Free The Mirror Crack's From Side to Side by Agatha Christie Page B

sharply. 'Her glass was spilt?'
    'Yes, that's how I remember it... She'd picked it up and I think she took a little sip and made rather a face. She didn't really like cocktails, you know, but all the same she wasn't going to be downed by that. Anyway, as she stood there, somebody jogged her elbow and the glass spilled over. It went down her dress and I think it went on Miss Gregg's dress too. Miss Gregg couldn't have been nicer. She said it didn't matter at all and it would make no stain and she gave Heather her handkerchief to wipe up Heather's dress, and then she passed over the drink she was holding and said, 'Have this, I haven't touched it yet.'
    'She handed over her own drink, did she?' said the inspector. 'You're quite sure of that?'
    Arthur Badcock paused a moment while he thought. 'Yes, I'm quite sure of that,' he said.
    'And your wife took the drink?'
    'Well, she didn't want to at first, sir. She said “Oh no, I couldn't do that” and Miss Gregg laughed and said, “I've had far too much to drink already.”'
    'And so your wife took that glass and did what with it?'
    'She turned away a little and drank it, rather quickly, I think. And then we walked a little way along the corridor looking at some of the pictures and the curtains. Lovely curtain stuff it was, like nothing we'd seen before. Then I met a pal of mine, Councillor Allcock, and I was just passing the time of day with him when I looked round and saw Heather was sitting on a chair looking rather odd, so I came to her and said, “What's the matter?” She said she felt a little queer.'
    'What kind of queerness?'
    'I don't know, sir. I didn't have time. Her voice sounded very queer and thick and her head was rolling a little. All of a sudden she made a great half gasp and her head fell forward. She was dead, sir, dead.'

The Mirror Crack's From Side to Side

Chapter 8
    'St Mary Mead, you say?' Chief-Inspector Craddock looked up sharply.
    The assistant commissioner was a little surprised.
    'Yes,' he said, 'St Mary Mead. Why? Does it -'
    'Nothing really,' said Dermot Craddock.
    'It's quite a small place, I understand,' went on the other. 'Though of course there's a great deal of building development going on there now. Practically all the way from St Mary Mead to Much Benham, I understand. Hellingforth Studios,' he added, 'are on the other side of St Mary Mead, towards Market Basing.' He was still looking slightly inquiring. Dermot Craddock felt that he should perhaps explain.
    'I know someone living there,' he said. 'At St Mary Mead. An old lady. A very old lady by now. Perhaps she's dead, I don't know. But if not -'
    The assistant commissioner took his subordinate's point, or at any rate he thought he did.
    'Yes,' he said, 'it would give you an “in” in a way. One needs a bit of local gossip. The whole thing is a curious business.'
    'The County have called us in?' Dermot asked.
    'Yes. I've got the chief constable's letter here. They don't seem to feel that it's necessarily a local affair. The largest house in the neighbourhood, Gossington Hall, was recently sold as a residence for Marina Gregg, the film star, and her husband. They're shooting a film at their new studios, at Hellingforth, in which she is starring. A fкte was held in the grounds in aid of the St John Ambulance. The dead woman - her name is Mrs Heather Badcock - was the local secretary of this and had done most of the administrative work for the fкte. She seems to have been a competent, sensible person, well liked locally.'
    'One of those bossy women?' suggested Craddock.
    'Very possibly,' said the assistant commissioner. 'Still in my experience, bossy women seldom get themselves murdered. I can't think why not. When you come to think of it, it's rather a pity. There was a record attendance at the fкte, it seems, good weather, everything running to plan. Marina Gregg and her husband held a kind of small private reception in Gossington Hall. About thirty or forty people attended this. The