Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden

"I suppose so," said Mary miserably. "We weren't rich. My father was only a lawyer."

"That would be rich to Joseph. We never had much, see. Well, the police got him a couple of days after he came back. How he thought he'd get away with it, I don't know. He'd left the stolen car in a side street, as if someone else had pinched it. But he'd left his fingerprints all over the office at the car firm and the police found the rest of the money hidden in his room. He swore he'd never do anything like that again. He got a light sentence, but it was hard to get work with a criminal record. He left home one day shortly after that. Said he was going to Australia. Then, four years later, he wrote to me from prison. Cars again and a longer sentence. Then it was burglary. The latest was stealing cars and driving them over to some crooked dealer in Bulgaria."

"Have you a recent photograph?" asked Agatha.

Mrs. Brady rose painfully from her chair and lifted a cardboard box down from a shelf beside the fireplace. She rested it on a small table, and putting on a pair of spectacles, began to look through the photographs. She lifted one out and handed it to Mary. "That you, miss?"

Mary looked down at a picture of herself and Joseph on the prom at Wyckhadden. "Yes," she said in a choked voice. "One of those beach photographers took that picture. One for me, one for Joseph."

"Here's one taken before his last sentence." Mrs. Brady handed Mary a photograph. Agatha joined Mary and looked down at it. The Joseph in this picture was baring a set of false teeth at the camera. He was nearly bald and his weasely face bore little resemblance to the young man on the prom.

Agatha looked at Mary's shocked face. "Thank you for your time, Mrs. Brady. We are really sorry to have troubled you."

"I'll see you to the door," she said. "Funny, there was always some girl or another over the years that he'd said he was going to marry, but the law always caught up with him first."

Out in the street, Mary walked a little way with Agatha and then broke down and cried and cried, saying over and over again in between sobs, "How could you have done this to me, Agatha?"

"But you wanted to find him," protested Agatha, but feeling guilty all the same. It would have been better to have left poor Mary with her dream intact. A cold wind whistled down Sheep Street. Wind chimes hung over a door tinkled their foreign exotic sound.

"Let's find a pub," said Agatha.

They turned the corner of Sheep Street and found a small pub. Agatha ordered brandies. Mary drank and sobbed and sobbed and drank. Agatha waited patiently. At last Mary dried her eyes and blew her nose.

"All these years," she said, "I've carried this bright dream of Joseph. One day he would come back if only I kept going to Wyckhadden. I put up with Jennifer because I had this dream. Now I have nothing."

"I wish I had left things alone," said Agatha. "But how were we to know he'd turn out to be a criminal?"

"It's not really your fault. I had to know," said Mary. "I'll have to tell Jennifer."

"Why?"

"She'll know something is up with me."

"Oh, well, tell her if you must," said Agatha, suddenly weary of the whole business. There was a cigarette machine in the corner of the pub. She looked at it longingly. But it was years and years since she had gone so long without a cigarette. Stick it out, Agatha!

Back at the hotel, Agatha found Jimmy waiting for her. He looked curiously at red-eyed Mary, who darted past him and up the stairs. "What's up with her?"

"Let's go for a walk and I'll tell you about it."

Once out on the promenade, he took Agatha's arm and said, "You smell of brandy. Starting early?"

"Consoling Mary." As they walked along, Agatha told him about Joseph.

"Poor woman," he said when Agatha had finished. "I could have found all that out for her."

"I never thought of asking you. Mary didn't think for a minute that he was a criminal."

Agatha then told him about the seance. "We've still got our eye on Janine's husband. You should be careful."

"I thought he had a cast-iron alibi."

"I'm always suspicious of people with cast-iron alibis."

"Why did you call to see me, Jimmy?"

"I wanted to ask you out for dinner tonight. There's this new Italian restaurant."

"I would love to."

"That's fine. I'll pick you up at eight. I'd better walk you back now. I've a lot of paperwork to do."

* * *

Tired after all the morning's emotion, Agatha planned to lie down that afternoon and then enjoy a leisurely time getting ready for her date. She was just about to pull her sweater over her head when there came a peremptory knocking at the door. She tugged down her sweater and went to open it. Jennifer stood there, her fists clenched and eyes blazing with anger. "I want a word with you, you interfering bitch!"

"Come in," said Agatha wearily.

Jennifer strode into the room. "You have destroyed Mary's happiness. She needed that dream."