Sparkling Cyanide

348 Pages·1989·0.77 MB·English

by  Agatha Christie

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Sparkling Cyanide
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Contents
About Agatha Christie
The Agatha Christie Collection
E-book Extras
Book1
Rosemary
Chapter 1
Iris Marle
Chapter 2
Ruth Lessing
Chapter 3
Anthony Browne
Chapter 4
Stephen Farraday
Chapter 5
Alexandra Farraday
Chapter 6
George Barton
Book 2
All Souls' Day
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Book 3
Iris
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Copyright
www.agathachristie.com
About the Publisher
Book 1
Rosemary
‘What can I do to drive away remembrances
from mine eyes?’
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Six people were thinking of Rosemary Barton who
had died nearly a year ago . . .
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Chapter 1
Iris Marle
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Iris Marle was thinking about her sister, Rosemary.
For nearly a year she had deliberately tried to put the
thought of Rosemary away from her. She hadn’t wanted
to remember.
It was too painful – too horrible!
The blue cyanosed face, the convulsed clutching
fingers . . .
The contrast between that and the gay lovely Rose-
mary of the day before . . . Well, perhaps not exactly
gay. She had had ’flu – she had been depressed, run
down . . . All that had been brought out at the inquest.
Iris herself had laid stress on it. It accounted, didn’t it,
for Rosemary’s suicide?
Once the inquest was over, Iris had deliberately tried
to put the whole thing out of her mind. Of what good was
remembrance? Forget it all! Forget the whole horrible
business.
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But now, she realized, she had got to remember. She
had got to think back into the past . . . To remember
carefully every slight unimportant seeming incident . . .
That extraordinary interview with George last night
necessitated remembrance.
It had been so unexpected, so frightening. Wait –
had it been so unexpected? Hadn’t there been indi-
cations beforehand? George’s growing absorption, his
absentmindedness, his unaccountable actions – his –
well, queerness was the only word for it! All leading up
to that moment last night when he had called her into the
study and taken the letters from the drawer of the desk.
So now there was no help for it. She had got to think
about Rosemary – to remember.
Rosemary – her sister . . .
With a shock Iris realized suddenly that it was the
first time in her life she had ever thought about Rose-
mary. Thought about her, that is, objectively, as a
person.
She had always accepted Rosemary without thinking
about her. You didn’t think about your mother or your
father or your sister or your aunt. They just existed,
unquestioned, in those relationships.
You didn’t think about them as people. You didn’t ask
yourself, even, what they were like.
What had Rosemary been like?
That might be very important now. A lot might
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