Agatha's First Case Read Online Free PDF Page A

for shoplifting.
    Before going to sleep, she phoned the Associated Press and dictated a statement that a Mrs. Hetty Clarkson had been the last person to see Lady Teller alive after leaving the Pink Lady club with her. It would be too late for the morning papers but radio and television would broadcast it.
    *   *   *
    In the morning, she pulled the clean clothes she had worn the day before out of the washer dryer and put them on. The soles of her feet throbbed, the result of wearing high heels the previous evening.
    Freda came into the kitchen while Agatha was drinking coffee. Agatha thanked her for stocking up on groceries and told her to take the money out of the petty cash in the office and then wearily told her of her adventures.
    â€œYou must go straight to the police!” exclaimed Freda.
    â€œNot yet. I think I’ll go round to Bryce and tell him.”
    â€œIf the police call at the office, what will I tell them?”
    â€œOh, tell them where I am. I might need Bryce to find me a lawyer. They might try to charge me with withholding evidence or something like that.”
    *   *   *
    What a summer! When Agatha left it was still early in the morning but the sun was already very hot. She hailed a taxi and leaned back in the seat, feeling tired and nervous and again, completely out of her depth. It had all happened so quickly. It seemed as if one minute she was dogsbody, Agatha Raisin, and the next with her own company and in the middle of a murder investigation. At Wigmore Street, she paid off the cab. Agatha’s thrift did not run to economising on cabs in a hot summer.
    Bliss answered the door and said that the master was in the hospital for tests. “What is really up with him?” demanded Agatha.
    â€œHe won’t say,” said Bliss. “Mrs. Jones is out at the moment. I would like a word with you. We could have a coffee in the kitchen.”
    Seated over mugs of coffee, Bliss began. “It was kind of you to get Mrs. Jones her job back, but that could be a mistake. She could be insolent and the boss was thinking of firing her, but Lady Teller always defended Bertha.”
    â€œBut Bertha trashed her at the press conference! And Bertha seems so genuine and motherly.”
    â€œI think that’s one big act. Also, she had lost her protector. No need to be nice about her. There’s another thing. Lady Teller lost a diamond brooch and the police were called. They found it in Bertha’s room but Lady Teller said she had forgotten she had given it to Bertha.”
    Agatha bearlike eyes stared at his face. “Blackmail,” she said. “Bertha knew all about Nigella being a lesbian, and she may have known all about her lovers.”
    They both heard a key turning in the front door. “She’s back,” said Bliss. “I’ve got to get the newspapers for the boss.”
    Agatha remembered the tape recorder was still in her bag. She hurried through to the sitting room, switched it on, and put it behind the sofa. Bertha came in with two heavy shopping bags and headed for the kitchen. “Morning,” she said. “Get you a coffee?”
    â€œI’ve just had one,” said Agatha. “Why don’t you get one yourself and join me?”
    â€œWouldn’t mind taking the weight off me feet, duckie. The heat’s right crool.”
    Agatha waited nervously. She had always prided herself on her intuition, her ability to sum people up. How on earth had she not seen through Bertha’s act? Or maybe Bliss was the guilty one and dishing the dirt on the housekeeper as a smoke screen.
    At last Bertha returned bearing a tray with coffee and cakes. She sank down in an armchair opposite Agatha. “That’s better. You found out anything else?”
    â€œI went to the Pink Lady and met Hetty Clarkson.”
    â€œI know that trollop. My lady sneaked her back here one night when Sir Bryce was