Tilly Rice

Tilly Rice is a non-canonical character created for ITV's 2007 adaptation of the novel At Bertram's Hotel. She is a maid at Bertram's Hotel. Her murder on the rooftop of the hotel, early in the show is a pivotal moment in the plot as it set into motion all the subsequent events, especially the early involvement of Inspector Larry Bird, as well as the private investigation of Miss Marple assisted by Tilly's colleague and fellow hotel maid Jane Cooper. Tilly Rice was played by Hannah Spearritt.

When Miss Marple examined the body with Jane Cooper, they noticed a few unusual features. Tilly was wearing going out clothes and a hat which was similar to that worn by Bess Sedgwick and also Elvira Blake. However, the hair underneath the hat was ruffled rather than neat, suggesting that the hat was put on after she had been killed. Moreover, Jane found Tilly's cigarette butt with no lipstick marks. If Tilly had been going to meet someone, she would have worn lipstick.

Searching through Tilly's diary (she faithfully kept a journal), Miss Marple and Jane found a cryptic last entry noting "123" and "money received". Jane knew that Tilly had more money than she ought to have. Tilly herself had suggested that it was useful to have a drinking partner. Jane surmised that this was Mickey Gorman but he would not reveal much about their relationship. However, Mrs Rice, Tilly's mother, said that Tilly had told her that the money had come from a foreigner, one "Lars...", from which Jane surmised that it must be Ladislaus Malinowski. At first both Jane and Mrs Rice thought that he must have been Tilly's boyfriend.

As events unfolded, it was revealed that Ladislaus Malinowski had not in fact been romancing Tilly. Rather, he was a Nazi hunter and he had been paying Tilly as an informant, to keep him updated on the hotel's "Blake guests" (codeword for Nazi fugitives) who were using the ratline based on the hotel (see Herman Koch for details). At the same time, Miss Marple surmised that during a drinking session, Mickey Gorman must have revealed to Tilly the secret of his marriage to Bess Sedgwick. Tilly had been using this to blackmail Elvira Blake whose inheritance from her father would have been jeopardised by this revelation. This was a dangerous move as Elvira strangled Tilly on the hotel roof during what was probably a "pay-off" rendezvous.