They Do It With Mirrors

'What an odd pair of scissors,' she said. 'They've got two fingers holes on one side and one on the other.'

Carrie Louise's eyes came back from that frightening far distance.

'Alex gave them to me this morning,' she said. 'They're supposed to make it easier to cut your right hand nails.

Dear boy, he was so enthusiastic. He made me try them then and there.'

'And I suppose he gathered up the nail clippings and took them tidily away,' said Miss Marple.

'Yes,' said Carrie Louise. 'He -' She broke off. 'Why did you say that?'

'I was thinking about Alex. He had brains. Yes, he had brains.'

'You mean - that's why he died?'

'I think so - yes.'

'He and Ernie - it doesn't bear thinking about. When do they think it happened?'

'Late this evening. Between six and seven o'clock probably…'

'After they'd knocked off work for the day?'

'Yes.' Gina had been down there that evening - and XXTally Hudd. Stephen, too, said he had been down to look for Gina.

But as far as that went, anybody could have Miss Marple's train of thought was interrupted.

Carrie Louise said quietly and unexpectedly: 'How much do you know, Jane?' Miss Marple looked up sharply. The eyes of the two women met.

Miss Marple said slowly: 'If I was quite sure…' 'I think you are sure, Jane.' Jane Marple said slowly, 'XXThat do you want me to do?' Carrie leaned back against her pillows.

'It is in your hands, Jane - You'll do what you think right.' She closed her eyes.

'Tomorrow' - Miss Marple hesitated - 'I shall have to try and talk to Inspector Curry - if he'll listen…'

Chapter 21

Inspector Curry said rather impatiently: 'Yes, Miss Marple?' 'Could we, do you think, go into the Great Hall.' Inspector Curry looked faintly surprised, 'Is that your idea of privacy? Surely in here ' He looked round the study.

'It's not privacy I'm thinking of so much. It's something I want to show you. Something Alex Restarick made me see.' Inspector Curry, stifling a sigh, got up and followed Miss Marple.

'Somebody has been talking to you?' he suggested hopefully.

'No,' said Miss Marple. 'It's not a question of what people have said. It's really a question of conjuring tricks.

They do it with mirrors, you know - that sort of thing if you understand me.' Inspector Curry did not understand. He stared and wondered if Miss Marple was quite right in the head.

Miss Marple took up her stand and beckoned the Inspector to stand beside her.

'I want you to think of this place as at stage set, Inspector. As it was on the night Christian 3ulbrandsen was killed. You're here in the audience looking at the people on the stage. Mrs Serrocold and myself and Mrs Strete, and Gina and Stephen - and just likeon the stage there are entrances and exits and the characters go out to different places. Only you don't think when you're in the audience where they are really going to. They go out "to the front door" or "to the kitchen" and when the door opens you see a little bit of painted backcloth. But really of course they go out to the wings - or the back of the stage with carpenters and electricians, and other characters waiting to come on - they go out - to a different world.' 'I don't quite see, Miss Marple ' 'Oh, I know - I daresay it sounds very silly - but if you think of this as a play and the scene is "the Great Hall at Stonygates" - what exactly is behind the scene? - I mean - what is back stage? The terrace - isn't it? - the terrace and a lot of windows opening on to it.

'And that, you see, is how the conjuring trick was done.

It was the trick of the Lady Sawn in Half that made me think of it.' 'The Lady Sawn in Half?.' Inspector Curry was now quite sure that Miss Marple was a mental case.

'A most thrilling conjuring trick. You must have seen it - only not really one girl but two girls. The head of one and the feet of the other. It looks like one person and is really two. And so I thought it could just as well be the other way about. Two people could be really one person.' 'Two people really one?' Inspector Curry looked desperate.

'Yes. Not for long. How long did your constable take in the Park to run to this house and back? Two minutes and forty-five seconds, wasn't it? This would be less than that. Well under two minutes.' 'What was under two minutes?' 'The conjuring trick. The trick when it wasn't two people but one person. In there - in the study. We're only looking at the visible part of the stage. Behind the scenes there is the terrace and a row of windows. So easy when there are two people in the study to open the study window, get out, run along the terrace (those footsteps Alex heard), in at the side door, shoot Christian Gulbrandsen and run back, and during that time, the other person in the study does both voices so that we're all quite sure there are two people in there. And so there were most of the time, but not for that little period of under two minutes.' Inspector Curry found his breath and his voice.