The Unexpected Guest by Agatha Christie Page A

-'
    'I don't want to!' Laura cried.
    'Don't be a little fool,' Starkwedder growled. 'It's not loaded. Come on, pick it up. Pick it up.'
    Laura picked up the gun, hesitantly.
    'You snatched it up,' he reminded her. 'You didn't pick it up gingerly like that. You snatched it up, and you shot him. Show me how you did it.'
    Holding the gun awkwardly, Laura backed away from him. 'I - I -' she began.
    'Go on. Show me,' Starkwedder shouted at her.
    Laura tried to aim the gun. 'Go on, shoot!' he repeated, still shouting. 'It isn't loaded.'
    When she still hesitated, he snatched the gun from her in triumph. 'I thought so,' he exclaimed. 'You've never fired a revolver in your life. You don't know how to do it.' Looking at the gun, he continued, 'You don't even know enough to release the safety catch.'
    He dropped the gun on the footstool* then walked to the back of the sofa, and turned to face her. After a pause, he said quietly, 'You didn't shoot your husband.'
    'I did,' Laura insisted.
    'Oh no, you didn't,' Starkwedder repeated with conviction.
    Sounding frightened, Laura asked, 'Then why should I say I did?'
    Starkwedder took a deep breath and then exhaled. Coming round the sofa, he threw himself down on it heavily. 'The answer to that seems pretty obvious to me. Because it was Julian Farrar who shot him,' he retorted.
    'No!' Laura exclaimed, almost shouting.
    'Yes!'
    'No!' she repeated.
    'I say yes,' he insisted.
    'If it was Julian,' Laura asked him, 'why on earth should I say I did it?'
    Starkwedder looked at her levelly. 'Because,' he said, 'you thought - and thought quite rightly - that I'd cover up for you. Oh yes, you were certainly right about that.' He lounged back into the sofa before continuing, 'Yes, you played me along very prettily. But I'm through, do you hear? I'm through. I'm damned if I'm going to tell a pack of lies to save Major Julian Farrar's skin.'
    There was a pause. For a few moments Laura said nothing. Then she smiled and calmly walked over to the table by the armchair to pick up her cigarette. Turning back to Starkwedder, she said, 'Oh yes, you are! You'll have to! You can't back out now! You've told your story to the police. You can't change it.'
    'What?' Starkwedder gasped, taken aback.
    Laura sat in the armchair. 'Whatever you know, or think you know,' she pointed out to him, 'you've got to stick to your story. You're an accessory after the fact - you said so yourself.' She drew on her cigarette.
    Starkwedder rose and faced her. Dumbfounded, he exclaimed, 'Well, I'm damned! You little bitch!' He glared at her for a few moments without saying anything further, then suddenly turned on his heel, went swiftly to the french windows, and left. Laura watched him striding across the garden. She made a movement as though to follow and call him back, but then apparently thought better of it. With a troubled look on her face, she slowly turned away from the windows.

The Unexpected Guest

CHAPTER TWELVE
    Later that day, towards the end of the afternoon, Julian Farrar paced nervously up and down in the study. The french windows to the terrace were open, and the sun was about to set, throwing a golden light onto the lawn outside. Farrar had been summoned by Laura Warwick, who apparently needed to see him urgently. He kept glancing at his watch as he awaited her.
    Farrar seemed very upset and distraught. He looked out onto the terrace, turned back into the room again, and glanced at his watch. Then, noticing a newspaper on the table by the armchair, he picked it up. It was a local paper, The Western Echo, with a news story on the front page reporting Richard Warwick's death, 'PROMINENT LOCAL RESIDENT MURDERED BY MYSTERIOUS ASSAILANT,' the headline announced. Farrar sat in the armchair and began nervously to read the report. After a moment, he flung the paper aside, and strode over to the french windows. With a final glance back into the room, he set off across the lawn. He was halfway across the garden, when he heard a