The Body in the Library

In a remote quarry two miles from Danemouth, Superintendent Harper picks over the charred remains of the Minoan 14. A passing laborer happened to notice the glow of the blaze; otherwise, the car might not have been found for weeks. All that’s left of its incinerated occupant is part of a foot and a shoe, the kind a schoolgirl like Pamela Reeves might wear. The police surgeon guesses that the victim was probably dead before the car was set ablaze. As Harper surveys the scene, an underling extracts a small object from the wreckage: a button from a Girl Guide’s uniform. For Harper, this removes any doubt that the murdered girl is Pamela Reeves.

Harper shoulders the painful task of informing Mr. and Mrs. Reeves of their daughter’s death. They are astounded to hear that she was found in a strange car in a remote place; they say that Pamela was “very young for her age” (122) and adamantly deny that she had any “undesirable” friends. As for George Bartlett, the owner of the car, they’ve never heard of him. As far as they know, Pamela was planning to go to the Woolworth’s in Danemouth after her Girl Guides rally and had promised to be home in time for dinner. Deeply moved by his visit to Pamela’s house, Harper feels more determined than ever to track down her murderer. Ruby Keene, he thinks, may have been asking for trouble, but this innocent Girl Guide is a different matter.

A day or two later, Melchett and Harper compare notes. The shoe found on the charred body has been positively identified as Pamela’s, and it seems likely that Pamela passed near the Majestic Hotel by early evening. Quite possibly, then, she overheard Ruby arranging to meet up with her killer later that night. Since Pamela was abducted hours before Ruby, it follows that Ruby’s murder was premeditated, not a spontaneous act of rage. Since the burned-out car was George Bartlett’s, and he was the last person to be seen with Ruby, he seems the obvious candidate; however, his motive remains a mystery. In any case, the killer must be someone already known to them, since Slack’s industrious footwork has determined that Ruby had no “special friend.”

The case, Harper says, comes down to a matter of motives versus alibis. Scotland Yard, he says, has just provided him with crucial information about Mark Gaskell and Adelaide Jefferson: Far from being well-off, both are extraordinarily “hard up.” Unbeknownst to their father-in-law, Mark gambled away the entire fortune Conway Jefferson had given to him and his late wife, and Adelaide lost hers through her husband’s bad investments. This gives both a compelling motive: Upon Conway’s death, each stood to inherit £25,000, but Ruby was a threat to that inheritance. And yet their alibis seem to be airtight. Gaskell, for instance, dined with Conway and Adelaide that night, then took his car for a short spin and returned during Ruby’s 10:30 pm dance with Raymond. He then played cards with Adelaide, Conway, and Josie until well after midnight—long after Ruby’s disappearance and murder. During all that time, Adelaide, too, never left the table.

To rule out any possibility that Ruby might have died after midnight, rather than before, Melchett calls up Dr. Haydock, the police surgeon, who indignantly confirms the accuracy of his work. Haydock adds the helpful detail that Ruby was drugged with a “powerful narcotic” before her strangulation. As the policemen feel their hopes peter away, Harper brings up another dead end he’s been pursuing: Basil Blake, a “film fellow” who lives near Gossington Hall and danced with Ruby a few times at the Majestic. Unfortunately, he attended a party the night of the murder and didn’t leave until midnight. Faced with no compelling case against anybody, the policemen decide grudgingly that George Bartlett, who lacks a motive but also has no alibi, is their “best hope.” From all evidence, however, George is a mama’s boy, “weak rather than vicious” (134). And the prospect of a random maniac committing the crimes, Harper says, would be “too easy.” At the end of their conference, the detectives are no closer to solving the two murders.

Waking up, Conway Jefferson stretches his muscular arms to embrace the new day, then remembers Ruby. Over the past few days, the young dancer has begun to change in his memory. A “great weariness” comes over him, and he mutters to himself, “Margaret,” his wife’s name.

Adelaide tells Mrs. Bantry that she likes Miss Marple, whose leeriness about human nature seems a refreshing change from other people, namely her father-in-law’s naïve idealization of the “gold-digger” Ruby Keene. Adelaide says she feels partly responsible for Conway’s loneliness, since she has recently “neglected” her father-in-law in favor of other men, such as Hugo McLean, her longtime suitor. Conway, she says, has never quite accepted the deaths of his son and daughter; for him, they continue to survive through their spouses, herself and Mark. So her new, “rebellious” interest in Hugo and others made him feel abandoned, leaving him susceptible to Ruby’s charms. What complicates this for Adelaide is that her son Peter depends entirely on Conway’s support: She has never told her father-in-law about how his son lost all their money through bad investments, feeling it would be a betrayal of her dead husband. Finding out that her nine-year-old son was going to be disinherited in favor of a “vulgar, gold-digging little simpleton” (140), she confesses, made her want to “kill” Ruby. As she says this, a look of horror comes into her hazel eyes, and she chides herself for having said such an “awful thing.” Hugo McLean, silently overhearing her last remarks, sits down at their table and solemnly warns Adelaide to watch what she says, lest she be “misunderstood.”

Afterward, Mrs. Bantry tells Miss Marple about Adelaide’s strong feelings about Ruby. Citing anecdotes from her village, Marple suggests that when an old person like Conway feels lonely and abandoned, almost any “nice-looking” young person can look like a savior. Marple believes that Conway’s infatuation took Josie completely by surprise, since she has “one of those shrewd, limited, practical minds” (142) that can never foresee events. She goes on to hint that Mark Gaskell, with his “roving eye,” may have been secretly rebelling against his father-in-law for some time now, by taking lovers.

Meanwhile, discussing the case with Sir Henry Clithering, Mark Gaskell speaks as bluntly as ever, admitting that his gambling addiction has put him in a hole and that the death of Ruby was a great piece of luck for him. Now, so long as his father-in-law dies “on schedule,” his finances will be saved. Mark suggests that Conway is lucky Ruby is dead, since now he never needs to find out the truth about her. He adds that he is “fond” of Conway but also resents him for trying to force a pall of celibacy on himself and Adelaide. Mark himself has had to be “discreet,” he says, in his affairs with other women; but “poor Addie” has not had that option, and when she finally broke out of “prison” this year by smiling at other men, Conway’s whole world crumbled. Mark then breaks into a light-hearted ditty that seems to celebrate Ruby’s death. Sir Henry, appalled, feels no surprise that Mark, alibi or no, remains a prime suspect in her murder.

From Conway’s personal physician, Superintendent Harper learns that he has a splendid physique for a man of his age, but a weak heart. His in-laws and doctor have kept the news from him that a sudden “shock” could kill him at any time. Though Conway managed to survive the “mental shock” of Ruby’s death, the doctor cautions that he could easily be carried off by a physical shock, such as a loud noise. Later, Harper suggests to Lord Henry that Ruby’s murder might have been intended to “kill two birds with one stone” (148), i.e., to finish off Conway with the news of her death. In that case, the culprit must be one of the very few people who knew of his medical condition. Next, Harper asks Sir Henry, who knows Conway well, how he thinks the old man would react if Mark or Adelaide remarried. Since Conway’s affection for them is largely tied up with the loving memory of his son and daughter, Sir Henry guesses that he would probably disinherit them.

Joining Miss Marple outside, the two men ask for her help in questioning the Girl Guides whom Pamela Reeves was most friendly with, since her village life has given her ample acquaintance with the fibs and evasions of young girls. Sir Henry also tells her that Ruby’s wastebasket contained fingernail clippings, just as she suspected. Marple explains that when she first looked at Ruby’s body, the hands seemed “wrong,” and it seemed to her that the fingernails had been bitten down. But if, as Peter said, she’d broken a nail on Josie’s shawl, it made sense that she might trim the others to even them out. Another thing that looked wrong, she adds, was Ruby’s dress; girls of her class, she says, always put on their best, newest clothes for a date, not slightly shabby ones, like the satin dress Ruby was found in. Though she can’t explain this discrepancy yet, she feels it must be important.

Miss Marple and Sir Henry Clithering sit down with Raymond Starr for a talk. Offering that his given name is Ramon, he says he had an Argentine grandmother and grew up at Alsmonston, in Sir Henry’s county of Devonshire. Surprised, Sir Henry asks if he’s one of the Alsmonston Starrs, an ancient aristocratic family who went bankrupt some years ago. With a note of bitterness, Raymond describes the loss of his family’s three-century-old estate and his subsequent struggles to make a living, which included reception desk jobs, sales positions, and finally a series of jobs as a tennis instructor and dancer at posh hotels. As for Ruby Keene, Raymond says he hardly knew her but didn’t “dislike” her. When Marple tells him that Mark and Adelaide seem likely suspects because of Conway’s money, he finds it implausible that either of them could commit murder.

Moments later, Adelaide arrives with Hugo McLean for her tennis lesson, and as Adelaide goes onto the court with Raymond, Hugo grumbles about the “foreign”-looking instructor. When Sir Henry informs him that Raymond is one of the famous “Devonshire Starrs,” he looks doubly displeased. Feeling neglected, Hugo wonders aloud why Adelaide sent for him at all, which arouses Sir Henry’s curiosity; under his questioning, Hugo reveals that on the night of the murder, he was staying nearby, at Danebury Head, where he received Adelaide’s invitation to visit the hotel. Looking hot and uneasy, Hugo excuses himself and walks away stiffly.

Dolly Bantry joins the two of them, having had no luck questioning the chambermaids. Teasingly, she scolds Miss Marple for not having solved the case yet, and Marple astounds her by saying that she does, in fact, know who murdered Ruby Keene. But, to Dolly’s dismay, she cautions that she can’t reveal the name just yet, because there’s still much that’s unclear, and Dolly might spoil everything by talking too much. However, she does give Dolly a hint: In this case, she says, everyone has been much too credulous and trusting. After pretending, again, to be “enjoying” the murder that happened in her own library, Dolly reveals a more serious side, saying she’s well aware that the scandal of Ruby’s death could kill her husband, both socially and literally: “I won’t have the dear old boy go through hell for something he didn’t do. That’s the only reason I came to Danemouth and left him alone at home—to find out the truth” (163).