no treat to you, I fancy, Mademoiselle Meredith."
"What is it?" cried Rhoda.
He lowered his voice."
"A knife, mademoiselle, with which twelve people once stabbed a man. It was
given me as a souvenir by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons Lits."
"Horrible," cried Anne.
"Ooh! Let me see," said Rhoda.
Poirot led her through into the other room, talking as he went.
"It was given me by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons Lits because
They pa.s.sed out of the room.
They returned three minutes later. Anne came towards them.
"I think these six are the nicest, M. Poirot. Both these are very good evening shades, and this lighter colour would be nice when summer comes and it"s daylight in the evening."
"Mille remerciments, mademoiselle."
He offered them more sirop, which they refused, and finally accompanied them to the door, still talking genially.
When they had finally departed he returned to the room and went straight to the littered table. The pile of stockings still lay in a confused heap. Poirot counted the six selected pairs and then went on to count the others.
He had bought nineteen pairs. There were now only seventeen.
He nodded his head slowly.
CHAPTER 24
Elimination of Three Murderers?
On arrival in London, Superintendent Battle came straight to Poirot. Anne and Rhoda had then been gone an hour or more.
Without more ado, the superintendent recounted the result of his researches in Devonshire.
"We"re on to it--not a doubt of it," he finished. "That"s what Shaitana was
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aiming at--with his "domestic accident" business. But what gets me is the motive.
Why did she want to kill the woman?"
"I think I can help you there, my friend."
"Go ahead, M. Poirot."
"This afternoon I conducted a little experiment. I induced mademoiselle and her friend to come here. I put to them my usual questions as to what there was in the room that night."
Battle looked at him curiously.
"You"re very keen on that question."
"Yes, it"s useful. It tells me a good deal. Mademoiselle Meredith was suspicious--very suspicious. She takes nothing for granted, that young lady. So that good dog, Hercule Poirot, he does one of his best tricks. He lays a clumsy amateurish trap. Mademoiselle mentions a case of jewellery. I say was not that at the opposite end of the room from the table with the dagger. Mademoiselle does not fall into the trap. She avoids it cleverly. And after that she is pleased with herself, and her vigilance relaxes. So that is the object of this visit--to get her to admit that she knew where the dagger was, and that she noticed it! Her spirits rise when she has, as she thinks, defeated me. She talked quite freely about the jewellery. She has noticed many details of it. There is nothing else in the room that she remembers--except that a vase of chrysanthemums needed its water changing."
"Well?" said Battle.
"Well, it is significant, that. Suppose we knew nothing about this girl. Her words would give us a clue to her character. She notices flowers. She is, then, fond of flowers? No, since she does not mention a very big bowl of early tulips which would at once have attracted the attention of a flower lover. No, it is the paid companion who speaks--the girl whose duty it has been to put fresh water in the vases--and, allied to that, there is a girl who loves and notices jewellery. Is not that, at least, suggestive?"
"Ah," said Battle. "I"m beginning to see what you"re driving at."
"Precisely. As I told you the other day, I place my cards on the table. When you recounted her history the other day, and Mrs. Oliver made her startling announcement, my mind went at once to an important point. The murder could not have been committed for gain, since Miss Meredith had still to earn her living after it happened. Why, then? I considered Miss Meredith"s temperament as it appeared superficially. A rather timid young girl, poor, but well-dressed, fond of pretty things .... The temperament, is it not, of a thief, rather than a murderer.
And I asked immediately if Mrs. Eldon had been a tidy woman. You replied that no, she had not been tidy. I formed a hypothesis. Supposing that Anne Meredith was a girl with a weak streak in her character--the kind of girl who takes little things from the big shops. Supposing that, poor, and yet loving pretty things, she helped herself once or twice to things from her employer. A brooch, perhaps, an odd half-crown or two, a string of beads. Mrs. Eldon, careless, untidy, would put down these disappearances to her own carelessness. She would not suspect her gentle little mother"s-help. But, now, suppose a different type of employer--an employer who did noticeaccused Anne Meredith of theft. That would be a possible motive for murder. As I said the other evening, Miss Meredith would only commit a murder through fear. She knows that her employer will be able to prove the theft. There is only one thing that can save her: her employer must die. And so she changes the bottles, and Mrs. Benson dies--ironically enough convinced that the mistake is her own, and not suspecting for a minute that the cowed, frightened girl has had a hand in it."
"It"s possible," said Superintendent Battle. "It"s only a hypothesis, but it"s
possible."
"It is a little more than possible, my friend it is also probable. For this
afternoon I laid a little trap nicely baited--the real trap--after the sham one had
been circ.u.mvented. If what I suspect is true, Anne Meredith will never, never be able to resist a really expensive pair of stockings! I ask her to aid me. I let her know
carefully that I am not sure exactly how many stockings there are, I go out of the
room, leaving her alone---and the result, my friend, is that I have now seventeen
pairs of stockings, instead of nineteen, and that two pairs have gone away in Anne
Meredith"s handbag."
"Whew!" Superintendent Battle whistled. "What a risk to take, though."
"Pas du tout. What does she think I suspect her of? Murder. What is the risk,
then, in stealing a pair, or two pairs, of silk stockings? I am not looking for a thief.
And, besides, the thief, or the kleptomaniac, is always the same convinced that
she can get away with it."