Edgar gave a little yelp and Dr Maverick said reprovingly:

‘Careful, please, Mrs Strete.’

‘I’m sick of all this. Sick of the way you all go on here! I tell you this man’s a lunatic.’

With a bound Edgar wrenched himself away from Dr Maverick and fell to the floor at Serrocold’s feet.

‘Help me. Help me. Don’t let them take me away and shut me up. Don’t let them…’

An unpleasing scene, Miss Marple thought.

Mildred said angrily, ‘I tell you he’s — ’

Her mother said soothingly:

‘Please Mildred. Not now. He’s suffering.’

Walter muttered:

‘Suffering cripes. They’re all cuckoo round here.’

‘I’ll take charge of him,’ said Dr Maverick. ‘You come with me, Edgar. Bed and a sedative — and we’ll talk everything out in the morning. Now you trust me, don’t you?’

Rising to his feet and trembling a little, Edgar looked doubtfully at the young doctor and then at Mildred Strete.

‘She said — I was a lunatic.’

‘No, no, you’re not a lunatic.’

Miss Bellever’s footsteps rang purposefully across the Hall. She came in with her lips pursed together and a flushed face.

‘I’ve telephoned the police,’ she said grimly. ‘They will be here in a few minutes.’

Carrie Louise cried, ‘Jolly!’ in tones of dismay.

Edgar uttered a wail.

Lewis Serrocold frowned angrily.

‘I told you, Jolly, I did not want the police summoned. This is a medical matter.’

‘That’s as may be,’ said Miss Bellever. ‘I’ve my own opinion. But I had to call the police. Mr Gulbrandsen’s been shot dead.’

Chapter 8

I

It was a moment or two before anyone took in what she was saying.

Carrie Louise said incredulously:

‘Christian shot? Dead? Oh, surely, that’s impossible.’

‘If you don’t believe me,’ said Miss Bellever, pursing her lips, and addressing not so much Carrie Louise, as the assembled company, ‘go and look for yourselves.’

She was angry. And her anger sounded in the crisp sharpness of her voice.

Slowly, unbelievingly, Carrie Louise took a step towards the door. Lewis Serrocold put a hand on her shoulder.

‘No, dearest, let me go.’

He went out through the doorway. Dr Maverick, with a doubtful glance at Edgar, followed him. Miss Bellever went with them.

Miss Marple gently urged Carrie Louise into a chair. She sat down, her eyes looking hurt and stricken.

‘Christian — shot?’ she said again.

It was the bewildered hurt tone of a child.

Walter Hudd remained close to Edgar Lawson, glowering down at him. In his hand he held the gun that he had picked up from the floor.

Mrs Serrocold said in a wondering voice:

‘But who could possibly want to shoot Christian?’

It was not a question that demanded an answer.

Walter muttered under his breath:

‘Nuts! The whole lot of them.’

Stephen had moved protectively closer to Gina. Her young startled face was the most vivid thing in the room.

Suddenly the front door opened and a rush of cold air together with a man in a big overcoat came in.