Ordeal by Innocence. Agatha Christie

>

      Agatha Christie

      Ordeal by Innocence

      Copyright

      Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

       1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by Collins 1958

      Copyright © 1958 Agatha Christie Ltd. All rights reserved.

       www.agathachristie.com

      Cover design by Mike Topping © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018 Cover photographs by James Fisher © Agatha Christie Productions, 2018

      Agatha Christie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

      Source ISBN: 9780007154913

      Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2010 ISBN: 9780007422647 Version: 2018-08-13

      To Billy Collins

       with affection and gratitude

      If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me.

      I am afraid of all my sorrows. I know that Thou wilt not hold me innocent.

      Job

      Contents

       Cover

      Title Page

      Copyright

      Dedication

      Epigraph

      Chapter 1

      It was dusk when he came to the Ferry.

      Chapter 2

      It should have been a sensational announcement. Instead, it fell…

      Chapter 3

      Hester went slowly up the stairs pushing back the dark…

      Chapter 4

      Calgary said apologetically, ‘It’s very good of you to see…

      Chapter 5

      The Chief Constable’s eyebrows climbed slowly up his forehead in…

      Chapter 6

      The lights went up in the cinema. Advertisements flashed on…

      Chapter 7

      Dr MacMaster was an old man with bushy eyebrows, shrewd grey…

      Chapter 8

      Hester Argyle was looking at herself in the glass. There was…

      Chapter 9

      Calgary had only been gone a few minutes when Dr MacMaster…

      Chapter 10

      ‘I’m sure, Marshall, that you’ll appreciate my reasons for asking…

      Chapter 11

      Night settled down on Sunny Point.

      Chapter 12

      In her spotlessly kept bedroom, Kirsten Lindstrom plaited her grizzled blonde…

      Chapter 13

      Superintendent Huish looked round on them all, gently and politely.

      Chapter 14

      ‘Don’t suppose you got anything?’ said the Chief Constable.

      Chapter 15

      ‘But I don’t want to go home just yet,’ said…

      Chapter 16

      ‘Do you mind if I stay on a bit, Dad?’…

      Chapter 17

      ‘And what are you doing, Hester, my love?’ asked Philip.

      Chapter 18

      ‘There’s a young lady down below wanting to see you,…

      Chapter 19

      ‘I want to talk to you, Kirsty,’ said Philip.

      Chapter 20

      Calgary and Huish looked at each other. Calgary saw what…

      Chapter 21

      There had been nothing to tell Philip Durrant that this day…

      Chapter 22

      Tina parked her car on the grass by the churchyard…

      Chapter 23

      In his hotel room, Arthur Calgary went over and over the…

      Chapter 24

      It was again dusk when Arthur Calgary came to Sunny Point…

       Keep Reading

      About the Author

      Other Books by Agatha Christie

      About the Publisher

      Chapter 1

      I

      It was dusk when he came to the Ferry.

      He could have been there much earlier. The truth was, he had put it off as long as he could.

      First his luncheon with friends in Redquay; the light desultory conversation, the interchange of gossip about mutual friends–all that had meant only that he was inwardly shrinking from what he had to do. His friends had invited him to stay on for tea and he had accepted. But at last the time had come when he knew that he could put things off no longer.

      The car he had hired was waiting. He said goodbye and left to drive the seven miles along the crowded coast road and then inland down the wooded lane that ended at the little stone quay on the river.

      There was a large bell there which his driver rang vigorously to summon the ferry from the far side.

      ‘You won’t be wanting me to wait, sir?’

      ‘No,’ said Arthur Calgary. ‘I’ve ordered a car to meet me over there in an hour’s time–to take me to Drymouth.’

      The man received his fare and tip. He said, peering across the river in the gloom:

      ‘Ferry’s coming now, sir.’

      With a soft-spoken goodnight he reversed the car and drove away up the hill. Arthur Calgary was left alone waiting on the quayside. Alone with his thoughts and his apprehension of what was in front of him. How wild the scenery was here, he thought. One could fancy oneself on a Scottish loch, far from anywhere. And yet, only a few miles away, were the hotels, the shops, the cocktail bars and the crowds of Redquay. He reflected, not for the first time, on the extraordinary contrasts of the English