II

Japp gave a long—a very prolonged—whistle.

“Well, I’m damned¹!” he said.

Poirot sat down and smiled at him amiably². It was quite a long time before the silence wasbroken. Then Japp said:

“Not murder disguised³ as suicide⁴, but suicide made to look like murder!”

“Yes, and very cleverly done, too. Nothing overemphasized.”

Japp said suddenly:

“But the attaché case? Where did that come in?”

“But, my dear, my very dear friend, I have already told you that it did not come in.”

“Then why—”

“The golf clubs. The golf clubs, Japp. They were the golf clubs of a left-handed person. JanePlenderleith kept her clubs at Wentworth. Those were Barbara Allen’s clubs. No wonder the girlgot, as you say, the wind up when we opened that cupboard. Her whole plan might have beenruined. But she is quick, she realized that she had, for one short moment, given herself away. Shesaw that we saw. So she does the best thing she can think of on the spur⁵ of the moment. She triesto focus our attention on the wrong object. She says of the attaché case ‘That’s mine. I—it cameback with me this morning. So there can’t be anything there.’ And, as she hoped, away you go onthe false trail. For the same reason, when she sets out the following day to get rid of the golf clubs,she continues to use the attaché case as a—what is it—kippered herring?”

“Red herring. Do you mean that her real object was—?”

“Consider, my friend. Where is the best place to get rid of a bag of golf clubs? One cannotburn them or put them in a dustbin. If one leaves them somewhere they may be returned to you.

Miss?Plenderleith took them to a golf course. She leaves them in the clubhouse while she gets acouple of irons from her own bag, and then she goes round without a caddy. Doubtless⁶ at judiciousintervals she breaks a club in half and throws it into some deep undergrowth, and ends bythrowing the empty bag away. If anyone should find a broken golf club here and there it will notcreate surprise. People have been known to break and throw away all their clubs in a mood ofintense exasperation⁷ over the game! It is, in fact, that kind of game!

“But since she realizes that her actions may still be a matter of interest, she throws that usefulred herring—the attaché case—in a somewhat⁸ spectacular⁹ manner into the lake—and that, myfriend, is the truth of ‘The Mystery of the Attaché Case.’ ”

Japp looked at his friend for some moments in silence. Then he rose, clapped him on theshoulder, and burst out laughing.

“Not so bad for an old dog! Upon my word, you take the cake! Come out and have a spot oflunch?”

“With pleasure, my friend, but we will not have the cake. Indeed, an Omelette auxChampignons, Blanquette de Veau, Petits pois à la Francaise, and—to follow—a Baba au Rhum.”

“Lead me to it,” said Japp.

 

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