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.He looked tired, lifting his teacup automatically, as though it was the twentieth cup he had drunk that day - which was possibly true.The murder of the old woman following so closely that of Nat Fitzwilliam, and the arrest of Jim Blagge had obviously come as a shock to the police.It was likely that Mr Blagge's solicitor would now make representations for him to get bail, which under the circumstances the police would probably not oppose.'A maniac loose? That's what they're saying in Larminster, Jemima.Yes, only a maniac would kill a young man and an old woman, and for what? That's what we don't know, Jemima, assuming the two killings are linked.But what is a maniac? You tell me that.Mad or sane, these murderers never much want to be caught by the police, do they? Take X who killed Fitzwilliam, for we'll rule out the chauffeur for the moment.He took good care to cover up, didn't he? Maniac or no maniac.Take X who killed the old lady - the same X as we now think, this X wore gloves and was very careful indeed to leave no traces behind.No clues.Not altogether mad, you see.Not mad enough to be caught.Not so far.Whatever the do-gooders will say when he or she comes to trial.'Jemima who had no intention of arguing about the definitions of criminal insanity with Detective Inspector Harwood, if she could help it, asked instead: 'So what now? The police never give up.That I do know.''They do not.' Matt Harwood sounded quite shocked.'Hard work, that's what happens next.Hard work.Routine questions.Taking all the statements of the residents in the hotel on the night in question - a good number of them members of the Cartwright family, I understand.Funny - or not so funny - the way they keep recurring, isn't it? They were all here the night Fitzwilliam was killed too.Oh we shall plod on all right.We may be slow, but we are very very sure.We'll get him - or her - in the end.''And suppose there is another murder in the meanwhile?' suggested Jemima.'My instinct tells me.' She realized she had gone too far.Detective Inspector Harwood shot her a look which somehow reminded her of Cy Fredericks - Cy in one of his more chauvinist moods.Matt Harwood's next words also reminded her of Cy Fredericks.'If your feminine instinct tells you there's going to be another murder, maybe the same useful instinct will tell you who's going to do it and to whom.Then you can go ahead and prevent it.' On which note of jocularity the Detective Inspector departed.Jemima decided not to attend the First Night of The Seagull now that there was no television work to be done.She had seen a superlative performance from Christabel the night before: she doubted it could be matched tonight, especially under the traumatic circumstances of another death striking at the company.She was not sufficiently thrilled by any of the other actors to see them twice outside the line of duty - not even Vic Marcovich whose Trigorin had been very impressive or Anna Maria Packe who had turned in an appealing Masha.It was a pleasure not to have to gaze on the rocks and fisherman's netting further.Besides the First Night at the Watchtower would be a morbid occasion, she suspected.She was not surprised to learn that Julian had taken his daughters back to Lark Manor.He himself planned to return later, 'But if not, well, Christabel has Gregory to support her, doesn't she?' he observed to Jemima on his way out of the hotel.Christabel herself had returned to Lark for a short rest, fleeing the confusion of the Royal Stag.Then Gregory had driven her back to the theatre.But Jemima's famous instinct was letting her down in allowing her to stay in her suite at the Royal Stag, instead of attending the First Night at the Watchtower.For the person who had long sought to destroy Christabel, killing three people in the process, had just chosen that particular occasion to put an end to her once and for all.After some heart searching, the person decided that Christabel should die as she had lived - in the full public eye.So that everyone should see and understand that there was no real forgiveness possible: that no one could ever come back if they had done the things that Christabel had done.Jemima Shore, as yet unknowing of this decision, sat in her suite and pondered on all the murky circumstances surrounding the cool repentance of Christabel Cartwright.She had just, dazedly, reached a solution -a horrifying solution - when there was an imperative rap on her door.Jemima came with a jolt out of the dream, nightmare really, into which her own reasonings had plunged her.Automatically she looked at her watch and was further startled to find it was very late.The Seagull must be well on its way by now.The door was locked - Mrs Tennant had insisted on that after the murder.'Who is it?' she called, looking round for the key.'Miss Shore, I must speak to you.It's desperately urgent.Please let me come in.'Jemima recognized the voice of Miss Kettering.16Death of a SeagullKetty's sharp tapping interrupted a very long train of thought in Jemima.It had been punctuated - unpleasantly - by bursts of music from a radio played much too loudly in the room above.Pop music.Somewhat against her will Jemima recognized the tunes because they had once been so colossally popular that it had been impossible to avoid contact with their demanding monotonous beat.One of these tunes which she recognized was 'Cool Repentance'.Was it the Iron Boy record being played? She could pick up - could not really fail to pick up whether she liked it or not - the repeated long-drawn-out first syllable 'coo-oo-ool, oh so cool repentance', but she could not recognize the voice of the singer.Some of the other Iron Boy hits were played, including 'Daring Darling' and 'Iron Boy' itself, but then she could also hear some of the Rolling Stones' numbers [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]