Micky Argyle

In the novel Ordeal by Innocence, Michael "Micky" Argyle is an adopted son of Leo and Rachel. He is angry that his birth mother did not seek him from Sunny Point after the war ended. He works as a car salesman in Drymouth.

Micky is in his early twenties, and has a "dark, handsome face", but it is "marred by its expression of bitterness".

Micky is not at Sunny Point at the beginning of the novel, when Dr Calgary comes to tell the family that Jacko Argyle was innocent of the murder of Mrs Argyle. However, Micky hears about it from Leo, and visits Dr Calgary at his hotel to ask him about it. He tells Dr Calgary that Mrs Argyle was not his biological mother, and that all the children were adopted. He also tells Dr Calgary to think about who did kill Mrs Argyle, if Jacko did not. He says that by doing this, Dr Calgary will begin to see what his news is doing to the family.

Micky was an illegitimate child. He does not remember his biological father, because he had left the family when Micky was still very young. As a child, Micky lived with his mother in a London slum. He enjoyed the casual, exciting atmosphere, and having fun in the streets with the other boys. His mother would have "sudden furies when she would turn and lambast him". As an adult, he understands that these were times when she was under the influence of gin.

When Micky's mother was in a good mood, they had moments of "wild gaiety". They would eat fish and chips for supper, and she would sing sentimental ballads.

Micky's mother had various romantic partners, whom she always asked him to address as Uncle. She would not allow them to lay a hand on him, and would tell them to leave him alone.

Micky found the war exciting, and had found it fun going down into the Tubes and spending the nights there. When he was evacuated to the countryside, his mother did not want to go, and did not seem to care about his going. She had told him that he would come back when the war was over, but she had said it lightly, as if it was not really true.

Micky had felt like a prisoner at Sunny Point, and often lay awake at night, crying for home and his mother. Leo remembered a time when Micky had been losing weight, and his appetite had been failing. Dr MacMaster could find nothing wrong with him, and suggested that he might be homesick. Mrs Argyle had dismissed this as impossible, but one day Micky had pushed her away with his fists, and cried out that he wanted to go home to his mother and Ernie.

Micky had decided that he would wait until the war was over, and then he would go home. When Mrs Argyle told him that he would not be going home, and would instead stay at Sunny Point and be her own little boy, he had asked if his mother had been killed by a bomb. Mrs Argyle said that he mother had not been killed, but she had difficult work to do and could not look after a child. Micky understood this to mean that his mother did not love him and did not want him back.

After that, Micky had snuck around, trying to overhear conversations. He eventually overheard a conversation between Mrs Argyle and her husband, in which she had mentioned someone being only "too pleased to get rid of him", and something about a hundred pounds. Micky was humiliated and hurt by the idea that his mother had sold him, and Mrs Argyle had bought him. He saw Mrs Argyle as "embodied Power", against whom he was helpless. He resolved to kill Mrs Argyle when he grew up, and felt better after making that resolution.

Micky found things better when he went away to school, but he hated the holidays because of Mrs Argyle. He disliked how she was always arranging everything, planning, giving him gifts, and being puzzled because he did not show love for her.

When Micky was older, he enjoyed thwarting the plans Mrs Argyle made for him. She had wanted him to work in a bank or an oil company, but he had wanted to find work for himself.

When Micky was at university, he tried to trace his biological mother. He found that she had been dead for some years, having been killed in a car crash, with a man who had been driving while drunk.

In the present, Micky is unhappy because his mind keeps going over the past, and he is unable to leave it behind him. He realises that now that Mrs Argyle is dead, he cannot hate her anymore, and he feels lost and afraid without his hatred.

Micky comes to Sunny Point to attend a meeting with Mr Marshall, together with the rest of the family. Mr Marshall advises the family to take the position that Mrs Argyle was probably killed by an outsider, who had gained admission by telling her a plausible story of distress. Micky asks the family what they think really happened, and when he is told that it is unwise to talk too much about it, he tells them to think about it.

Micky tells Superintendent Huish that on the day of the murder, he was out testing a car which had clutch trouble. He drove from Drymouth up Minchin Hill, along the Moor Road, and back through Ipsley.

Micky asks Tina to go for a walk with him. He does not put on a coat even though it is cold outside, as he says that he never feels the cold.

Tina tells Micky that in all the years they lived at Sunny Point, he never enjoyed the beauty of it, and was always longing to go back to London. He says that it was because he did not belong at Sunny Point, and Tina tells him that is what the matter is, that he does not belong anywhere. She also tells him that it was not really Mrs Argyle he hated, but his biological mother. She tells him that he has to learn to live without hate.

Micky later tells Leo that he has seen how ungrateful he has always been, for everything his adoptive parents had done for him. He tells Leo that he really does appreciate it. He also says that he is thinking of taking a job with an oil company in the Persian Gulf, just as Mrs Argyle had wanted him to.

Micky tells Leo that he likes cars and "getting the best out of them". He is able to talk to potential customers and do "all the smarmy bits", but he does not like the life. His new job would also be to do with motor transport, and controlling the servicing of cars.

Leo tells Micky that if at any time, he wants to establish a business, the money in the Discretionary Trust set up by Mrs Argyle will be available to him. However, Micky insists that he does not want to use the money in the Trust, and would rather be independent.

Micky later decides to take the job with the oil company. He goes to the churchyard where Mrs Argyle is buried, to say goodbye, thank her, and say that he is sorry. He tells Tina that he was never grateful to Mrs Argyle, and never gave her a kind word or a loving look, and he wishes now that he had.

Micky explains that it was not really Mrs Argyle he had hated, as Tina had earlier said, it was his biological mother. He had hated her because he loved her, but she had not cared for him. He supposes that she could not help it, because "you're born what you are". He now accepts that she did not care for him.

Micky takes a carnation from Tina's bunch, and lays it on Mrs Argyle's grave. He tells her that he was a rotten son, and she was not a very wise mother to him, but that she meant well.

Micky goes with Tina to Sunny Point, where he walks around, thinking about things. After Philip Durrant is found dead, Tina goes to Micky to tell him. She collapses in his arms, and he carries her into Mrs Argyle's sitting-room, and lays her on the sofa.

It is revealed that Tina did not faint, but was stabbed in the back. The knife is found in Micky's pocket, and he is detained by the police.

It is later revealed that Micky did not kill Philip or stab Tina. The murderer slipped the knife into Micky's pocket to divert suspicion away from themselves.

It is suggested that Tina and Micky are in love, and that they might get married after Tina recovers.