Then she said incredulously,
"Basil? Murder?
Are you joking?"
"No, indeed.
Haven't you seen the papers?"
Dinah caught her breath.
"You mean that girl at the Majestic Hotel.
Do you mean they suspect Basil of killing her?"
"Yes."
"But it's nonsense!"
There was the whir of a car outside, the bang of a gate.
Basil Blake flung open the door and came in, carrying some bottles.
He said, "Got the gin and the vermouth.
Did you -" He stopped and turned incredulous eyes on the prim, erect visitor.
Dinah burst out breathlessly,
"Is she mad?
She says you're going to be arrested for the murder of that girl Ruby Keene."
"Oh, God!" said Basil Blake.
The bottles dropped from his arms onto the sofa. He reeled to a chair and dropped down in it and buried his face in his hands. He repeated, "Oh, my God! Oh, my God!"
Dinah darted over to him. She caught his shoulders.
"Basil, look at me!
It isn't true!
I know it isn't true!
I don't believe it for a moment!"
His hand went up and gripped hers. "Bless you, darling."
"But why should they think - You didn't even know her, did you?"
"Oh, yes, he knew her," said Miss Marple. Basil said fiercely, "Be quiet, you old hag!... Listen, Dinah, darling. I hardly knew her at all. Just ran across her once or twice at the Majestic. That's all, I swear that's all!" Dinah said, bewildered, "I don't understand. Why should anyone suspect you, then?"
Basil groaned. He put his hands over his eyes and rocked to and fro.
Miss Marple said,
"What did you do with the hearth rug?"
His reply came mechanically.
"I put it in the dustbin."
Miss Marple clucked her tongue vexedly. "That was stupid, very stupid.
People don't put good hearth rugs in dustbins.
It had spangles in it from her dress, I suppose?"
"Yes, I couldn't get them out."
Dinah cried,
"What are you talking about?"
Basil said sullenly,
"Ask her.
She seems to know all about it."
"I'll tell you what I think happened, if you like," said Miss Marple. "You can correct me, Mr Blake, if I go wrong.
I think that after having had a violent quarrel with your wife at a party and after having had, perhaps, rather too much... er... to drink, you drove down here.
I don't know what time you arrived."
Basil Blake said sullenly, "About two in the morning. I meant to go up to town first; then, when I got to the suburbs, I changed my mind. I thought Dinah might come down here after me. So I drove down here. The place was all dark. I opened the door and turned on the light and I saw - and I saw -" He gulped and stopped.
Miss Marple went on,
"You saw a girl lying on the hearth rug. A girl in a white evening dress, strangled.
I don't know whether you recognized her then -" Basil Blake shook his head violently.
"I couldn't look at her after the first glance; her face was all blue, swollen; she'd been dead some time and she was there in my living room!" He shuddered.
Miss Marple said gently,