Hercule Poirot 3-Book Collection 1: The Mysterious Affair at Styles, The Murder on the Links, Poirot Investigates

I was silent. And in a minute or two, Poirot continued:

‘Let us look at the matter like this. Here is a man, let us say, who sets out to poison his wife. He has lived by his wits as the saying goes. Presumably, therefore, he has some wits. He is not altogether a fool. Well, how does he set about it? He goes boldly to the village chemist’s and purchases strychnine under his own name, with a trumped-up story about a dog which is bound to be proved absurd. He does not employ the poison that night. No, he waits until he has had a violent quarrel with her, of which the whole household is cognizant, and which naturally directs their suspicions upon him. He prepares no defence—no shadow of an alibi, yet he knows the chemist’s assistant must necessarily come forward with the facts. Bah! Do not ask me to believe that any man could be so idiotic! Only a lunatic, who wished to commit suicide by causing himself to be hanged, would act so!’

‘Still—I do not see –’ I began.

‘Neither do I see. I tell you, mon ami, it puzzles me. Me—Hercule Poirot!’

‘But if you believe him innocent, how do you explain his buying the strychnine?’

‘Very simply. He did not buy it.’

‘But Mace recognized him!’

‘I beg your pardon, he saw a man with a black beard like Mr Inglethorp’s, and wearing glasses like Mr Inglethorp, and dressed in Mr Inglethorp’s rather noticeable clothes. He could not recognize a man whom he had probably only seen in the distance, since, you remember, he himself had only been in the village a fortnight, and Mrs Inglethorp dealt principally with Coot’s in Tadminster.’

‘Then you think –’

‘Mon ami, do you remember the two points I laid stress upon? Leave the first one for the moment, what was the second?’

‘The important fact that Alfred Inglethorp wears peculiar clothes, has a black beard, and uses glasses,’ I quoted.

‘Exactly. Now suppose anyone wished to pass himself off as John or Lawrence Cavendish. Would it be easy?’

‘No,’ I said thoughtfully. ‘Of course an actor –’

But Poirot cut me short ruthlessly.

‘And why would it not be easy? I will tell you, my friend: Because they are both clean-shaven men. To make up successfully as one of these two in broad daylight, it would need an actor of genius, and a certain initial facial resemblance. But in the case of Alfred Inglethorp, all that is changed. His clothes, his beard, the glasses which hide his eyes—those are the salient points about his personal appearance. Now, what is the first instinct of the criminal? To divert suspicion from himself, is it not so? And how can he best do that? By throwing it on someone else. In this instance, there was a man ready to his hand. Everybody was predisposed to believe in Mr Inglethorp’s guilt. It was a foregone conclusion that he would be suspected; but, to make it a sure thing there must be tangible proof—such as the actual buying of the poison, and that, with a man of the peculiar appearance of Mr Inglethorp, was not difficult. Remember, this young Mace had never actually spoken to Mr Inglethorp. How should he doubt that the man in his clothes, with his beard and his glasses, was not Alfred Inglethorp?’

‘It may be so,’ I said, fascinated by Poirot’s eloquence. ‘But, if that was the case, why does he not say where he was at six o’clock on Monday evening?’

‘Ah, why indeed?’ said Poirot, calming down. ‘If he were arrested, he probably would speak, but I do not want it to come to that. I must make him see the gravity of his position. There is, of course, something discreditable behind his silence. If he did not murder his wife, he is, nevertheless, a scoundrel, and has something of his own to conceal, quite apart from the murder.’

‘What can it be?’ I mused, won over to Poirot’s views for the moment, although still retaining a faint conviction that the obvious deduction was the correct one.

‘Can you not guess?’ asked Poirot, smiling.

‘No, can you?’

‘Oh, yes, I had a little idea some time ago—and it has turned out to be correct.’

‘You never told me,’ I said reproachfully.

Poirot spread out his hands apologetically.

‘Pardon me, mon ami, you were not precisely sympathique.’ He turned to me earnestly. ‘Tell me—you see now that he must not be arrested?’

‘Perhaps,’ I said doubtfully, for I was really indifferent to the fate of Alfred Inglethorp, and thought that a good fright would do him no harm.

Poirot, who was watching me intently, gave a sigh.

‘Come, my friend,’ he said changing the subject, ‘apart from Mr Inglethorp, how did the evidence at the inquest strike you?’

‘Oh, pretty much what I expected.’

‘Did nothing strike you as peculiar about it?’

My thoughts flew to Mary Cavendish, and I hedged:

‘In what way?’

‘Well, Mr Lawrence Cavendish’s evidence for instance?’

I was relieved.

‘Oh, Lawrence! No, I don’t think so. He’s always a nervous chap.’

‘His suggestion that his mother might have been poisoned accidentally by means of the tonic she was taking, that did not strike you as strange –hein?’

‘No, I can’t say it did. The doctors ridiculed it of course. But it was quite a natural suggestion for a layman to make.’

‘But Monsieur Lawrence is not a layman. You told me yourself that he had started by studying medicine, and that he had taken his degree.’

‘Yes, that’s true. I never thought of that.’ I was rather startled. ‘It is odd.’

Poirot nodded.

‘From the first, his behaviour has been peculiar. Of all the household, he alone would be likely to recognize the symptoms of strychnine poisoning, and yet we find him the only member of the family to uphold strenuously the theory of death from natural causes. If it had been Monsieur John, I could have understood it. He has no technical knowledge, and is by nature unimaginative. But Monsieur Lawrence—no! And now, today, he puts forward a suggestion that he himself must have known was ridiculous. There is food for thought in this, mon ami!’

‘It’s very confusing,’ I agreed.

‘Then there is Mrs Cavendish,’ continued Poirot. ‘That is another who is not telling all she knows! What do you make of her attitude?’

‘I don’t know what to make of it. It seems inconceivable that she should be shielding Alfred Inglethorp. Yet that is what it looks like.’

Poirot nodded reflectively.

‘Yes, it is queer. One thing is certain, she overheard a good deal more of that “private conversation” than she was willing to admit.’

‘And yet she is the last person one would accuse of stooping to eavesdrop!’

‘Exactly. One thing her evidence has shown me. I made a mistake. Dorcas was quite right. The quarrel did take place earlier in the afternoon, about four o’clock, as she said.’

I looked at him curiously. I had never understood his insistence on that point.

‘Yes, a good deal that was peculiar came out today,’ continued Poirot. ‘Dr Bauerstein, now, what was he doing up and dressed at that hour in the morning? It is astonishing to me that no one commented on the fact.’

‘He has insomnia, I believe,’ I said doubtfully.