Chapter 17

Poirot Announces Departure

Miss Livingstone showed in a guest. ‘Mr Hercules Porrett.’

As soon as Miss Livingstone had left the room, Poirot shut the door afterher and sat down by his friend, Mrs Ariadne Oliver.

He said, lowering his voice slightly, ‘I depart.’

‘You do what?’ said Mrs Oliver, who was always slightly startled byPoirot’s methods of passing on information.

‘I depart. I make the departure. I take a plane to Geneva.’

‘You sound as though you were UNO or UNESCO or something.’

‘No. It is just a private visit that I make.’

‘Have you got an elephant in Geneva?’

‘Well, I suppose you might look at it that way. Perhaps two of them.’

‘I haven’t found out anything more,’ said Mrs Oliver. ‘In fact I don’tknow who I can go to, to find out any more.’

‘I believe you mentioned, or somebody did, that your goddaughter, CeliaRavenscroft, had a young brother.’

‘Yes. He’s called Edward, I think. I’ve hardly ever seen him. I took himout once or twice from school, I remember. But that was years ago.’

‘Where is he now?’

‘He’s at university, in Canada I think. Or he’s taking some engineeringcourse there. Do you want to go and ask him things?’

‘No, not at the moment. I should just like to know where he is now. But Igather he was not in the house when this suicide happened?’

‘You’re not thinking – you’re not thinking for a moment that he did it,are you? I mean, shot his father and his mother, both of them. I know boysdo sometimes. Very queer they are sometimes when they’re at a funnyage.’

‘He was not in the house,’ said Poirot. ‘That I know already from my po-lice reports.’

‘Have you found out anything else interesting? You look quite excited.’

‘I am excited in a way. I have found out certain things that may throwlight upon what we already know.’

‘Well, what throws light on what?’

‘It seems to me possible now that I can understand why Mrs Burton-Coxapproached you as she did and tried to get you to obtain information forher about the facts of the suicide of the Ravenscrofts.’

‘You mean she wasn’t just being a nosey-parker?’

‘No. I think there was some motive behind it. This is where, perhaps,money comes in.’

‘Money? What’s money got to do with that? She’s quite well off, isn’tshe?’

‘She has enough to live upon, yes. But it seems that her adopted sonwhom she regards apparently as her true son – he knows that he was ad-opted although he knows nothing about the family from which he reallycame. It seems that when he came of age he made a Will, possibly urgedby his adopted mother to do so. Perhaps it was merely hinted to him bysome friends of hers or possibly by some lawyer that she had consulted.

Anyway, on coming of age he may have felt that he might as well leaveeverything to her, to his adopted mother. Presumably at that time he hadnobody else to leave it to.’

‘I don’t see how that leads to wanting news about a suicide.’

‘Don’t you? She wanted to discourage the marriage. If young Desmondhad a girl-friend, if he proposed to marry her in the near future, which iswhat a lot of young people do nowadays – they won’t wait or think it over.

In that case, Mrs Burton-Cox would not inherit the money he left, since themarriage would invalidate any earlier Will, and presumably if he didmarry his girl he would make a new Will leaving everything to her andnot to his adopted mother.’

‘And you mean Mrs Burton-Cox didn’t want that?’

‘She wanted to find something that would discourage him from marry-ing the girl. I think she hoped, and probably really believed as far as thatgoes, that Celia’s mother killed her husband, afterwards shooting herself.

That is the sort of thing that might discourage a boy. Even if her fatherkilled her mother, it is still a discouraging thought. It might quite easilyprejudice and influence a boy at that age.’

‘You mean he’d think that if her father or mother was a murderer, thegirl might have murderous tendencies?’

‘Not quite as crude as that but that might be the main idea, I shouldthink.’

‘But he wasn’t rich, was he? An adopted child.’

‘He didn’t know his real mother’s name or who she was, but it seemsthat his mother, who was an actress and a singer and who managed tomake a great deal of money before she became ill and died, wanted at onetime to get her child returned to her and when Mrs Burton-Cox would notagree to that, I should imagine she thought about this boy a great deal anddecided that she would leave her money to him. He will inherit thismoney at the age of twenty-five, but it is held in trust for him until then.

So of course Mrs Burton-Cox doesn’t want him to marry, or only to marrysomeone that she really approves of or over whom she might have influ-ence.’

‘Yes, that seems to me fairly reasonable. She’s not a nice woman though,is she?’

‘No,’ said Poirot, ‘I did not think her a very nice woman.’

‘And that’s why she didn’t want you coming to see her and messingabout with things and finding out what she was up to.’

‘Possibly,’ said Poirot. ‘

Anything else you have learnt?’

‘Yes, I have learnt – that is only a few hours ago really – when Superin-tendent Garroway happened to ring me up about some other small mat-ters, but I did ask him and he told me that the housekeeper, who was eld-erly, had very bad eyesight.’

‘Does that come into it anywhere?’

‘It might,’ said Poirot. He looked at his watch. ‘I think,’ he said, ‘it is timethat I left.’

‘You are on your way to catch your plane at the airport?’

‘No. My plane does not leave until tomorrow morning. But there is aplace I have to visit today – a place that I wish to see with my own eyes. Ihave a car waiting outside now to take me there –’

‘What is it you want to see?’ Mrs Oliver asked with some curiosity.

‘Not so much to see – to feel. Yes – that is the right word – to feel and torecognize what it will be that I feel …’