Title: The Murder on the Links
Author(s): Agatha Christie
Publisher(s): HarperCollins
Pages: 320
Year: 2001
Format: EPUB
Language: English
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$prime;You will know now that I deceived you, that where you gave me trust I repaid you with lies. It will seem, perhaps, indefensible to you, but I should like, before I go out of your life for ever, to show you just how it all came about. If I knew that you forgave me it would make life easier for me. It wasn$prime;t for myself I did it — that$prime;s the only thing I can put forward to say for myself.
$prime;I$prime;ll begin from the day I met you in the boat train from Paris. I was uneasy then about Bella. She was just desperate about Jack Renauld she$prime;d have lain down on the ground for him to walk on, and when he began to change, and to stop writing so often she began getting in a state. She got it into her head that he was keen on another girl — and of course, as it turned out afterwards, she was quite right there. She$prime;d made up her mind to go to their Villa at Merlinville, and try and see Jack. She knew I was against it and tried to give me the slip. I found she was not on the train at Calais, and determined I would not go on to England without her. I$prime;d an uneasy feeling that something awful was going to happen if I couldn$prime;t prevent it.
$prime;I met the next train from Paris. She was on it, and set upon going out then and there to Merlinville. I argued with her for all I was worth, but it wasn$prime;t any good. She was all strung up and set upon having her own way. Well, I washed my hands of it. I$prime;d done all I could. It was getting late. I went to an hotel and Bella started for Merlinville. I still couldn$prime;t shake off my feeling of what the books call «impending disaster».
$prime;The next day came — but no Bella. She$prime;d made a date with me to meet at the hotel, but she didn$prime;t keep it. No sign of her all day. I got more and more anxious. Then came an evening paper with the news.
$prime;It was awful! I couldn$prime;t be sure, of course, but I was terribly afraid. I figured it out that Bella had met Papa Renauld and told him about her and Jack, and that he$prime;d insulted her or something like that. We$prime;ve both got terribly quick tempers.
$prime;Then all the masked foreigner business came out, and I began to feel more at ease. But it still worried me that Bella hadn$prime;t kept her date with me.
$prime;By the next morning I was so rattled that I$prime;d just got to go and see what I could. First thing, I ran up against you. You know all that… When I saw the dead man, looking so like Jack, and wearing Jack$prime;s fancy overcoat, I knew! And there was the identical paper-knife — wicked little thing! — that Jack had given Bella! Ten to one it had her finger-marks on it. I can$prime;t hope to explain to you the sort of helpless horror of that moment. I only saw one thing clearly — I must get hold of that dagger, and get right away with it before they found out it was gone. I pretended to faint, and while you were away getting water I took the thing and hid it away in my dress.
$prime;I told you that I was staying at the H?tel du Phare, but of course really I made a bee-line back to Calais, and then on to England by the first boat. When we were in mid-Channel I dropped that little devil of a dagger into the sea. Then I felt I could breathe again.