Murder at the vicarage

It is difficult to know quite where to begin this story, but I have fixed my choice on a certain Wednesday at luncheon at the Vicarage. The conversation, though in the main irre...

Griselda is a very irritating woman. On leaving the luncheon table, I had felt myself to be in a good mood for preparing a really forceful address for the Church of England Men'...

"Nasty old cat," said Griselda as soon as the door was closed. She made a face in the direction of the departing visitors and then looked at me and laughed.

I had entirely forgotten that we had asked Lawrence Redding to dinner that night. When Griselda burst in and scolded me, pointing out that it lacked two minutes to dinner time,...

It was nearer seven than half past six when I approached the Vicarage gate on my return. Before I reached it, it swung open and Lawrence Redding came out. He stopped dead on see...

We puzzled over the business of the clock for some time, but we could make nothing of it. Griselda said I ought to make another effort and tell Inspector Slack about it, but on...

"Good morning, Vicar," he said. "Nasty business, eh? Poor old Protheroe. Not that I liked him. I didn't. Nobody did for that matter. Nasty bit of work for you, too. Hope it hasn...

"Look here, Redding," he said. "I understand you made a statement to Inspector Slack here. You state you went to the Vicarage at approximately a quarter to seven, found Prothero...

"I think she is quite dependable," I said cautiously. "That is, in so far as she is talking of what she has actually seen. Beyond that, of course, when you get on to what she th...

"I really believe that wizened-up old maid thinks she knows everything there is to know. And hardly been out of this village all her life. Preposterous. What can she know of life?"

I saw at a glance that Colonel Melchett and Inspector Slack had not been seeing eye to eye about the case. Melchett looked flushed and annoyed, and the Inspector looked sulky.

"My dear boy," said Colonel Melchett. "Don't take that tone with us. Are you aware that someone else has also confessed to committing the crime which you pretend to have committ...

I hardly thought it likely that Mrs. Price Ridley had anything so dramatic in view, but I did wonder what had taken her to the police station. Had she really got evidence of imp...

On my way home, I ran into Miss Hartnell, and she detained me at least ten minutes, declaiming in her deep bass voice against the improvidence and ungratefulness of the lower cl...

Hawes' appearance distressed me very much. His hands were shaking and his face kept twitching nervously. In my opinion he should have been in bed, and I told him so. He insisted...

Civility, to my mind, is an art which Inspector Slack has never learnt, but I presumed that according to his own lights, civil he had been, and anyway I didn't want to upset Hay...

"It's rather odd. It was put through from the North Lodge of Old Hall. Now that Lodge is empty; the lodgekeepers have been pensioned off, and the new lodgekeepers aren't in yet....

The inquest was held that afternoon (Saturday) at two o'clock at the Blue Boar. The local excitement was, I need hardly say, tremendous. There had been no murder in St. Mary Mea...

"Yes." He laughed rather bitterly. "Case of stable door when the steed is gone, eh? It is rather like that. You know, padre," he held the door open and I passed inside, "there's...

a churchwarden and handing round the plate and reading the lessons on Sundays. 'But there,' I said, 'that's very often the worst.' For that's what I've heard my mother say, many...

"I suppose," I said, "that somebody has heard her address us as 'sir' or 'ma'am,' and has immediately wrested her from us as a paragon. All I can say is, they'll be disappointed."

I cannot say that I have at any time a great admiration for Mr. Raymond West. He is, I know, supposed to be a brilliant novelist, and has made quite a name as a poet. His poems...

Inspector Slack's orders, once I had got him on the telephone, were brief and emphatic. Nothing was to "get about." In particular, Miss Cram was not to be alarmed. In the meanti...

On the way back, I proposed to Griselda that we should make a detour and go round by the barrow. I was anxious to see if the police were at work and, if so, what they had found....

I returned to the Vicarage to find Hawes waiting for me in my study. He was pacing up and down nervously, and when I entered the room he started as though he had been shot.

I found it hard to shake off the impression left by the anonymous letter. Pitch soils. However, I gathered up the other three letters, glanced at my watch and started out.

The church was unusually full. I cannot believe that it was the prospect of Hawes preaching which had attracted so many. Hawes' sermons are dull and dogmatic. And if the news ha...

Griselda and Dennis had not yet returned. I realized that the most natural thing would have been for me to go up to the house with Miss Marple and fetch them home. Both she and...

I hurried down the village street. It was eleven o'clock, and at eleven o'clock on a Sunday night the whole village of St. Mary Mead might be dead. I saw, however, a light in a...

I don't know how long I sat there--only a few minutes in reality, I suppose. Yet it seemed as though an eternity had passed when I heard the door open and, turning my head, look...

"Yes," said Miss Marple. "He took us all in that way--myself as much as anyone else. You will remember, dear Mr. Clement, that I was quite taken aback when I heard Mr. Redding h...

"'All is discovered. Fly!' That's an old wheeze, Miss Marple. Not that it isn't often successful! But I think in this case young Redding is too downy a bird to be caught that way."

There is little more to be told. Miss Marple's plan succeeded. Lawrence Redding was not an innocent man, and the hint of a witness of the change of capsule did indeed cause him...