Читать «И никого не стало» онлайн - страница 35
Агата Кристи
‘Please sir, if I could have a word with you. Inside, sir.’
The doctor turned back and re-entered the house with the frenzied butler. He said:
‘What’s the matter, man, pull yourself together.’
‘In here, sir, come in here.’
He opened the dining-room door. The doctor passed in. Rogers followed him and shut the door behind him.
‘Well,’ said Armstrong, ‘what is it?’
The muscles of Rogers’ throat were working. He was swallowing. He jerked out:
‘There’s things going on, sir, that I don’t understand.’
Armstrong said sharply:
‘Things? What things?’
‘You’ll think I’m crazy, sir. You’ll say it isn’t anything. But it’s got to be explained, sir. It’s got to be explained. Because it doesn’t make any sense.’
‘Well, man, tell me what it is. Don’t go on talking in riddles.’
Rogers swallowed again.
He said:
‘It’s those little figures, sir. In the middle of the table.
The little china figures. Ten of them, there were. I’ll swear to that, ten of them.’
Armstrong said:
‘Yes, ten. We counted them last night at dinner.’
Rogers came nearer.
‘That’s just it, sir. Last night, when I was clearing up, there wasn’t but nine, sir. I noticed it and thought it queer. But that’s all I thought. And now, sir, this morning.
I didn’t notice when I laid the breakfast. I was upset and all that.
‘But now, sir, when I came to clear away. See for yourself if you don’t believe me.
‘
Chapter 7
I
After breakfast, Emily Brent had suggested to Vera Claythorne that they should walk to the summit again and watch for the boat. Vera had acquiesced.
The wind had freshened. Small white crests were appearing on the sea. There were no fishing boats out—
and no sign of the motor-boat.
The actual village of Sticklehaven could not be seen, only the hill above it, a jutting out cliff of red rock concealed the actual little bay.
Emily Brent said:
‘The man who brought us out yesterday seemed a dependable sort of person. It is really very odd that he should be so late this morning.’
Vera did not answer. She was fighting down a rising feeling of panic.
She said to herself angrily:
‘You must keep cool. This isn’t like you. You’ve always had excellent nerves.’
Aloud she said after a minute or two:
‘I wish he would come. I—I want to get away.’
Emily Brent said dryly:
‘I’ve no doubt we all do.’
Vera said:
‘It’s all so extraordinary… There seems no—no meaning in it all.’
The elderly woman beside her said briskly:
‘I’m very annoyed with myself for being so easily taken in. Really that letter is absurd when one comes to examine it. But I had no doubts at the time—none at all.’
Vera murmured mechanically: ‘I suppose not.’
‘One takes things for granted too much,’ said Emily Brent.
Vera drew a deep shuddering breath.
She said:
‘Do you really think—what you said at breakfast?’
‘Be a little more precise, my dear. To what in particular are you referring?’
Vera said in a low voice:
‘Do you really think that Rogers and his wife did away with that old lady?’
