Free They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie Page B

yourself. Tell me all about it quietly. Come into my office.”
    He led him across the Hall and through a door on the right closing it behind him. After he had done so, there was another sound, the sharp sound of a key being turned in the lock.
    Miss Bellever looked at Miss Marple, the same idea in both their minds. It was not Lewis Serrocold who had turned the key.
    Miss Bellever said sharply: “That young man is just about to go off his head in my opinion. It isn’t safe.”
    Mildred said, “He’s a most unbalanced young man—and absolutely ungrateful for everything that’s been done for him—you ought to put your foot down, Mother.”
    With a faint sigh Carrie Louise murmured:
    â€œThere’s no harm in him really. He’s fond of Lewis. He’s very fond of him.”
    Miss Marple looked at her curiously. There had been no fondness in the expression that Edgar had turned on Lewis Serrocold a few moments previously, very far from it. She wondered, as she had wondered before, if Carrie Louise deliberately turned her back on reality.
    Gina said sharply:
    â€œHe had something in his pocket. Edgar, I mean. Playing with it.”
    Stephen murmured as he took his hands from the keys:
    â€œIn a film it would certainly have been a revolver.”
    Miss Marple coughed.
    â€œI think, you know,” she said apologetically, “it was a revolver.”
    From behind the closed doors of Lewis’ office the sound of voices had been plainly discernible. Now, suddenly, they became clearly audible. Edgar Lawson shouted whilst Lewis Serrocold’s voice kept its even, reasonable note.
    â€œLies—lies—lies, all lies. You’re my father. I’m your son. You’ve deprived me of my rights. I ought to own this place. You hate me—you want to get rid of me!”
    There was a soothing murmur from Lewis and then the hysterical voice rose still higher. It screamed out foul epithets. Edgar seemed rapidly losing control of himself. Occasional words came from Lewis—“calm—just be calm—you know none of this is true—” But they seemed not to soothe, but on the contrary to enrage the young man still further.
    Insensibly everyone in the Hall was silent, listening intently to what went on behind the locked door of Lewis’ study.
    â€œI’ll make you listen to me,” yelled Edgar. “I’ll take that supercilious expression off your face. I’ll have revenge, I tell you. Revenge for all you’ve made me suffer.”
    The other voice came curtly, unlike Lewis’ usual unemotional tones.
    â€œPut that revolver down!”
    Gina cried sharply:
    â€œEdgar will kill him. He’s crazy. Can’t we get the police or something?”
    Carrie Louise, still unmoved, said softly:
    â€œThere’s no need to worry, Gina. Edgar loves Lewis. He’s just dramatising himself, that’s all.”
    Edgar’s voice sounded through the door in a laugh that Miss Marple had to admit sounded definitely insane.
    â€œYes, I’ve got a revolver—and it’s loaded. No, don’t speak, don’t move. You’re going to hear me out. It’s you who started this conspiracy against me and now you’re going to pay for it.”
    What sounded like the report of a firearm made them all start, but Carrie Louise said:
    â€œIt’s all right, it’s outside—in the park somewhere.”
    Behind the locked door, Edgar was raving in a high screaming voice.
    â€œYou sit there looking at me—looking at me—pretending to be unmoved. Why don’t you get down on your knees and beg for mercy? I’m going to shoot, I tell you. I’m going to shoot you dead! I’m your son—your unacknowledged despised son—you wanted me hidden away, out of the world altogether, perhaps. You set your spies to follow me—to hound me down—you plotted against me. You, my father! My father.