The+Letters

A Murder is Announced Chapter 18 Summary

 * Craddock interviews Phillipa again, focusing on her husband this time.
 * He gets her to tell the truth about her husband: "he was a deserter from his regiment" during the war (159).
 * Phillipa does not not want her son to know, as she just tells him and everyone else that her husband died in Italy during the war. It's possible that her husband is "still alive" (160).
 * Craddock suspects that Philippa saw "him about a fortnight ago" (or, for Americans, 2 weeks ago), and that there is a slight possibility that he was involved in the crime since he probably doesn't have the best character (160).
 * Craddock doubts that he was involved though, since he didn't fit in with the oiled-door situation and his record wasn't bad enough to suggest a murder.
 * Craddock returns to Letitia's home and goes to the attic, wondering what Julia "had been doing up there" earlier on (161). Attics aren't exactly the best places or even normal places to spend your time.
 * He finds a collection of letters concerning Letitia's past in the attic, and hopes that they could give him clues, specifically about Sonia.
 * Letitia sees Craddock as he leaves the attic and she doesn't exactly seem thrilled that he has found those letters.
 * After Craddock says he has to take them, she changes her tone suddenly, and only asks that he "burns them afterwards" (163). Either Letitia has some unusual mood swings, or she has an ulterior motive for wanting to destroy those letters.
 * Craddock gives one of the letters to Mrs. Marple while she is with Mrs. Harmon, hoping that she will be able to better understand "how these people's minds worked" - a.k.a. how old peoples' minds work (164).
 * The letter, which was written by Letitia at some time in the past, describes Sonia's decision to marry Dmitri Stamfordis, R.G.'s disapproval of the decision, and Charlotte's illness.
 * They briefly consider that Colonel Easterbrook could have done it, since is the only one they knew that had a revolver, but they doubt that it was him.
 * The old ladies, trying to connect the letters to the crime, bring up the many small illegal things that people of Chipping Cleghorn do regularly.
 * This causes Craddock to feel uneasy again because everything seems "pleasant and ordinary" and "petty and simple" (168). How could things so simple cause a shooting?
 * Rydesdale calls Craddock and tells him that Phillipa's husband was killed recently while "snatching a child practically from under the wheels of a lorry" - or in American terms, saving a child from being ran over by a truck (169). Pretty brave for a deserter.
 * This "lets him out of any possible connection" with the shooting, as he died the day before it happened (170).