Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making: More Stories and Secrets From Her Notebooks (16 page)

Chapter I At Mrs Willet’s

Major Burnaby put on his gum boots, took his hurricane lantern. Goes through snow to Mrs. Willets. Arrive at house – description. Captain Trevelyan – his qualities – 6 bungalows – first for his old friend and crony and lets the others.

Major B – Ronnie Garfield – young ass staying with invalid Aunt for Xmas

Mr Rycroft – entomologist dried up little man

Mr Duke – big square man

The conversation – the glasses – mention of it being the first Friday for two years he hasn’t gone down to Midhampton to Capt. Trevelyan. ‘I walk. What’s twelve miles – keep yourself fit.’ Looks at Violet . . . they said curves were coming in again – all for curves

Young man (journalist) arrives at hotel, accosts Major Burnaby. I’m on the staff of the Daily Wire. Overheard – young man explains – presents with cheque – No 1 The Cottages. Then gets into
cottage
conversation – goes out and wires to his paper. Comes back and talks loudly. Tells Burnaby he wants to photograph his cottage. Mr Enderby then goes out and finds Batman. So then things
are
square after all. Explains how the late captain used his name.

Each person at séance must have connection

Violet Wilton and a ne’er do well

Captain Trevelyan

Mary Trevelyan married a man called Archer – 3 sons?

Bill
[Brian Pearson]
the ne’er-do-well – nothing much known of him, supposed to be in Australia, really in Newton
[Abbot]
seeing Violet.

John, the good stay-at-home, in Town for a literary dinner. He is married – really having an intrigue with an actress.
[Martin Dering?]

Another was at the theatre with a girl (Story changes – girl agrees) they give wrong theatre – play has moved there – or different actor in it yes, better – Gielgud instead of Noel Coward.

Ronald Payne, in love with Mary Archer, has come down here to persuade old uncle to do something.

Batman has married – living with wife 2 cottages away – comes in to do for him. A prize of new books has arrived for him at Batman’s.

Brief sketches of potential chapters cover eight pages and while some of the descriptions below match the published chapters, as the list progresses the matches become less faithful. It is entirely possible, of course, that the original manuscript followed this pattern and that subsequent editing resulted in the book we now know. I have added chapter numbers where the descriptions seem to tally but in some cases this is not feasible.

I Afternoon at Sittaford
[Chapter 1]

II Round the Table
[Chapter 2]

III Discovery at Midhampton
[Chapter 3]

IV Inspector Pollock
[Narracott]
takes over
[Chapter 4]

V At Mr and Mrs Evans
[Chapter 5]

VI Inspector P and B visit lawyer – the will
[Chapter 7]

VII The journalist bit
[Chapter 8]

VIII Exeter and Jennifer Gardiner, Nurse – husband – names of nephews and nieces
[Chapter 9]

IX James Pearson – facts about detained during his Majesty’s pleasure
[Chapter 10]

X She decides on taking counsel of Mr Belling. You poor dear girl – the young gentleman – the attraction between
[Chapter 11 and 12]

XI Sittaford – photograph of Major Burnaby’s cottage – Sittaford House – Mrs and Miss Willett
[Chapter 13/14]

XII The Professor on Psychical Research consents to be interviewed
[Chapter 16]

XIII Prolonged interview at Exeter – alibis examined

XIV Mrs Grant – her husband, Ambrose Grant – author – literary dinner

XV Looking up AG’s alibi
[Chapter 24]

XVI The four – Major B out of it – the three others

XVII The Willets – nothing to be got out of them
[Chapter 18]

XVIII Duke and Pollock – Duke indicates doubt of what has happened

XIX His story – engaged to Violet on way home

At the very end of the notes Christie reverts to her alphabetical method of cut and paste – assigning letters to a series of short scenes and then rearranging these letters to suit the purposes of her plot. I list the alphabetical sequence first and then her rearrangement, with comments:

A. Mrs C
[urtis]
full of
death
convict
[Chapter 15]

B. Enderby and his interview with Emily – eye of God etc.
[Chapter 25]

C. Young Ronald comes along – wants Emily to come and see his aunt
[Chapter 17]

D. Miss Percehouse – acid spinster – Emily feels some kinship with her etc. Emily arranges with her to get a message . . . . to talk to Willetts – or Ronald goes with her. Label business.
[Chapter 17]

E. She sees Violet Willett – evidently very nervous. Emily goes back for umbrella – creeps up stairs – the door. My God, will the night never come
[Chapter 18]

F. Captain Wyatt and bulldog – eyes her up and down
[Chapter 18]

G. Duke’s house – Inspector Pollock comes out of door
[Chapter 19]

H. Emily’s interview with him
[Chapter 19 and 27]

I. Enderby’s theory –
before
[Chapter 19]

J. Emily’s interview with Dr. Warren
[Chapter 20]

K. The trunk label
[Chapter 17]

L. The watch by night – Brian Pearson
[Chapter 22]

M. Pollock at Exeter – Brian’s movements checked up to Thursday
[Chapter 24]

N. Since then? Since then – I don’t know
[This cryptic reference remains a mystery]

O. Enderby says Martin Dering not at dinner. Says he knows because Harris
[Carruthers]
was there – had one empty place – one side of him
[Chapter 19]

P. Pollock clears up Martin Dering – the wire – answer comes all right [Chapter 27]

Q. Jennifer – either Emily or Inspector
[Chapter 20]

R. Investigates her alibi – possible [Chapter 20]

S. Rycroft – name in book
[Chapter 24]

T. Letter from Thomas Cronin about boots
[Chapter 28]

U. Interview with Dacre the solicitor
[Chapter 20]

Z. Emily interviews Mr Duke
[Chapter 29]

Below are the regroupings as they appear in Notebook 59, with the relevant chapters added. The rearrangement does not follow the novel exactly but the broad outline is accurate, although for some reason the letters H, K, N and R do not appear at all. The scene F obviously gave trouble as it appears twice, each time with a question mark.

A   B   C   F?   D   E
[Chapters 15/17/18, apart from B which is Chapter 25]

I   O   G   O   F?
[Chapters 18/19]

J   Q   U   L
[Chapters 20/22]

M   S   P   T   Z
[Chapters 22/24/27/28]

A very interesting question in connection with the three novels published between 1931 and 1934 arises from a brief note in Notebook 59. As discussed in
Agatha
Christie’s Secret Notebooks
, certain motifs – the legless man, the chambermaid, a pair of artistic and criminal friends – seemed to preoccupy Christie for several years. Similarly, she toyed on a number of occasions with the possibilities of the question ‘Why didn’t they ask Evans?’ As she approached the end of her career, in the lengthy Introduction to her 1970 novel
Passenger to Frankfurt
, she explained that sometimes a title was settled even before any story was in mind. She gave as an example the time that she visited a friend whose brother was just finishing the book he was reading; he tossed it aside and said ‘Not bad, but why on earth didn’t they ask Evans?’ She immediately decided that this would be the title for an as yet unwritten novel but, she wrote, she did not worry about the plot or the question of who Evans might be. That, she was sure, would come to her; as, indeed, it did – but when? She gives no date for the event and it is not mentioned in her
Autobiography
.

There are however a few possibilities. During the plotting of
The Sittaford Mystery
, page 24 of Notebook 59 reads: ‘The Inspector killed – concussion confirmed Why Didn’t they ask Evans? Ada Evans – also name of gardener.’ During the plotting of
Lord Edgware Dies
, page 53 of Notebook 41 reads: ‘Chapter XXVI
Why didn’t they ask Evans.’ And earlier in Notebook 41 she also wrote a note to herself: ‘Can we work in Why Didn’t they ask Evans.’

When plotting
The Sittaford Mystery
, could Christie have possibly toyed with the idea of killing the Inspector? I think she may have intended that the Inspector be attacked and knocked unconscious, uttering the significant words as he collapsed. This theory gains some support from the fact that up to this point in the plotting the Inspector is the only investigator. Emily is not mentioned in the notes until 20 pages later, when Christie had gone back to the beginning of the novel and begun to draft individual chapters.
The Sittaford Mystery
has a character called Ada, and the gardeners are both involved in witnessing the will of Captain Trevelyan. Calling any of these characters Evans would have solved her dilemma. It is clear from the notes that she speculated about this possibility, as all three are questioned in the course of the investigation. And Captain Trevelyan’s batman is named Evans. He is ‘asked’ more than once and it is Emily’s final questioning of him that is responsible for drawing her attention to the fact of the missing boots – and thereby to the solution of the murder. When Christie did eventually incorporate Evans into a novel called, not surprisingly,
Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?
, the witnessing of a will was the very event that caused Evans not to be asked, because she is a bright girl who might realise that there is subterfuge afoot. For further speculation upon this intriguing enigma see the discussion on
Lord Edgware Dies.

‘The Second Gong’

July 1932

Hubert Lytcham Roche is found shot dead in his locked study, but luckily one of his dinner guests is Hercule Poirot.

The short story ‘The Second Gong’ was first published in the UK in July 1932 in
The Strand
magazine but it was not until the posthumous 1998 UK collection
Problem at Pollensa Bay
that it appeared between hard covers. The reason for this is that Christie expanded and rewrote the story as ‘Dead Man’s Mirror’, one of the four novellas comprising
Murder in the Mews
.

Notes for it appear in three Notebooks, 30, 41 and 61, although the reference in Notebook 30 is only to the possibility of expanding it. Notebook 41 has, unusually for a short story, ten pages of notes neatly summarising the main plot at the outset, the only difference being the smashing of a window rather than a mirror. The notes reflect accurately the progress of the story with the usual changes of names and minor plot details (I have inserted the actual names used in the story against the names given in the notes):

Bullet passed through him and out to gong. Then door was locked on inside and body turned so that shot would have gone through window.

Second Gong

Girl coming down stairs late – meets boy – they ask butler – No, Miss – first gong. Secretary joins them (or girl anyway) – murderer – the shot fired from library just when he joins them

Dinner 8.15 – First gong 8.5. At 8.12 Joan comes down with Dick – butler says 1st gong (shot!). Geor Jervis joins them. Exeunt

At 7 Diana picks flowers – stain on dress. At 8.10 Diana hurries out – gets rose – tries window – is going away when shot is heard from road

Murderer shoots
[victim]
at 8.6 – shuts and locks door, goes out through window – bangs it and it shuts, smoothes over footprints – is in library when shot is fired.

Mrs Mulberry
[No equivalent in story]

Diana Cream
[Cleves]
clever (adopted daughter)

Calshott – the agent – a one-armed man – ex-soldier
[Marshall]

Geoffrey Keene (secretary)

John Behring – old friend – rich man
[Gregory Barling]

They go in to drawing room. Diana joins them – Mrs Lytcham Roche – vague – spectral – John Behring – 2nd gong – M. Poirot. No L
[ytcham]
R
[oche]
– an extraordinary thing. Butler says still in his study. Diana mentions that he’s been very queer all day – yes, he may do something dreadful. P watches her – they go to study – locked.

Break down door – dead man – mirror – window locked – (reopened by John Behring) pistol by hand – ‘Gong’ – key in his pocket. Inspection of window – he opens it – ground – no footprints. Police sent for – questions.

John Behring

Mrs LR
[Lytcham Roche]

Miss Cleves

[Geoffrey]
Keene (pick
[s]
up from hall)

Butler
[Digby]

Police satisfied – doctor a little uncertain as to mirror. Poirot goes out with torchlight – comes back – asks Joan for shoes – comes out – J with him (and Dick) Diana – Michaelmas daisies. Come, mes enfants, Shows them window (gong then?). Asks butler about Michaelmas daisy – Yes – then a few words with him.

As can be seen, the notes, telegrammatic in style, are very close to the finished story, which includes even the details of the Michaelmas daisies and the stain on Diana’s dress. The novels immediately preceding ‘The Second Gong’ –
The Murder at the Vicarage
,
The Sittaford Mystery
,
Peril at End House
– all appear in the Notebooks more or less as they eventually appeared in print. Rough work, if any, may have been done elsewhere and the Notebooks represented an outline as distinct from the working out of details of the plot.