“You are right about that of course. But Maggie Repton is an impossibility. She is the mildest, vaguest, and most blameless of women-the kind of stay-at-home daughter and sister who is rapidly becoming extinct. She nursed her parents, she kept house for her brother until he married-in fact I believe she still does so. The domestic arts are not much in Scilla Repton’s line.”

Miss Silver gave her slight deliberate cough.

“But do you not see that it is amongst just such people that the anonymous letter-writer is to be found? Too little occupied with their own affairs, having in fact no affairs with which to occupy themselves, too timid and ineffectual to express their own opinions-do you not see that it is to just such a person that the writing of an anonymous letter might appeal? It affords an opportunity for the release of concealed resentments, suppressed desires, the envy, the grudge which has been secretly cherished. There may, or may not, have been some specific sense of injury, but I believe that in most cases it is a feeling of inferiority or frustration which provides the background of these painful cases. As in so many other circumstances, it is only the first step which is hard to take. Once that has been taken, the vice grows rapidly. In a village the effect of each letter can be observed. A sense of power and importance comes to the writer, the letters become more numerous and more poisonous, the appetite grows with what it feeds upon. And then there comes the threat of discovery. A timid person does not suddenly become brave, but he or she may become desperate. Timidity may itself be the incentive to a crime. If Connie Brooke was in a position to ruin such a person, would not that provide a motive for her murder?”

The word had been skirted round, now it had been said. Miss Silver was reminded of poor Connie’s words, “Once I’ve told it, I can’t take it back.” They had been discussing the possibility of murder, but it had not been named until now.

Randal March threw out a hand.

“Of course everything you say is perfectly true, but-if you knew Miss Maggie-”

She said mildly,

“I do not wish you to think that I am accusing her. I am only anxious that in this matter there should be no one so privileged by place, position, or character, as to be withdrawn from the most careful scrutiny. In the case of Miss Repton, she has the background which I have suggested as a probable one, and she is known to have pressed a bottle of sleeping tablets on Connie Brooke. We do not know how many there were in the bottle, nor do we know whether anything was said as to the number it would be prudent to take. If it could be proved that there were only a few tablets, Miss Repton would be exonerated, since it would not have been possible for her to have left the Manor at any time during the evening. There is, in fact, plenty of evidence to show that she did not do so. It would not, therefore, have been possible for her to have tampered with the cocoa which Connie had left in readiness for her return.”

He said,

“Quite. And that brings us to the second of my two theories. As I have said, I don’t believe there were so many in that bottle. If there were, the girl could have committed suicide, but if there were not, then someone murdered her by putting a fatal dose of that stuff into her cocoa. Only just consider how appalling it must have tasted. How could the murderer have counted on her swallowing it? The natural reaction would have been to pour the cocoa away and make fresh.”

Miss Silver recalled a piece of gossip not really heeded at the time.

“Connie Brooke had an illness in her teens which practically destroyed her sense of taste and smell. I have known of such a case before. She would not, therefore, notice the taste of the drug, and this fact would be known to the person who murdered her. Even if she had been aware of an unpleasant taste, you must remember that she had intended to use what Miss Maggie had given her.”

He made an impatient movement.

“I’ve no doubt it would be known to everyone within a five-mile radius. No one can complain that there is a lack of possibilities. Anyone in the county could have done it, provided he could have got into the house. What have you got to say about that?”

“People are extremely careless about their keys. If anyone was planning to get into the house whilst Connie was out, a key might have been abstracted or a window unlatched.”

“A window?”

“I thought of that at once, Randal. If this girl was murdered, it was by someone whom she knew, someone who could have had a quite natural reason for coming to the house. You must remember that it was being used as a school. The older children would be there till four o’clock. In the bustle of their departure it would not be difficult to lock the back door and go away with the key or leave it hidden under a mat. It would be even simpler to contrive that a window should be left unlatched. Or, simplest of all, the person who desired to effect an entrance might have possessed a key which would open one of the doors of the Croft.”

“Do you know of anyone who had the opportunities you speak of?”

“Mrs. Rodney and I walked along to the Croft to fetch her little boy at four o’clock on Wednesday-”

“Are we to suspect Joyce Rodney?”

“I think not, though she certainly entered the house, as did also Miss Eccles who had undertaken to fetch a little girl whose parents live just outside Tilling Green. They are young people of the name of Black, and they had invited Miss Eccles to tea.”

He frowned.

“And Miss Eccles walked home with Connie Brooke after the party.”

“She walked with her as far as Holly Cottage, which is next door to Miss Wayne’s.”

“And you think, but you are not sure, that they said goodnight there. Even if they did, there wasn’t anything to prevent Miss Eccles changing her mind, was there? There wasn’t anything to prevent her saying, ‘Well, I’ll walk the rest of the way with you.’ She could have done just that, and then have gone in with her and found an opportunity of slipping those extra tablets into the cocoa. She would have had to have them all ready ground up, but of course the whole thing must have been very carefully planned. Here’s another possibility. I wonder whether Miss Eccles went to the party with Connie as well as returning from it. If she picked her up at the Croft, there might have been an opportunity for tampering with the cocoa then.”

“I think not, Randal. They did go together, but it was Connie who came to Holly Cottage to pick Miss Eccles up. I was in my room and saw them start. There is, of course, one very strong reason for exonerating Miss Eccles. It must have occurred to you that if it were she who was under suspicion, Connie would not have willingly undertaken to cross the Green with her both on her way to the party at the Manor and on the way back.”

“She might not have been able to help it.”

“That is true. It could all have been arranged before her suspicions came to a head. Once the arrangement had been made it would have been very difficult to alter it. And she would not know that part of her interview with Mr. Martin had been overheard and repeated all round the village.”

“In fact Miss Eccles remains a suspect.”

Miss Silver became slightly aloof.

“I have not said that I suspect her. I go no farther than to say that she had the opportunity.”

He nodded.

“As you say.” After a slight pause he continued. “There is something that I think you ought to know. The post office has been on the look-out for those poison-pen letters. Well, there were three of them posted in Ledlington on Wednesday. They were collected from a box in the High Street, and they were delivered in Tilling Green next morning. As you know, the envelopes are cheap white stuff, and the writing awkward.”