The Mousetrap

SERGEANT. No, thank you.

(LADY ANGKATELL exits Left. The SERGEANT closes the door.)

INSPECTOR. (Crossing to Left of the sofa) You’re Miss Harvey, aren’t you?

MIDGE. Yes. Margerie Harvey.

INSPECTOR. You don’t live here? (He indicates the sofa.) Do sit down.

MIDGE. No, I live at twenty-seven Strathmere Mansions, W—two.

INSPECTOR. But you are a relation?

MIDGE. (Sitting on the sofa at the Right end of it) My mother was Lady Angkatell’s first cousin.

INSPECTOR. And where were you when the shot was fired?

MIDGE. In the garden.

INSPECTOR. You were all rather scattered, weren’t you? (He crosses above the sofa to Right of it.) Lady Angkatell had just come in from the farm. Mr. Angkatell down from the woods. You from the garden, Mrs. Cristow from her bedroom, Sir Henry from the target alley. And Miss Angkatell?

MIDGE. She’d been in the garden somewhere.

INSPECTOR. (Crossing above the sofa to Left of it) You quite boxed the compass between you all. Now, Miss Harvey, I’d like you to describe what you saw when you came in here, very carefully.

MIDGE. (Pointing Left Centre) John Cristow was lying there. There was blood—Mrs. Cristow was standing with the—revolver in her hand.

INSPECTOR. And you thought she had shot him?

MIDGE. Well, frankly, yes, I did.

INSPECTOR. You had no doubt about it?

MIDGE. No, not then.

INSPECTOR. (Quickly) But you have now. Why?

MIDGE. I suppose because I realized that I simply jumped to conclusions.

INSPECTOR. Why were you so sure she had shot him?

MIDGE. Because she had the revolver in her hand, I suppose.

INSPECTOR. But you must have thought she had some reason for shooting him. (He looks keenly at her.)

MIDGE. (Looking troubled) I . . .

INSPECTOR. Well, Miss Harvey?

MIDGE. I don’t know of any reason.

INSPECTOR. In fact, as far as you know, they were a very devoted couple?

MIDGE. Oh yes, they were.

INSPECTOR. I see. (He crosses below the sofa to Right of it.) Let’s get on. What happened next?

MIDGE. I think—yes, Sir Henry went and knelt down by him. He said he wasn’t dead. He told Gudgeon to telephone for the doctor.

INSPECTOR. Gudgeon? That’s the butler. So he was there too.

MIDGE. Yes, he was. Gudgeon went to the telephone and just then John Cristow opened his eyes. I think he tried to struggle up. And then—then he died. It was horrible.

INSPECTOR. And that’s all?

MIDGE. Yes.

INSPECTOR. (Moving up Right) He didn’t say anything at all before he died?

MIDGE. I think he said “Henrietta.”

INSPECTOR. (Turning) he said “Henrietta.”

MIDGE. She—(Agitatedly) she was just opposite him when he opened his eyes. He was looking right at her. (She looks at the INSPECTOR as if in explanation.)

INSPECTOR. I see. That’s all for now, thank you, Miss Harvey.

MIDGE. (Rising and crossing to the door Left) Well, I’d better go and find Henrietta. Lady Angkatell is so very vague, you know. She usually forgets what she went to do.

(The SERGEANT opens the door. MIDGE exits Left and the SERGEANT closes the door behind her.)

INSPECTOR. (Thoughtfully) Lady Angkatell is so very vague.

SERGEANT. (Crossing to Centre) She’s bats, if you ask me.

(The INSPECTOR holds out his hand and the SERGEANT gives him his notebook.)

INSPECTOR. I wonder. I wonder. (He flicks over the pages of the notebook.) Interesting discrepancies. Lady Angkatell says, (He reads) “He murmured something before he died, but she couldn’t catch what it was.”

SERGEANT. Perhaps she’s deaf.

INSPECTOR. Oh no, I don’t think she is. According to Sir Henry, John Cristow said “Henrietta” in a loud voice. When I put it to her—but not before—Miss Harvey says the same thing. Edward Angkatell says Cristow died without saying a word. Gudgeon does not precisely recollect. (He moves below the sofa.) They all know something, Penny, but they’re not telling us. (He sits on the sofa at the Right end of it.)