4.50 From Paddington Read Online Free PDF Page B

train - but it hasn't been discovered anywhere on the line. So I travelled down the same way to see if there was anywhere where the body could have been thrown off the train and yet wouldn't have been found on the line - and there was. The railway line makes a big curve before getting into Brackhampton, on the edge of a high embankment. If a body were thrown out there, when the train was leaning at an angle, I think it would pitch right down the embankment.”
    “But surely it would still be found - even there?”
    “Oh, yes. It would have to be taken away... But we'll come to that presently. Here's the place - on this map.”
    Lucy bent to study where Miss Marple's finger pointed.
    “It is right in the outskirts of Brackhampton now,” said Miss Marple, “but originally it was a country house with extensive park and grounds and it's still there, untouched - ringed round now with building estates and small suburban houses. It's called Rutherford Hall. It was built by a man called Crackenthorpe, a very rich manufacturer in 1884. The original Crackenthorpe's son, an elderly man, is living there still with, I understand, a daughter. The railway encircles quite half of the property.”
    “And you want me to do - what?”
    Miss Marple replied promptly.
    “I want you to get a post there. Everyone is crying out for efficient domestic help - I should not imagine it would be difficult.”
    “No, I don't suppose it would be difficult.”
    “I understand that Mr. Crackenthorpe is said locally to be somewhat of a miser. If you accept a low salary, I will make it up to the proper figure which should, I think, be rather more that the current rate.”
    “Because of the difficulty?”
    “Not the difficulty so much as the danger. It might, you know, be dangerous. It's only right to warn you of that.”
    “I don't know,” said Lucy pensively, “that the idea of danger would deter me.”
    “I didn't think it would,” said Miss Marple. “You're not that kind of person.”
    “I dare say you thought it might even attract me? I've encountered very little danger in my life. But do you really believe it might be dangerous?”
    “Somebody,” Miss Marple pointed out, “has committed a very successful crime. There has been no hue-and-cry, no real suspicion. Two elderly ladies have told a rather improbable story, the police have investigated it and found nothing in it. So everything is nice and quiet. I don't think that this somebody, whoever he may be, will care about the matter being raked up - especially if you are successful.”
    “What do I look for exactly?”
    “Any signs along the embankment, a scrap of clothing, broken bushes - that kind of thing.”
    Lucy nodded.
    “And then?”
    “I shall be quite close at hand,” said Miss Marple. “An old maidservant of mine, my faithful Florence, lives in Brackhampton. She has looked after her old parents for years. They are now both dead, and she takes in lodgers - all most respectable people. She has arranged for me to have rooms with her. She will look after me most devotedly, and I feel I should like to be close at hand. I would suggest that you mention you have an elderly aunt living in the neighbourhood, and that you want a post within easy distance of her, and also that you stipulate for a reasonable amount of spare time so that you can go and see her often.”
    Again Lucy nodded.
    “I was going to Taormina the day after tomorrow,” she said, “The holiday can wait. But I can only promise three weeks. After that, I am booked up.”
    “Three weeks should be ample,” said Miss Marple. “If we can't find out anything in three weeks, we might as well give up the whole thing as a mare's nest.”
    Miss Marple departed, and Lucy, after a moment's reflection, rang up a Registry Office in Brackhampton, the manageress of which she knew very well. She explained her desire for a post in the neighbourhood so as to be near her “aunt”. After turning down, with a little difficulty