This extensive excerpt from Agatha Christie's novel, By the pricking of my thumbs, follows the elderly couple, Tuppence and Tommy Beresford, as they investigate strange occurrences following the death of Tommy's Aunt Ada at Sunny Ridge, a home for elderly ladies. The narrative begins with a seemingly mundane visit to the home but shifts to a mystery when Tuppence encounters Mrs. Lancaster, who talks about a dead child behind a fireplace, and later, when the Beresfords try to return a picture Mrs. Lancaster gifted Aunt Ada, they find Mrs. Lancaster has mysteriously vanished. Tuppence's personal investigation into the house depicted in the painting, located near the village of Sutton Chancellor, leads her to uncover connections to a network of criminal activity involving stolen diamonds and past child murders, ultimately revealing that Sir Philip Starke, aided by his secretary Miss Bligh, moved his mentally unstable wife, Lady Starke (Mrs. Lancaster), to various homes, including Sunny Ridge, to conceal her identity as a child killer. The story culminates with Tuppence being abducted and discovering Mrs. Lancaster, while Tommy, alerted by a doctor's suspicions about multiple deaths at Sunny Ridge, uses clues from a secret compartment in Aunt Ada's desk to locate his wife and help authorities expose a complex conspiracy involving several houses managed by a solicitor named Eccles.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.