Colonel Melchett said with a slight chuckle,
"If you ask me, your wife's going to try her hand at a little amateur detecting.
Miss Marple's quite the local sleuth.
Put it over us properly once, didn't she Slack?"
Inspector Slack said, "That was different."
"Different from what?"
"That was a local case, that was, sir.
The old lady knows everything that goes on in the village, that's true enough.
But she'll be out of her depth here."
Melchett said dryly,
"You don't know very much about it yourself yet, Slack."
"Ah, you wait, sir.
It won't take me long to get down to it."
Chapter 6
In the dining room Mrs Bantry and Miss Marple, in their turn, were partaking of breakfast.
After waiting on her guest, Mrs Bantry said urgently,
"Well, Jane?"
Miss Marple looked up at her slightly bewildered.
Mrs Bantry said hopefully, "Doesn't it remind you of anything?"
For Miss Marple had attained fame by her ability to link up trivial village happenings with graver problems in such a way as to throw light upon the latter.
"No," said Miss Marple thoughtfully. "I can't say that it does - not at the moment.
I was reminded a little of Mrs Chetty's youngest Edie, you know, but I think that was just because this poor girl bit her nails and her front teeth stuck out a little.
Nothing more than that.
And of course," went on Miss Marple, pursuing the parallel further, "Edie was fond of what I call cheap finery too."
"You mean her dress?" said Mrs Bantry.
"Yes, very tawdry satin, poor quality."
Mrs Bantry said, "I know.
One of those nasty little shops where everything is a guinea."
She went on hopefully, "Let me see. What happened to Mrs Chetty's Edie?"
"She's just gone into her second place, and doing very well, I believe," said Miss Marple.
Mrs Bantry felt slightly disappointed. The village parallel didn't seem to be exactly hopeful.
"What I can't make out," said Mrs Bantry, "is what she could possibly be doing in Arthur's study.
The window was forced, Palk tells me.
She might have come down here with a burglar, and then they quarrelled. But that seems such nonsense, doesn't it?"
"She was hardly dressed for burglary," said Miss Marple thoughtfully.
"No, she was dressed for dancing or a party of some kind.
But there's nothing of that kind down here or anywhere near."
"N-no," said Miss Marple doubtfully.
Mrs Bantry pounced. "Something's in your mind, Jane."
"Well, I was just wondering -"
"Yes?"
"Basil Blake."
Mrs Bantry cried impulsively, "Oh, no!" and added as though in explanation, "I know his mother."
The two women looked at each other.
Miss Marple sighed and shook her head.
"I quite understand how you feel about it."
"Selina Blake is the nicest woman imaginable. Her herbaceous borders are simply marvellous; they make me green with envy.
And she's frightfully generous with cuttings."
Miss Marple, passing over these claims to consideration on the part of Mrs Blake, said,
"All the same, you know, there has been a lot of talk."