Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden

"When it appeared that the murderer was going to be exposed, I kicked Mary as hard as I could. That broke up the seance. But I began to fret and worry. What if Janine knew? I thought the colonel was warming to me. I felt it would only be a matter of time before he proposed." Daisy leaned forward and tapped Agatha on the knee. "I had to get rid of her. You do see that?"

And Agatha remembered Charles saying that they were all probably mad. She is mad, thought Agatha again. Why didn't I see that before?

"So I went down the fire escape and I phoned her from that call box at the entrance to the pier. I wore gloves this time. I told her I owed her mother money and I would like her to have it but she wasn't to tell anyone.

"We walked along the pier. I said I had owed Francie thousands. Janine became quite excited. She was very like her mother, greedy. When we had gone along the pier a little way, I suddenly screamed and said, 'There's a body floating in the water!' She said, 'Where?' 'Down there,' I shouted. She leaned right over. I don't know where I got the strength but I seized her ankles and tipped her into the sea. She couldn't swim. Francie told me that once. She told me that neither she nor her daughter could swim. I heard her calling out, so I ran away."

"Don't you feel any remorse?" asked Agatha curiously.

"Why?" Daisy's eyes glittered. "They were bad women."

"Couldn't you just have taken Francie's money and left it at that?"

"No! She cursed me, and Janine cursed me along with the rest of you. They were evil women."

"Daisy, I am honour bound to go to the police and tell them what I've heard."

"They won't believe you. You've no proof."

And I'm not going to remind you that you told me about the rolling pin in the garden, Agatha was just thinking when Mr. Martin walked in.

"I came up to talk to you, Mrs. Raisin, but I heard what was being said and I stayed to hear all of it. Mrs. Daisy Jones, I am going to take you to your room and lock you in until the police arrive. Come along."

To Agatha's amazement, Daisy stood up and smoothed down her skirt and walked out past the hotel manager. Why had she gone so quietly?

Charles walked in and Agatha flew to him, her nerves suddenly shot, babbling all about Daisy and the murders.

"Here, calm down, Aggie," he said, "let's have it all--slowly."

Agatha shakily summarized briefly what Daisy had told her, ending with, "I cannot believe she went like that, so quietly."

"Let's hope she doesn't remember telling you about that rolling pin."

"Why?"

"Well, if she can find a way out of her room and down into the hotel garden, she'll do it."

"The window!" gasped Agatha. "The window in her room." She hurtled out of the door and down the stairs and round to the side of the building. No Daisy in the garden.

"Up there!" cried Charles, suddenly appearing behind her.

Daisy was balancing on the ledge outside her window. Although her room was only one floor up, the downstairs ceilings were so high that she was a good distance from the ground.

She glared down at them. In the distance came the wail of police sirens.

"It's too late now," shouted Agatha. "Go back in your room. You'll only hurt yourself."

But Daisy leaped from the window-ledge. She plummeted straight down onto a rockery. Her head struck one of the rocks with a vicious thud and she lay still.

Charles went up to her and bent down and stooped over her. "I daren't move her," he said over his shoulder to Agatha.

Agatha ran to the front of the hotel just as Jimmy Jessop was getting out of the first police car.

"It's Daisy," said Agatha. "She's in the garden. She's badly hurt."

"Phone for an ambulance," said Jimmy to a policeman. "Lead the way, Mrs. Raisin."

The police followed Agatha into the hotel garden. Jimmy motioned Charles aside and knelt down beside Daisy. He felt for her pulse.

He looked up at them. "I think it's too late. Go back into the hotel, Mrs. Raisin, and you, too, sir. You will need to answer questions."

Agatha felt sick and shaky. Supported by Charles, she went back into the hotel, to be met by Mary, Jennifer and Harry.

"Mr. Martin's saying it was Daisy who committed these murders," said Harry.

"It can't be true," wailed Mary, and despite her dizziness and sickness, Agatha registered somewhere in her mind that neither Jennifer nor Harry seemed to be surprised.

Agatha said to Mr. Martin, "Tell the police I'll be in my room if they want me."

She and Charles went upstairs. In their room, they both sat down on the bed. There was a plaintive mew from the bathroom. Agatha rose and let the cat out. Then she rejoined Charles.