"Oh, yes!"
"I thought so," said Miss Marple. "Now I want you to tell me all the details, please."
Words poured from Florence in a gush. "Oh, I've been ever so worried.
I promised Pam, you see, I'd never say a word to a soul.
And then, when she was found, all burned up in that car - oh, it was horrible and I thought I should die, I felt it was all my fault.
I ought to have stopped her.
Only I never thought, not for a minute, that it wasn't all right.
And then I was asked if she'd been quite as usual that day and I said 'Yes' before I'd had time to think.
And not having said anything then, I didn't see how I could say anything later.
And after all, I didn't know anything, not really, only what Pam told me."
"What did Pam tell you?"
"It was as we were walking up the lane to the bus on the way to the rally. She asked me if I could keep a secret, and I said yes, and she made me swear not to tell.
She was going into Danemouth for a film test after the rally!
She'd met a film producer just back from Hollywood, he was.
He wanted a certain type, and he told Pam she was just what he was looking for.
He warned her, though, not to build on it.
You couldn't tell, he said, not until you saw how a person photographed. It might be no good at all.
It was a kind of Bergner part, he said. You had to have someone quite young for it. A schoolgirl, it was, who changes places with a revue artist and has a wonderful career.
Pam's acted in plays at school and she's awfully good.
He said he could see she could act, but she'd have to have some intensive training. It wouldn't be all beer and skittles, he told her; it would be hard work - did she think she could stick it?"
Florence Small stopped for breath.
Miss Marple felt rather sick as she listened to the glib rehash of countless novels and screen stories.
Pamela Reeves, like most other girls, would have been warned against talking to strangers, but the glamour of the films would have obliterated all that.
"He was absolutely businesslike about it all," continued Florence. "Said if the test was successful she'd have a contract, and he said that as she was young and inexperienced she ought to let a lawyer look at it before she signed it. But she wasn't to pass on that, he'd said that.
He asked her if she'd have trouble with her parents, and Pam said she probably would, and he said,
'Well, of course that's always a difficulty with anyone as young as you are, but I think if it was put to them that this was a wonderful chance that wouldn't happen once in a million times, they'd see reason.'
But anyway, he said, it wasn't any good going into that until they knew the result of the test.
She mustn't be disappointed if it failed.
He told her about Hollywood and about Vivien Leigh, how she'd suddenly taken London by storm, and how these sensational leaps into fame did happen.
He himself had come back from America to work with the Lenville Studios and put some pep into the English film companies."
Miss Marple nodded. Florence went on,
"So it was all arranged. Pam was to go into Danemouth after the rally and meet him at his hotel and he'd take her along to the studios.
They'd got a small testing studio in Danemouth, he told her.
She'd have her test and she could catch the bus home afterward. She could say she'd been shopping, and he'd let her know the result of the test in a few days, and if it was favourable Mr Harmsteiter, the boss, would come along and talk to her parents."
"Well, of course, it sounded too wonderful!
I was green with envy!
Pam got through the rally without turning a hair - we always call her a regular poker face.
Then, when she said that she was going into Danemouth to Woolworth's, she just winked at me.
"I saw her start off down the footpath." Florence began to cry. "I ought to have stopped her! I ought to have stopped her!
I ought to have known a thing like that couldn't be true!
I ought to have told someone.
Oh, dear, I wish I was dead!"
"There, there." Miss Marple patted her on the shoulder. "It's quite all right.
No one will blame you, Florence.
You've done the right thing in telling me."
She devoted some minutes to cheering the child up. Five minutes later she was telling the girl's story to Superintendent Harper.
The latter looked very grim.
"The clever devil!" he said.
"I'll cook his goose for him!
This puts rather a different aspect on things."