Elephants Can Remember

Penelope?" "Celia," said Mrs. Oliver. "She's my goddaughter." "Oh, of course she is. Yes, I know that now. I remember you coming and taking her out once. She was a high-spirited girl, rather bad-tempered in some ways, but she was very fond of her father and mother, I think. No, she was away at a school in Switzerland when it happened. I'm glad to say, because it would have been a terrible shock to her if she'd been at home and the one who saw them." "And there was a boy, too, wasn't there?" "Oh, yes. Master Edward. His father was a bit worried about him, I think. He looked as though he disliked his father." "Oh, there's nothing in that. Boys go through that stage, I think. Was he very devoted to his mother?" "Well, she fussed over him a bit too much, I think, which he found tiresome. You know, they don't like a mother fussing over them, telling them to wear thicker vests or put an extra pullover on. His father, he didn't like the way he wore his hair. It was-well, they weren't wearing hair like the way they are nowadays, but they were beginning to, if you know what I mean." "But the boy wasn't at home at the time of the tragedy?" "No." "I suppose it was a shock to him?" "Well, it must have been. Of course, I wasn't going to the house any more at that time, so I didn't hear so much. If you ask me, I didn't like that gardener. What was his name now- Fred, I think. Fred Wizell. Some name like that. Seems to me if he'd done a bit of-well, a bit of cheating or something like that and the General had found him out and was going to sack him, I wouldn't put it past him." "To shoot the husband and wife?" "Well, I'd have thought it more likely he'd just have shot the General. If he shot the General and the wife came along, then he'd have had to shoot her, too. You read things like that in books." "Yes," said Mrs. Oliver thoughtfully, "one does read all sorts of things in books." "There was the tutor. I didn't like him much." "What tutor?" "Well, there was a tutor for the boy earlier. You know, he couldn't pass an exam and things at the earlier school he was at-prep school or something. So they had a tutor for him. He was there for about a year, I think. Lady Ravenscroft liked him very much. She was musical, you know, and so was this tutor. Mr. Edmunds, I think his name was. Rather a nambypamby sort of young man, I thought myself, and it's my opinion that General Ravenscroft didn't care for him much." "But Mrs. Ravenscroft did." "Oh, they had a lot in common, I think. And I think she was the one really that chose him rather more than the General, Mind you, he had very nice manners and spoke to everyone nicely and all that-" "And did-what'shis-name?" "Edward? Oh, yes, he liked him all right, I think. In fact, he was quite a bit soft on him, I think. Almost a bit of hero worship. Anyway, don't you believe any stories you hear about scandals in the family or her having an affair with anyone or General Ravenscroft with that rather pie-faced girl who did filing work for him and all that sort of thing. No.

Whoever that wicked murderer was, it's one who came from outside. The police never got on to anyone, no car was seen near there and there was nothing to it and they never got any further. But all the same, I think one ought to look about for somebody perhaps who'd known them in Malaya or abroad or somewhere else, or even when they were first living at Bournemouth. One never knows." "What did your husband think about it?" said Mrs. Oliver.