4.50 From Paddington Read Online Free

4.50 From Paddington
Book: 4.50 From Paddington Read Online Free
Author: Agatha Christie
Pages:
Go to
so.
    “I expect we're coming into Brackhampton,” said Mrs. McGillicuddy.
    “We're getting into the outskirts, I think,” said Miss Marple.
    There were lights flashing past outside, buildings, an occasional glimpse of streets and trains. Their speed slackened further. They began crossing points.
    “We'll be there in a minute,” said Mrs. McGillicuddy, “and I can't really see this journey has been any good at all. Has it suggested anything to you, Jane?”
    “I'm afraid not,” said Miss Marple in a rather doubtful voice.
    “A sad waste of good money,” said Mrs. McGillicuddy, but with less disapproval than she would have used had she been paying for herself. Miss Marple had been quite adamant on that point.
    “All the same,” said Miss Marple, “one likes to see with one's own eyes where a thing happened. This train's just a few minutes late. Was yours on time on Friday?”
    “I think so. I didn't really notice.”
    The train drew slowly into the busy length of Brackhampton station. The loudspeaker announced hoarsely, doors opened and shut, people got in and out, milled up and down the platform. It was a busy crowded scene.
    Easy, thought Miss Marple, for a murderer to merge into that crowd, to leave the station in the midst of that pressing mass of people, or even to select another carriage and go on in the train to wherever its ultimate destination might be. Easy to be one male passenger amongst many.
    But not so easy to make a body vanish into thin air. That body must be somewhere.
    Mrs. McGillicuddy had descended. She spoke now from the platform, through the open window.
    “Now take care of yourself, Jane,” she said. “Don't catch a chill. It's a nasty treacherous time of year, and you're not so young as you were.”
    “I know,” said Miss Marple.
    “And don't let's worry ourselves any more over all this. We've done what we could.”
    Miss Marple nodded, and said:
    “Don't stand about in the cold, Elspeth. Or you'll be the one to catch a chill. Go and get yourself a good hot cup of tea in the Refreshment Room. You've got time, twelve minutes before your train back to town.”
    “I think perhaps I will. Goodbye, Jane.”
    “Good-bye, Elspeth. A happy Christmas to you. I hope you find Margaret well. Enjoy yourself in Ceylon, and give my love to dear Roderick - if he remembers me at all, which I doubt.”
    “Of course he remembers you - very well. You helped him in some way when he was at school - something to do with money that was disappearing from a locker - he's never forgotten it.”
    “Oh, that,” said Miss Marple.
    Mrs. McGillicuddy turned away, a whistle blew, the train began to move.
    Miss Marple watched the sturdy thickset body of her friend recede. Elspeth could go to Ceylon with a clear conscience - she had done her duty and was freed from further obligation.
    Miss Marple did not lean back as the train gathered speed. Instead she sat upright and devoted herself seriously to thought. Though in speech Miss Marple was woolly and diffuse, in mind she was clear and sharp. She had a problem to solve, the problem of her own future conduct; and, perhaps strangely, it presented itself to her as it had to Mrs. McGillicuddy, as a question of duty.
    Mrs. McGillicuddy had said that they had both done all that they could do.
    It was true of Mrs. McGillicuddy but about herself Miss Marple did not feel so sure.
    It was a question, sometimes, of using one's special gifts... But perhaps that was conceited... After all, what could she do? Her friend's words came back to her, “You're not so young as you were...”
    Dispassionately, like a general planning a campaign, or an accountant assessing a business. Miss Marple weighed up and set down in her mind the facts for and against further enterprise. On the credit side were the following:
    1. My long experience of life and human nature.
    2. Sir Henry Clithering and his godson (now at Scotland Yard, I believe), who was so very nice in the Little Paddocks
Go to

Readers choose