Miss Marple's Final Cases Read Online Free

‘Well, we’ll just look inside, shall we, and see? We can go along to the police station, or if you’re in a hurry we’ll take the suitcase back to the station and open it there.’
    ‘It’ll suit me,’ said the dark man. ‘My name is Moss, by the way, Edwin Moss.’
    The police constable, holding the suitcase, went back into the station. ‘Just taking this into the parcels office, George,’ he said to the ticket collector.
    Police Constable Abel laid the suitcase on the counter of the parcels office and pushed back the clasp. The case was not locked. Bunch and Mr Edwin Moss stood on either side of him, their eyes regarding each other vengefully.
    ‘Ah!’ said Police Constable Abel, as he pushed up the lid.
    Inside, neatly folded, was a long rather shabby tweed coat with a beaver fur collar. There were also two wool jumpers and a pair of country shoes.
    ‘Exactly as you say, madam,’ said Police Constable Abel, turning to Bunch.
    Nobody could have said that Mr Edwin Moss under-did things. His dismay and compunction were magnificent.
    ‘I do apologize,’ he said. ‘I really do apologize. Please believe me, dear lady, when I tell you how very, very sorry I am. Unpardonable—quite unpardonable—mybehaviour has been.’ He looked at his watch. ‘I must rush now. Probably my suitcase has gone on the train.’ Raising his hat once more, he said meltingly to Bunch, ‘Do, do forgive me,’ and rushed hurriedly out of the parcels office.
    ‘Are you going to let him get away?’ asked Bunch in a conspiratorial whisper to Police Constable Abel.
    The latter slowly closed a bovine eye in a wink.
    ‘He won’t get too far, ma’am,’ he said. ‘That’s to say he won’t get far unobserved, if you take my meaning.’
    ‘Oh,’ said Bunch, relieved.
    ‘That old lady’s been on the phone,’ said Police Constable Abel, ‘the one as was down here a few years ago. Bright she is, isn’t she? But there’s been a lot cooking up all today. Shouldn’t wonder if the inspector or sergeant was out to see you about it tomorrow morning.’
III
    It was the inspector who came, the Inspector Craddock whom Miss Marple remembered. He greeted Bunch with a smile as an old friend.
    ‘Crime in Chipping Cleghorn again,’ he said cheerfully. ‘You don’t lack for sensation here, do you, Mrs Harmon?’
    ‘I could do with rather less,’ said Bunch. ‘Have you come to ask me questions or are you going to tell me things for a change?’
    ‘I’ll tell you some things first,’ said the inspector. ‘To begin with, Mr and Mrs Eccles have been having an eye kept on them for some time. There’s reason to believe they’ve been connected with several robberies in this part of the world. For another thing, although Mrs Eccles has a brother called Sandbourne who has recently come back from abroad, the man you found dying in the church yesterday was definitely not Sandbourne.’
    ‘I knew that he wasn’t,’ said Bunch. ‘His name was Walter, to begin with, not William.’
    The inspector nodded. ‘His name was Walter St John, and he escaped forty-eight hours ago from Charrington Prison.’
    ‘Of course,’ said Bunch softly to herself, ‘he was being hunted down by the law, and he took sanctuary.’ Then she asked, ‘What had he done?’
    ‘I’ll have to go back rather a long way. It’s a complicated story. Several years ago there was a certain dancer doing turns at the music halls. I don’t expect you’ll have ever heard of her, but she specialized in an Arabian Night turn, “Aladdin in the Cave of Jewels” it was called. She wore bits of rhinestone and not much else.
    ‘She wasn’t much of a dancer, I believe, but she was—well—attractive.Anyway, a certain Asiatic royalty fell for her in a big way. Amongst other things he gave her a very magnificent emerald necklace.’
    ‘The historic jewels of a Rajah?’ murmured Bunch ecstatically.
    Inspector Craddock coughed. ‘Well, a rather more modern version, Mrs