Free A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie Page B

wondering what was going to happen. And then, you know, the thrill when it suddenly went pitch black. And the door opening - just a dim figure standing there with a revolver and that blinding light and a menacing voice saying 'Your money or your life!' Oh, I've never enjoyed anything so much. And then a minute later, of course, it was all dreadful. Real bullets, just whistling past our cars! It must have been just like the Commandos in the war.”
    “Whereabouts were you standing or sitting at the time, Mrs. Swettenham?”
    “Now let me see, where was I? Who was I talking to, Edmund?”
    “I really haven't the least idea, Mother.”
    “Was it Miss Hinchliffe I was asking about giving the hens cod liver oil in the cold weather? Or was it Mrs. Harmon - no, she'd only just arrived. I think I was just saying to Colonel Easterbrook that I thought it was really very dangerous to have an atom research station in England. It ought to be on some lonely island in case the radio-activity gets loose.”
    “You don't remember if you were sitting or standing?”
    “Does it really matter, Inspector? I was somewhere over by the window or near the mantelpiece, because I know I was quite near the clock when it struck. Such a thrilling moment! Waiting to see if anything might be going to happen.”
    “You describe the light from the torch as blinding. Was it turned full on to you?”
    “It was right in my eyes. I couldn't see a thing.”
    “Did the man hold it still, or did he move it about, from person to person?”
    “Oh, I don't really know. Which did he do, Edmund?”
    “It moved rather slowly over us all, so as to see what we were all doing, I suppose, in case we should try and rush him.”
    “And where exactly in the room were you, Mr. Swettenham?”
    “I'd been talking to Julia Simmons. We were both standing up in the middle of the room - the long room.”
    “Was everyone in that room, or was there anyone in the far room?”
    “Phillipa Haymes had moved in there, I think. She was over by that far mantelpiece. I think she was looking for something.”
    “Have you any idea as to whether the third shot was suicide or an accident?”
    “I've no idea at all. The man seemed to swerve round very suddenly and then crumple up and fall - but it was all very confused. You must realise that you couldn't really see anything. And then that refugee girl started yelling the place down.”
    “I understand it was you who unlocked the dining-room door and let her out?”
    “Yes.”
    “The door was definitely locked on the outside?”
    Edmund looked at him curiously. “Certainly it was. Why, you don't imagine -”
    “I just like to get my facts quite clear. Thank you, Mr. Swettenham.”

A Murder is Announces
    IV
    Inspector Craddock was forced to spend quite a long time with Colonel and Mrs. Easterbrook. He had to listen to a long disquisition on the psychological aspect of the case.
    “The psychological approach - that's the only thing nowadays,” the Colonel told him. “You've got to understand your criminal. Now the whole set-up here is quite plain to a man who's had the wide experience that I have. Why does this fellow put that advert in? Psychology. He wants to advertise himself - to focus attention on himself. He's been passed over, perhaps despised as a foreigner by the other employees at the Spa Hotel. A girl has turned him down, perhaps. He wants to rivet her attention on him. Who is the idol of the cinema nowadays - the gangster - the tough guy? Very well, he will be a tough guy. Robbery with violence. A mask? A revolver? But he wants an audience - he must have an audience. So he arranges for an audience. And then, at the supreme moment, his part runs away with him - he's more than a burglar. He's a killer. He shoots - blindly -”
    Inspector Craddock caught gladly at a word: “You say 'blindly,' Colonel Easterbrook. You didn't think that he was firing deliberately at one particular object - at Miss Blacklog, that is to