Chapter 18

‘Come,’ said Hercule Poirot. ‘We have still a little way to go! Dr Gerard has invoked¹ thepsychology. So let us now examine the psychological side of this case. We have taken the facts,we have established a chronological³ sequence of events, we have heard the evidence. Thereremains—the psychology². And the most important psychological evidence concerns the deadwoman—it is the psychology of Mrs Boynton herself that is the most important thing in this case.

‘Take from my list of specified⁴ facts points three and four. Mrs Boynton took definite pleasurein keeping her family from enjoying themselves with other people. Mrs Boynton, on the afternoonin question, encouraged her family to go away and leave her.

‘These two facts, they contradict each other flatly! Why, on this particular afternoon, shouldMrs Boynton suddenly display a complete reversal of her usual policy? Was it that she felt asudden warmth of the heart—an instinct of benevolence⁵? That, it seems to me from all I haveheard, was extremely unlikely! Yet there must have been a reason. What was that reason?

‘Let us examine closely the character of Mrs Boynton. There have been many different accountsof her. She was a tyrannical old martinet—she was a mental sadist—she was an incarnation of evil—she was crazy. Which of these views is the true one?

‘I think myself that Sarah King came nearest to the truth when in a flash of inspiration inJerusalem she saw the old lady as intensely pathetic. But not only pathetic—futile!

‘Let us, if we can, think ourselves into the mental condition of Mrs Boynton. A human creatureborn with immense ambition, with a yearning⁶ to dominate and to impress her personality on otherpeople. She neither sublimated⁷ that intense craving⁸ for power—nor did she seek to master it—no,mesdames and messieurs—she fed it! But in the end—listen well to this—in the end what did itamount to? She was not a great power! She was not feared and hated over a wide area! She wasthe petty tyrant⁹ of one isolated¹⁰ family! And as Dr Gerard said to me—she became bored like anyother old lady with her hobby and she sought to extend her activities and to amuse herself bymaking her dominance more precarious¹¹! But that led to an entirely¹² different aspect of the case! Bycoming abroad, she realized for the first time how extremely insignificant¹³ she was!

‘And now we come directly to point number ten — the words spoken to Sarah King inJerusalem. Sarah King, you see, had put her finger on the truth. She had revealed fully¹⁵ anduncompromisingly the pitiful futility¹⁶ of Mrs Boynton’s scheme of existence! And now listen verycarefully—all of you—to what her exact words to Miss King were. Miss King has said that MrsBoynton spoke¹⁴ “so malevolently—not even looking at me”. And this is what she actually said,“I’ve never forgotten anything—not an action, not a name, not a face.”

‘Those words made a great impression on Miss King. Their extraordinary intensity¹⁷ and the loudhoarse tone in which they were uttered! So strong was the impression that they left on her mindthat I think she quite failed to realize their extraordinary significance!

‘Do you see that significance, any of you?’ He waited a minute. ‘It seems not…But, mes amis,does it escape you that those words were not a reasonable answer at all to what Miss King hadjust been saying? “I’ve never forgotten anything—not an action, not a name, not a face.” It doesnot make sense! If she had said, “I never forget impertinence”—something of that kind—but no—a face is what she said…

‘Ah!’ cried Poirot, beating his hands together. ‘But it leaps to the eye! Those words, ostensiblyspoken to Miss King, were not meant for Miss King at all! They were addressed to someone elsestanding behind Miss King.’

He paused, noting their expressions.

‘Yes, it leaps to the eye! That was, I tell you, a psychological moment in Mrs Boynton’s life!

She had been exposed to herself by an intelligent young woman! She was full of baffled fury—andat that moment she recognized someone—a face from the past—a victim delivered into her hands!

‘We are back, you see, at the outsider! And now the meaning of Mrs Boynton’s unexpectedamiability on the afternoon of her death is clear. She wanted to get rid of her family because—touse a vulgarity—she had other fish to fry! She wanted the field left clear for an interview with anew victim…

‘Now, from that new standpoint, let us consider the events of the afternoon! The Boyntonfamily go off. Mrs Boynton sits up by her cave. Now let us consider very carefully the evidence ofLady Westholme and Miss Pierce. The latter is an unreliable witness, she is unobservant and verysuggestible. Lady Westholme, on the other hand, is perfectly¹⁸ clear as to her facts and meticulouslyobservant. Both ladies agree on one fact! An Arab, one of the servants, approaches Mrs Boynton,angers her in some way and retires hastily. Lady Westholme stated definitely that the servant hadfirst been into the tent occupied by Ginevra Boynton, but you may remember that Dr Gerard’s tentwas next door to Ginevra’s. It is possible that it was Dr Gerard’s tent the Arab entered…’

Colonel Carbury said: ‘D’you mean to tell me that one of those Bedouin fellows of minemurdered an old lady by sticking her with a hypodermic? Fantastic!’

‘Wait, Colonel Carbury, I have not yet finished. Let us agree that the Arab might have comefrom Dr Gerard’s tent and not Ginevra Boynton’s. What is the next thing? Both ladies agree thatthey could not see his face clearly enough to identify him and that they did not hear what was said.

That is understandable. The distance between the marquee and the ledge¹⁹ was about two hundredyards. Lady Westholme gave a clear description of the man otherwise, describing in detail hisragged breeches and the untidiness with which his puttees were rolled.’

Poirot leaned forward.

‘And that, my friends, was very odd indeed! Because if she could not see his face or hear whatwas said, she could not possibly have noticed the state of his breeches and puttees! Not at twohundred yards!

‘It was an error, that, you see! It suggested a curious idea to me. Why insist so on the raggedbreeches and untidy puttees? Could it be because the breeches were not torn and the puttees werenon-existent? Lady Westholme and Miss Pierce both saw the man—but from where they weresitting they could not see each other. That is shown by the fact that Lady Westholme came to seeif Miss Pierce was awake and found her sitting in the entrance of her tent.’

‘Good lord,’ said Colonel Carbury, suddenly sitting up very straight. ‘Are you suggesting—?’

‘I am suggesting that, having ascertained²⁰ just what Miss Pierce (the only witness likely to beawake) was doing, Lady Westholme returned to her tent, put on her riding breeches, boots andkhaki-coloured coat, made herself an Arab head-dress with her checked duster and a skein ofknitting-wool and that, thus attired²¹, she went boldly up to Dr Gerard’s tent, looked in his medicinechest, selected a suitable drug, took the hypodermic, filled it and went boldly up to her victim.

‘Mrs Boynton may have been dozing²². Lady Westholme was quick. She caught her by the wristand injected the stuff. Mrs Boynton half cried out—tried to rise—then sank back. The “Arab”

hurried away with every evidence of being ashamed and abashed²³. Mrs Boynton shook her stick,tried to rise, then fell back into her chair.

‘Five minutes later Lady Westholme rejoins Miss Pierce and comments on the scene she hasjust witnessed, impressing her own version of it on the other. Then they go for a walk, pausingbelow the ledge where Lady Westholme shouts up to the old lady. She receives no answer. MrsBoynton is dead—but she remarks to Miss Pierce, “Very rude just to snort at us like that!” MissPierce accepts the suggestion—she has often heard Mrs Boynton receive a remark with a snort—she will swear quite sincerely if necessary that she actually heard it. Lady Westholme has sat oncommittees often enough with women of Miss Pierce’s type to know exactly how her owneminence and masterful personality can influence them. The only point where her plan went astraywas the replacing of the syringe. Dr Gerard returning so soon upset her scheme. She hoped hemight not have noticed its absence, or might think he had overlooked it, and she put it back duringthe night.’

He stopped.

Sarah said: ‘But why? Why should Lady Westholme want to kill old Mrs Boynton?’

‘Did you not tell me that Lady Westholme had been quite near you in Jerusalem when youspoke to Mrs Boynton? It was to Lady Westholme that Mrs Boynton’s words were addressed.

“I’ve never forgotten anything—not an action, not a name, not a face.” Put that with the fact thatMrs Boynton had been a wardress in a prison and you can get a very shrewd idea of the truth.

Lord Westholme met his wife on a voyage back from America. Lady Westholme before hermarriage had been a criminal and had served a prison sentence.

‘You see the terrible dilemma²⁴ she was in? Her career, her ambitions, her social position—all atstake! What the crime was for which she served a sentence in prison we do not yet know (thoughwe soon shall), but it must have been one that would effectually blast her political career if it wasmade public. And remember this, Mrs Boynton was not an ordinary blackmailer²⁵. She did not wantmoney. She wanted the pleasure of torturing her victim for a while and then she would haveenjoyed revealing the truth in the most spectacular fashion! No, while Mrs Boynton lived, LadyWestholme was not safe. She obeyed Mrs Boynton’s instructions to meet her at Petra (I thought itstrange all along that a woman with such a sense of her own importance as Lady Westholmeshould have preferred to travel as a mere²⁶ tourist), but in her own mind she was doubtless revolvingways and means of murder. She saw her chance and carried it out boldly. She only made two slips.

One was to say a little too much—the description of the torn breeches—which first drew myattention to her, and the other was when she mistook Dr Gerard’s tent and looked first into the onewhere Ginevra was lying half asleep. Hence the girl’s story—half make-believe, half true—of asheikh in disguise. She put it the wrong way round, obeying her instinct to distort the truth bymaking it more dramatic, but the indication was quite significant enough for me.’

He paused.

‘But we shall soon know. I obtained Lady Westholme’s fingerprints²⁷ today without her beingaware of the fact. If these are sent to the prison where Mrs Boynton was once a wardress, we shallsoon know the truth when they are compared with the files.’

He stopped.

In the momentary²⁸ stillness a sharp sound was heard.

‘What’s that?’ asked Dr Gerard.

‘Sounded like a shot to me,’ said Colonel Carbury, rising to his feet quickly. ‘In the next room.

Who’s got that room, by the way?’

Poirot murmured: ‘I have a little idea—it is the room of Lady Westholme…’

 

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