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‘Haven’t been able to find any trace of one Of course, he’s the artful kind He’d cover his tracks As I see it, he was just fed up with his wife She’d got thewo up with some “ism” or other He cold-bloodedly decided to do aith her and live comfortably on his own’

‘Yes, that could be the case, I suppose’

‘Depend upon it, that was it Made his plans careful Pretended to get a phone call—’

Melchett interrupted him ‘No call been traced?’

‘No, sir That h from a public telephone booth The only two public phones in the village are at the station and the post office Post office it certainly wasn’t Mrs Blade sees everyone who coht be Train arrives at tenty-seven and there’s a bit of a bustle then But theis he says it was Miss Marple who called him up, and that certainly isn’t true The call didn’t come from her house, and she herself ay at the Institute’

‘You’re not overlooking the possibility that the husband was deliberately got out of the way—by someone anted to murder Mrs Spenlow?’

‘You’re thinking of young Ted Gerard, aren’t you, sir? I’ve been working on hiainst there is lack of ’

‘He’s an undesirable character, though Quite a pretty little spot of embezzlement to his credit’

‘I’o to his boss and own up to that embezzlement And his employers weren’t wise to it’

‘An Oxford Grouper,’ said Melchett

‘Yes, sir Beca and own up to having pinched , mind you, that it ht he was suspected and decided to gamble on honest repentance’

‘You have a sceptical mind, Slack,’ said Colonel Melchett ‘By the way, have you talked to Miss Marple at all?’

‘What’s she got to do with it, sir?’

‘Oh, nothing But she hears things, you know Why don’t you go and have a chat with her? She’s a very sharp old lady’

Slack changed the subject ‘One thing I’ve beento ask you, sir That domestic-service job where the deceased started her career—Sir Robert Abercrombie’s place That’s where that jewel robbery was—e it up—h she’d have been quite a girl at the time Don’t think she was mixed up in it, do you, sir? Spenlow, you knoas one of those little tuppenny-ha’penny jewellers—just the chap for a fence’

Melchett shook his head ‘Don’t think there’s anything in that She didn’t even know Spenlow at the time I remember the case Opinion in police circles was that a son of the house waswaster Had a pile of debts, and just after the robbery they were all paid off—some rich woed a bit about the case—tried to call the police off’

‘It was just an idea, sir,’ said Slack

III

Miss Marple received Inspector Slack with gratification, especially when she heard that he had been sent by Colonel Melchett

‘Now, really, that is very kind of Colonel Melchett I didn’t know he remembered me’

‘He reht Told oes on in St Mary Mead isn’t worth knowing’

‘Too kind of hi at all About this murder, I mean’

‘You knohat the talk about it is’

‘Oh, of course—but it wouldn’t do, would it, to repeat just idle talk?’

Slack said, with an atteeniality, ‘This isn’t an official conversation, you know It’s in confidence, so to speak’

‘You ? Whether there’s any truth in it or not?’

‘That’s the idea’

‘Well, of course, there’s been a great deal of talk and speculation And there are really two distinct cain with, there are the people who think that the husband did it A husband or a wife is, in a way, the natural person to suspect, don’t you think so?’

‘Maybe,’ said the inspector cautiously