Great Train Crimes: Murder and Robbery on the Railways (25 page)

When Mrs Elspeth MacGillicuddy takes a train at 4.50 pm from Paddington, just before Christmas, the last thing she expects to witness is a murder. But that is exactly what happens when the train she is on passes another train. It is on a bend and the shutters suddenly shoot up. But all she can see is a tall, broad man strangling a woman and cannot see his face. When she reports this to the railway staff and the police, they are polite and go through the motions. This is because the police cannot find a corpse. Without a corpse, there can be no murder inquiry.

Undeterred, she turns to her old friend, Miss Marple. She sets about trying to solve the mystery. With help from a young nephew who is an employee of British Railways, she concludes that the train that was passed was the 4.33 stopping service from Paddington. The trains would have passed near to the edge of the rambling country estate which surrounds Rutherford Hall. As she astutely observes, a murder on a train gives the killer the advantage of anonymity. She realizes that, if a killing occurs where someone lives, the killer might be seen coming or going, and if he drives his victim to a location, however, remote, someone may see him or notice the car. But on a train, with many passengers coming and going, all the killer needs to do is to leave at the next station, and if it is a busy one, he is unlikely to be remembered.

Miss Marple then calls on the services of the astute young Lucy Eylesbarrow, who agrees to take a temporary post at the house whilst searching for clues. She finds traces of clothing near the brambles close to the railway line. She later discovers the body of a strangled woman in the Old Barn on the estate. Much of the book then concerns the identity of the victim. Could it be something to do with the Crackenthorpe family, most of whom do not live there, but are regular visitors?

The killer turns out to be someone totally unexpected. He had been living apart from his wife. Then he sees the opportunity to marry a rich woman. So he contacts his wife and suggests a reconciliation and they meet in London and travel from Paddington. There he kills her, without having been witnessed, or so he thinks, and then throws the body out near Rutherford Hall. That evening he takes the body and hides it in the Old Barn. In the forthcoming weeks, he proceeds to murder other members of the family, so his hoped for future bride will be all the more wealthy. An excellent plan – but foiled by Miss Marple and her allies.