Twenty-nine

INQUEST AT LITTLEGREEN HOUSE

It was eleven o’clock the following morning.

Seven people were assembled at Littlegreen House.

Hercule Poirot stood by the mantelpiece. Charles and Theresa were on the sofa, Charles on thearm of it with his hand on Theresa’s shoulder. Dr. Tanios sat in a grandfather chair. His eyes werered rimmed¹ and he wore a black band round his arm.

On an upright chair by a round table sat the owner of the house, Miss Lawson. She, too, had redeyes. Her hair was even untidier than usual. Dr. Donaldson sat directly facing Poirot. His face wasquite expressionless.

My interest quickened as I looked at each face in turn.

In the course of my association with Poirot I had assisted at many such a scene. A littlecompany of people, all outwardly composed with well-bred masks for faces. And I had seen Poirotstrip the mask from one face and show it for what it was—the face of a killer²!

Yes, there was no doubt of it. One of these people was a murderer! But which? Even now I wasnot sure.

Poirot cleared his throat—a little pompously³ as was his habit—and began to speak.

“We are assembled here, ladies and gentlemen, to inquire into the death of Emily Arundell onthe first of May last. There are four possibilities—that she died naturally—that she died as theresult of an accident—that she took her own life—or lastly that she met her death at the hands ofsome person known or unknown.

“No inquest was held at the time of her death, since it was assumed that she died from naturalcauses and a medical certificate to that effect was given by Dr. Grainger.

“In a case where suspicion arises after burial has taken place it is usual to exhume⁴ the body ofthe person in question. There are reasons why I have not advocated that course. The chief of themis that my client would not have liked it.”

It was Dr. Donaldson who interrupted. He said:

“Your client?”

Poirot turned to him.

“My client is Miss Emily Arundell. I am acting⁵ for her. Her greatest desire was that there shouldbe no scandal.”

I will pass over the next ten minutes since it would involve much needless repetition. Poirot toldof the letter he had received, and producing it he read it aloud. He went on to explain the steps hehad taken on coming to Market Basing, and of his discovery of the means taken to bring about theaccident.

Then he paused, cleared his throat once more, and went on:

“I am now going to take you over the ground I travelled to get at the truth. I am going to showyou what I believe to be a true reconstruction⁶ of the facts of the case.

“To begin with it is necessary to picture exactly what passed in Miss Arundell’s mind. That, Ithink, is fairly easy. She has a fall, her fall is supposed to be occasioned by a dog’s ball, but sheherself knows better. Lying there on her bed her active and shrewd mind goes over thecircumstances of her fall and she comes to a very definite conclusion about it. Someone hasdeliberately tried to injure—perhaps to kill her.

“From that conclusion she passes to a consideration of who that person can be. There wereseven people in the house—four guests, her companion and two servants. Of these seven peopleonly one can be entirely⁷ exonerated—since to that one person no advantage could accrue⁸. Shedoes not seriously suspect the two servants, both of whom have been with her for many years andwhom she knows to be devoted⁹ to her. There remain then, four persons, three of them members ofher family, and one of them a connection by marriage. Each of those four persons benefit, threedirectly, one indirectly¹⁰, by her death.

“She is in a difficult position since she is a woman with a strong sense of family feeling.

Essentially¹¹ she is not one who wishes to wash the dirty linen¹² in public, as the saying goes. On theother hand, she is not one to submit tamely to attempted murder!

“She takes her decision and writes to me. She also takes a further step. That further step was, Ibelieve, actuated by two motives¹³. One, I think, was a distinct feeling of spite against her entirefamily! She suspected them all impartially¹⁵, and she determined¹⁶ at all costs to score off them! Thesecond and more reasoned motive¹⁴ was a wish to protect herself and a realization¹⁷ of how this couldbe accomplished¹⁸. As you know, she wrote to her lawyer, Mr. Purvis, and directed him to draw upa will in favour of the one person in the house whom, she felt convinced, could have had no handin her accident.

“Now I may say that, from the terms of her letter to me and from her subsequent actions, I amquite sure that Miss Arundell passed from indefinite suspicion of four people to definite suspicionof one of those four. The whole tenor¹⁹ of her letter to me is an insistence²⁰ that this business must bekept strictly²¹ private since the honour of the family is involved.

“I think that, from a Victorian point of view, this means that a person of her own name wasindicated—and preferably a man.

“If she had suspected Mrs. Tanios she would have been quite as anxious to secure her ownsafety, but not quite as concerned for the family honour. She might have felt much the same aboutTheresa Arundell, but not nearly as intensely as she would feel about Charles.

“Charles was an Arundell. He bore the family name! Her reasons for suspecting him seem quiteclear. To begin with, she had no illusions about Charles. He had come near to disgracing thefamily once before. That is, she knew him to be not only a potential but an actual criminal! Hehad already forged her name to a cheque. After forgery—a step further—murder!

“Also she had had a somewhat suggestive conversation with him only two days before heraccident. He had asked her for money and she had refused and he had thereupon remarked—oh,lightly enough—that she was going the right way to get herself bumped off. To this she hadresponded that she could take care of herself! To this, we are told, her nephew responded, ‘Don’tbe too sure.’ And two days later this sinister²² accident takes place.

“It is hardly to be wondered at that lying there and brooding over the occurrence, Miss Arundellcame definitely to the conclusion that it was Charles Arundell who had made an attempt upon herlife.

“The sequence of events is perfectly²³ clear. The conversation with Charles. The accident. Theletter written to me in great distress²⁴ of mind. The letter to the lawyer. On the following Tuesday,the 21st, Mr. Purvis brings the will and she signs it.

“Charles and Theresa Arundell come down the following weekend and Miss Arundell at oncetakes the necessary steps to safeguard herself. She tells Charles about the will. She not only tellshim but she actually shows it to him! That, to my mind, is absolutely conclusive²⁵. She is making itquite clear to a would-be murderer that murder would bring him nothing whatever!

“She probably thought that Charles would pass on that information to his sister. But he did notdo so. Why? I fancy that he had a very good reason—he felt guilty! He believed that it was hisdoing that the will had been made. But why did he feel guilty? Because he had really attemptedmurder? Or merely because he had helped himself to a small sum of ready cash? Either the seriouscrime or the petty one might account for his reluctance²⁶. He said nothing, hoping that his auntwould relent and change her mind.

“As far as Miss Arundell’s state of mind was concerned I felt that I had reconstructed eventswith a fair amount of correctness. I had next to make up my mind if her suspicions were, in actualfact, justified²⁷.

“Just as she had done, I realized that my suspicions were limited to a narrow circle—sevenpeople to be exact. Charles and Theresa Arundell, Dr. Tanios and Mrs. Tanios. The two servants,Miss Lawson. There was an eighth person who had to be taken into account — namely, Dr.

Donaldson, who dined there that night, but I did not learn of his presence until later.

“These seven persons that I was considering fell easily into two categories. Six of them stood tobenefit in a greater or lesser²⁸ degree by Miss Arundell’s death. If any one of those six hadcommitted the crime the reason was probably a plain matter of gain. The second categorycontained one person only—Miss Lawson. Miss Lawson did not stand to gain by Miss Arundell’sdeath, but as a result of the accident, she did benefit considerably²⁹ later!

“That meant that if Miss Lawson staged the so-called accident—”

“I never did anything of the kind!” Miss Lawson interrupted. “It’s disgraceful! Standing³⁰ upthere and saying such things!”

“A little patience, mademoiselle. And be kind enough not to interrupt,” said Poirot.

Miss Lawson tossed her head angrily.

“I insist on making my protest! Disgraceful, that’s what it is! Disgraceful!”

Poirot went on unheeding.

“I was saying that if Miss Lawson staged that accident she did so for an entirely different reason—that is, she engineered it so that Miss Arundell would naturally suspect her own family andbecome alienated³¹ from them. That was a possibility! I searched to see if there were anyconfirmation or otherwise and I unearthed³² one very definite fact. If Miss Lawson wanted MissArundell to suspect her own family, she would have stressed the fact of the dog, Bob, being outthat night. But on the contrary Miss Lawson took the utmost pains to prevent Miss Arundellhearing of that. Therefore, I argued, Miss Lawson must be innocent.”

Miss Lawson said sharply:

“I should hope so!”

“I next considered the problem of Miss Arundell’s death. If one attempt to murder a person ismade, a second attempt usually follows. It seemed to me significant that within a fortnight of thefirst attempt Miss Arundell should have died. I began to make inquiries³³.

“Dr. Grainger did not seem to think there was anything unusual about his patient’s death. Thatwas a little damping to my theory. But, inquiring into the happenings of the last evening beforeshe was taken ill, I came across a significant fact. Miss Isabel Tripp mentioned a halo of light thathad appeared round Miss Arundell’s head. Her sister confirmed her statement. They might, ofcourse, be inventing—in a romantic spirit—but I did not think that the incident was quite a likelyone to occur to them unprompted. When questioning Miss Lawson she also gave me an interestingpiece of information. She referred to a luminous³⁴ ribbon issuing from Miss Arundell’s mouth andforming a luminous haze³⁵ round her head.

“Obviously, though described somewhat differently by two different observers, the actual factwas the same. What it amounted to, shorn of spiritualistic significance, was this: On the night inquestion Miss Arundell’s breath was phosphorescent!”

Dr. Donaldson moved a little in his chair.

Poirot nodded to him.

“Yes, you begin to see. There are not very many phosphorescent substances. The first and mostcommon one gave me exactly what I was looking for. I will read you a short extract from anarticle on phosphorus poisoning.

“The person’s breath may be phosphorescent before he feels in any way affected³⁶. That is whatMiss Lawson and the Misses Tripp saw in the dark—Miss Arundell’s phosphorescent breath—‘aluminous haze.’ And here I will read you again. The jaundice having thoroughly³⁷ pronounceditself, the system may be considered as not only under the influence of the toxic³⁸ action ofphosphorus, but as suffering in addition from all the accidents incidental to the retention³⁹ of thebiliary secretion⁴⁰ in the blood, nor is there from this point any special difference betweenphosphorus poisoning and certain affections of the liver—such for example as yellow atrophy⁴¹.

“You see the cleverness of that? Miss Arundell has suffered for years from liver trouble. Thesymptoms of phosphorus poisoning would only look like another attack of the same complaint.

There will be nothing new, nothing startling about it.

“Oh! It was well-planned! Foreign matches—vermin paste? It is not difficult to get hold ofphosphorus and a very small dose will kill. The medicinal dose is from 1/100 to 1/30 grain.

“Voilà. How clear—how marvellously clear the whole business becomes! Naturally, the doctoris deceived—especially as I find his sense of smell is affected—the garlic odour of the breath is adistinct symptom of phosphorus poisoning. He had no suspicions—why should he have? Therewere no suspicious circumstances and the one thing that might have given him a hint was the onething he would never hear—or if he did hear it he would only class it as spiritualistic nonsense.

“I was now sure (from the evidence of Miss Lawson and the Misses Tripp) that murder hadbeen committed. The question still was by whom? I eliminated the servants—their mentality⁴² wasobviously not adapted to such a crime. I eliminated Miss Lawson since she would hardly haveprattled on about luminous ectoplasm if she had been connected with the crime. I eliminatedCharles Arundell since he knew, having seen the will, that he would gain nothing by his aunt’sdeath.

“There remained his sister Theresa, Dr. Tanios, Mrs. Tanios and Dr. Donaldson whom Idiscovered to have been dining in the house on the evening of the dog’s ball incident.

“At this point I had very little to help me. I had to fall back upon the psychology⁴³ of the crimeand the personality of the murderer! Both crimes had roughly the same outline. They were bothsimple. They were cunning, and carried out with efficiency. They required a certain amount ofknowledge but not a great deal. The facts about phosphorus poisoning are easily learned, and thestuff itself, as I say, is quite easily obtained, especially abroad.

“I considered first the two men. Both of them were doctors, and both were clever men. Either ofthem might have thought of phosphorus and its suitability in this particular case, but the incidentof the dog’s ball did not seem to fit a masculine mind. The incident of the ball seemed to meessentially a woman’s idea.

“I considered first of all Theresa Arundell. She had certain potentialities. She was bold, ruthless,and not over scrupulous⁴⁴. She had led a selfish and greedy life. She had always had everything shewanted and she had reached a point where she was desperate for money—both for herself and forthe man she loved. Her manner, also, showed plainly that she knew her aunt had been murdered.

“There was an interesting little passage between her and her brother. I conceived the idea thateach suspected the other of the crime. Charles endeavoured to make her say that she knew of theexistence of the new will. Why? Clearly because if she knew of it she could not be suspected of themurder. She, on the other hand, clearly did not believe Charles’ statement that Miss Arundell hadshown it to him! She regarded it as a singularly clumsy attempt on his part to divert suspicion fromhimself.

“There was another significant point. Charles displayed a reluctance to use the word arsenic⁴⁵.

Later I found that he had questioned the old gardener at length upon the strength of some weedkiller. It was clear what had been in his mind.”

Charles Arundell shifted his position a little.

“I thought of it,” he said. “But—well, I suppose I hadn’t got the nerve.”

Poirot nodded at him.

“Precisely, it is not in your psychology. Your crimes will always be the crimes of weakness. Tosteal, to forge—yes, it is the easiest way—but to kill—no! To kill one needs the type of mind thatcan be obsessed⁴⁶ by an idea.”

He resumed his lecturing manner.

“Theresa Arundell, I decided⁴⁷, had quite sufficient strength of mind to carry such a designthrough, but there were other facts to take into consideration. She had never been thwarted⁴⁸, shehad lived fully⁴⁹ and selfishly—but that type of person is not the type that kills—except perhaps insudden anger. And yet—I felt sure—it was Theresa Arundell who had taken the weed killer fromthe tin.”

Theresa spoke⁵⁰ suddenly:

“I’ll tell you the truth. I thought of it. I actually took some weed killer from a tin down atLittlegreen House. But I couldn’t do it! I’m too fond of living—of being alive—I couldn’t do thatto anyone—take life from them… I may be bad and selfish but there are things I can’t do! Icouldn’t kill a living, breathing human creature!”

Poirot nodded.

“No, that is true. And you are not as bad as you paint yourself, mademoiselle. You are onlyyoung—and reckless.”

He went on:

“There remained Mrs. Tanios. As soon as I saw her I realized that she was afraid. She saw that Irealized that and she very quickly made capital out of that momentary⁵¹ betrayal. She gave a veryconvincing portrait of a woman who is afraid for her husband. A little later she changed hertactics. It was very cleverly done—but the change did not deceive me. A woman can be afraid forher husband or she can be afraid of her husband—but she can hardly be both. Mrs. Tanios decidedon the latter r?le—and she played her part cleverly—even to coming out after me into the hall ofthe hotel and pretending that there was something she wanted to tell me. When her husbandfollowed her as she knew he would, she pretended that she could not speak before him.

“I realized at once, not that she feared her husband, but that she disliked him. And at once,summing the matter up, I felt convinced that here was the exact character I had been looking for.

Here was—not a self-indulgent woman—but a thwarted one. A plain girl, leading a dull existence,unable to attract the men she would like to attract, finally accepting a man she did not care forrather than be left an old maid. I could trace her growing dissatisfaction with life, her life inSmyrna exiled from all she cared for in life. Then the birth of her children and her passionateattachment to them.

“Her husband was devoted to her but she came secretly to dislike him more and more. He hadspeculated with her money and lost it—another grudge⁵² against him.

“There was only one thing that illuminated⁵³ her drab life, the expectation of her Aunt Emily’sdeath. Then she would have money, independence, the means to educate her children as shewished—and remember education meant a lot to her—she was a Professor’s daughter!

“She may have already planned the crime, or had the idea of it in her mind, before she came toEngland. She had a certain knowledge of chemistry, having assisted her father in the laboratory.

She knew the nature of Miss Arundell’s complaint and she was well aware that phosphorus wouldbe an ideal substance for her purpose.

“Then, when she came to Littlegreen House, a simpler method presented itself to her. The dog’sball—a thread or string across the top of the stairs. A simple, ingenious woman’s idea.

“She made her attempt—and failed. I do not think that she had any idea that Miss Arundell wasaware of the true facts of the matter. Miss Arundell’s suspicions were directed entirely againstCharles. I doubt if her manner to Bella showed any alteration⁵⁴. And so, quietly and determinedly,this self-contained, unhappy, ambitious woman put her original plan into execution. She found anexcellent vehicle for the poison, some patent capsules that Miss Arundell was in the habit oftaking after meals. To open a capsule, place the phosphorus inside and close it again, was child’splay.

“The capsule was replaced among the others. Sooner or later Miss Arundell would swallow it.

Poison was not likely to be suspected. Even if, by some unlikely chance it was, she herself wouldbe nowhere near Market Basing at the time.

“Yet she took one precaution. She obtained a double supply of chloral hydrate at the chemist’s,forging her husband’s name to the prescription⁵⁵. I have no doubt of what that was for—to keep byher in case anything went wrong.

“As I say, I was convinced from the first moment I saw her that Mrs. Tanios was the person Iwas looking for, but I had absolutely no proof of the fact. I had to proceed carefully. If Mrs.

Tanios had any idea I suspected her, I was afraid that she might proceed to a further crime.

Furthermore, I believed that the idea of that crime had already occurred to her. Her one wish in lifewas to shake herself free of her husband.

“Her original murder had proved a bitter disappointment. The money, the wonderful all-intoxicating money, had all gone to Miss Lawson! It was a blow, but she set to work mostintelligently. She began to work on Miss Lawson’s conscience which, I suspect, was already nottoo comfortable.”

There was a sudden outburst of sobs⁵⁶. Miss Lawson took out her handkerchief and cried into it.

“It’s been dreadful,” she sobbed⁵⁷. “I’ve been wicked! Very wicked. You see, I was very curiousabout the will—why Miss Arundell had made a new one, I mean. And one day, when MissArundell was resting, I managed to unlock the drawer in the desk. And then I found she’d left it allto me! Of course, I never dreamed it was so much. Just a few thousand—that’s all I thought it was.

And why not? After all, her own relations didn’t really care for her! But then, when she was so ill,she asked for the will. I could see—I felt sure—she was going to destroy it… And that’s when Iwas so wicked. I told her she’d sent it back to Mr. Purvis. Poor dear, she was so forgetful. Shenever remembered what she’d done with things. She believed me. Said I must write for it and Isaid I would.

“Oh, dear—Oh, dear—and then she got worse and couldn’t think of anything. And she died.

And when the will was read and it was all that money I felt dreadful. Three hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds. I’d never dreamed for a minute it was anything like that or I wouldn’t havedone it.

“I felt just as though I’d embezzled⁵⁸ the money—and I didn’t know what to do. The other day,when Bella came to me, I told her that she should have half of it. I felt sure that then I would feelhappy again.”

“You see?” said Poirot, “Mrs. Tanios was succeeding in her object. That is why she was soaverse to any attempt to contest the will. She had her own plans and the last thing she wanted to dowas to antagonize Miss Lawson. She pretended, of course, to fall in at once with her husband’swishes, but she made it quite clear what her real feelings were.

“She had at that time two objects, to detach herself and her children from Dr. Tanios and toobtain her share of the money. Then she would have what she wanted—a rich contented⁵⁹ life inEngland with her children.

“As time went on she could no longer conceal⁶⁰ her dislike for her husband. In fact, she did nottry to. He, poor man, was seriously upset and distressed⁶¹. Her actions must have seemed quiteincomprehensible to him. Really, they were logical enough. She was playing the part of theterrorized woman. If I had suspicions—and she was fairly sure that that must be the case—shewished me to believe that her husband had committed the murder. And at any moment that secondmurder which I am convinced was already planned in her mind might occur. I knew that she had alethal dose of chloral in her possession. I feared that she would stage a pretended suicide andconfession on his part.

“And still I had no evidence against her! And then, when I was quite in despair, I got somethingat last! Miss Lawson told me that she had seen Theresa Arundell kneeling on the stairs on thenight of Easter Monday. I soon discovered that Miss Lawson could not have seen Theresa at allclearly — not clearly enough to recognize her features. Yet she was quite positive in heridentification. On being pressed she mentioned a brooch with Theresa’s initials—T.A.

“On my request Miss Theresa Arundell showed me the brooch in question. At the same time sheabsolutely denied having been on the stairs at the time stated. At first I fancied someone else hadborrowed her brooch, but when I looked at the brooch in the glass the truth leaped at me. MissLawson waking up had seen a dim figure with the initials T.A. flashing in the light. She had leaptto the conclusion it was Theresa.

“But if in the glass she had seen the initials T.A.—then the real initials must have been A.T.

since the glass naturally reversed the order.

“Of course! Mrs. Tanios’ mother was Arabella Arundell. Bella is only a contraction⁶². A.T. stoodfor Arabella Tanios. There was nothing odd in Mrs. Tanios possessing a similar type of brooch. Ithad been exclusive last Christmas but by the spring they were all the rage, and I had alreadyobserved that Mrs. Tanios copied her cousin Theresa’s hats and clothes as far as she was able withher limited means.

“In my own mind, at any rate, my case was proved.

“Now—what was I to do? Obtain a Home Office order for the exhumation⁶³ of the body? Thatcould doubtless be managed. I might prove that Miss Arundell had been poisoned with phosphorusthough there was a little doubt about that. The body had been buried two months, and I understandthat there have been cases of phosphorus poisoning where no lesions have been found and wherethe postmortem appearances are very indecisive. Even then, could I connect Mrs. Tanios with thepurchase or possession of phosphorus? Very doubtful, since she had probably obtained it abroad.

“At this juncture⁶⁴ Mrs. Tanios took a decisive action. She left her husband, throwing herself onthe pity of Miss Lawson. She also definitely accused her husband of the murder.

“Unless I acted I felt convinced that he would be her next victim. I took steps to isolate⁶⁵ themone from the other on the pretext⁶⁶ that it was for her safety. She could not very well contradict that.

Really, it was his safety I had in mind. And then—and then—” He paused—a long pause. His facehad gone rather white.

“But that was only a temporary measure. I had to make sure that the killer would kill no more. Ihad to assure the safety of the innocent.

“So I wrote out my construction of the case and gave it to Mrs. Tanios.”

There was a long silence.

Dr. Tanios cried out:

“Oh, my God, so that’s why she killed herself.”

Poirot said gently:

“Was it not the best way? She thought so. There were, you see, the children to consider.”

Dr. Tanios buried his face in his hands.

Poirot came forward and laid a hand on his shoulder.

“It had to be. Believe me it was necessary. There would have been more deaths. First yours—then possibly, under certain circumstances, Miss Lawson’s. And so it goes on.”

He paused.

In a broken voice Tanios said:

“She wanted me—to take a sleeping draught⁶⁷ one night… There was something in her face—Ithrew it away. That was when I began to believe her mind was going….”

“Think of it that way. It is indeed partly true. But not in the legal meaning of the term. Sheknew the meaning of her action….”

Dr. Tanios said wistfully:

“She was much too good for me—always.”

A strange epitaph on a self-confessed murderess!

 

点击收听单词发音