Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage

there are tea and cakes. Our housekeeper makes very good cakes. Just follow the crowd. Why, Angela, darling, how wonderful to see you!’
    She turned away. Agatha looked back at James. He was now deep in conversation with Sir Desmond. Judging they had moved from the subject of that dreadful woman in Carsely, Agatha went to join them. They were swapping army stories. Agatha fidgeted and stifled a yawn.
    ‘I was just about to take a break and have some tea,’ said Sir Desmond finally. ‘Do join us. The women from the village are quite capable of coping with this crowd.’
    James introduced Agatha as his wife, Mrs Perth. Agatha was surprised that he should maintain that bit of deception, but James did not want Sir Desmond to remember Agatha as the gardening cheat of Carsely.
    Sir Desmond walked them over to his wife and introduced them. Lady Derrington seemed slightly displeased that two strangers should have been invited for tea. Agatha suspected that she would have been better pleased if they had paid for it.
    They found themselves in a pleasant drawing-room. The green leaves of the wisteria fluttered and moved outside the windows, dappling the room in a mixture of sunlight and shadow. Two sleepy dogs rose at their entrance and yawned and stretched before curling down and going to sleep again. Lady Derrington threw a log on the fire and then poured tea. No cakes, noticed Agatha with a beady eye. Only some rather hard biscuits. She wanted a cigarette but there was no ashtray in sight.
    They answered questions about Carsely and then James leaned back in his chair, stretched his long legs, and said with seeming casualness, ‘My wife and I have just returned from a short stay at Hunters Fields.’
    Sir Desmond was lifting a cup of tea to his lips. His hand holding the cup paused in midair. ‘What’s that?’ he demanded sharply.
    ‘It’s that health farm,’ said his wife. ‘Horribly pricey. The Pomfrets went there but they’ve got money to burn.’
    ‘But you were there yourself,’ said James. ‘You were both there at the same time as two people we know, Mrs Gore-Appleton and Jimmy Raisin.’
    ‘We have never been there and I have never heard of them,’ said Sir Desmond evenly. ‘Now if you will forgive me . . .’
    He stood up and walked to the door and held it open. His wife looked surprised but did not say anything.
    He strode out angrily back into the gardens followed by Agatha and James and then turned to face them. ‘I’m tired of scum like you. You are not getting a penny.’
    He rushed off, cannoned off a pair of surprised visitors, and disappeared around a corner of the house.
    Agatha made to go after him but James held her back. ‘He must have been there with someone else, someone who wasn’t his wife. Leave it, Agatha. Someone was blackmailing him, probably Jimmy. It’s time to tell Bill Wong what we know.’
    They left a message for Bill Wong when they returned home, but it was the following day before they saw him again.
    He arrived in the afternoon. When she opened the door, Agatha could see the dreadful Maddie sitting beside him in the car. Bill followed Agatha into the living-room. ‘Coffee?’ said James.
    ‘No, thank you. I haven’t much time. What did you want to see me about?’
    They told him about their investigations, ending up with the visit to Sir Desmond Derrington.
    Bill Wong’s chubby face was severe. ‘I’ve been there all night,’ he said sternly. ‘Sir Desmond is dead. It appears to have been a shooting accident. His shotgun went off when he was cleaning it. But he was cleaning it in the middle of the night, you see, and it now seems to me he thought you were taking over where Jimmy Raisin left off. We roused the health farm at two in the morning. Sir Desmond stayed there at the same time as Jimmy Raisin with a woman who gave her name as Lady Derrington. The real Lady Derrington is the one with all the money. Had she divorced Sir Desmond, he would have been virtually penniless. He had been paying out the sum of five hundred pounds a month for a year, probably the year Jimmy Raisin was sober, and then the payments stopped. He was proud of his position in the community – local magistrate, all that sort of thing. Does it dawn on you interfering pair that you might have killed him?’
    ‘Oh, no,’ said James, horrified. ‘Surely it was an accident?’
    ‘Why decide to clean a gun in the middle of the night, and the night after your visit?’ said Bill wearily.