Chapter 21 Chapter 21 Roger's Questions and Answers

Frankie was in luck, for she met Roger not far from the house. "Hello," said Roger, "you've come back from London very early." "I'm not in the mood to spend much time in London," said Frankie. "Have you come in?" His face became serious. "I found out that Nicholson had been telling Sylvia the truth about poor old Henry. Poor woman, she had a hard time with it. It seemed She wasn't suspicious at all." "I see," said Frankie. "They were in the study when I went in. Sylvia looked extremely disturbed." "Actually, Frankie," Roger said, "Henry is absolutely curable. The addiction doesn't seem to have taken hold of him yet. He hasn't been on drugs for very long. Every encouragement in the world will make him Desperate to get off the drug - Sylvia, Tommy and his family. He has to come to terms with the situation. Nicholson happens to be the guy who gets this done. He talked to me a few days ago. He has achieved some Stunning success, even for those who have been addicted to nasty drugs for years. As long as Henry agrees to go to Grange Mansion...”

Frankie cut him off. "Forget it," she said, "I want to ask you something. Just one question, I hope you don't think I'm going too far." "What's the matter?" Roger focused. "If you don't mind, tell me if you took a picture from the pocket of that man? The man who fell off the cliff at Marchbolt." She watched him carefully, watching his subtle expressions.She was deeply satisfied with the observations. Slightly annoyed, slightly embarrassed, but without a hint of guilt or frustration. "Well, how on earth did you guess that?" he said. "Or did Moira tell you? But she didn't know then?"

"So you took the picture." "I guess I have to admit it happened." "why?" Roger seemed to be in a dilemma again. "Well, let me tell you why I did it. I was there, guarding a strange dead body. There was something protruding from the dead man's pocket, so I looked at it. It happened to be a picture of a woman I knew. The woman is married, and not very happily married, I guess. What's going to happen next? Ask, make a fuss, and maybe the unfortunate girl's name will appear in all the papers. On the spur of the moment, I take took the picture and tore it up. I dare say it's not the right thing to do, but Moira Nicholson is a nice little guy and I don't want her to get in trouble."

Frankie took a deep breath. "In that case," she said, "why do you know..." "Know what?" Roger was puzzled. "I know I can't tell you now," said Frankie, "maybe later. It's a rather complicated matter. I can quite understand why you took the picture away, but what prevents you from saying you recognized the man? Could it be?" Aren't you supposed to tell the police who that guy is?" "Recognize him?" said Roger, looking bewildered. "How could I recognize him? I don't know him." "But you saw him here, only about a week before this happened."

"Dear girl, are you crazy?" "Alan Carstairs, have you actually seen him?" "Oh, yes! The man who came here with the Rivingtons. But it wasn't Alan Carstairs who died." "he is the one!" They stared at each other.Then Frankie said suspiciously again: "I'm sure you recognized him!" "I didn't see his face," said Roger. "what?" "No. He has a handkerchief over his face." Frankie stared at him intently, and it occurred to her that Bobby had mentioned, in his first account of the tragedy, the covering of the dead man's face with a handkerchief.

"Didn't it occur to you to take a look?" Frankie went on. "No. Why should I look at it?" "Of course," thought Frankie, "if I found a picture of someone I knew in a dead man's pocket, I'd totally look at the dead man's face." "Poor little thing," said Frankie, "I'm really sorry for her." "Whom do you mean, Moira Nicholson? Why do you feel so sorry for her?" "Because she was frightened," said Frankie slowly. "She always looks like she's half-frightened. What has she to be afraid of?"

"Her husband." "I also know that I don't want to face Jasper Nicholson myself." Roger admitted. "She thinks he's trying to kill her," said Frankie unexpectedly. "Oh my God!" He looked at her suspiciously. "Sit down," said Frankie, "I have a lot to tell you. I have to prove to you that Dr. Nicholson is a serious criminal." "Criminal?" Roger's tone was obviously suspicious. "When you've heard the whole story, you'll believe it." She gave him a clear and detailed account of everything that had happened since the day Bobby and Dr. Thomas found the dead man.She only concealed the fake car accident, but she also revealed all about her stay at Merowe Court in her desire to find out the truth of the mysterious incident.

She can only grumble at the interest displayed by her audience.Roger seems completely captivated by her narrative. "Is that true?" he demanded. "About Jones being poisoned and all that?" "Indeed, dear." "I apologize for my doubts, but the facts do take their time, don't they?" He was silent for a moment, frowning. "Listen," he said afterward, "the whole thing sounds unbelievable, and I think your first inference must be right. That man, Alex Pritchard, or Alan Carter Stiles, must have been murdered. If he hadn't been murdered, there doesn't seem to be a climax to murdering Jones. Since you have no clue as to who Evans is or why he was hired, so' Why didn't they ask Evans' is irrelevant to me. Let's say the murderer decides that Jones has something, whether he knows it or not, but the murderer thinks it's dangerous. So they try to kill him, If they got hold of his whereabouts, they would probably do it again. So far the inference is sound. But I don't see why you're criminalizing Nicholson."

"He's a sinister man, and he's got a dark blue Talbot. He wasn't here the day Bobby was poisoned." "The evidence is too weak." "Mrs. Nicholson also told Bobby many things." She begins to relate these events, and the seemingly fictional, dramatic events are retold aloud against the backdrop of the silent English landscape. Roger shrugged. "She thinks Nicholson gave Henry drugs, but that's pure speculation, she doesn't have a shred of evidence that Nicholson did that. She thinks Nicholson wants Henry to go to Grange Mansion as a patient, eh Well, it's quite natural for a doctor to have such a wish. A doctor is always trying to overcharge his patients. She thinks Nicholson is in love with Sylvia. Well, of course I can't say anything about that."

"If she thinks so, she may be right," interrupted Frankie. "Women know their husbands well." "Well, even if that's true, it doesn't make the man a dangerous criminal. Many respectable citizens are in love with other people's wives." "She believed he wanted to kill her," Frankie emphasized. Roger looked at her in bewilderment. "Do you take her seriously?" "She thinks so anyway." Roger nodded and lit a cigarette. "The thing is, pay attention to her thinking like that," he said. "Grange House is a creepy place, full of weird people. It's very easy to unbalance a woman's emotions by living there. All the more so if she's one of those timid, nervous people."

"So, you think she's unreliable?" "I didn't say that. She may have been obsessed with believing that Nicholson was planning to kill her, but did she have any basis in that belief? It seemed not." Frankie remembered quite clearly what Moira had said: "It's just neurotic." She did not know how to make her point of view clear to Roger. At this point, Roger was going on: "You have to watch out, if you could prove that Nicholson was in March Bolt on the day of the cliff tragedy, things would be very different. Or if we could find him The exact reason for the feud with Carstairs. But it seems to me that you are overlooking the real suspect." "The real suspect?" "What do you call them . . . the Hymans?" "The Caymans." "That's right. Hey, they're absolutely in on it, no doubt about it. First, false testimony about the dead body; then desperate to see if the poor fellow said anything before he died. I think that's a logical assumption, as you say The letter of offer of employment from Venlis, Buenos Aires, may have been arranged by them." "It's kind of annoying," said Frankie, "that somebody's going to a really hard time trying to kill you because you know something and you don't know what you know. It's nerve-wracking, The words got mixed up." "Yes," Roger said grimly, "that was a mistake of theirs. This mistake will cost them all their time to remedy." "Oops!" cried Frankie, "I just remembered something, and until now, you know, I've been assuming that Moira Nicholson's picture was swapped for Mrs. Cayman's." "I can assure you," Roger said solemnly, "I will never keep Mrs. Cayman's portrait close to me. She is simply disgusting." "Well, she's pretty in a way," said Frankie indulgently, "in that brash, vulgar, coquettish way. But here's the point: Carstairs must have a picture of her, and Nico Mrs. Elson's picture." Roger nodded and said, "Then you think..." "I think one is for love and the other is for business! Carstairs has a purpose with Mrs. Cayman's picture. He might need someone to authenticate the picture. Listen to me, what happens next What happened? Someone, maybe Cayman was following him, saw a good opportunity, sneaked up behind him in the mist and gave him a sharp push. Carstairs screamed and fell off the cliff Cayman slipped away as fast as he could, he didn't know who was around. What I'm saying is, he didn't know that Carstairs had that picture on him. And then? The picture was published...” "The Caymans were in a state of panic," Roger added. "Exactly. What's to be done? This daring chap solves the tough problem at once. Who knows Carstairs? Almost nobody in this place knows him. Mrs. Cayman came forward, and she gave a false cry, The dead man was identified as her brother. They also played a little trick by sending a postal package to support Carstairs' claim of traveling on foot." "Frankie, I think you are too wise." Roger couldn't help but admire. "I think it's pretty good myself," said Frankie. "You're right, we should hurry up and track down the Caymans. I think we should have done that a long time ago." This statement was not entirely true, for Frankie knew very well why they had been tracking Roger himself.Also, she doesn't think it's wise to reveal the truth at this point. "What are we going to do with Mrs. Nicholson?" she asked Roger suddenly. "You mean...do something for her?" "Yes, the poor woman was frightened to death. I do think you were cruel to her, Roger." "I'm not heartless, really, but people who can't help themselves always piss me off." "Ah! But in all honesty, what can she do? She has no money and nowhere to go." Roger said unexpectedly: "If you were in her position, Frankie, you'd find something to do." "Ah!" Frankie was quite surprised. "Yes, you would. If you really thought someone was trying to kill you, you wouldn't just sit there and wait to be killed. You'd run away anyway, to survive, or you'd kill someone else first! You Eventually there will be something to do.” Frankie tried to figure out what she would do. "I'm sure I'll do something," she said after serious consideration. . "The truth is you have guts and she doesn't," said Roger decisively, and Frankie felt flattered.Moira Nicholson really wasn't the type of woman she admired, and Bobby's attention to Moira annoyed her a little.She thought to herself, "Bobby is as helpless as someone like Moira." She recalled that from the beginning of this incident, the photo had had a strange fascination for Bobby. "Oh, come on," Frankie thought, "Roger is nothing like them, after all." It's clear that Roger doesn't like people who can't do anything.Moira, on the other hand, doesn't have much interest in Roger either.Frankie saw him as weak, and watched him have the guts to kill.Maybe he's weak, but there's no denying his charm.She had felt this charm when she first arrived at Merowe House. Roger said calmly: "If you want, you can choose a man to do anything..." Frankie felt a sudden quickening of her heartbeat, and she felt very embarrassed at the same time.She changed the subject immediately. "Tell me about your brother. Do you still think he should go to the Grange Mansion?"