Chapter 1

　

Mrs. McGillicuddy panted along the platform in the wake of the porter
carrying her suitcase. Mrs. McGillicuddy was short and stout, the porter
was tall and free-striding. In addition, Mrs. McGillicuddy was burdened
with a large quantity of parcels; the result of a day's Christmas shopping.
The race was, therefore, an uneven one, and the porter turned the corner at
the end of the platform whilst Mrs. McGillicuddy was still coming up the
straight.

No.1 Platform was not at the moment unduly crowded, since a train had just
gone out, but in the no-man's-land beyond, a milling crowd was rushing in
several directions at once, to and from undergrounds, left-luggage offices,
tea-rooms, injury offices, indicator boards, and the two outlets, Arrival
and Departure, to the outside world.

Mrs. McGillicuddy and her parcels ere buffeted to and fro, but she arrived
eventually at the entrance to No.3 platform, and deposited one parcel at
her feet whilst she searched her bag for the ticket that would enable her
to pass the stern uniformed guardian at the gate.

At that moment, a Voice, raucous yet refined, burst into speech over her
head.

"The train standing at Platform 3," the Voice told her, "is the 4.50 for
Brackhampton, Milchester, Waverton, Carvil Junction, Roxeter and stations
to Chadmouth. Passengers for Brackhampton and Milchester travel at the rear
of the train. Passengers for Vanequay change at Roxeter." The Voice shut
itself off with a click, and then reopened conversation by announcing the
arrival at Platform 9 of the 4.35 from Birmingham and Wolverhampton.

Mrs. McGillicuddy found her ticket and presented it. The man clipped it,
murmured: "On the right – rear portion."

Mrs. McGillicuddy padded up the platform and found her porter, looking
bored and staring into space, outside the door of a third-class carriage.

"Here you are, lady."

"I'm travelling first-class," said Mrs. McGillicuddy.

"You didn't say so," grumbled the porter. His eyes swept her
masculine-looking pepper-and-salt tweet coat disparagingly.

Mrs. McGillicuddy, who had said so, did not argue the point. She was sadly
out of breath.



The porter retrieved the suitcase and marched with it to the adjoining
coach where Mrs. McGillicuddy was installed in solitary splendour. The 4.50
was not much patronised, the first-class clientele preferring either the
faster morning express, or the 6.40 with dining-car. Mrs. McGillicuddy
handed the porter his tip which he received with disappointment, clearly
considering it more applicable to third-class than to first-class travel.
Mrs. McGillicuddy, though prepared to spend money on comfortable travel
after a night journey from the North and a day's feverish shopping, was at
no time an extravagant tipper.

She settled herself back on the plush cushions with a sigh and opened a
magazine. Five minutes later, whistles blew, and the train started. The
magazine slipped from Mrs. McGillicuddy's hand, her head dropped sideways,
three minutes later she was asleep. She slept for thirty-five minutes and
awoke refreshed. Resettling her hat which had slipped askew, she sat up and
looked out of the window at what she could see of the flying countryside.
It was quite dark now, a dreary misty December day - Christmas was only
five days ahead. London had been dark and dreary; the country was no less
so, though occasionally rendered cheerful with its constant clusters of
lights as the train flashed through towns and stations.

"Serving last tea now," said an attendant, whisking open the corridor door
like a jinn. Mrs. McGillicuddy had already partaken of tea at a large
department store. She was for the moment amply nourished. The attendant
went on down the corridor uttering his monotonous cry. Mrs. McGillicuddy
looked up at the rack where her various parcels reposed, with a pleased
expression. The face towels had been excellent value and just what Margaret
wanted, the space gun for Robby and the rabbit for Jean were highly
satisfactory, and that evening coatee was just the thing she herself
needed, warm but dressy. The pullover for Hector, too…her mind dwelt with
approval on the soundness of her purchases.

Her satisfied gaze returned to the window, a train travelling in the
opposite direction rushed by with a screech, making the windows rattle and
causing her to start. The train clattered over points and passed through a
station.

Then it began suddenly to slow down, presumably in obedience to a signal.
For some minutes it crawled along, then stopped, presently it began to move
forward again. Another up-train passed them, though with less vehemence
than the first one. The train gathered speed again. At that moment another
train, also on a down-line, swerved inwards towards them, for a moment with
almost alarming effect. For a time the two trains ran parallel, now one
gaining a little, now the other. Mrs. McGillicuddy looked from her window
through the windows of the parallel carriages. Most of the blinds were
down, but occasionally the occupants of the carriages were visible. The
other train was not very full and there were many empty carriages.

At the moment when the two trains gave the illusion of being stationary, a
blind in one of the carriage flew up with a snap. Mrs. McGillicuddy looked
into the lighted first-class carriage that was only a few feet away.

Then she drew her breath in with a gasp and half-rose to her feet.

Standing with his back to the window and to her was a man. His hands were
round the throat of a woman who faced him, and he was slowly,
remorselessly, strangling her. Her eyes were starting from their sockets,
her face was purple and congested. As Mrs. McGillicuddy watched,
fascinated, the end came; the body went limp and crumpled in the man's
hands.

At the same moment, Mrs. McGillicuddy's train slowed down again and the
other began to gain speed. It passed forward and a moment or two later it
had vanished from sight.

Almost automatically Mrs. McGillicuddy's hand went up to the communication
cord, then paused, irresolute. After all, what use would it be ringing the
cord of the train in which she was travelling? The horror of what she had
seen at such close quarters, and the unusually circumstances, made her feel
paralysed. Some immediate action was necessary - but what?

The door of her compartment was drawn back and a ticket collector said:
"Ticket, please."

Mrs. McGillicuddy turned to him with vehemence.

"A woman has been strangled," she said. "In a train that just passed. I saw
it."

The ticket collector looked at her doubtfully.

"I beg your pardon, madam?"

"A man strangled a woman! In a train. I saw it – through there." She
pointed to the window.

The ticket collector looked extremely doubtful.

"Strangled?" he said disbelievingly.

"Yes, strangled! I saw it, I tell you. You must don something at once!"

The ticket collector coughed apologetically.

"You don't think, madam, that you may have had a little nap and - er - " he
broke off tactfully.

"I have had a nap, but if you think this was a dream, you're quite wrong. I
saw it, I tell you."

The ticket collector's eyes dropped to the open magazine lying on the seat.
On the exposed page was a girl being strangled whilst a man with a revolver
threatened the pair from an open doorway.

He said persuasively: "Now don't you think, madam, that you'd been reading
an exciting story, and that you just dropped off, and awaking a little
confused –"

Mrs. McGillicuddy interrupted him.

"I saw it," she said. "I was as wide awake as you are. And I looked out of
the window into the window of the train alongside, and a man was strangling
a woman. And what I want to know is, what are you going to do about it?"

"Well - madam –"

"You're going to do something, I suppose?"

The ticket collector sighed reluctantly and glanced at his watch.

"We shall be in Brackhampton in exactly seven minutes. I'll report what
you've told me. In what direction was the train you mention going?

"This direction, of course. You don't suppose I'd have been able to see all
this if a train had flashed past going in the other direction?"

The ticket collector looked as though he thought Mrs. McGillicuddy was
quite capable of seeing anything anywhere as the fancy took her. But her
remained polite.

"You can rely on me, madam," he said. "I will report your statement.
Perhaps I might have your name and address - just in case…"

Mrs. McGillicuddy gave him the address where she would be staying for the
next few days and her permanent address in Scotland, and he wrote them
down. Then he withdrew with the air of a man who has done his duty and
dealt successfully with a tiresome member of the travelling public.

Mrs. McGillicuddy remained frowning and vaguely unsatisfied. Would the
ticket collector really report her statement? Or had he just been soothing
her down? There were, she supposed vaguely, a lot of elderly women
travelling around, fully convinced that they had unmasked communist plots,
were in danger of being murdered, saw flying saucers and secret space
ships, and reported murders that had never taken place. If the man
dismissed her as one of those…

The train was slowing down now, passing over points and running through the
bright lights of a large town.

Mrs. McGillicuddy opened her handbag, pulled out a receipted bill which was
all she could find, wrote a rapid note on the back of it with her
ball-point pen, put it into a spare envelope that she fortunately happened
to have, stuck the envelope down and wrote on it.

The train drew slowly into a crowded platform. The usual ubiquitous Voice
was intoning:

"The train now arriving at Platform 1 is the 5.38 for Milchester, Waverton,
Roxeter, and stations to Chadmouth. Passengers for Market Basing take the
train now waiting at No.3 platform. No.1 bay for stopping train to
Carbury."

Mrs. McGillicuddy looked anxiously along the platform. So many passengers
and so few porters. Ah, there was one! She hailed him authoritatively.

"Porter! Please take this at once to the Stationmaster's office."

She handed him the envelope, and with it a shilling.

Then, with a sigh, she leaned back. Well, she had done what she could. Her
mind lingered with an instant's regret on the shilling…. Sixpence would
really have been enough….

Her mind went back to the scene she had witnessed. Horrible, quite
horrible…. She was a strong-nerved woman, but she shivered. What a strange
- what a fantastic thing to happen to her, Elspeth McGillicuddy! If the
blind of the carriage had not happened to fly up…. But that, of course,
was Providence.

Providence had willed that she, Elspeth McGillicuddy, should be a witness
of the crime. Her lips set grimly.

Voices shouted, whistles blew, doors were banged shut. The 5.38 drew slowly
out of Brackhampton station. An hour and five minutes later it stopped at
Milchester.

Mrs. McGillicuddy collected her parcels and her suitcase and got out. She
peered up and down the platform. Her mind reiterated its former judgment:
Not enough porters. Such porters as there were seemed to be engaged with
mail bags and luggage vans. Passengers nowadays seemed always expected to
carry their own cases. Well, she couldn't carry her suitcase and her
umbrella and all her parcels. She would have to wait. In due course she
secured a porter.

"Taxi?"

"There will be something to meet me, I expect."

Outside Milchester station, a taxi-driver who had been watching the exit
came forward. He spoke in a soft local voice.

"Is it Mrs. McGillicuddy? For St. Mary Mead?"

Mrs. McGillicuddy acknowledged her identity. The porter was recompensed,
adequately if not handsomely. The car, with Mrs. McGillicuddy, her
suitcase, and her parcels drove off into the night. It was a nine-mile
drive. Sitting bolt upright in the car, Mrs. McGillicuddy was unable to
relax. Her feelings yearned for expression. At last the taxi drove along
the familiar village street and finally drew up at its destination; Mrs.
McGillicuddy got out and walked up the brick path to the door. The driver
deposited the cases inside as the door was opened by an elderly main. Mrs.
McGillicuddy passed straight through the hall to where, at the open
sitting-room door, her hostess awaited her; an elderly frail old lady.

"Elspeth!"

"Jane!"

They kissed and, without preamble or circumlocution, Mrs. McGillicuddy
burst into speech.

"Oh, Jane!" she wailed. "I've just seen a murder!"

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