Where were we?"
"Going over your list," said Bunch.
"What did you mean by 'Making enquiries?' Inquiries about what?"
Miss Marple shook her head playfully at Inspector Craddock. "You ought to have seen that, Inspector Craddock.
You showed me that letter from Letitia Blacklog to her sister.
It had the word 'enquiries' in it twice - each time spelt with an e.
But in the note I asked Bunch to show you, Miss Blacklog had written 'inquiries' with an i.
People don't often alter their spelling as they get older.
It seemed to me very significant."
"Yes," Craddock agreed. "I ought to have spotted that."
Bunch was continuing.
"Severe affliction bravely borne. That's what Bunny said to you in the cafe and of course Letitia hadn't had any affliction.
Iodine. That put you on the track of goitre?"
"Yes, dear.
Switzerland, you know, and Miss Blacklog giving the impression that her sister had died of consumption.
But I remembered then that the greatest authorities on goitre and the most skilful surgeons operating on it are Swiss.
And it linked up with those really rather preposterous pearls that Letitia Blacklog always wore.
Not really her style - but just right for concealing the scar."
"I understand now her agitation the night the string broke," said Craddock.
"It seemed at the time quite disproportionate."
"And after that, it was Lotty you wrote - not Letty as we thought," said Bunch.
"Yes, I remembered that the sister's name was Charlotte, and that Dora Bunner had called Miss Blacklog Lotty once or twice - and that each time she did so, she had been very upset afterwards."
"And what about Berne and Old Age Pension?"
"Rudi Scherz had been an orderly in a hospital in Berne."
"And Old Age Pension."
"Oh, my dear Bunch, I mentioned that to you in the Bluebird though I didn't really see the application then.
How Mrs. Wotherspoon drew Mrs. Bartlett's Old Age Pension as well as her own - though Mrs. Bartlett had been dead for years - simply because one old woman is so like another old woman - yes, it all made a pattern and I felt so worked up I went out to cool my head a little and think what could be done about proving all this.
Then Miss Hinchliffe picked me up and we found Miss Murgatroyd..."
Miss Marple's voice dropped.
It was no longer excited and pleased.
It was quiet and remorseless.
"I knew then something had got to be done. Quickly!
But there still wasn't any proof.
I thought out a possible plan and I talked to Sergeant Fletcher."
"And I have had Fletcher on the carpet for it!" said Craddock.
"He'd no business to go agreeing to your plans without reporting first to me."
"He didn't like it, but I talked him into it," said Miss Marple.
"We went up to Little Paddocks and I got hold of Mitzi."
Julia drew a deep breath and said,
"I can't imagine how you ever got her to do it."
"I worked on her, my dear," said Miss Marple.
"She thinks far too much about herself anyway, and it will be good for her to have done something for others.
I flattered her up, of course, and said I was sure if she'd been in her own country she'd have been in the Resistance movement, and she said,
'Yes, indeed.'
And I said I could see she had got just the temperament for that sort of work. She was brave, didn't mind taking risks, and could act a part.
I told her stories of deeds done by girls in the Resistance movements, some of them true, and some of them, I'm afraid, invented.
She got tremendously worked up!"
"Marvellous," said Patrick.
"And then I got her to agree to do her part.
I rehearsed her til] she was word perfect.