The Alien Artifact 9 (Novelette)
repeatedly if the killer had thought it was him,
as he was doing more than anyone to catch him, and could easily
have found out about it from all the publicity it had got.
    The dead man had been viciously beaten to
death, and I stood wondering what the hell the killer was up to
anyway.
    Could it have been caused by the war or it
indirectly?
    What was the motive? Why had all the people
been killed?
    There was no connection between them!
    Police inspector looked annoyed at not
having the case solved, and by the fact they had virtually nothing
on the killer, and it looked as if they would never do it now.
    Marple swiftly handed me a sheet of paper
with information about the death and deaths, and I started to read
it, and studied the crumpled body as someone lifted the body, and I
realized that it was a reporter from the sheet of paper, and I
wondered if I knew him, and I studied his face.
    I examined the complexion of the frozen
body, drained of blood, and from the expressions of people behind
nearby windows I realized how dangerous it made the place.
    I wondered if the reporter had discovered
something, and knew that Marple would be investigating him and
questioning people he knew trying to find what he had been doing
before his death.
    I attempted to work out the exact time that
it could have occurred, and where I had been, and was sure it could
have occurred at night, and I wondered if I should take it as a
warning from what had been at the hospital. Yet I could not be
sure, as all the facts added up to it not being, and nothing
actually suggested it actually was.
    Locals that passed in the distance could not
understand what was happening, and people nearby seemed slightly
shocked, and I spotted what looked like marks on the ground where
the reporter had tried to crawl away in his last seconds of
life.
    “ Who would want to shoot
him? ” I
asked the inspector, frustrated at not seeing anything suggesting
an answer, and not being able to stay silent any longer.
    “ What worries me more than
anything, ” the inspector muttered back to Marple, with confusion, “ is that I
don ’t have
a clue! ”
    “ They’ll
find something!” Marple assured him, confidently, and I realized he
had to have something, and I was surprised the inspector reacted in
the same way.
     

Chapter 17
     
    The Army
     
    Everything
seemed to be edging into disaster, especially the war, and the
killer not found, and the disturbances at the hospital and house,
and what had happened in the shaft, and strange occurrences
emerged, and this time seemed to gain power!
    At the Home Guard headquarters I was left
with the other recruits and my attempt to tell them what happened
failed, and most put my memory deficiency down to drink, as they
drank a lot themselves, and in the end I went along with it, and
Godfrey and Clooney thought it was.
    While listening to the recruits having a
dispute over racing horses, on which would win, I decided to show I
was not drunk after all, and in the end only laughed out loud at
them, and one asked me what horse I thought was better, and I just
decided to try to persuade them a horse I had heard winning before
was better, which I later discovered was a different horse, with a
similar name, and argued that the horse was far better than the
others, and in the end most stopped listening to me.
    Godfrey eventually bet me it would lose, and
all the other soldiers became interested in the bet, and betting
against the captain, and perhaps persuaded by my confidence in the
horse.
    I realized all the soldiers now had a
dispute with the captain, and his methods, and rigorous training,
and eventually all of them bet their horse would beat his horse,
and made me the originator and head of the idea.
    When the captain left they persuaded me to
do everything I could to get it win against the captain’s horse,
and I started to realize the situation I had just put myself in,
and that the horse had to win, and in the end I bet a large sum

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