The Mystery of Mrs. Christie

December 14, 1926

The man is accompanied by two other men; Agatha considers ignoring them, then decides against it. Kenward introduces himself and asks Agatha for a word in private. Goddard accompanies them. Agatha nervously asks if she’s in trouble. Kenward says she isn’t, but that a chat with the third man (revealed in the next chapter to be Archie) will clarify matters. One of the guests asks if these men are “ringers” that Agatha has brought in to play pool with them, revealing as he speaks that she has been using the name “Mrs. Neele” at the hotel.

December 14, 1926

Agatha sits across from Archie, chastising herself for reflexively hoping she looks attractive. Archie is astonished that Agatha has been using the name “Mrs. Neele.” She reminds Archie to look happy to see her if he wishes to seem innocent in her disappearance; there are journalists everywhere. This successfully puts off Archie’s anger, which Agatha holds as crucial to her plan.

Archie asks her how she could disappear, but Agatha turns the question around on him: how could he have an affair, abandon his family, and be so indifferent to her grief? More important than how she disappeared, she argues, is why. She says it wasn’t to punish him, but that the “real why” began when he committed murder, which causes Archie to squawk in protest that he hadn’t killed anyone. Agatha counters that he killed “the innocent woman [she] once was” (164). She instructs him to tell the detectives she has amnesia. He resists—now that she has been found alive, he won’t be suspected of murder—but Agatha reiterates the contents of the letter, emphasizing that she still has power to harm him. Archie hesitates, but agrees, and tells the detectives he and Agatha need private time to talk.

December 14, 1926

Archie and Agatha sit down to dinner, Archie wincing every time someone greets Agatha as “Mrs. Neele.” Kenward and Goddard watch from a distance. She asks after Rosalind, and Archie speaks warmly about his daughter before becoming cold again when speaking about Agatha. Agatha resists the urge to apologize. Agatha delineates Archie’s “murder” of her previous self, as outlined in the manuscript she sent him. She notes that there is some fiction to the manuscript, though not in the depiction of Archie, and allows it was likely unpleasant for him to read about his flaws. Archie doesn’t argue.

Agatha expresses her upset that her efforts to be the perfect wife were inadequate and that Archie dismissed her despite her efforts and replaced her with someone more “appropriate.” Archie retorts that this is like one of Agatha’s “silly books,” and she rebuffs him, saying he wished to become “[his] own unreliable narrator” (168). Archie wonders why Agatha couldn’t allow a quiet divorce; she replies that allowing him to do so without naming Nancy as his mistress would cause the world to believe Agatha was the adulterer, which would fracture her relationship with Rosalind. If she disappeared, however, the resulting investigation would make public Archie’s affair. She outlines the clues she left: telling others about their marital difficulties and ensuring their argument was overheard; leaving her car and bag near the Silent Pool; and the strange letter to Archie’s brother. She will send the manuscript to Goddard and Kenward if Archie doesn’t continue to go along with her plans. She admits that the description of his threatening behavior in the Pyrenees was exaggerated and confesses to leaving out things about herself to paint a more flattering picture: her career ambition and ambivalence about motherhood. The manuscript will depict Archie’s supposed attempted murder at the Silent Pool (this scene is not included in “The Manuscript” chapters of Part 1), making her disappearance seem as though Agatha went into hiding out of fear for her life. Archie isn’t cowed, however, and threatens to expose Agatha to the world.

December 14, 1926

Agatha urges Archie not to draw attention, showing him bruises she has hidden under her shawl. He counters that the injuries are self-inflicted, and that it’s her word against his. Agatha gives him an empty envelope; she has the letter it once contained—a love note from Nancy that urges Archie to get a divorce. Agatha says she can’t get what she really wants—her old self back—but that she will preserve her reputation for the sake of her relationship with Rosalind. She is eager for the disappearance to be over and frames her increased publicity as a benefit rather than the original plan. She will now have to support herself as a novelist—Archie is pleased at the implication that this means they will divorce. She confirms this, saying she will grant it as long as Archie plays along, hires a doctor to confirm Agatha’s “amnesia,” and make clear to Rosalind that the divorce is his fault. Archie asks why they couldn’t have done this from the start, and Agatha reminds him of his insistence in keeping Nancy out of the divorce proceedings.

December 15, 1926

Agatha ventures into the throng of journalists outside the Harrogate Hydro Hotel, holding Madge’s hand, and notes how crucial she finds her sister’s support. She thinks about her life as a story, about how she created the “old Archie,” and served as an unreliable narrator to her own life. She considers the flaws in Mummy’s advice and plans to write herself a “perfect ending” as she faces the press.