A Pocket Full of Rye

On the train back to Yewtree Lodge, Neele does a crossword puzzle and notes news from East Africa concerning uranium discoveries. He asks to see Miss Marple, who tells him that Mrs. Crump has been giving her useful information about Gladys’s habits and state of mind before her death. Neele says that it is time for them to compare notes. He has come to realize that Miss Marple has a reputation among his colleagues, which she sheepishly admits is the case. Neele insists that his point of view is the more rational, as he focuses only on who benefits from the deaths.

Neele realizes that the nursery rhyme does not account for the actual order of events: Gladys was likely murdered before the others had tea, when she was distracted from her work by the murderer’s arrival. Miss Marple finds this departure from the rhyme significant, but Neele insists that he will focus only on “sober facts and common sense and the reasons for which sane people do murders” (218). He insists that Percival benefits most and explains how he could have placed the taxine in the marmalade before his business trip. Miss Marple is gratified by the information but does not explain why.

Neele explains, more glumly, that Adele’s death saved the firm from insolvency since she did not live long enough to inherit her shares. He admits, however, that Percival was in London for both her death and Gladys’s. Neele decides that Ruby Mackenzie must be the culprit, given Percival’s alibi and the nursery rhyme, and leaves abruptly, though Miss Marple tries to dissuade him.

Neele goes to see Miss Dove. He watches her tally a household account, once more struck by her poise and wondering at her inner motives. He describes to her the emerging motifs of the rye and the blackbirds, events with which she is familiar. He then suggests that she is living under a false name and that the sanatorium staff could prove it. She denies knowing anything about the sanatorium and tells him frostily, “[P]rove that I’m Ruby Mackenzie if you can” (223).

Neele orders his sergeant to uncover Miss Dove’s background. Hay tells him that Miss Marple is looking for him. He finds her deep in conversation with Jennifer and leaves them alone. Miss Marple says that nursing must be fertile ground for romance since it is how Jennifer met Percival. Jennifer laments the loneliness of her life and says that she regrets her marriage but asks Miss Marple to change the subject.

Miss Marple and Neele meet again, and he apologizes for his earlier behavior. Miss Marple tells him that she is not concerned, as the interlude has given her time to consolidate her own view of the case. She tells him, “I did want to get the telephone calls clear and the nylon stockings and all that” (227). Neele is baffled and begins to question his own judgment in consulting her. Miss Marple goes on to explain that Gladys was both her motive for coming and a key to the case: Gladys poisoned Rex.

Miss Marple insists that from Gladys’s perspective, Rex’s death was an accident. Her admirer, Albert Evans, likely told her that she was administering a truth drug: Miss Marple found evidence that Gladys was obsessed with popular sensational articles about pseudoscientific advancements. Miss Marple hypothesizes that Albert told Gladys that Rex had financially wronged him and would only admit to it if given the drug. Albert must have persuaded her to take a job at Yewtree Lodge to administer the truth serum. His postcards refer to a significant date, likely alluding to the day of the murder. When Neele asks why Gladys never explained, Miss Marple reminds him that she always insisted on her innocence and says, “[Y]ou don’t think that a nervous young woman who had murdered someone when she didn’t mean to murder him is going to admit it, do you?” (232).

Miss Marple explains that Gladys met her killer the day of her death. The unexplained phone calls in the hours before were Albert, calling to arrange their appointment. Neele, who believes that the murderer cannot be rational, assumes that Miss Marple is telling him that Donald Mackenzie, Ruby’s brother, somehow lived through the war and posed as Albert.

Miss Marple says that the dead birds were planted by a rational person who wanted to upset Rex. The killer took inspiration from the incidents to frame the Mackenzies for the murders. Miss Marple tells Neele that the killer is known to him and that he is “sane, brilliant, and quite unscrupulous” (234). Neele initially assumes that she means Percival but realizes the description does not fit, and Miss Marple interrupts, declaring, “Not Percival. Lance” (234).

Inspector Neele still struggles to understand exactly how Lance crafted his murder plot. Miss Marple takes up her narrative once more, “rather in the manner of someone explaining the facts of arithmetic to a small child” (236). Miss Marple asserts that Lance has always been prone to immorality, but his charm allows him to deceive people, especially women. Miss Marple says that she thinks Lance came to England in the summer of his own volition, hoping his father would facilitate his return so that he could provide for Pat in the way he felt she deserved.

Neele realizes that the letter he found about Lance’s visit could have been written after the murder and planted to suggest that Rex invited him. Miss Marple postulates that the first blackbird incident inspired Lance to frame the Mackenzies for Rex’s murder. He saw that his father was unstable and that only his death would secure the firm, while Adele’s death would ensure no bequest went to her. The poisoning required a third party, so Lance, posing as Albert, enlisted an unwitting Gladys to play the part of the maid in the rhyme. Lance strangled Gladys before joining the family for tea and later poisoned Adele’s cup without her noticing.

Neele points out that the firm may not have been enough motive for such an elaborate scheme. Miss Marple asks him if the Blackbird Mine might have been the motive after all. Neele remembers the newspaper article he read—perhaps Miss Ramsbottom was right, and the mine is in East Africa, where the uranium was recently found. Neele begins to worry about evidence, but Miss Marple reminds him that he can find the holiday camp Gladys visited and show Lance’s photograph there. Neele is still doubtful but says that Lance is a plausible culprit, in his experience of criminals. Miss Marple explains that her time with Pat clarified matters for her, as Pat is “the kind that always marries a bad lot” (239). When Neele expresses confusion about Ruby Mackenzie, Miss Marple tells him to go ask Jennifer.

Jennifer confesses her real identity immediately, and Neele tells her that he has met her mother. Jennifer explains that she never shared her mother’s vision, realizing later how ill she was, but that she did want a kind of moral reckoning for Rex. She decided that marriage into the family was its own kind of restitution, as she would get family money as Percival’s wife. She put the blackbirds in the pie and on the desk when Rex angered her by boasting about his schemes. Neele, on a hunch, asks Jennifer if Miss Dove has recently blackmailed her. Jennifer says that Miss Dove agreed to keep her secret in exchange for £500.

Neele goes to see Miss Dove, asking her to return the money to Jennifer. He tells her that his investigations have revealed that a few months after she stops working at a house, it is burgled, with clear indications that the thieves know exactly where to find valuable assets. Neele suggests that there could be future meetings between them, but Miss Dove hopes there won’t be.

The chapter opens with Miss Marple saying farewell to Miss Ramsbottom, who assumes that she has identified the killer but asks not to be told. Miss Ramsbottom is playing patience and turns up the cards “black knave, red queen” (245). She implies that she knows Lance is the killer, saying, “[H]e was Elvira’s boy—and I couldn’t bring myself to say anything” (246), but she thanks Miss Marple for finding the truth. Miss Marple says goodbye to Pat, telling her to seek refuge in Ireland if misfortune ever befalls her again.

Miss Marple returns home, and her maid, Kitty, presents her with the mail, including a letter that was originally misdelivered. It is from Gladys. Before her death, she wrote to Miss Marple explaining Rex’s death and asking Miss Marple to come help her explain matters to the police. Gladys was sure that Albert was innocent and that the truth drug was not intended to be fatal. She enclosed a picture, proving definitively that Albert is Lance Fortescue. Miss Marple feels fury at his cruelty but also experiences a “surge of triumph” at being proven correct (249).