She looked directly at Poirot.
"Did he call you in about something?"
j.a.pp said: "Wecalled onhim , Miss Olivera, to see if he could throw any light on a case of suicide that occurred this morning."
She said sharply: "Suicide? Whose? Where?"
"A Mr Morley, a dentist, of 58, Queen Charlotte Street."
"Oh!" said Jane Olivera blankly. "Oh!-" She started ahead of her, frowning. Then she said unexpectedly: "Oh, but that"s absurd!" And turning on her heel she left them abruptly and without ceremony, running up the steps of the Gothic House and letting herself in with a key.
"Well!" said j.a.pp, staring after her, "that"s an extraordinary thing to say."
"Interesting," observed Poirot mildly.
j.a.pp pulled himself together, glanced at his watch and hailed an approaching taxi.
"We"ll have time to take the Sainsbury Seale on our way to the Savoy."
IX.
Miss Sainsbury Seale was in the dimly lit lounge of the Glengowrie Court Hotel having tea. She was fl.u.s.tered by the appearance of a police officer in plain clothes-but her excitement was of a pleasurable nature, he observed. Poirot noticed, with sorrow, that she had not yet sewn the buckle on her shoe.
"Really, officer," fluted Miss Sainsbury Seale, glancing round, "I really don"t know where we could go to be private. So difficult-just tea-time-but perhaps you would care for some tea-and-and your friend-"
"Not for me, Madam," said j.a.pp. "This is M. Hercule Poirot."
"Really?" said Miss Sainsbury Seale. "Then perhaps-you"re sure-you won"t either of you have tea?
No. Well, perhaps we might try the drawing-room, though that"s very often full-Oh, I see, there is a corner over there-in the recess. The people are just leaving. Shall we go there-"
She led the way to the comparative seclusion of a sofa and two chairs in an alcove. Poirot and j.a.pp followed her, the former picking up a scarf and a handkerchief that Miss Sainsbury Seale had shed en route.
He restored them to her.
"Oh, thank you-so careless of me. Now please, Inspector-No, Chief Inspector, isn"t it?-doask me anything you like. So distressing, the whole business. Poor man-I suppose he had something on his mind? Such worrying times we live in!"
"Did he seem to you worried, Miss Sainsbury Seale?"
"Well-" Miss Sainsbury Seale reflected, and finally said unwillingly: "I can"t really say, you know, that hedid ! But then perhaps I shouldn"t notice-not under the circ.u.mstances . I"m afraid I"m rather acoward , you know." Miss Sainsbury Seale t.i.ttered a little and patted her bird"s-nest-like curls.
"Can you tell us who else was in the waiting-room while you were there?"
"Now let me see-there was just one young man there when I went in. I think he was in pain because he was muttering to himself and looking quite wild and turning over the leaves of a magazine just anyhow. And then suddenly he jumped up and went out. Reallyacute toothache he must have had."
"You don"t know whether he left the house when he went out of the room?"
"I don"t know at all. I imagined he just felt he couldn"t wait any longer andmust see the dentist. But it couldn"t have been Mr Morley he was going to, because the boy came in and took me up to Mr Morley only a few minutes later."
"Did you go into the waiting-room again on your way out?"
"No. Because, you see, I"d already put on my hat and straightened my hair up in Mr Morley"s room. Some people," went on Miss Sainsbury Seale, warming to her subject, "take off their hatsdownstairs in the waiting-room, but Inever do. A most distressing thing happened to a friend of mine who did that. It was a new hat and she put it very carefully on a chair, and when she came down, would you believe it,a child had sat on it and squashed it flat. Ruined! Absolutely ruined!"
"A catastrophe," said Poirot politely.
"I blame the mother entirely," said Miss Sainsbury Seale judicially. "Mothers should keep an eye on their children. The little dears do not mean any harm, but they have to bewatched ."
j.a.pp said: "Then this young man with toothache was the only other patient you noticed at 58, Queen Charlotte Street."
"A gentleman came down the stairs and went out just as I went up to Mr Morley-Oh! and I remember-a verypeculiar looking foreigner cameout of the house just as I arrived."
j.a.pp coughed. Poirot said with dignity: "That was I, Madame."
"Oh dear!" Miss Sainsbury Seale peered at him. "So it was! Do forgive-so short-sighted-and very dark here, isn"t it?" She tailed off into incoherencies. "And really, you know, I flatter myself that I have a very good memory for faces. But the light hereis dim, isn"t it? Do forgive my most unfortunate mistake!"
They soothed the lady down, and j.a.pp asked: "You are quite sure Mr Morley didn"t say anything such as-for instance-that he was expecting a painful interview this morning? Anything of that kind?"
"No, indeed, I"m sure he didn"t."
"He didn"t mention a patient by the name of Amberiotis?"
"No, no. He really said nothing-except, I mean, the things that dentistshave to say."
Through Poirot"s mind there ran quickly: "Rinse. Open a little wider, please. Now close gently."
j.a.pp had proceeded to his next step. It would possibly be necessary for Miss Sainsbury Seale to give evidence at the inquest.
After a first scream of dismay, Miss Sainsbury Seale seemed to take kindly to the idea. A tentative inquiry from j.a.pp produced Miss Sainsbury Seale"s whole life history. She had, it seemed, come from India to England six months ago. She had lived in various hotels and boarding-houses and had finally come to the Glengowrie Court which she liked very much because of its homely atmosphere; in India she had lived mostly in Calcutta where she had done Mission work and had also taught elocution.
"Pure, well-enunciated English-most important, Chief Inspector. You see," Miss Sainsbury Seale simpered and bridled, "as a girl I was on the stage. Oh! only in small parts, you know. The provinces!
But I had great ambitions. Repertory. Then I went on a world tour-Shakespeare, Bernard Shaw." She sighed. "The trouble with us poor women isheart -at the mercy of ourhearts . A rash impulsive marriage. Alas! we parted almost immediately. I-I had been sadly deceived. I resumed my maiden name. A friend kindly provided me with a little capital and I started my elocution school. I helped to found a very good amateur dramatic society. I must show you some of our notices."
Chief Inspector j.a.pp knew the dangers ofthat ! He escaped, Miss Sainsbury Seale"s last words being: "and if, by any chance, my nameshould be in the papers-as a witness at the inquest, I mean-youwill be sure that it is spelt right. Mabelle Sainsbury Seale-Mabelle spelt M.A.B.E.L.L.E, and Seale S.E.A.L.E. And, of course, if theydid care to mention that I appeared inAs You Like It at the Oxford Repertory Theatre-"
"Of course, of course." Chief Inspector j.a.pp fairly fled.
In the taxi, he sighed and wiped his forehead.
"If it"s ever necessary, we ought to be able to check up onher all right," he observed, "unless it wasall lies-but that Idon"t believe!"
Poirot shook his head. "Liars," he said, "are neither so circ.u.mstantial nor so inconsequential."
j.a.pp went on: "I was afraid she"d jib at the inquest-most middle-aged spinsters do-but her having been an actress accounts for her being eager. Bit of limelight for her!"
Poirot said: "Do you really want her at the inquest?"
"Probably not. It depends." He paused and then said: "I"m more than ever convinced, Poirot.This wasn"t suicide ."
"And the motive?"
"Has us beat for the moment. Suppose Morley once seduced Amberiotis" daughter?"
Poirot was silent. He tried to visualize Mr Morley in the role of seducer to a luscious-eyed Greek maiden, but failed lamentably.
He reminded j.a.pp that Mr Reilly had said his partner had had no joy of living. j.a.pp said vaguely: "Oh well, you never know what may happen on a cruise!" and he added with satisfaction, "We shall know better where we stand when we"ve talked to this fellow."
They paid off the taxi and entered the Savoy.
j.a.pp asked for Mr Amberiotis.
The clerk looked at them rather oddly. He said: "Mr Amberiotis? I"m sorry, sir, I"m afraid you can"t see him."
"Oh, yes, I can, my lad," j.a.pp said grimly. He drew the other a little aside and showed him his credentials.
The clerk said: "You don"t understand, sir.Mr Amberiotis died half an hour ago ."
To Hercule Poirot it was as though a door had gently but firmly shut. Five, Six,
Picking up Sticks
I.
Twenty-four hours later j.a.pp rang Poirot up. His tone was bitter.
"Wash-out! The whole thing!"
"What do you mean, my friend?"
"Morley committed suicide all right. We"ve got the motive."
"What was it?"
"I"ve just had the doctor"s report on Amberiotis" death. I won"t give you the official jargon but in plain English he died as a result of an overdose of adrenaline and novocaine. It acted on his heart, I understand, and he collapsed. When the wretched devil said he was feeling bad yesterday afternoon, he was just speaking the truth. Well, there you are! Adrenaline and procaine is the stuff dentists inject into your gum-local anaesthetic. Morley made an error, injected an overdose, and then after Amberiotis left, he realized what he had done, couldn"t face the music and shot himself."
"With a pistol he was not known to possess?" queried Poirot.
"Hemay have possessed it all the same. Relations don"t know everything. You"d be surprised sometimes, the things theydon"t know!"
"That is true, yes."
j.a.pp said: "Well, there you are. It"s a perfectly logical explanation of the whole thing."
Poirot said: "You know, my friend, it does not quite satisfy me. It is true that patients have been known to react unfavourably to these local anaesthetics. Adrenaline idiosyncrasy is well known. In combination with procaine toxic effects have followed quite small doses.But the doctor or dentist who employed the drug does not usually carry his concern as far as killing himself!"
"Yes, but you"re talking of cases where the employment of the anaesthetic was normal. In that case no particular blame attaches to the surgeon concerned. It is the idiosyncrasy of the patient that has caused death. But in this case it"s pretty clear that there was a definite overdose. They haven"t got the exact amount yet-these quant.i.tive a.n.a.lyses seem to take a month of Sundays-but it was definitely more than the normal dose. That means that Morley must have made a mistake."
"Even then," said Poirot, "itwas a mistake. It would not be a criminal matter."
"No, but it wouldn"t do him any good in his profession. In fact, it would pretty well ruin him. n.o.body"s going to go to a dentist who"s likely to shoot lethal doses of poison into you just because he happens to be a bit absent-minded."
"It was a curious thing to do, I admit."
"These things happen-they happen to doctors-they happen to chemists...Careful and reliable for years, and then-one moment"s inattention-and the mischief"s done and the poor devils are for it. Morley was a sensitive man. In the case of a doctor, there"s usually a chemist or a dispenser to share the blame-or to shoulder it altogether. In this case Morley was solely responsible."
Poirot demurred.
"Would he not have left some message behind him? Saying what he had done? And that he could not face the consequences? Something of that kind? Just a word for his sister?"
"No, as I see it, he suddenly realized what had happened-and just lost his nerve and took the quickest way out."
Poirot did not answer.
j.a.pp said: "I know you, old boy. Once you"ve got your teeth into a case of murder, you like it tobe a case of murder! I admit I"m responsible for setting you on the track this time. Well, I made a mistake. I admit it freely."
Poirot said: "I still think, you know, that there might be another explanation."
"Plenty of other explanations, I dare say. I"ve thought of them-but they"re all too fantastic. Let"s say that Amberiotis shot Morley, went home, was filled with remorse and committed suicide, using some stuff he"d pinched from Morley"s surgery. If you thinkthat"s likely,I think it"s d.a.m.nedun likely. We"ve got a record of Amberiotis at the Yard. Quite interesting. Started as a little hotel-keeper in Greece, then he mixed himself up in politics. He"s done espionage work in Germany and in France-and made very pretty little sums of money. But he wasn"t getting rich quick enough that way, and he"s believed to have done a spot or two of blackmail. Not a nice man, our Mr Amberiotis. He was out in India last year and is believed to have bled one of the native princes rather freely. The difficult thing has been ever to prove anything against him. Slippery as an eel! There is another possibility. He might have been blackmailing Morley over something or other. Morley, having a golden opportunity, plugs an overdose of adrenaline and novocaine into him, hoping that the verdict will be an unfortunate accident-adrenaline idiosyncrasy-something of that sort. Then, after the man"s gone away Morley gets a fit of remorse and does himself in. That"s possible, of course, but I can"t somehow see Morley as a deliberate murderer. No, I"m pretty sure it was what I first said-a genuine mistake, made on a morning when he was overworked. We"ll have to leave it at that, Poirot. I"ve talked to the A.C. and he"s quite clear on it."
"I see," said Poirot, with a sigh. "I see..."
j.a.pp said kindly: "I know what you feel, old boy. But you can"t have a nice juicy murderevery time! So long. All I can say by way of apology is the old phrase: "Sorry you have been troubled!""
He rang off.
II.
Hercule Poirot sat at his handsome modern desk. He liked modern furniture. Its squareness and solidity were more agreeable to him than the soft contours of antique models. In front of him was a square sheet of paper with neat headings and comments. Against some of them were query marks.
First came: Amberiotis. Espionage. In England for that purpose? Was in India last year. During period of riots and unrest. Could be a Communist agent.
There was a s.p.a.ce, and then the next heading: Frank Carter? Morley thought him unsatisfactory. Was discharged from his employment recently. Why?
After that came a name with merely a question mark: Howard Raikes?
Next came a sentence in inverted commas.
"But that"s absurd!"???
Hercule Poirot"s head was poised interrogatively. Outside the window a bird was carrying a twig to build its nest. Hercule Poirot looked rather like a bird as he sat there with his egg-shaped head c.o.c.ked to one side.