THE TUESDAY NIGHT CLUB 13 - Agatha Christie - short stories

"Joyce?" "The companion!" said Joyce decidedly. "The companion every time! How do we know what motive she may have had? Just because she was old and stout and ugly it doesn't follow that she wasn't in love with Jones herself. She may have hated the wife for some other reason. Think of being a companion--always having to be pleasant and agree and stifle yourself and bottle yourself up. One day she couldn't bear it any longer and then she killed her. She probably put the arsenic in the bowl of corn-flour and all that story about eat- ing it herself is a lie." "Mr. Petherick?" The lawyer joined the tips of his fingers together professionally. "I should hardly like to say. On the facts I should hardly like to say." "But you have got to, Mr. Petherick," said Joyce. "You can't reserve judgment and say 'without prejudice,' and be legal. You have got to play the game." "On the facts," said Mr. Petherick, "there seems nothing to be said. It is my private opinion, having seen, alas, too many cases of this kind, that the husband was guilty. The only explanation that will cover the facts seems to be that Miss Clark for some reason or other deliberately sheltered him. There may have been some financial arrangement made between them. He might realize that he would be suspected, and she, seeing only a future of poverty before her, may have agreed to tell the story of drinking the corn-flour in return for a substantial sum to be paid to her privately. If that was the case it was of course most irregular. Most irregular indeed." "I disagree with you all," said Raymond. "You have forgotten the one important factor in the case. The doctor's daughter. I will give you my reading of the case. The tinned lobster was bad. It accounted for the poisoning symptoms. The doctor was sent for. He finds Mrs. Jones, who has eaten