’. Jimmy usually got his yearly holiday about then, and he and Madge used to go to St. Moritz for three weeks. He was a very good skater, and so it was the kind of holiday he liked most. Mother and I used to go up to Cheadle, and since their newly built house, called Manor Lodge, was not ready yet, we spent Christmas at Abney Hall, with the old Wattses and their four children and Jack. It was a wonderful house to have Christmas in if you were a child. Not only was it enormous Victorian Gothic, with quantities of rooms, passages, unexpected steps, back staircases, front staircases, alcoves, niches—everything in the world that a child could want—but it also had three different pianos that you could play, as well as an organ. All it lacked was the light of day; it was remarkably dark, except for the big drawing-room with its green satin walls and its big windows.

  Nan Watts and I were fast friends by now. We were not only friends but drinking companions—we both liked the same drink, cream, ordinary plain, neat cream. Although I had consumed an enormous amount of Devonshire cream since I lived in Devonshire, raw cream was really more of a treat. When Nan stayed with me at Torquay, we used to visit one of the dairies in the town, where we would have a glass of half milk and half cream. When I stayed with her at Abney we used to go down to the home farm and drink cream by the half-pint. We continued these drinking bouts all through our lives, and I still remember buying our cartons of cream in Sunningdale and coming up to the golf course and sitting outside the club house waiting for our respective husbands to finish their rounds of golf, each drinking our pinta cream.

  Abney was a glutton’s paradise. Mrs Watts had what was called her store-room off the hall. It was not like Grannie’s store-room, a kind of securely-locked treasure house from which things were taken out. There was free access to it, and all round the walls were shelves covered with every kind of dainty. One side was entirely chocolates, boxes of them, all different, chocolate creams in labelled boxes . . . There were biscuits, gingerbread, preserved fruits, jams and so on.

  Christmas was the supreme Festival, something never to be forgotten. Christmas stockings in bed. Breakfast, when everyone had a separate chair heaped with presents. Then a rush to church and back to continue present opening. At two o’clock Christmas Dinner, the blinds drawn down and glittering ornaments and lights. First, oyster soup (not relished by me), turbot, then boiled turkey, roast turkey, and a large roast sirloin of beef. This was followed by plum pudding, mince pies, and a trifle full of sixpences, pigs, rings, bachelors’ buttons and all the rest of it. After that, again, innumerable kinds of dessert. In a story I once wrote, The Affair of the Christmas Pudding, I have described just such a feast. It is one of those things that I am sure will never be seen again in this generation; indeed I doubt nowadays if anyone’s digestion would stand it. However, our digestions stood it quite well then.

  I usually had to vie in eating prowess with Humphrey Watts, the Watts son next to James in age. I suppose he must have been twenty-one or twenty-two to my twelve or thirteen. He was a very handsome young man, as well as being a good actor and a wonderful entertainer and teller of stories. Good as I always was at falling in love with people, I don’t think I fell in love with him, though it is amazing to me that I should not have done so. I suppose I was still at the stage where my love affairs had to be romantically impossible—concerned with public characters, such as the Bishop of London and King Alfonso of Spain, and of course with various actors. I know I fell deeply in love with Henry Ainley when I saw him in The Bondman, and I must have been just getting ripe for the K.O.W.s (Keen on Wallers), who were all to a girl in love with Lewis Waller in Monsieur Beaucaire.

  Humphrey and I ate solidly through the Christmas Dinner. He scored over me in oyster soup, but otherwise we were neck and neck. We both first had roast turkey, then boiled turkey, and finally four or five slashing slices of sirloin of beef. It is possible that our elders confined themselves to only one kind of turkey for this course, but as far as I remember old Mr Watts certainly had beef as well as turkey. We then ate plum pudding and mince pies and trifle—1 rather sparingly of trifle, because I didn’t like the taste of wine. After that there were the crackers, the grapes, the oranges, the Elvas plums, the Carlsbad plums, and the preserved fruits. Finally, during the afternoon, various handfuls of chocolates were fetched from the store-room to suit our taste. Do I remember being sick the next day? Having bilious attacks? No, never. The only bilious attacks I ever remember were those that seized me after eating unripe apples in September. I ate unripe apples practically every day, but occasionally I must have overdone it.

  What I do remember was when I was about six or seven years old and had eaten mushrooms. I woke up with a pain about eleven o’clock in the evening, and came rushing down to the drawing-room, where mother and father were entertaining a party of people, and announced dramatically: ‘I am going to die! I am poisoned by mushrooms!’ Mother rapidly soothed me and administered a dose of ipecacuanha wine—always kept in the medicine cupboard in those days—and assured me that I was not due to die this time.

  At any rate I never remember being ill at Christmas. Nan Watts was just the same as I was; she had a splendid stomach. In fact, really, when I remember those days, everyone seemed to have a pretty good stomach. I suppose people had gastric and duodenal ulcers and had to be careful, but I cannot remember anybody living on a diet of fish and milk. A coarse and gluttonous age? Yes, but one of great zest and enjoyment. Considering the amount that I ate in my youth (for I was always hungry) I cannot imagine how I managed to remain so thin—a scrawny chicken indeed.

  After the pleasurable inertia of Christmas afternoon—pleasurable, that is, for the elders: the younger ones read books, looked at their presents, ate more chocolates, and so on—there was a terrific tea, with a great iced Christmas cake as well as everything else, and finally a supper of cold turkey and hot mince pies. About nine o’clock there was the Christmas Tree, with more presents hanging on it. A splendid day, and one to be remembered till next year, when Christmas came again.

  Three Blind Mice

  It was very cold. The sky was dark and heavy with unshed snow.

  A man in a dark overcoat, with his muffler pulled up round his face, and his hat pulled down over his eyes, came along Culver Street and went up the steps of number 74. He put his finger on the bell and heard it shrilling in the basement below.

  Mrs Casey, her hands busy in the sink, said bitterly, ‘Drat that bell. Never any peace, there isn’t.’

  Wheezing a little, she toiled up the basement stairs and opened the door.

  The man standing silhouetted against the lowering sky outside asked in a whisper, ‘Mrs Lyon?’

  ‘Second floor,’ said Mrs Casey. ‘You can go on up. Does she expect you?’ The man slowly shook his head. ‘Oh, well, go on up and knock.’

  She watched him as he went up the shabbily carpeted stairs. Afterwards she said he ‘gave her a
funny feeling.’ But actually all she thought was that he must have a pretty bad cold only to be able to whisper like that—and no wonder with the weather what it was.

  When the man got round the bend of the staircase he began to whistle softly. The tune he whistled was ‘Three Blind Mice.’

  Molly Davis stepped back into the road and looked up at the newly painted board by the gate.

  MONKSWELL MANOR

  GUEST HOUSE

  She nodded approval. It looked, it really did look, quite professional. Or, perhaps, one might say almost professional. The T of Guest House staggered uphill a little, and the end of Manor was slightly crowded, but on the whole Giles had made a wonderful job of it. Giles was really very clever. There were so many things that he could do. She was always making fresh discoveries about this husband of hers. He said so little about himself that it was only by degrees that she was finding out what a lot of varied talents he had. An ex-naval man was always a ‘handy man,’ so people said.

  Well, Giles would have need of all his talents in their new venture. Nobody could be more raw to the business of running a guest house than she and Giles. But it would be great fun. And it did solve the housing problem.

  It had been Molly’s idea. When Aunt Katherine died, and the lawyers wrote to her and informed her that her aunt had left her Monkswell Manor, the natural reaction of the young couple had been to sell it. Giles had asked, ‘What is it like?’ And Molly had replied, ‘Oh, a big, rambling old house, full of stuffy, old-fashioned Victorian furniture. Rather a nice garden, but terribly overgrown since the war, because there’s been only one old gardener left.’

  So they had decided to put the house on the market, and keep just enough furniture to furnish a small cottage or flat for themselves.

  But two difficulties arose at once. First, there weren’t any small cottages or flats to be found, and secondly, all the furniture was enormous.

  ‘Well,’ said Molly, ‘we’ll just have to sell it all. I suppose it will sell?’

  The solicitor assured them that nowadays anything would sell.

  ‘Very probably,’ he said, ‘someone will buy it for a hotel or guesthouse in which case they might like to buy it with the furniture complete. Fortunately the house is in very good repair. The late Miss Emory had extensive repairs and modernizations done just before the war, and there has been very little deterioration. Oh, yes, it’s in good shape.’

  And it was then that Molly had had her idea.

  ‘Giles,’ she said, ‘why shouldn’t we run it as a guesthouse ourselves?’

  At first her husband had scoffed at the idea, but Molly had persisted.

  ‘We needn’t take very many people—not at first. It’s an easy house to run—it’s got hot and cold water in the bedrooms and central heating and a gas cooker. And we can have hens and ducks and our own eggs, and vegetables.’

  ‘Who’d do all the work—isn’t it very hard to get servants?’

  ‘Oh, we’d have to do the work. But wherever we lived we’d have to do that. A few extra people wouldn’t really mean much more to do. We’d probably get a woman to come in after a bit when we got properly started. If we had only five people, each paying seven guineas a week—’ Molly departed into the realms of somewhat optimistic mental arithmetic.

  ‘And think, Giles,’ she ended, ‘it would be our own house. With our own things. As it is, it seems to me it will be years before we can ever find anywhere to live.’

  That, Giles admitted, was true. They had had so little time together since their hasty marriage, that they were both longing to settle down in a home.

  So the great experiment was set under way. Advertisements were put in the local paper and in the Times, and various answers came.

  And now, today, the first of the guests was to arrive. Giles had gone off early in the car to try and obtain some army wire netting that had been advertised as for sale on the other side of the county. Molly announced the necessity of walking to the village to make some last purchases.

  The only thing that was wrong was the weather. For the last two days it had been bitterly cold, and now the snow was beginning to fall. Molly hurried up the drive, thick, feathery flakes falling on her waterproofed shoulders and bright curly hair. The weather forecasts had been lugubrious in the extreme. Heavy snowfall was to be expected.

  She hoped anxiously that all the pipes wouldn’t freeze. It would be too bad if everything went wrong just as they started. She glanced at her watch. Past teatime. Would Giles have got back yet? Would he be wondering where she was?

  ‘I had to go to the village again for something I had forgotten,’ she would say. And he would laugh and say, ‘More tins?’

  Tins were a joke between them. They were always on the lookout for tins of food. The larder was really quite nicely stocked now in case of emergencies.

  And, Molly thought with a grimace as she looked up at the sky, it looked as though emergencies were going to present themselves very soon.

  The house was empty. Giles was not back yet. Molly went first into the kitchen, then upstairs, going round the newly prepared bedrooms. Mrs Boyle in the south room with the mahogany and the fourposter. Major Metcalf in the blue room with the oak. Mr Wren in the east room with the bay window. All the rooms looked very nice—and what a blessing that Aunt Katherine had had such a splendid stock of linen. Molly patted a counterpane into place and went downstairs again. It was nearly dark. The house felt suddenly very quiet and empty. It was a lonely house, two miles from a village, two miles, as Molly put it, from anywhere.

  She had often been alone in the house before—but she had never before been so conscious of being alone in it.

  The snow beat in a soft flurry against the windowpanes. It made a whispery, uneasy sound. Supposing Giles couldn’t get back—supposing the snow was so thick that the car couldn’t get through? Supposing she had to stay alone here—stay alone for days, perhaps.

  She looked round the kitchen—a big, comfortable kitchen that seemed to call for a big, comfortable cook presiding at the kitchen table, her jaws moving rhythmically as she ate rock cakes and drank black tea—she should be flanked by a tall, elderly parlormaid on one side and a round, rosy housemaid on the other, with a kitchen-maid at the other end of the table observing her betters with frightened eyes. And instead there was just herself, Molly Davis, playing a role that did not yet seem a very natural role to play. Her whole life, at the moment, seemed unreal—Giles seemed unreal. She was playing a part—just playing a part.

  A shadow passed the window, and she jumped—a strange man was coming through the snow. She heard the rattle of the side door. The stranger stood there in the open doorway, shaking off snow, a strange man, walking into the empty house.

  And then, suddenly, illusion fled.

  ‘Oh Giles,’ she cried, ‘I’m so glad you’ve come!’

  ‘Hullo, sweetheart! What filthy weather! Lord, I’m frozen.’

  He stamped his feet and blew through his hands.

  Automatically Molly picked up the coat that he had thrown in a Giles-like manner onto the oak chest. She put it on a hanger, taking out of the stuffed pockets a muffler, a newspaper, a ball of string, and the morning’s correspondence which he had shoved in pell mell. Moving into the kitchen, she laid down the articles on the dresser and put the kettle on the gas.

  ‘Did you get the netting?’ she asked. ‘What ages you’ve been.’

  ‘It wasn’t the right kind. Wouldn’t have been any good for us. I went on to another dump, but that wasn’t any good, either. What have you been doing with yourself? Nobody turned up yet, I suppose?’

  ‘Mrs Boyle isn’t coming till tomorrow, anyway.’

  ‘Major Metcalf and Mr Wren ought to be here today.’

  ‘Major Metcalf sent a card to say he wouldn’t be here till tomorrow.’

  ‘Then that leaves us and Mr Wren for dinner. What do you think he’s like? Correct sort of retired civil servant is my idea.’

  ‘No, I think
he’s an artist.’

  ‘In that case,’ said Giles, ‘we’d better get a week’s rent in advance.’

  ‘Oh, no, Giles, they bring luggage. If they don’t pay we hang on to their luggage.’

  ‘And suppose their luggage is stones wrapped up in newspaper? The truth is, Molly, we don’t in the least know what we’re up against in this business. I hope they don’t spot what beginners we are.’

  ‘Mrs Boyle is sure to,’ said Molly. ‘She’s that kind of woman.’

  ‘How do you know? You haven’t seen her?’

  Molly turned away. She spread a newspaper on the table, fetched some cheese, and set to work to grate it.

  ‘What’s this?’ inquired her husband.

  ‘It’s going to be Welsh rarebit,’ Molly informed him. ‘Bread crumbs and mashed potatoes and just a teeny weeny bit of cheese to justify its name.’

  ‘Aren’t you a clever cook?’ said her admiring husband.

  ‘I wonder. I can do one thing at a time. It’s assembling them that needs so much practice. Breakfast is the worst.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because it all happens at once—eggs and bacon and hot milk and coffee and toast. The milk boils over, or the toast burns, or the bacon frizzles, or the eggs go hard. You have to be as active as a scalded cat watching everything at once.’

  ‘I shall have to creep down unobserved tomorrow morning and watch this scalded-cat impersonation.’

  ‘The kettle’s boiling,’ said Molly. ‘Shall we take the tray into the library and hear the wireless? It’s almost time for the news.’

  ‘As we seem to be going to spend almost the whole of our time in the kitchen, we ought to have a wireless there, too.’

  ‘Yes. How nice kitchens are. I love this kitchen. I think it’s far and away the nicest room in the house. I like the dresser and the plates, and I simply love the lavish feeling that an absolutely enormous kitchen range gives you—though, of course, I’m thankful I haven’t got to cook on it.’

  ‘I suppose a whole year’s fuel ration would go in one day.’