The Murder at the Vicarage

"The shot what killed him? No, of course I didn't. If I had of done, I should have gone in to see what had happened."
"Yes, but -'' I was remembering Miss Marple's statement that she had heard a shot "in the wood." I changed the form of my question. "Did you hear any other shot - one down in the wood, for instance?"
"Oh! that." The girl paused. "Yes, now I come to think of it, I believe I did. Not a lot of shots, just one. Queer sort of bang it was."
"Exactly," I said. "Now what time was that?"
"Time?"
"Yes, time."
"I couldn't say, I'm sure. Well after tea-time. I do know that."
"Can't you get a little nearer than that?"
"No, I can't. I've got my work to do, haven't I? I can't go on looking at clocks the whole time - and it wouldn't be much good anyway - the alarm loses a good three-quarters every day, and what with putting it on and one thing and another, I'm never exactly sure what time it is."
This perhaps explains why our meals are never punctual. They are sometimes too late and sometimes bewilderingly early.
"Was it long before Mr. Redding came?"
"No, it wasn't long. Ten minutes - a quarter of an hour - not longer than that."
I nodded my head, satisfied.
"Is that all?" said Mary. "Because what I mean to say is I've got the joint in the oven and the pudding boiling over as likely as not."
"That's all right. You can go."
She left the room, and I turned to Griselda.
"Is it quite out of the question to induce Mary to say sir or ma'am?"
"I have told her. She doesn't remember. She's just a raw girl, remember?"
"I am perfectly aware of that," I said. "But raw things do not necessarily remain raw for ever. I feel a tinge of cooking might be induced in Mary."
"Well, I don't agree with you," said Griselda. "You know how little we can afford to pay a servant. If once we got her smartened up at all, she'd leave. Naturally. And get higher wages. But as long as Mary can't cook and has those awful manners well, we're safe, nobody else would have her."
I perceived that my wife's methods of housekeeping were not so entirely haphazard as I had imagined. A certain amount of reasoning underlay them. Whether it was worth while having a maid at the price of her not being able to cook, and having a habit of throwing dishes and remarks at one with the same disconcerting abruptness, was a debatable matter.
"And anyway," continued Griselda, "you must make allowances for her manners being worse than usual just now. You can't expect her to feel exactly sympathetic about Colonel Protheroe's death when he jailed her young man."
"Did he jail her young man?"
"Yes, for poaching. You know, that man, Archer. Mary has been walking out with him for two years."
"I didn't know that."
"Darling Len, you never know anything."
"It's queer," I said, "that every one says the shot came from the woods."
"I don't think it's queer at all," said Griselda. "You see, one so often does hear shots in the wood. So naturally, when you do hear a shot, you just assume as a matter of course that it is in the woods. It probably just sounds a bit louder than usual. Of course, if one were in the next room, you'd realize that it was in the house, but from Mary's kitchen with the window right the other side of the house, I don't believe you'd ever think of such a thing."
The door opened again.
"Colonel Melchett's back," said Mary. "And that police inspector with him, and they say they's be glad if you'd join then. They're in the study."
 
Chapter XI
I saw at a glance that Colonel Melchett and Inspector Slack had not been seeing eye to eye about the case. Melchett looked flushed and annoyed and the inspector looked sulky.
"I'm sorry to say," said Melchett, "that Inspector Slack doesn't agree with me in considering young Redding innocent."
"If he didn't do it, what does he go and say he did it for?" asked Slack sceptically.
"Mrs. Protheroe acted in an exactly similar fashion, remember, Slack."
"That's different. She's a woman, and women act in that silly way. I'm not saying she did it for a moment. She heard he was accused and she trumped up a story. I'm used to that sort of game. You wouldn't believe the fool things I've known women do. But Redding's different. He's got his head screwed on all right. And if he admits he did it, well, I say he did do it. It's his pistol - you can't get away from that. And thanks to this business of Mrs. Protheroe, we know the motive. That was the weak point before, but now we know it - why, the whole thing's plain sailing."
"You think he can have shot him earlier? At six-thirty say?"
"He can't have done that."
"You've checked up his movements?"
The inspector nodded.
"He was in the village near the Blue Boar at ten past six. From there he came along the back lane where you say the old lady next door saw him - she doesn't miss much, I should say - and kept his appointment with Mrs. Protheroe in the studio in the garden. They left there together just after six-thirty, and went along the lane to the village, being joined by Dr. Stone. He corroborates that all right - I've seen him. They all stood talking just by the post office for a few minutes, then Mrs. Protheroe went into Miss Hartnell's to borrow a gardening magazine. That's all right too. I've seen Miss Hartnell. Mrs. Protheroe remained there talking to her till just on seven o'clock, when she exclaimed at the lateness of the hour and said she must get home."
"What was her manner?"
"Very easy and pleasant, Miss Hartnell said. She seemed in good spirits - Miss Hartnell is quite sure there was nothing on her mind."
"Well, go on."
"Redding, he went with Dr. Stone to the Blue Boar and they had a drink together. He left there at twenty minutes to seven, went rapidly along the village street and down the road to the Vicarage. Lots of people saw him."
"Not down the back lane this time?" commented the colonel.
"No - he came to the front, asked for the vicar, heard Colonel Protheroe was there, went in - and shot him - just as he said he did! That's the truth of it, and we needn't look further."
Melchett shook his head.
"There's the doctor's evidence. You can't get away from that. Protheroe was shot not later than six-thirty."
"Oh! doctors!" Inspector Slack looked contemptuous. "If you're going to believe doctors. Take out all your teeth - that's what they do nowadays - and then say they're very sorry, but all the time it was appendicitis. Doctors!"
"This isn't a question of diagnosis. Dr. Haydock was absolutely positive on the point. You can't go against the medical evidence, Slack."
"And there's my evidence for what it is worth," I said, suddenly recalling a forgotten incident. "I touched the body and it was cold. That I can swear to."
"You see, Slack?" said Melchett.
"Well, of course, if that's so. But there it was - a beautiful case. Mr. Redding only too anxious to be hanged, so to speak."
"That, in itself, strikes me as a little unnatural," observed Colonel Melchett.
"Well, there's no accounting for tastes," said the inspector. "There's a lot of gentlemen went a bit balmy after the war. Now, I suppose, it means starting again at the beginning." He turned on me. "Why you went out of your way to mislead me about the clock, sir, I can't think. Obstructing the ends of justice, that's what that was."
"I tried to tell you on three separate occasions," I said. "And each time you shut me up and refused to listen."
"That's just a way of speaking, sir. You could have told me perfectly well if you had had a mind to. The clock and the note seemed to tally perfectly. Now, according to you, the clock was all wrong. I never knew such a case. What's the sense of keeping a clock a quarter of an hour fast anyway?"