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‘I don’t write detective stories,’ said Raymond West, horrified at the mere idea

‘Easy enough to say that alibis are suspicious,’ went on Inspector Welch, ‘but unfortunately we’ve got to deal with facts’

He sighed

‘We’ve got three good

suspects,’ he said ‘Three people who, as it happened, were very close upon the scene at the tih none of the three could have done it The housekeeper I’ve already dealt with—the nephew, Nat Fletcher, at the moment Miss Greenshaas shot, was a couple ofhis way—as for Alfred Pollock six people will swear that he entered the Dog and Duck at twenty past twelve and was there for an hour having his usual bread and cheese and beer’

‘Deliberately establishing an alibi,’ said Raymond West hopefully

‘Maybe,’ said Inspector Welch, ‘but if so, he did establish it’

There was a long silence Then Rayht and thoughtful

‘It’s up to you, Aunt Jane,’ he said ‘The inspector’s baffled, the sergeant’s baffled, I’m baffled, Joan’s baffled, Lou is baffled But to you, Aunt Jane, it is crystal clear Aht?’

‘I wouldn’t say that, dear,’ said Miss Marple, ‘not crystal clear, and ame I don’t suppose poor Miss Greenshaanted to die, and it was a particularly brutal murder Very well planned and quite cold blooded It’s not a thing to make jokes about!’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Raymond, abashed ‘I’htly to take away from the—well, the horror of it’

‘That is, I believe, the modern tendency,’ said Miss Marple, ‘All these wars, and having to joke about funerals Yes, perhaps I was thoughtless when I said you were callous’

‘It isn’t,’ said Joan, ‘as though we’d known her at all well’

‘That is very true,’ said Miss Marple ‘You, dear Joan, did not know her at all I did not know her at all Rayathered an impression of her from one afternoon’s conversation Lou knew her for two days’

‘Come now, Aunt Jane,’ said Raymond, ‘tell us your views You don’t mind, Inspector?’

‘Not at all,’ said the inspector politely

‘Well, my dear, it would seeht they had, a motive to kill the old lady And three quite simple reasons why none of the three could have done so The housekeeper could not have done so because she was locked in her room and because Miss Greenshaw definitely stated that a ardener could not have done it because he was inside the Dog and Duck at the time the murder was committed, the nephew could not have done it because he was still some distance away in his car at the time of the murder’

‘Very clearly put, madam,’ said the inspector

‘And since it seems most unlikely that any outsider should have done it, where, then, are we?’

‘That’s what the inspector wants to know,’ said Raymond West

‘One so often looks at a thing the wrong way round,’ said Miss Marple apologetically ‘If we can’t alter the movements or the position of those three people, then couldn’t we perhaps alter the time of the murder?’

‘You ?’ asked Lou

‘No dear,’ said Miss Marple, ‘I didn’t mean that at all I ht it occurred’

‘But I saw it,’ cried Lou

‘Well, what I have been wondering, my dear, hether you weren’tmyself, you knohether that wasn’t the real reason why you were engaged for this job’

‘What do you mean, Aunt Jane?’

‘Well, dear, it see ly to the terms you asked It seems to me that perhaps you wereout of theso that you could be the key witness—soood faith—to fix a definite time and place for the murder’

‘But you can’t mean,’ said Lou, incredulously, ‘that Miss Greenshaw intended to be murdered’

‘What I mean, dear,’ said Miss Marple, ‘is that you didn’t really know Miss Greenshaw There’s no real reason, is there, why the Miss Greenshaw you sahen you went up to the house should be the same Miss Greenshaw that Raymond saw a few days earlier? Oh, yes, I know,’ she went on, to prevent Lou’s reply, ‘she earing the peculiar old-fashioned print dress and the strange straw hat, and had unkempt hair She corresponded exactly to the description Rayave us last week-end But those toht and size The housekeeper, I mean, and Miss Greenshaw’

‘But the housekeeper is fat!’ Lou exclaiot an enormous bosom’