Miss Marple joined us not long after I returned to the house from the Ackroyd estate. I didn't want to have her around, because she and Catherine were about ten times as bad as my sister alone when it came to prying information out of me.
"Oh, hello Doctor Sheppard!" she exclaimed after I had deposited my bag at the surgery. She and Catherine were partaking in a cup of tea. "Won't you sit down?" She had a way of owning whatever place she found herself in.
I sat and took a cup of tea, as offered by my sister, and Miss Marple wasted no time in soliciting information from me. "So you came from the Ackroyds'—I am so sorry to hear about poor Mr. Ackroyd. So soon after Mrs. Ferras, too…"
"What do you mean by that?" I asked.
"Oh?" she asked. "I thought you would have known, with dear Caroline here to keep you informed. She and Mr. Ackroyd were to be married before she killed herself."
"Wow. How do you—I mean, I knew, but how did you…"
"Oh, things get around," said Jane, gesturing with her hand as she spoke. She took a sip of her tea. "You hear one thing or another, add it up, and understand human nature, and it's plain to see."
"Oh, Jane, your methods are just wonderful! There's nothing you can't deduce, is there?"
"Oh, Caroline," replied Miss Marple, "it is in my nature to be modest, so thank you, your words are so kind." She paused, a smile edging on her lips. "However," she continued, "I feel that I already have a suspicion as to who the culprit is."
"Who might that be?" I asked, interested to hear what sort of conclusions she may have come around to already.
Oh, I'm not ready to impart that quite yet," said Miss Marple. I raised an eyebrow, but she didn't seem to notice, and continued speaking. "In fact, I was thinking of making a call on young Flora. I've always been fond of her, and I'm sure she'll be grasping at the strings to save her fiancé from persecution."
"I can get the telephone…" said Catherine.
"Actually," said Miss Marple, laying a hand on my sister's arm as she went to get up. "I think it would be better for the good doctor to call up for me. I'm sure my—and your—reputation precedes me, and if the two biggest busy bodies in this small village called up there after a murder, I daresay they would probably not be very receptive." She grinned, a sparkle in her eye. "However, the doctor is a part of this all, and were he to call up and ask to bring a companion to assist with the investigation…"
"If I would be so kind," I finished. I stood from the table. "And I think that I will be. I'll phone up there and tell them we'll be along."
"Miss Marple," said Mrs. Ackroyd, holding the door open. "Please come in. Welcome back, Doctor Sheppard. I'm sorry that I've come to answer the door, Miss Russell is in the kitchen preparing something or other and I was nearby the door—you're becoming quite the regular around here, aren't you?"
To this I didn't respond—instead, I just gave her a small smile.
"Mrs. Ackroyd, I thank you so much for having me," said Miss Marple, letting herself into the sitting room.
"Well, I must admit, when the doctor mentioned that he would be bringing along someone to assist with the investigation, I did not expect to bring you along—pardon me if that came off as more rude than intended—I've had a trying day."
"It came along just as rude as you meant it to be, but no more," said Miss Marple, with a smile. "Now, where might your daughter be off to? I was hoping to speak with her, since she was the last to see dear Roger alive…"
"Certainly," said Mrs. Ackroyd. "Parker," she called out in a just slightly louder voice than usual, "could you please fetch Flora? I believe she was in the garden."
"I'd be happy to," said Parker, appearing in and disappearing from the doorway in an instant.
"He seems to be an attentive servant," said Miss Marple, her eyes glancing around the room.
"Attentive?" asked Mrs. Ackroyd. She scoffed. "He just can't wait to hear the next thing from us. If he didn't give Roger such good service, I should be inclined to reprimand him."
Flora was brought into the room presently, and Parker departed. "Miss Marple!" she exclaimed. "What a pleasure and a surprise to see you here."
"Well I heard of your troubles and I immediately said to myself: 'Jane, you must go and do whatever is in your power to help Flora and her family.'" Miss Marple smiled as she said this, the image of a missionary on a cause.
"Well, I should believe that your powers of figuring the way people work will be a great aid to this investigation," said Flora. She rubbed her forehead with a finger and a thumb. "I fear the blame is beginning to fall on Ralph, and I know that he didn't do it!"
"Now, Flora…" started her mother, reaching a hand out to her.
"Don't 'now, Flora,' me," said Flora. "I don't' care what that inspector is saying—he knows nothing if he says that Ralph was the murderer."
"Well, Flora, can you tell me about the last time you saw your uncle?" asked Miss Marple. "I seems a natural place for me to start."
"I went to see him to say good-night. I never like to go to bed without wishing him well, and then I kissed him on the cheek. He mentioned that I looked nice, and then asked that I tell the others he not be disturbed."
"And that's the same he said to me," said I, "before I left earlier in the evening." I noticed that Miss Marple was not paying much attention to me, but instead seemed to be concentrating on something. However, she continued:
"Duly noted," said Miss Marple. She turned back to Flora. "What happened next? Anything of note?"
"I ran into Parker, and repeated my uncle's instructions. He was almost at the door with a few cups of some sort of nightcap, and I turned him away. So, I think I was the last to see him before Doctor Sheppard showed up, saying that he had been murdered.
"Well, then," said Miss Marple, furrowing her brow. After a moment: "And what was he killed with? What was the murder weapon?"
"A Tunisian dagger," replied I. "It belonged to Roger, but Major Blunt was the one to identify it."
"Was he?" asked Miss Marple. "Is he around? I would very much like to speak with him, if he is."
"Parker!" called Mrs. Ackroyd. The servant poked his head in through the door. "Fetch Major Blunt, if you would." Parker gave a curt nod and left the room.
"I think it's just awful, what's happened," said Mrs. Ackroyd, taking the silence as an invitation to take the floor. "And that Ralph would do such a thing!"
"You think that it was Mr. Paton?" asked Miss Marple. "Has there been any evidence against him?"
"None specific, per se," said Mrs. Ackroyd, shifting in her seat. "But he has a motive, and no alibi, not to mention suspicious behavior as of late…"
"Mother!" exclaimed Flora. Her face was as red as a beet. "Ralph didn't kill Mr. Ackroyd!"
"Now, Flora," began Mrs. Ackroyd, "you mustn't allow your emotions to cloud your judgment."
"Mrs. Ackroyd, I appreciate your input, but if you'd allow me to cut in…" Mrs. Ackroyd reluctantly gave her a nod to continue. "What makes you," said Miss Marple, turning to the young woman, "believe so adamantly that your fiancé is not the culprit?"
"Oh," said Flora. She thought for a moment, as she hadn't been expecting that question. "I suppose because it doesn't sound like the thing he'd be apt to do. I don't think it was him, because this sort of crime is simply not to his nature."
"Flora…" said Mrs. Ackroyd, but Miss Marple cut in.
"That is exactly where I agree with you," she said. "It isn't very much in his nature." She leaned back in her chair and clasped her hand together. "I know human nature, and this particular crime is not to his nature. A burglary, perhaps, and he would fit the bill. But not a murder, and certainly not one as well thought out as this."
At this moment, Major Blunt entered the room, as summoned by Parker. "When someone says both the words 'human' and 'nature,' I believe I am the image that jumps to mind." He settled into a chair by Flora.
"Major Blunt is quite the outdoorsman," said Flora, her eyes quickly diverting from the older man. "He is a big game hunter."
"Well, then, you must be very well-traveled," said Miss Marple.
"Oh, yes," said Major Blunt. "My hunting trips bring me to every corner of the map."
"And that is why you recognized the murder weapon as a Tunisian dagger?"
"Oh, that?" said Major Blunt, as if it were a matter of no real consequence. "Of course I recognized it from my travels, but just the other day Roger was showing them off to me, it and some other relics, in his cases over there." He punted across to the silver tables on the opposite side of the room.
"The case was open yesterday," I noted. "Miss Russell was shutting it while I was waiting for Mr. Ackroyd last night." I thought on this for a moment. "Actually, she was asking some strange questions the other day…"
"Actually, our sister already enlightened me on those facts already," said Miss Marple, "but I don't think that you need to worry about her. Her problem is one unrelated to the murder…"
"…A person who was at the Three Boars earlier that day, a person who knew Mr. Ackroyd well enough to know that he had bought himself a Dictaphone, a person who had a nature of looking at things mechanically, who had the chance to take the dagger from that gaudy silver table before Flora arrived, and who had something with them large enough in which they could conceal a Dictaphone, someone who could themselves have the study alone while Parker phoned the police. That person is you, Dr. Sheppard."
I laughed at Miss Marple's declaration. "You've gone mad," I muttered.
"Not at all," she replied. "You see, it all came with the way in which you spoke to your sister about our dear friend Mr. Paton. You declared that you had not seen him since that day at the Boar, and despite how clever you think you are, you have a tell. When telling Caroline about the last time you saw Ralph, you glanced toward the window. Once or twice, it might have passed as nothing, but when each time you spoke of him, you glanced toward the window in the direction of your hiding spot for the man, it became something suspicious.
"That brings us to the nail in the coffin, so-to-say. Were you an innocent man, and as smart as you undoubtedly are, why would you keep a man away under the guise of trying to help him, when you knew you were only condemning him further?"
A silence settled over the pair of us, and I grinned. "You lack but one key part of the mystery—what motive would I have to kill Mr. Ackroyd?"
"You gain your safety, of course!" said Miss Marple. "Mr. Ackroyd received the note revealing you as the blackmailer of his murderous fiancé! With the evidence he had in his hands, he could have put you away for a long time."
"Perhaps," I said, realizing that her arguments were somehow filling in all of the gaps of truth I had so painstakingly put together. "But what of the phone call?"
"Oh, yes," said Miss Marple, "the one your sister saw you take, thus cementing your alibi?" She saw you take the call, that's just is. She never heard what was said." She grinned as she continued to speak. "Some of the people down at the docks did, though, and I was able to get a note from a captain of a ship who just so happened to be your patient, and who happened to be en route to America: 'Quite correct. Dr. Sheppard asked me to leave a note at a patient's house. I was to ring him from the station with the reply: no answer.'"
"So what do you plan to do with all of this information?" I asked.
"I plan on providing you with an ultimatum, and two options. The first option is that you will go from me now down to the station and turn yourself in to the inspector right now…"
"And why would I do that? I could kill you now and get away with it, and the world would be none the wiser."
"That brings me to the second option: you may not turn yourself in, and tomorrow morning, when the police arrive at the station, they will open the note I left for them there explaining your whole plot, and advising them that if I had been killed, you were the one to be held responsible."
"So, you think that you have cornered me," I said.
"I have cornered you," said Miss Marple. "Either way, I have to say to you, good night. I am tired, and I would like to go to bed. You know where the door is." She turned and walked back a few paces. "And Dr. Sheppard," she said, pausing, "I'll be kind when telling Catherine of what you've done. You can't fight the way you have been given your human nature."