VSuperintendent Sugden looked round at the circle of faces. He said, with something as nearirritation as he had yet shown:

“This is very irregular, Mr. Poirot.”

Poirot said:

“It is a little idea of mine. I wish to share with everyone the knowledge that I have acquired. Ishall then invite their cooperation, and so we shall get at the truth.”

Sugden murmured under his breath: “Monkey tricks.”

He leaned back in his chair. Poirot said:

“To begin with, you have, I think, an explanation to ask of Mr. Farr.”

Sugden’s mouth tightened².

“I should have chosen a less public moment,” he said. “However, I’ve no objection.” Hehanded the cable to Stephen Farr. “Now, Mr. Farr, as you call yourself, perhaps you can explainthis?”

Stephen Farr took it. Raising his eyebrows³, he read it slowly out loud. Then, with a bow, hehanded it back to the superintendent¹.

“Yes,” he said. “It’s pretty damning, isn’t it?”

Sugden said:

“Is that all you’ve got to say about it? You quite understand there is no obligation on you tomake a statement—”

Stephen Farr interrupted. He said:

“You needn’t caution me, Superintendent. I can see it trembling on your tongue! Yes, I’llgive you an explanation. It’s not a very good one, but it’s the truth.”

He paused. Then he began:

“I’m not Ebenezer Farr’s son. But I knew both father and son quite well. Now try and putyourself in my place. (My name is Stephen Grant, by the way.) I arrived in this country for the firsttime in my life. I was disappointed. Everything and everybody seemed drab and lifeless. Then Iwas travelling by train and I saw a girl. I’ve got to say it straight out: I fell for that girl! She wasthe loveliest and most unlikely creature in the world! I talked to her for a while in the train and Imade up my mind then and there not to lose sight of her. As I was leaving the compartment⁴ Icaught sight of the label on her suitcase. Her name meant nothing to me, but the address to whichshe was travelling did. I’d heard of Gorston Hall, and I knew all about its owner. He was EbenezerFarr’s one-time partner and old Eb often talked about him and said what a personality he was.

“Well, the idea came to me to go to Gorston Hall and pretend I was Eb’s son. He had died, asthis cable says, two years ago, but I remembered old Eb saying that he had not heard from SimeonLee now for many years, and I judged that Lee would not know of the death of Eb’s son. Anyway,I felt it was worth trying.”

Sugden said: “You didn’t try it on at once, though. You stayed in the King’s Arms atAddlesfield for two days.”

Stephen said:

“I was thinking it over—whether to try it or not. At last I made up my mind I would. Itappealed to me as a bit of an adventure. Well, it worked like a charm! The old man greeted me inthe friendliest manner and at once asked me to come and stay in the house. I accepted. There youare, Superintendent, there’s my explanation. If you don’t fancy it, cast your mind back to yourcourting days and see if you don’t remember some bit of foolishness you indulged in then. As formy real name, as I say, it’s Stephen Grant. You can cable to South Africa and check up on me, butI’ll tell you this: you’ll find I’m a perfectly⁵ respectable citizen. I’m not a crook⁶ or a jewel thief.”

Poirot said softly: “I never believed you were.”

Superintendent Sugden stroked his jaw⁷ cautiously. He said:

“I’ll have to check up on that story. What I’d like to know is this: Why didn’t you come cleanafter the murder instead of telling us a pack of lies?”

Stephen said disarmingly:

“Because I was a fool! I thought I could get away with it! I thought it would look fishy⁸ if Iadmitted to being here under a false name. If I hadn’t been a complete idiot I would have realizedyou were bound to cable to Jo’burg.”

Sugden said:

“Well, Mr. Farr—er—Grant—I’m not saying I disbelieve your story. It will be proved ordisproved soon enough.”

He looked across inquiringly at Poirot. The latter said:

“I think Miss Estravados has something to say.”

Pilar had gone very white. She said, in a breathless voice:

“It is true. I would never have told you, but for Lydia and the money. To come here andpretend and cheat and act—that was fun, but when Lydia said the money was mine and that it wasonly justice, that was different; it was not fun any longer.”

Alfred Lee said with a puzzled face:

“I do not understand, my dear, what you are talking about.”

Pilar said:

“You think I am your niece, Pilar Estravados? But that is not so! Pilar was killed when I wastravelling with her in a car in Spain. A bomb came and it hit the car and she was killed, but I wasnot touched. I did not know her very well, but she had told me all about herself and how hergrandfather had sent for her to go to England and that he was very rich. And I had no money at alland I did not know where to go or what to do. And I thought suddenly: ‘Why should not I takePilar’s passport and go to England and become very rich?’ ” Her face lit up with its sudden widesmile. “Oh, it was fun wondering if I could get away with it! Our faces on the photograph were notunlike. But when they wanted my passport here I opened the window and threw it out and randown to get it, and then I rubbed some earth just over the face a little because at a barriertravelling they do not look very closely, but here they might—”

Alfred Lee said angrily:

“Do you mean to say that you represented yourself to my father as his granddaughter, andplayed on his affection for you?”

Pilar nodded. She said complacently⁹:

“Yes, I saw at once I could make him like me very much.”

George Lee broke out:

“Preposterous¹⁰!” he spluttered. “Criminal! Attempting to get money by false pretences¹¹.”

Harry¹² Lee said:

“She didn’t get any from you, old boy! Pilar, I’m on your side! I’ve got a profoundadmiration for your daring. And, thank goodness, I’m not your uncle any more! That gives me amuch freer hand.”

Pilar said to Poirot: “You knew? When did you know?”

Poirot smiled:

“Mademoiselle, if you have studied the laws of Mendel you would know that two blue-eyedpeople are not likely to have a brown-eyed child. Your mother was, I was sure, a most chaste¹³ andrespectable lady. It followed, then, that you were not Pilar Estravados at all. When you did yourtrick with the passport, I was quite sure of it. It was ingenious, but not, you understand, quiteingenious enough.”

Superintendent Sugden said unpleasantly:

“The whole thing’s not quite ingenious enough.”

Pilar stared at him. She said:

“I don’t understand. .?.?.”

Sugden said: “You’ve told us a story—but I think there’s a good deal more you haven’t told.”

Stephen said: “You leave her alone!”

Superintendent Sugden took no notice. He went on:

“You’ve told us that you went up to your grandfather’s room after dinner. You said it was animpulse on your part. I’m going to suggest something else. It was you who stole those diamonds.

You’d handled them. On occasion, perhaps, you’d put them away in the safe and the old manhadn’t watched you do it! When he found the stones were missing, he saw at once that only twopeople could have taken them. One was Horbury, who might have got to know the combinationand have crept in and stolen them during the night. The other person was you.

“Well, Mr. Lee at once took measures. He rang me up and had me come to see him. Then hesent word to you to come and see him immediately after dinner. You did so and he accused you ofthe theft. You denied it; he pressed the charge. I don’t know what happened next—perhaps hetumbled to the fact that you weren’t his granddaughter, but a very clever little professional thief.

Anyway, the game was up, exposure loomed¹⁴ over you, and you slashed¹⁵ at him with a knife. Therewas a struggle and he screamed. You were properly up against it then. You hurried out of theroom, turned the key from the outside and then, knowing you could not get away, before theothers came, you slipped into the recess¹⁶ by the statues.”

Pilar cried shrilly¹⁷:

“It is not true! It is not true! I did not steal the diamonds! I did not kill him. I swear it by theBlessed Virgin¹⁸.”

Sugden said sharply:

“Then who did? You say you saw a figure standing¹⁹ outside Mr. Lee’s door. According toyour story, that person must have been the murderer. No one else passed the recess! But we’veonly your word for it that there was a figure there at all. In other words, you made that up toexculpate yourself!”

George Lee said sharply:

“Of course she’s guilty! It’s all clear enough! I always said an outsider killed my father!

Preposterous nonsense to pretend one of his family would do a thing like that! It—it wouldn’t benatural!”

Poirot stirred in his seat. He said:

“I disagree with you. Taking into consideration the character of Simeon Lee, it would be avery natural thing to happen.”

“Eh?” George’s jaw dropped. He stared at Poirot.

Poirot went on:

“And, in my opinion, that very thing did happen. Simeon Lee was killed by his own flesh andblood, for what seemed to the murderer a very good and sufficient reason.”

George cried: “One of us? I deny—”

Poirot’s voice broke in hard as steel.

“There is a case against every person here. We will, Mr. George Lee, begin with the caseagainst you. You had no love for your father! You kept on good terms with him for the sake ofmoney. On the day of his death he threatened to cut down your allowance. You knew that on hisdeath you would probably inherit a very substantial sum. There is the motive²⁰. After dinner youwent, as you say, to telephone. You did telephone—but the call lasted only five minutes. After thatyou could easily have gone to your father’s room, chatted with him, and then attacked him andkilled him. You left the room and turned the key from outside, for you hoped the affair would beput down to a burglar. You omitted, in your panic, to make sure that the window was fully²¹ open soas to support the burglar theory. That was stupid; but you are, if you will pardon my saying so,rather a stupid man!

“However,” said Poirot, after a brief pause during which George tried to speak and failed,“many stupid men have been criminals!”

He turned his eyes on Magdalene.

“Madame, too, she also had a motive. She is, I think, in debt, and the tone of certain of yourfather’s remarks may—have caused her uneasiness. She, too, has no alibi²². She went to telephone,but she did not telephone, and we have only her word for what she did do. .?.?.

“Then,” he paused, “there is Mr. David Lee. We have heard, not once but many times, of therevengeful tempers and long memories that went with the Lee blood. Mr. David Lee did not forgetor forgive the way his father had treated his mother. A final jibe²³ directed at the dead lady mayhave been the last straw. David Lee is said to have been playing the piano at the time of themurder. By a coincidence he was playing the ‘Dead March.’ But suppose somebody else wasplaying that ‘Dead March,’ somebody who knew what he was going to do, and who approved hisaction?”

Hilda Lee said quietly:

“That is an infamous²⁴ suggestion.”

Poirot turned to her. “I will offer you another, madame. It was your hand that did the deed. Itwas you who crept upstairs to execute judgment²⁵ on a man you considered beyond humanforgiveness. You are of those, madame, who can be terrible in anger. .?.?.”

Hilda said: “I did not kill him.”

Superintendent Sugden said brusquely:

“Mr. Poirot’s quite right. There is a possible case against everyone except Mr. Alfred Lee,Mr. Harry Lee, and Mrs. Alfred Lee.”

Poirot said gently:

“I should not even except those three. .?.?.”

The superintendent protested: “Oh, come now, Mr. Poirot!”

Lydia Lee said:

“And what is the case against me, M. Poirot?”

She smiled a little as she spoke²⁶, her brows raised ironically.

Poirot bowed. He said:

“Your motive, madame, I pass over. It is sufficiently²⁷ obvious. As to the rest, you werewearing last night a flowered taffeta dress of a very distinctive²⁸ pattern with a cape²⁹. I will remindyou of the fact that Tressilian, the butler, is shortsighted. Objects at a distance are dim and vagueto him. I will also point out that your drawing room is big and lighted by heavily shaded lamps.

On that night, a minute or two before the cries were heard, Tressilian came into the drawing roomto take away the coffee-cups. He saw you, as he thought, in a familiar attitude by the far windowhalf concealed³⁰ by the heavy curtains.”

Lydia Lee said: “He did see me.”

Poirot went on:

“I suggest that it is possible that what Tressilian saw was the cape of your dress, arranged toshow by the window curtain, as though you yourself were standing there.”

Lydia said: “I was standing there. .?.?.”

Alfred said: “How dare you suggest—?”

Harry interrupted him.

“Let him go on, Alfred. It’s our turn next. How do you suggest that dear Alfred killed hisbeloved father since we were both together in the dining room at the time?”

Poirot beamed at him.

“That,” he said, “is very simple. An alibi gains in force accordingly as it is unwillingly³¹ given.

You and your brother are on bad terms. It is well known. You jibe at him in public. He has not agood word to say for you! But, supposing that were all part of a very clever plot. Supposing thatAlfred Lee is tired of dancing attendance upon an exacting³² taskmaster. Supposing that you and hehave got together some time ago. Your plan is laid. You come home. Alfred appears to resent yourpresence. He shows jealousy³³ and dislike of you. You show contempt for him. And then comes thenight of the murder you have so cleverly planned together. One of you remains³⁴ in the dining room,talking and perhaps quarrelling aloud as though two people were there. The other goes upstairsand commits the crime. .?.?.”

Alfred sprang to his feet.

“You devil!” he said. His voice was inarticulate.

Sugden was staring at Poirot. He said:

“Do you really mean—?”

Poirot said, with a sudden ring of authority in his voice:

“I have had to show you the possibilities! These are the things that might have happened!

Which of them actually did happen we can only tell by passing from the outside appearance to theinside reality. .?.?.”

He paused and then said slowly:

“We must come back, as I said before, to the character of Simeon Lee himself. .?.?.”

 

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