The+Truth

A Murder is Announced Chapter 22 Summary

 * Craddock diverts his attention to Edmund, and Mitzi manages to oh-so-quietly slip into the kitchen and run the sink.
 * Enter Miss Blacklock. She starts off the conversation by pleasantly accusing Mitzi of lying to Inspector Craddock.
 * Mitzi tells Miss Blacklock that she’ll tell Craddock she was fabricating everything.
 * Leticia tells Mitzi that there’s no need, because Craddock already knows she’s lying. But, she says that only SHE knows that Mitzi’s telling the truth!
 * Leticia grabs Mitzi’s head and “force[s] it into the water filled sink” (206).
 * Then, Leticia hears a horrifying noise. Dora Bunner’s voice “[rises] piteously in the air” (207).
 * Leticia screams and releases Mitzi. She tries to flee, but is blocked by Sergeant Fletcher. Miss Marple emerges from the broom cupboard where she was hiding.
 * Miss Marple says, “I could always mimic people’s voices” (207).
 * Sergeant Fletcher charges Leticia Blacklock with attempted murder, as well as a promise of more charges to come. Miss Marple corrects him, and says that the Leticia Blacklock they know is actually CHARLOTTE Blacklock.
 * Miss Marple claims that under “Leticia’s” choker of pearls, one can find the scar from Charlotte’s goiter operation.
 * Leticia/Charlotte begins to cry, saying that she “really loved Dora”, and didn’t want to kill her (207).
 * After Mitzi is checked out medically by Constable Edwards, she is “lyrical with self-praise” (207). Everything she had said had been a set-up, luring Miss Blacklock into a trap to bring the truth to light.
 * Miss Hinchcliffe “leap[s] upon the weeping figure” of Charlotte, muttering that she’ll kill her in retaliation for Miss Murgatroyd’s death (208).
 * Sergeant Fletcher holds her off, and Charlotte “drop[s] her head on her hands and [weeps]” (208).