The Unexpected Guest. Агата Кристи

Her voice dropped as she repeated, ‘No way out!’

      Starkwedder looked at her from across the room. ‘It’s not quite as simple as you think,’ he observed.

      ‘Why isn’t it simple?’ asked Laura. Her voice sounded weary.

      Approaching her, Starkwedder spoke slowly and deliberately. ‘It isn’t so easy to do what you’re urging me to do,’ he said. ‘You’re a woman. A very attractive woman.’

      Laura looked up at him sharply. ‘Does that make a difference?’ she asked.

      Starkwedder’s voice sounded almost cheerful as he replied, ‘Theoretically, certainly not. But in practical terms, yes.’ He took his overcoat over to the recess, put it on the armchair, and returned to stand looking down at the body of Richard Warwick.

      ‘Oh, you’re talking about chivalry,’ Laura observed listlessly.

      ‘Well, call it curiosity if you prefer,’ said Starkwedder. ‘I’d like to know what this is all about.’

      Laura paused before replying. Then, ‘I’ve told you,’ was all she said.

      Starkwedder walked slowly around the wheelchair containing the body of Laura’s husband, as though fascinated by it. ‘You’ve told me the bare facts, perhaps,’ he admitted. ‘But nothing more than the bare facts.’

      ‘And I’ve given you my excellent motive,’ Laura replied. ‘There’s nothing more to tell. In any case, why should you believe what I tell you? I could make up any story I liked. You’ve only got my word for it that Richard was a cruel beast and that he drank and that he made life miserable for me—and that I hated him.’

      ‘I can accept the last statement without question, I think,’ said Starkwedder. ‘After all, there’s a certain amount of evidence to support it.’ Approaching the sofa again, he looked down at Laura. ‘All the same, it’s a bit drastic, don’t you think? You say you’ve hated him for years. Why didn’t you leave him? Surely that would have been much simpler.’

      Laura’s voice was hesitant as she replied, ‘I’ve—I’ve no money of my own.’

      ‘My dear girl,’ said Starkwedder, ‘if you could have proved cruelty and habitual drunkenness and all the rest of it, you could have got a divorce—or separation—and then you’d get alimony or whatever it is they call it.’ He paused, waiting for an answer.

      Finding it difficult to reply, Laura rose and, keeping her back to him, went across to the table to put her glass down.

      ‘Have you got children?’ Starkwedder asked her.

      ‘No—no, thank God,’ Laura replied.

      ‘Well, then, why didn’t you leave him?’

      Confused, Laura turned to face her questioner. ‘Well—’ she said finally, ‘well—you see—now I shall inherit all his money.’

      ‘Oh no, you won’t,’ Starkwedder informed her. ‘The law won’t allow you to profit as the result of a crime.’ Taking a step towards Laura, he asked, ‘Or did you think that—?’ He hesitated, and then continued, ‘What did you think?’

      ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ Laura told him.

      ‘You’re not a stupid woman,’ Starkwedder said, looking at her. ‘Even if you did inherit his money, it wouldn’t be much good to you if you were going to be imprisoned for life.’ Settling himself comfortably in the armchair, he added, ‘Supposing that I hadn’t come knocking at the window just now? What were you going to do?’

      ‘Does it matter?’

      ‘Perhaps not—but I’m interested. What was your story going to be, if I hadn’t come barging in and caught you here red-handed? Were you going to say it was an accident? Or suicide?’

      ‘I don’t know,’ Laura exclaimed. She sounded distraught. Crossing to the sofa, she sat facing away from Starkwedder. ‘I’ve no idea,’ she added. ‘I tell you I—I haven’t had time to think.’

      ‘No,’ he agreed. ‘No, perhaps not—I don’t think it was a premeditated affair. I think it was an impulse. In fact, I think it was probably something your husband said. Was that it?’

      ‘It doesn’t matter, I tell you,’ Laura replied.

      ‘What did he say?’ Starkwedder insisted. ‘What was it?’

      Laura gazed at him steadily. ‘That is something I shall never tell anybody,’ she exclaimed.

      Starkwedder went over to the sofa and stood behind her. ‘You’ll be asked it in court,’ he informed her.

      Her expression was grim as she replied, ‘I shan’t answer. They can’t make me answer.’

      ‘But your counsel will have to know,’ said Starkwedder. Leaning over the sofa and looking at her earnestly, he continued, ‘It might make all the difference.’

      Laura turned to face him. ‘Oh, don’t you see?’ she exclaimed. ‘Don’t you understand? I’ve no hope. I’m prepared for the worst.’

      ‘What, just because I came in through that window? If I hadn’t—’

      ‘But you did!’ Laura interrupted him.

      ‘Yes, I did,’ he agreed. ‘And consequently you’re for it. Is that what you think?’

      She made no reply. ‘Here,’ he said as he handed her a cigarette and took one himself. ‘Now, let’s go back a little. You’ve hated your husband for a long time, and tonight he said something that just pushed you over the edge. You snatched up the gun that was lying beside—’ He stopped suddenly, staring at the gun on the table. ‘Why was he sitting here with a gun beside him, anyway? It’s hardly usual.’

      ‘Oh, that,’ said Laura. ‘He used to shoot at cats.’

      Starkwedder looked at her, surprised. ‘Cats?’ he asked.

      ‘Oh, I suppose I shall have to do some explaining,’ said Laura resignedly.

       CHAPTER 3

      Starkwedder looked at her with a somewhat bemused expression. ‘Well?’ he prompted.

      Laura took a deep breath. Then, staring straight ahead of her, she began to speak. ‘Richard used to be a big-game hunter,’ she said. ‘That was where we first met—in Kenya. He was a different sort of person then. Or perhaps his good qualities showed, and not his bad ones. He did have good qualities, you know. Generosity and courage. Supreme courage. He was a very attractive man to women.’

      She looked up suddenly, seeming to be aware of Starkwedder for the first time. Returning her gaze, he lit her cigarette with his lighter, and then his own. ‘Go on,’ he urged her.

      ‘We married soon after we met,’ Laura continued. ‘Then, two years later, he had a terrible accident—he was mauled by a lion. He was lucky to escape alive, but he’s been a semi-cripple ever since, unable to walk properly.’ She leaned back, apparently more relaxed, and Starkwedder moved to a footstool, facing her.

      Laura took a puff at her cigarette and then exhaled the smoke. ‘They say misfortune improves your character,’ she said. ‘It didn’t improve his. Instead, it developed all his bad points. Vindictiveness, a streak of sadism, drinking too much. He made life pretty impossible for everyone in this house, and we all put up with it because—oh, you know what one says. “So sad for poor Richard being an invalid.” We shouldn’t have put up with it, of course. I see that, now. It simply encouraged him to feel that he was different from other people, and that he could do as he chose without being called to account for it.’

      She rose and went across