Agatha Christie Read Online Free Page B

stabbed just because the dagger happened to be lying on the table in front of us. It was a mere coincidence that Lady Dwighton should have brought it down with her.’
    â€˜Was it?’ asked Mr Quin.
    â€˜Now if they’d only confined themselves to saying that they’d killed Sir James, without particularizing how –’ went on Mr Satterthwaite – ‘what would have been the result?’
    â€˜They might have been believed,’ said Mr Quin with an odd smile.
    â€˜The whole thing was exactly like a novel,’ said the colonel.
    â€˜That’s where they got the idea from, I daresay,’ said Mr Quin.
    â€˜Possibly,’ agreed Mr Satterthwaite. ‘Things one has read do come back to one in the oddest way.’ He looked across at Mr Quin. ‘Of course,’ he said, ‘the clock really looked suspicious from the first. One ought never to forget how easy it is to put the hands of a clock or watch forward or back.’
    Mr Quin nodded and repeated the words. ‘Forward,’ he said, and paused. ‘Or back.’
    There was something encouraging in his voice. His bright, dark eyes were fixed on Mr Satterthwaite.
    â€˜The hands of the clock were put forward,’ said Mr Satterthwaite. ‘We know that.’
    â€˜Were they?’ asked Mr Quin.
    Mr Satterthwaite stared at him. ‘Do you mean,’ he said slowly, ‘that it was the watch which was put back? But that doesn’t make sense. It’s impossible.’
    â€˜Not impossible,’ murmured Mr Quin.
    â€˜Well – absurd. To whose advantage could that be?’
    â€˜Only, I suppose, to someone who had an alibi for that time.’
    â€˜By gad!’ cried the colonel. ‘That’s the time young Delangua said he was talking to the keeper.’
    â€˜He told us that very particularly,’ said Mr Satterthwaite.
    They looked at each other. They had an uneasy feeling as of solid ground failing beneath their feet. Facts went spinning round, turning new and unexpected faces. And in the centre of the kaleidoscope was the dark, smiling face of Mr Quin.
    â€˜But in that case –’ began Melrose ‘– in that case –’
    Mr Satterthwaite, nimble-witted, finished his sentence for him. ‘It’s all the other way round. A plant just the same – but a plant against the valet. Oh, but it can’t be! It’s impossible. Why each of them accused themselves of the crime.’
    â€˜Yes,’ said Mr Quin. ‘Up till then you suspected them, didn’t you?’ His voice went on, placid and dreamy. ‘Just like something out of a book, you said, colonel. They got the idea there. It’s what the innocent hero and heroine do. Of course it made you think them innocent – there was the force of tradition behind them. Mr Satterthwaite has been saying all along it was like something on the stage. You were both right. It wasn’t real. You’ve been saying so all along without knowing what you were saying. They’d have told a much better story than that if they’d wanted to be believed.’
    The two men looked at him helplessly.
    â€˜It would be clever,’ said Mr Satterthwaite slowly. ‘It would be diabolically clever. And I’ve thought of something else. The butler said he went in at seven to shut the windows – so he must have expected them to be open.’
    â€˜That’s the way Delangua came in,’ said Mr Quin. ‘He killed Sir James with one blow, and he and she together did what they had to do –’
    He looked at Mr Satterthwaite, encouraging him to reconstruct the scene. He did so, hesitatingly.
    â€˜They smashed the clock and put it on its side. Yes. They altered the watch and smashed it. Then he went out of the window, and she fastened it after him. But there’s one thing I don’t see. Why bother with the watch at all? Why not simply put back the hands