Sleeping Murder

Agatha Christie - Sleeping Murder
Miss Marple's Last Case Complete and Unabridged
1 A HOUSE
Gwenda Reed stood, shivering a little, on the quayside.
The docks and the custom sheds and all of England that she could see, were gently waving up and down.
And it was in that moment that she made her decision—the decision that was to lead to such very
momentous events.
She wouldn't go by the boat train to London as she had planned.
After all, why should she? No one was waiting for her, nobody expected her. She had only just got off
that heaving creaking boat (it had been an exceptionally rough three days through the Bay and up to
Plymouth) and the last thing she wanted was to get into a heaving swaying train.
She would go to a hotel, a nice firm steady hotel standing on good solid ground. And she would get into
a nice steady bed that didn't creak and roll. And she would go to sleep, and the next morning -- why, of
course -- what a splendid idea! She would hire a car and she would drive slowly and without hurrying
herself all through the South of England looking about for a house -- a nice house -- the house that she
and Giles had planned she should find.
Yes, that was a splendid idea.
In that way she would see something of England -- of the England that Giles had told her about and
which she had never seen, although, like most New Zealanders, she called it Home. At the moment,
England was not looking particularly attractive.
It was a grey day with rain imminent and a sharp irritating wind blowing. Plymouth, Gwenda thought, as
she moved forward obediently in the queue for Passports and Customs, was probably not the best of
England.
On the following morning, however, her feelings were entirely different. The sun was shining. The view
from her window was attractive. And the universe in general was no longer waving and wobbling. It had
steadied down. This was England at last and here she was, Gwenda Reed, young married woman of
twenty-one, on her travels. Giles's return to England was uncertain.
He might follow her in a few weeks. It might be as long as six months.
His suggestion had been that Gwenda should precede him to England and should look about for a
suitable house. They both thought it would be nice to have, somewhere, a permanency. Giles's job would
always entail a certain amount of travelling.
Sometimes Gwenda would come too, sometimes the conditions would not be suitable.
But they both liked the idea of having a home -- some place of their very own.
Giles had inherited some furniture from an aunt recently, so that everything combined to make the idea a