Attempting to drown Mitzi

The attempt to drown Mitzi is the moment when a dangerous accusation becomes a witnessed crime. Mitzi’s account of seeing Miss Blacklock with the gun has just threatened to expose the truth about the shooting; when Miss Blacklock tries to silence her in the kitchen, Miss Marple’s concealed intervention brings the investigation to its climax and enables Sergeant Fletcher to take her into custody.

The Accusation That Precedes the Attack

Mitzi has told the Inspector that her earlier account was false: she was not in the pantry cleaning silver when the gunshots sounded. She says she was already in the dining room, looked through the keyhole, and saw Miss Blacklock close to the man with the gun in her hand. In Mitzi’s telling, the hall was dark, and the torch fell and swung around as it dropped, giving her the view on which her identification rests.

Miss Blacklock responds with astonishment and denial, while Edmund objects that Mitzi could not have seen her. The accusation therefore arrives amid immediate disbelief, but it is precisely the danger of what Mitzi claims to know that makes her vulnerable. The attack follows the disclosure rather than the earlier staged account: Miss Blacklock now understands that Mitzi is telling the truth.

The Attempt in the Kitchen

Later, Mitzi is at the sink when Miss Blacklock comes up behind her and forces her head into the water. Miss Blacklock keeps her there as Mitzi struggles. The action is sudden and private, directed at preventing Mitzi from repeating the testimony that could expose the shooting’s real circumstances.

The scene turns on a sharp contradiction between Miss Blacklock’s public composure and her conduct once she believes the witness is alone with her. Earlier, she had answered Mitzi pleasantly when Mitzi offered to tell the Inspector that she had made the story up. But after Mitzi indicates that she is telling the truth, Miss Blacklock’s response is an attempt to silence her by force. Mitzi’s allegation has moved from something Miss Blacklock can dismiss in conversation to a threat she acts to eliminate.

Miss Marple’s Interruption and the Arrest

As the attack continues, Dora Bunner’s voice seems to call out to Miss Blacklock. Miss Blacklock releases Mitzi and cries out, but there is no one visibly present in the kitchen with her. She then speaks to Dora as though seeking forgiveness and rushes towards the scullery door.

The apparent voice is part of Miss Marple’s trap: she has been concealed in a broom cupboard and says that she can mimic people’s voices. She steps out just as Sergeant Fletcher blocks Miss Blacklock’s way. Fletcher has witnessed the attempt on Mitzi and announces that Miss Blacklock must go with him; he also warns that further charges will follow. The trick does not itself establish the whole case. Its immediate purpose is to provoke Miss Blacklock into revealing herself through action, while Fletcher’s presence makes that action observable.

Consequence and Significance

Mitzi survives, and her account of the shooting gains force from the attempt to suppress it. What had been disputed testimony is now connected to a witnessed effort to prevent the witness from speaking. The intervention also reverses the balance of power in the kitchen: Miss Blacklock, who had acted on the assumption that Mitzi was alone and helpless, finds Miss Marple and Fletcher waiting to stop her.

The episode is the practical culmination of Miss Marple’s investigation. Instead of relying only on a confession or on Mitzi’s contested recollection, she creates circumstances in which Miss Blacklock’s response supplies immediate evidence of her guilt. The attack thus both confirms the peril Mitzi faces and exposes the fragility of Miss Blacklock’s assumed identity: the attempt to preserve the deception becomes the act that brings her under arrest.