Chapter 24 Chapter 24 Miss Marple Exercising Her Imagination

"Is that so?" said Mr. Rifle. He and Miss Marple sat together mysteriously. "She's had an affair with Tim Kendall, hasn't she?" "I don't think it's just a relationship," Miss Marple said authoritatively: "I think, not only is there romantic lingering, but she is also planning to get married in the future." "What—after his wife's dead?" "I don't think poor Esther Walders knew that Molly was going to die," said Miss Marple. "I think she just believed Tim Kendall told her that Molly was in love with another man." and the man has chased her here, I think she's hoping Tim will get a divorce. I don't think there's anything wrong or unseemly about that. But she's really in love with his."

"It's not difficult to understand. This kid is quite handsome. But what does he like about her? Do you know that too?" "You ought to know, don't you?" said Miss Marple. "I can say I know quite well, but I don't know how you know. Then again, I don't know how Tim Kendall knew. " "Well, I think it's easy for me to explain it to you if I use a little imagination; of course, it's much easier if you tell me." "I don't want to tell you," said Mr. Rifle, "you better tell me, because you're very clever."

"Well, I actually hinted to you," Miss Marple said, "Your Jaxon may have the habit of peeking at your business documents." "Very likely," said Mr. Rifle, "but I don't think it would do him any good. I was on my guard." "I suppose," said Miss Marple, "that he may have read your will." "Oh, I see. Yes, yes. I do have a will with me." "You said," said Miss Marple, "that you said it (very loudly) that you left nothing in your will to Esther Walders. You specifically called her and Jaxon You don't have anything to hope for. I suppose you had nothing to give to Jaxon, but you left money to Esther Walders, even though you didn't reveal anything about it. Am I right?"

"Yes, that's true, but how do you know?" "It's because you make a point of it," said Miss Marple. "I know a little about people lying." "Okay, I surrendered," said Mr. Raifel. "I left Yishu £5,000. I wanted to surprise her after I died. I think, after Tim Kendall found out , he decided to use a drug to get rid of his current wife, and then marry another five thousand pounds plus Esther Walders. Maybe when the time came, he would get rid of her too, but how would he know that she would Inherit five thousand pounds?" "Jackson told him, of course," said Miss Marple. "These two got pretty close. Tim Kendall was nice to Jaxon, and I don't think there's any ulterior motives for that. But, I think Jaxson is also a gossip, he must have told Tim Kendall things that Esther Walders didn't know himself, that she would inherit a lot of money, and maybe that he himself hoped that one day To win his heart and marry her. Unfortunately, he has never been able to please her. Yes, that must be the case."

"However, what you imagined is such a stroke of genius." Mr. Laifel said. "But I'm stupid, too," said Miss Marple. "Very stupid. Actually, it's easy to see. Tim Kendall, though sinister, is a very clever man. And he's very good at Spreading rumours, I guess he's the one who started most of the things I've heard here. There's a rumor that Molly's going to marry a man who's not worth it. It's actually Tim Kendall himself, except that he That was not the name. Her family had heard that he had a less than clean background. So he staged a tantrum, refusing to be taken by Molly to their house for a "blind date", and the two went back to Came up with an idea, and thought it was pretty funny, and she pretended to have a falling out with him, after which Mr. Tim Kendal showed up, pretending to know a lot of Molly's old friends, and they turned out to be very Welcomed him, thinking that this young man could make Molly forget about the old man. I think Molly and him must have laughed half to death afterwards. In short, he married her, and with her money, bought from the man who used to run the place. This restaurant, that's where they came. I guess he squandered a lot of her money. Then he met Esther Walders and saw an opportunity to swindle more money."

"Then why didn't he lay hands on me?" said Mr. Rifle. Miss Marple coughed. "I think he's going to get Mrs. Wadders first. And then—I think—" She broke off, a little confused herself. "Besides, he knows he won't have to wait long," said Mr. Rifle, "and I'd better die. I'm so rich. When a millionaire dies, people have to find out. , isn't it, is it not comparable to an ordinary wife?" "Indeed, you're right. He's made up a lot of lies," said Miss Marple. "Take the ones Molly believes in—a book about insanity." Show her. Give her nightmares and fantasies. You know that Jaxon of yours is pretty darn good with potions. I think he saw some of Molly's symptoms might be the result of the pills. He He ran to the bathroom of their cabin and fumbled around. He checked a bottle of cream. He may have been inspired by the story of a witch who applied scopolamine ointment to his body and could ride the clouds. If the cream contained scopolamine, it would It will have the same effect. Molly will feel dizzy, lose her memory. Can't remember many occasions, dreaming that she is floating in the sky. No wonder she is afraid of herself. She is all symptoms of psychosis. Jaxson It's not too far-fetched. Perhaps he got it from Major Balgrave's tale of Indian women giving mandalas to their husbands."

"Major Belgrave!" said Mr. Rifle. "Really, that old chap!" "He got himself killed," said Miss Marple. "Killed the unfortunate Victoria, and almost killed Molly. But he did identify the murderer." "How did it suddenly occur to you that he had a glass eye?" asked Mr. Rifle curiously. "That lady Caspialo was talking about. She was talking nonsense about how ugly he was, and he had an evil ghost eye; I said it was just glass eyes, and I couldn't blame him, poor thing, and she said he His eyes were sideways, cross-eyed—of course it was true. She also said that whoever showed him was unlucky. I knew in my heart that day that I must have heard something important. Last night, after Lucky was killed , I just figured it out! I also knew that the moment of death had come "How could Tim Kendall kill the wrong person again? "

"Completely a blind cat meeting a dead mouse. I think his original plan was to convince everyone - including Molly herself - that she was unbalanced, and to give her a large dose of the kind he gave him. After taking the medicine, he told her that the two of them had to get to the bottom of these murder mysteries. However, she must help him. After everyone was asleep, the two of them separated to an appointment by the creek. Hit meet up. "He also told her that she was pretty sure they knew who the killer was, and they could get him. Molly obeyed—but she was confused and tired from the drugs, and she went in a hurry. Slow. Tim got there first and saw a woman there, whom he thought was Molly, with blonde hair and a light green shawl. He walked behind her, put his hand over her mouth, and held her down. in the water until you die."

"Good boy! But wouldn't it be easier for him to give her a lot of narcotics?" "Easy is easy, of course, but it arouses suspicion. Don't forget, any narcotics and tranquilizers that Molly might have had have been taken away. If she gets new drugs, who else is most likely to get them but her husband?" How about taking mine for her? However, if you can’t think about it for a while, wouldn’t it be a very sad tragedy that she ran out and drowned while her husband was asleep? No one would think that she was pushed into the water. Besides," Miss Marple added another conclusion: "Murderers usually have a hard time getting things clean, and like to add things to the snake."

"You seem to think that you know the murderer like the back of your hand! So you believe Ti Thumb doesn't know that you killed the wrong person?" Miss Marple shook her head, "He didn't even look at her face, he ran away from the scene in a hurry, and after an hour, he woke up everyone to help him find her, acting like a frightened husband. " "But what is Lucky doing at the stream in the middle of the night?" "Probably she's, uh—waiting for a date." "Edward Hillingdon?" "Oh, no," said Miss Marple. "That's long gone. I wonder if it's—probably—she's waiting for Jaxon?"

"Wait for Jackson?" "I noticed her—glanced at him once or twice," said Miss Marple in a low voice, averting her eyes. Mr. Rifle whistled once. "It turned out to be my greedy cat, Jaxson! That's hard to say—Tim ​​must have been very panicked when he found out that he had killed the wrong person." "Yeah, of course. He must be in a panic. Molly's alive and gone somewhere. Once she's in the hands of a brilliant psychiatrist, all the rumors he's spreading so carefully that she's insane Can't stand anymore. And if she tells someone that he told her to wait for him by the stream, what will Tim Kendall do? He has only one hope--get rid of Molly as soon as possible. It will be believed that she drowned her luck in a moment of madness, and then found herself terribly mistaken, and killed herself with horror." "That's when you decided to play the Nemesis, eh?" Suddenly he threw himself back and laughed, "I'm dying of laughter," he said, "if you knew the way you were that night, with a pink woolen kerchief around your head, standing there calling yourself a Fury! Ha, Ha! I'll never forget it as long as I live!"