4:50 from Paddington - Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
4:50 from Paddington - Agatha Christie
Mrs. Elspeth McGillicuddy has come from a shopping expedition to visit her old friend Jane Marple for Christmas. On the way, her train passes another train running parallel to her. Then, a blind in one of the compartments flies up and she sees a man with his back to her strangling a woman. She reports it to a ticket collector who does not believe her. When arriving at Miss Marple's cottage, she tells all to her. Mrs McGillicuddy describes the woman as having blonde hair and wearing a fur coat. Only Miss Marple believes her story as there is no evidence of wrongdoing. The first task is to ascertain where the body could have been hidden. Comparison of the facts of the murder with the train timetable and the local geography lead to the grounds of Rutherford Hall as the only possible location: it is shielded from the surrounding community, the railway abuts the grounds, and so on. Lucy Eyelesbarrow, a young professional housekeeper and an acquaintance of Miss Marple, is sent undercover to Rutherford Hall.
Josiah Crackenthorpe, purveyor of tea biscuits, built Rutherford Hall in 1884. His son, Luther, now a semi-invalid widower, had displayed spendthrift qualities in his youth. To preserve the family fortune, Josiah has left his considerable fortune in trust, the income from which is to be paid to Luther for life. After Luther's death, the capital is to be divided equally among Luther's children. Luther Crackenthorpe is merely the trustee of Rutherford Hall and hence, according to the will, cannot sell the house. The house itself will be inherited by Luther Crackenthorpe's eldest surviving son or his issue.
The eldest of Luther Crackenthorpe's children, Edmund, died during World War II. His youngest daughter, Edith ("Edie"), died four years before the novel begins, leaving a son, Alexander. The remaining heirs to the estate are Cedric, an Ibiza-based bohemian painter and lover of women; Harold, a cold and stuffy banker; Alfred, the black sheep of the family who is known to engage in shady business dealings and Emma, a spinster. Non-Crackenthorpe characters include Lucy Eyelesbarrow, Bryan Eastley (Alexander's father), James Stoddart-West (a school friend of Alexander), and local physician Dr Quimper, who looks after Luther but is secretly in love with Emma.
Lucy uses golf practice as an excuse to search the grounds. She discovers some fur from a woman's fur coat. Then she discovers a cheap compact. Lucy takes these to show to Miss Marple, who believes the murderer knew all about Rutherford Hall and its geographical location. He removed the body from the embankment where it had fallen clear away from the line, drove a car outside the grounds at night and hid the body. Lucy eventually finds the woman's body hidden in a sarcophagus in the old stables among Luther's collection of dubious antiques. But who is she?
The police eventually identify the victim's clothing as being of French manufacture. Emma tells the police that she had received a letter claiming to be from Martine, a French girl whom her brother Edmund had wanted to marry. He had written about Martine and their impending marriage days before his death in the retreat to Dunkirk in 1940. The letter purporting to be from Martine claims that she was pregnant when Edmund died and that she now wishes their son to have all of the advantages to which his parentage should entitle him. The police conclude that the body in the sarcophagus is that of Martine but this proves not to be the case when Lady Stoddart-West, mother of James Stoddart-West, reveals that she is Martine. Although she and Edmund had intended to marry, Edmund died before they could do so and she later married an SOE officer and settled in England. She adds that she would not have come forward until learning from her son of the forged letter to Emma.
The whole family takes ill suddenly (apart from Bryan and Alexander who had gone away for a few days) and Alfred dies. Later, the curry made by Lucy on the fateful day is found to contain arsenic. Some days later, Harold, after returning home to London, receives a delivery of some tablets that appear to be the same as the sleeping pills prescribed to him by Dr Quimper, who had told him he need not take them any more. The box they come in is actually the box for Emma's sedatives that were swapped for something else. They prove to be poisoned with aconitine and Harold dies.
Lucy arranges an afternoon-tea visit to Rutherford Hall for Miss Marple, and Mrs McGillicuddy is also invited. Mrs McGillicuddy is instructed by Miss Marple to ask to use the lavatory as soon as they arrive, but is not told why. Miss Marple is eating a fish-paste sandwich when she suddenly begins to choke. It seems she has a fish bone stuck in her throat. Dr Quimper moves to assist her. Mrs McGillicuddy enters the room at that moment, sees the doctor's hands at Miss Marple's throat, and cries out, "But that's him – that's the man on the train!"
Miss Marple had correctly concluded that her friend would recognise the real murderer if she saw him again in a similar pose. It transpires that the murdered woman was a French ballet dancer known as "Anna Stravinska", who had been married to Dr Quimper many years earlier. A devout Catholic, she refused to divorce him, so he murdered her to be free to marry Emma and inherit the Crackenthorpe family fortune, once he had eliminated Emma's brothers.
Dr Quimper actually poisoned the cocktail jug and added the arsenic to the sample of curry he took before he gave it to the police-detectives. He then added a second dose of arsenic to Alfred's tea. When he poisoned Harold, he used the box that held Emma's sedative tablets and swapped them for aconitine tablets which killed Harold. Miss Marple then tells Mrs McGillicuddy and Inspector Craddock that old Mr Crackenthorpe may die soon, that Emma will get over the doctor, and that there will soon be wedding bells for Lucy - though she refuses to be drawn on the identity of the groom, the reader understands that this would be Inspector Craddock.
ebook en anglais / English ebook