Read The Mirror Crack's From Side to Side for Free Online Page A

settle down.'
    Again she shot a quick surreptitious glance at Jason Rudd. He was not scowling now. Instead he was smiling, a sudden very sweet and unexpected smile, but it was a sad smile. 'He knows it too,' thought Mrs Bantry.
    The door opened and a woman came in. 'Bartletts want you on the telephone, Jason,' she said.
    'Tell them to call back.'
    'They said it was urgent.'
    He sighed and rose. 'Let me introduce you to Mrs Bantry,' he said. 'Ella Zielinsky, my secretary.'
    'Have a cup of tea, Ella,' said Marina as Ella Zielinsky acknowledged the introduction with a smiling 'pleased to meet you.'
    'I'll have a sandwich,' said Ella. 'I don't go for China tea.'
    Ella Zielinsky was, at a guess, thirty-five. She wore a well cut suit, a ruffled blouse and appeared to breathe self-confidence. She had short-cut black hair and a wide forehead.
    'You used to live here, so they tell me,' she said to Mrs Bantry.
    'It's a good many years ago now,' said Mrs Bantry. 'After my husband's death I sold it and it's passed through several hands since then.'
    'Mrs Bantry really says she doesn't hate the things we've done to it,' said Marina.
    'I should be frightfully disappointed if you hadn't,' said Mrs Bantry. 'I came up here all agog. I can tell you the most splendid rumours have been going around the village.'
    'Never knew how difficult it was to get hold of plumbers in this country,' said Miss Zielinsky, champing a sandwich in a businesslike way. 'Not that that's been really my job,' she went on.
    'Everything is your job,' said Marina, 'and you know it is, Ella. The domestic staff and the plumbing and arguing with the builders.'
    'They don't seem ever to have heard of a picture window in this country.'
    Ella looked towards the window. 'It's a nice view, I must admit.'
    'A lovely old-fashioned rural English scene,' said Marina. 'This house has got atmosphere.'
    'It wouldn't look so rural if it wasn't for the trees,' said Ella Zielinsky. 'That housing estate down there grows while you look at it.'
    'That's new since my time,' said Mrs Bantry.
    'You mean there was nothing but the village when you lived here?'
    Mrs Bantry nodded.
    'It must have been hard to do your shopping.'
    'I don't think so,' said Mrs Bantry. 'I think it was frightfully easy.'
    'I understand having a flower garden,' said Ella Zielinsky, 'but you folk over here seem to grow all your vegetables as well. Wouldn't it be much easier to buy them - there's a supermarket?'
    'It's probably coming to that,' said Mrs Bantry, with a sigh. 'They don't taste the same, though.'
    'Don't spoil the atmosphere, Ella,' said Marina.
    The door opened and Jason looked in. 'Darling,' he said to Marina, 'I hate to bother you but would you mind? They just want your private view about this.'
    Marina sighed and rose. She trailed languidly towards the door. 'Always something,' she murmured. 'I'm so sorry, Mrs Bantry. I don't really think that this will take longer than a minute or two.'
    'Atmosphere,' said Ella Zielinsky, as Marina went out and closed the door. 'Do you think the house has got atmosphere?'
    'I can't say I ever thought of it that way,' said Mrs Bantry. 'It was just a house. Rather inconvenient in some ways and very nice and cosy in other ways.'
    'That's what I should have thought,' said Ella Zielinsky. She cast a quick direct look at Mrs Bantry. 'Talking of atmosphere, when did the murder take place here?'
    'No murder ever took place here,' said Mrs Bantry.
    'Oh come now. The stories I've heard. There are always stories, Mrs Bantry. On the hearthrug, right there, wasn't it?' said Miss Zielinsky nodding towards the fireplace.
    'Yes,' said Mrs Bantry. 'That was the place.'
    'So there was a murder?'
    Mrs Bantry shook her head. 'The murder didn't take place here. The girl who had been killed was brought here and planted in this room. She'd nothing to do with us.'
    Miss Zielinsky looked interested.
    'Possibly you had a bit of difficulty making people believe that?' she remarked.
    'You're quite