Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage

off the desk and put it on the floor. She seized the desk and pushed it across the floor and rammed it against the door. She had just finished doing that when two things happened at once. Someone tried to get in and the phone rang.
    Agatha dropped to her knees on the floor, grabbed the receiver and muttered hoarsely into it. ‘Yes?’
    ‘Detective Sergeant Crumb?’
    ‘Yes, yes,’ hissed Agatha as she heard Maddie’s voice calling from the other side of the door, ‘Mrs Raisin? Are you in there? This door’s jammed.’
    ‘The name and address you require is Basil Morton, number six, The Loanings, London Road, Mircester.’
    ‘Thanks,’ said Agatha.
    She moved the desk and lay down alongside the door, just as she heard Maddie shouting, ‘Dave, come and help me with this door.’
    Agatha groaned theatrically. ‘Are you all right?’ Maddie called, her voice sharp more with suspicion than with concern.
    ‘I fainted,’ called Agatha. ‘I’ll move. I’m blocking the door.’
    She got to her feet and stood back as Maddie, with a policeman behind her, opened the door. Maddie’s eyes went straight to Agatha’s flushed face and then to the phone, which was lying on the floor.
    ‘You don’t look at all like a woman who has just recovered from a faint,’ snapped Maddie. ‘And what’s that phone doing on the floor? And didn’t I hear it ringing?’
    ‘I must have dragged it off the desk when I fell. It only rang a couple of times and then stopped.’
    ‘And it landed right side up with the receiver still in place?’
    ‘Odd, that,’ said Agatha. She put her hand to her head. ‘I feel very hot. Could I have a glass of water?’
    ‘Get it,’ Maddie ordered the policeman. ‘It’s probably a menopausal hot flush.’
    Agatha glared at her, hating her.
    ‘So let’s cut the crap, Mrs Raisin. Why are you here?’
    ‘If that’s your attitude, I think I’d rather speak to Bill.’
    ‘Bill’s out on a job, and either you speak to me or I’ll have you for wasting police time.’
    ‘It’s a wonder you ever solve anything,’ said Agatha, ‘considering the way you put people’s backs up.’
    The policeman came in with the glass of water and handed it to Agatha. She took it from him with a murmur of thanks, sat down, and began to drink it thirstily. Maddie watched her crossly and then said, ‘Out with it, Agatha.’
    ‘Mrs Raisin to you.’ The glass of water had given Agatha time to improvise. She hadn’t prepared a story, thinking that they would surely send Bill to see her.
    ‘I have reason to believe,’ she said, ‘that Help Our Homeless was a scam and not a properly organized charity.’
    ‘We know that,’ said Maddie to Agatha’s amazement. ‘The police went to close the place down four years ago, but the office was closed and the Gore-Appleton woman had disappeared.’
    ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
    ‘Why should I?’ Maddie was barely able to conceal her contempt. ‘The trouble with you women who don’t work is you’re always poking your nose into other people’s affairs. You’ve been told and told to leave matters to the police. I’ll tell you something else. I think you were using that phone. Let’s just try the call-back number and see what you were up to.’
    Agatha thought quickly. Maddie would only get that operator number. But she would ask everyone in the station if anyone had dialled the operator from the number in the interview room and find that no one had. Then, Agatha worried, she would phone the operator and find out what the inquiry had been about. But just at that moment, the phone rang.
    Maddie picked it up. ‘Hello, Bill,’ she said crossly. ‘Are you back in the building? You’re not? You’re phoning from outside.’ Bill’s voice at the other end quacked busily. ‘Well, listen to this,’ said Maddie. ‘Your darling Mrs Raisin is in the interview room and I think she was using this phone and I was about to get the call-back to tell me who it was phoned her, but because you found out I was in the interview room and decided to get through on an outside line, I can’t find out now. Why didn’t you just let the switchboard put you through?’
    The voice quacked again. It was obvious to Agatha that Bill was explaining that whatever he had to say to Maddie he hadn’t wanted to be overheard by the switchboard, because Maddie said, ‘This is neither the time nor place, and if you want to know the truth, there never is going to be a time and place