Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage

the zoo. Funny. I never liked zoos and I still don’t, but I had been so very lonely and here I was with a handsome fellow of my own and it all seemed marvellous. Somehow it was agreed, I don’t remember how, that he would move in with me. Of course he wanted to sleep with me, but the pill hadn’t really got going in those days, and I was terrified of getting pregnant. He just laughed and said we’d get married. And so we did. We went to Blackpool on our honeymoon.’
    Agatha suddenly looked at James and realized that she had finally betrayed all the truth of her background. Then she gave a little shrug and went on.
    ‘He got a job loading newspapers down in Fleet Street. I was still working as a waitress and going to the college. It took me a month of marriage to realize I had jumped right out of the frying-pan into the fire, that is, I had jumped from a drunken home life into marriage to a drunken husband.
    ‘To this day, I don’t know why he ever married me. I mean, he was very attractive to women. He began to hit me. I hit back because I was still thin but pretty wiry. And then, I wasn’t drunk, and he was.
    ‘He lost his job and drifted from one to another after that, but mostly was out of work. I stuck it for two years. But I’d landed a job in a public relations firm as a secretary and I wanted money for good clothes and I wouldn’t keep him in drink any more. I came back one evening and he was lying on the bed, snoring, with his mouth open. On the mat the post was lying unopened and in the post was a package of literature from Alcoholics Anonymous that I’d sent for. I pinned it on his chest, packed my things and left.
    ‘He knew where I worked and I fully expected him to come after me, looking for money. But he never came. Gradually the years went by and I was really sure he was dead. I thought no one could drink that much and go on living. Ambition took over completely. So what did I know of Jimmy? He had great charm. Hard for you to believe now. When I first met him, he had a way of making me feel like the only woman in the world that mattered, and he was the only man in my life who ever made me feel pretty. He never said anything clever and his jokes were always feeble, but before it all went sour, he made me feel good, made me feel exhilarated, as if the world was a funny place where nothing much mattered.’ Agatha heaved a little sigh. ‘Will the real Jimmy Raisin stand up? I don’t know. At first, after each drinking bout he would be genuinely contrite. Oh, I know. He always talked about making money and he was always sure he would make it. I suppose he lived on dreams.’
    ‘And I gather,’ said James harshly, ‘that he was a budding con artist when you met him. Too lazy to work. He got a taste through you of the benefits of being kept by a woman. You had got wise to him. So he probably sobered up just long enough to get some other female involved. What you have described, Agatha, is a greedy, selfish man. A natural blackmailer.’
    ‘I suppose I’ve told you nothing you didn’t know already,’ said Agatha in a small voice.
    ‘Not really. Except I did not know that you had such a hard life.’
    ‘Did I? Ambition is a great drug, you know. I just forged ahead the whole time. Never really looked back at yesterday. Anyway, to get back to this murder, or murders. It must be one of the people that Jimmy met at the health farm. I’ve come back to that idea. I wish that Comfort woman hadn’t escaped us. I think she was lying to us.’
    ‘There was certainly something about our visit that sent her running off to Spain,’ said James. ‘Then there’s her ex. He was very truculent.’
    ‘But he wasn’t even at the health farm,’ protested Agatha. ‘How would he know what Jimmy and Miss Purvey looked like?’
    ‘It could be the something that Gloria was lying about. Perhaps Jimmy didn’t write to Mr Comfort. Perhaps he called on him.’
    ‘Fine. So what about Miss Purvey?’
    ‘If Miss Purvey’s murder was not connected to Jimmy’s, it might make the field wider.’
    ‘I think our only hope is that Roy’s detective might find something in that bag that the mysterious Lizzie took.’
    Agatha sneezed.
    ‘Are you getting a cold?’ asked James.
    ‘I don’t know. I might have a bit of a chill. That church hall was freezing today during the concert.’
    ‘Home and bed, then. We’ll think some more about it tomorrow.’
    As they were driving down into Carsely, a car