Title: A Cut Above The Rest
Fandom: Miss Marple
Rating: G
Length: 613 words
Summary: Miss Marple explains what led to her suspicions

"Tell me, Aunt Jane, what made you first suspect the curate,” Dermot Craddock asked.  He had accepted an invitation to afternoon tea with Miss Marple and her friend Dolly Bantry.

“Well, it began when his wife passed on a few magazines to me.  I’d had a bad cold and was stuck at home, so she thought they might entertain me for a little while, which was very kind of her.  Of course, most of them had been passed on to her, so there were odd bits of pages missing.  You know the sort of thing.”

Craddock shook his head.

Miss Marple explained.  “Things like recipes that look quite interesting.”

“Indeed,” Dolly Bantry agreed.  “You put them to one side, realise you don’t have all the ingredients and then after a few weeks lose them.”

“And then knitting patterns or sewing patterns.  I have a large envelope where I keep any knitting patterns which particularly appeal, one never knows when they may come in useful and the price of patterns these days is ridiculous.”

“Arthur sometimes cuts out crosswords, although he rarely remembers to also cut out the solution, so it can be rather frustrating at times.”

“And occasionally there are poems which one wishes to keep.  So you see, initially there wasn’t any reason for me to be suspicious when part of a gardening magazine had been cut out.  In fact, had I not been reading an article which ended on the back of the missing item I would probably never have noticed.  As it was, it was only because I knew Dolly also had that particular magazine that I asked her if I could borrow it.”

“There are a number of interesting articles in that magazine,” Dolly explained, “so I normally keep my copies rather than passing them on.”

“Okay, I understand so far,” Craddock said.

“Well, of course, when I’d finished the article I was interested in, I turned over to see what was on the other side, thinking I might read that as well.  Which was when I saw it was about plants people don’t always realise are poisonous.  Of course, most of those reading that magazine would already know all about them, but it might be of interest to someone.  And then I recalled one or two unfortunate events in the last few months.  And I began to wonder.”

“But why the curate?  Why not anyone else who had read the article and cut it out?”

“If you were intending to act on some of the suggestions in the magazine and had cut the article out, would you pass it on to your neighbour?  It would be much easier to throw it away.”

“And you also eliminated the curate’s wife?”

“Again, she would never have passed the magazine onto me.  I got the feeling she hadn’t read half the magazines she gave me.  And the curate did seem to have developed a sudden interest in gardening.  So when old Mrs Hetherop died suddenly, and it seemed she might have been poisoned, I knew I had to speak to you.”

“It’s as well you did.  We now believe that at least two of the people who’d fallen ill previously had been the result of the curate’s experiments to see how much of the plant he needed to use.”

Miss Marple shook her head.  “One never knows what people will do.  It’s dreadful to think that an article designed to prevent accidental poisoning was instrumental in causing it to be done deliberately.”

“At least you solved it, Aunt Jane.  You know sometimes my colleagues get to talking about their elderly relatives, and I always think you’re a cut above the rest.”