"Eighty-eight Prince Albert Road, Clapham."
"So we are going there?"
"Mais oui. Though frankly I fear we shall be too late. Our bird will have flown, Hastings."
"Who is our bird?"
Poirot smiled.
"The inconspicuous Mr. Simpson."
"What?" I exclaimed.
"Oh, come now, Hastings, do not tell me that all is not clear to you now!"
"The cook was got out of the way, I realize that," I said, slightly piqued. "But why? Why should Simpson wish to get her out of the house? Did she know something about him?"
"Nothing whatever."
"Well, then-"
"But he wanted something that she had."
"Money? The Australian legacy?"
"No, my friend-something quite different." He paused a moment and then said gravely: "A battered tin trunk. . . ."
I looked sideways at him. His statement seemed so fantastic that I suspected him of pulling my leg, but he was perfectly grave and serious.
"Surely he could buy a trunk if he wanted one," I cried.
"He did not want a new trunk. He wanted a trunk of pedigree. A trunk of a.s.sured respectability."
"Look here, Poirot," I cried, "this really is a bit thick. You"re pulling my leg."
He looked at me.
"You lack the brains and the imagination of Mr. Simpson, Hastings. See here: On Wednesday evening, Simpson decoys away the cook. A printed card and a printed sheet of notepaper are simple matters to obtain, and he is willing to pay 150 and a year"s house rent to a.s.sure the success of his plan. Miss Dunn does not recognize him-the beard and the hat and the slight colonial accent completely deceive her. That is the end of Wednesday-except for the trifling fact that Simpson has helped himself to fifty thousand pounds" worth of negotiable securities."
"Simpson-but it was Davis-"
"If you will kindly permit me to continue, Hastings! Simpson knows that the theft will be discovered on Thursday afternoon. He does not go to the bank on Thursday, but he lies in wait for Davis when he comes out to lunch. Perhaps he admits the theft and tells Davis he will return the securities to him-anyhow he succeeds in getting Davis to come to Clapham with him. It is the maid"s day out, and Mrs. Todd was at the sales, so there is no one in the house. When the theft is discovered and Davis is missing, the implication will be overwhelming. Davis is the thief! Mr. Simpson will be perfectly safe, and can return to work on the morrow like the honest clerk they think him."
"And Davis?"
Poirot made an expressive gesture, and slowly shook his head.
"It seems too cold-blooded to be believed, and yet what other explanation can there be, mon ami. The one difficulty for a murderer is the disposal of the body-and Simpson had planned that out beforehand. I was struck at once by the fact that although Eliza Dunn obviously meant to return that night when she went out (witness her remark about the stewed peaches) yet her trunk was all ready packed when they came for it. It was Simpson who sent word to Carter Paterson to call on Friday and it was Simpson who corded up the box on Thursday afternoon. What suspicion could possibly arise? A maid leaves and sends for her box, it is labelled and addressed ready in her name, probably to a railway station within easy reach of London. On Sat.u.r.day afternoon, Simpson, in his Australian disguise, claims it, he affixes a new label and address and redespatches it somewhere else, again "to be left till called for." When the authorities get suspicious, for excellent reasons, and open it, all that can be elicited will be that a bearded colonial despatched it from some junction near London. There will be nothing to connect it with 88 Prince Albert Road. Ah! Here we are."
Poirot"s prognostications had been correct. Simpson had left days previously. But he was not to escape the consequences of his crime. By the aid of wireless, he was discovered on the Olympia, en route to America.
A tin trunk, addressed to Mr. Henry Wintergreen, attracted the attention of railway officials at Glasgow. It was opened and found to contain the body of the unfortunate Davis.
Mrs. Todd"s cheque for a guinea was never cashed. Instead Poirot had it framed and hung on the wall of our sitting room.
"It is to me a little reminder, Hastings. Never to despise the trivial-the undignified. A disappearing domestic at one end-a cold-blooded murder at the other. To me, one of the most interesting of my cases."
About the Author.
Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. She is the author of eighty crime novels and short-story collections, nineteen plays, two memoirs, and six novels written under the name Mary Westmacott.
She first tried her hand at detective fiction while working in a hospital dispensary during World War I, creating the now legendary Hercule Poirot with her debut novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles. With The Murder in the Vicarage, published in 1930, she introduced another beloved sleuth, Miss Jane Marple. Additional series characters include the husband-and-wife crime-fighting team of Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, private investigator Parker Pyne, and Scotland Yard detectives Superintendent Battle and Inspector j.a.pp.
Many of Christie"s novels and short stories were adapted into plays, films, and television series. The Mousetrap, her most famous play of all, opened in 1952 and is the longest-running play in history. Among her best-known film adaptations are Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and Death on the Nile (1978), with Albert Finney and Peter Ustinov playing Hercule Poirot, respectively. On the small screen Poirot has been most memorably portrayed by David Suchet, and Miss Marple by Joan Hickson and subsequently Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie.
Christie was first married to Archibald Christie and then to archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, whom she accompanied on expeditions to countries that would also serve as the settings for many of her novels. In 1971 she achieved one of Britain"s highest honors when she was made a Dame of the British Empire. She died in 1976 at the age of eighty-five. Her one hundred and twentieth anniversary was celebrated around the world in 2010.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
www.AgathaChristie.com.
THE AGATHA CHRISTIE COLLECTION.
The Man in the Brown Suit.
The Secret of Chimneys The Seven Dials Mystery.
The Mysterious Mr. Quin The Sittaford Mystery Parker Pyne Investigates.
Why Didn"t They Ask Evans?
Murder Is Easy.
The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories.
And Then There Were None Towards Zero.
Death Comes as the End Sparkling Cyanide The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories.
Crooked House Three Blind Mice and Other Stories They Came to Baghdad.
Destination Unknown Ordeal by Innocence Double Sin and Other Stories The Pale Horse Star over Bethlehem: Poems and Holiday Stories.
Endless Night Pa.s.senger to Frankfurt.
The Golden Ball and Other Stories The Mousetrap and Other Plays The Harlequin Tea Set and Other Stories The Hercule Poirot Mysteries The Mysterious Affair at Styles The Murder on the Links.
Poirot Investigates The Murder of Roger Ackroyd The Big Four.
The Mystery of the Blue Train Peril at End House Lord Edgware Dies Murder on the Orient Express Three Act Tragedy Death in the Clouds.
The A.B.C. Murders Murder in Mesopotamia Cards on the Table Murder in the Mews Dumb Witness.
Death on the Nile Appointment with Death Hercule Poirot"s Christmas.
Sad Cypress One, Two, Buckle My Shoe Evil Under the Sun Five Little Pigs.
The Hollow The Labors of Hercules Taken at the Flood The Under Dog and Other Stories.
Mrs. McGinty"s Dead After the Funeral Hickory d.i.c.kory Dock.
Dead Man"s Folly Cat Among the Pigeons The Clocks Third Girl Hallowe"en Party.
Elephants Can Remember Curtain: Poirot"s Last Case The Miss Marple Mysteries The Murder at the Vicarage.
The Body in the Library The Moving Finger A Murder Is Announced They Do It with Mirrors.
A Pocket Full of Rye 4:50 from Paddington The Mirror Crack"d from Side to Side.
A Caribbean Mystery.
At Bertram"s Hotel Nemesis.
Sleeping Murder Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories The Tommy and Tuppence Mysteries.
The Secret Adversary Partners in Crime N or M?
By the p.r.i.c.king of My Thumbs.
Postern of Fate Memoirs An Autobiography Come, Tell Me How You Live.
end.