Crooked House

Shortly after Brenda’s arrest, Roger and Clemency approach the group to announce that they will carry out their plan and leave England. Clemency expresses a fervent desire to get away from the Leonides family and finally have Roger to herself. Charles realizes that Clemency’s “[l]ove for Roger […] [makes] up her entire existence” (170).

A car pulls up carrying Magda and Josephine back from the hospital. Charles attempts to fill Josephine in on the events that have transpired during her recovery, but she reveals that she already knew about the changed will—she was listening at the door when Aristide told Sophia. Edith interrupts the discussion and sends Josephine back into the house. Charles notices that she looks weary and careworn. She tells him that though she dislikes Brenda, she wants her to have good legal representation, as this is what Aristide would have wanted. Charles agrees to take her up to London in his car so she can avoid going later in the day with Magda and Sophia.

Charles and Taverner catch up about the Leonides case. As the evidence is all circumstantial, Taverner can’t be confident that Brenda and Laurence will be convicted. Although the letters contain many suggestive phrases, there are no explicit references to poisoning. Taverner speculates that Brenda falls into an unsympathetic archetype, and that the crime is “so familiar” that the jury might assume guilt based on historical patterns. Neither Taverner, nor Charles, nor Arthur feel certain of their guilt. They discuss the attitudes of the family: Except for Roger, the Leonides family is uneasy and apologetic, because they don’t truly believe in Brenda’s guilt. They discuss other possibilities, including Sophia, Philip, Magda, Edith, and Eustace.

Suddenly Charles has a realization that Josephine’s room was ransacked by someone looking not for the letters, but for her little black notebook of observations. They wouldn’t have found it, and Josephine’s continued possession of the book means she’s still in danger. Arthur begins to tell Charles that the facts all point to one person, but they are interrupted by the ringing phone. Once again Sophia is on the line—she tearfully informs Charles that Janet is dead, having drunk a poisoned cup of cocoa apparently intended for Josephine.

At Three Gables, Charles encounters Clemency, who is leaving for London with Roger. He confronts them about their potential involvement, which they staunchly deny. Josephine emerges, looking healthy and in good spirits. She comments that Janet’s murder is “exciting.” Charles warns her that continuing to snoop around could endanger her further, but Josephine responds that she doesn’t need to uncover any more information because she knows the identity of the murderer. He takes her into a private room and urges her to tell him everything, but she refuses. Charles warns her that if she keeps the information secret, her life is in danger. Josephine retorts that she is “fond of” the murderer and that if she ever reveals the information, she wants to do it in a dramatic fashion with everyone gathered all around.

Just then, Edith enters the room. She wants to take Josephine out of Three Gables for a while and instructs Charles to get the child ready as she has “a few notes to write” (188). As he does so, Sophia approaches to tell him that the poison used in the cocoa was digitalin. Edith takes digitalin pills for her heart, and her pill bottle was found empty. She tells Charles that she feels as if she’s in a nightmare, her trusted family replaced by “cruel stranger[s]” (190). Exclaiming that she no longer feels safe in the house, she hurries outside.

In the garden, Sophia shares fond memories of Janet. An ambulance drives up and leaves carrying her body. Darkness falls over the garden, but Edith and Josephine are still not back. As they go inside, Charles grows uneasy, as no one knows the location of Taverner, Edith, or Josephine. At half past six, Taverner finally enters Three Gables. Somberly, he informs the assembled family that the car Edith was driving was found at the bottom of a local quarry. Edith and Josephine were killed on impact.

Suddenly Charles remembers that the notes Edith was writing were not in her hand when she left the house with Josephine. Running into the hall, he finds them hidden behind a tea urn. The first letter is addressed to Taverner. It is Edith’s suicide note, in which she explains that she was terminally ill and had little time left to live. She accepts full responsibility for the deaths of Aristide and Janet, clearing Brenda and Laurence’s names. Perplexed, Charles wonders why she took Josephine with her. The second envelope contains Josephine’s black notebook. Opening it to the first page, Charles reads the sentence: “Today I killed grandfather” (195).

Charles wonders how he could have been so oblivious to Josephine’s guilt. Josephine was the only one who fit his father’s description of a murderer—she was vain and eager to talk about the crime. She had all the worst qualities of each of her family members—the ruthlessness of her grandmother and the unchecked egoism of her mother, as well as a sensitivity to not being loved enough, like her father. She also had Aristide’s “essential crooked strain” (197), but while he loved his family, Josephine could only love herself. Charles reads the final letter from Edith, addressed only to himself and Sophia. In it she reveals that that she was suffering from a terminal illness. Knowing she had little time left, she killed herself and Josephine to spare her great-niece from a lifetime of punishment.

The remaining pages of Josephine’s notebook reveal that she killed Aristide because he wouldn’t pay for her ballet lessons and set up the clumsy attack on herself to divert suspicions. Janet was poisoned for her perceived rudeness and to draw attention back onto Josephine in the wake of Brenda and Laurence’s arrests. Closing the notebook, Sophia and Charles are conflicted. Although Josephine committed awful crimes, they feel sorry for her—as Charles says, she was “born with a kink—the crooked child of the crooked little house” (199).

Charles is happy to marry Sophia now that suspicion has been lifted off her. He intends to take her to Persia and away from the Three Gables forever. While Josephine inherited the worst of the Leonides family, he knows that Sophia inherited their best. The novel ends with Charles informing his father of Josephine’s guilt.