Free The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie Page A

find my car.”
    “What do you mean, can't find your car?”
    Stammering a good deal, Mr Bartlett explained that what he meant was that he couldn't find his car.
    Superintendent Harper said, “Do you mean it's been stolen?” George Bartlett turned gratefully to the more placid voice.
    “Well, that's just it, you know. I mean, one can't tell, can one? I mean someone may just have buzzed off in it, not meaning any harm, if you know what I mean.”
    “When did you last see it, Mr Bartlett?”
    “Well, I was tryin' to remember. Funny how difficult it is to remember anything, isn't it?”
    Colonel Melchett said coldly, “Not, I should think, to a normal intelligence. I understood you to say that it was in the courtyard of the hotel last night.”
    Mr Bartlett was bold enough to interrupt. He said, “That's just it - was it?” “What do you mean by 'was it'? You said it was.”
    “Well, I mean, I thought it was. I mean, well, I didn't go out and look, don't you see?”
    Colonel Melchett sighed. He summoned all his patience. He said, “Let's get this quite clear. When was the last time you saw - actually saw your car? What make is it, by the way?”
    “Minoan Fourteen.”
    “And you last saw it when?”
    George Bartlett's Adam's apple jerked convulsively up and down.
    “Been trying to think. Had it before lunch yesterday. Was going for a spin in the afternoon. But somehow - you know how it is - went to sleep instead. Then, after tea, had a game of squash and all that, and a bath afterward.”
    “And the car was then in the courtyard of the hotel?”
    “Suppose so. I mean, that's where I'd put it. Thought, you see, I'd take someone for a spin. After dinner, I mean. But it wasn't my lucky evening. Nothing doing. Never took the old bus out after all.”
    Harper said, “But as far as you knew, the car was still in the courtyard?” “Well, naturally. I mean, I'd put it there, what?” “Would you have noticed if it had not been there?” Mr Bartlett shook his head.
    “Don't think so, you know. Lot of cars going and coming and all that. Plenty of Minoans.”
    Superintendent Harper nodded. He had just cast a casual glance out of the window. There were at that moment no fewer than eight Minoan 14's in the courtyard. It was the popular cheap car of the year.
    “Aren't you in the habit of putting your car away at night?” asked Colonel Melchett.
    “Don't usually bother,” said Mr Bartlett. “Fine weather and all that, you know. Such a fag putting a car away in a garage.”
    Glancing at Colonel Melchett, Superintendent Harper said, “I'll join you upstairs, sir. I'll just get hold of Sergeant Higgins and he can take down particulars from Mr Bartlett.”
    “Right, Harper.”
    Mr Bartlett murmured wistfully, “Thought I ought to let you know, you know. Might be important, what?”
    Ill
    Mr Prestcott had supplied his additional dancer with board and lodging. Whatever the board, the lodging was the poorest the hotel possessed.
    Josephine Turner and Ruby Keene had occupied rooms at the extreme end of a mean and dingy little corridor. The rooms were small, faced north onto a portion of the cliff that backed the hotel, and were furnished with the odds and ends of suites that had once represented luxury and magnificence in the best suites. Now, when the hotel had been modernized and the bedrooms supplied with built-in receptacles for clothes, these large Victorian oak and mahogany wardrobes were relegated to those rooms occupied by the hotel's resident staff, or given to guests in the height of the season when all the rest of the hotel was full.
    As Melchett and Harper saw at once, the position of Ruby Keene's room was ideal for the purpose of leaving the hotel without being observed, and was particularly unfortunate from the point of view of throwing light on the circumstances of that departure.
    At the end of the corridor was a small staircase which led down to an equally obscure corridor on the ground floor. Here there