Evil Under the Sun

Captain Marshall’s back was turned to him. He was sitting typing at the table between the windows. He did not turn his head but his eyes met Poirot’s in the mirror that hung on the wall directly in front of him. He said irritably:

‘Well, M. Poirot, what is it?’

Poirot said quickly:

‘A thousand apologies for intruding. You are busy?’

Marshall said shortly: ‘I am rather.’

Poirot said:

‘It is one little question that I would like to ask you.’

Marshall said:

‘My God, I’m sick of answering questions. I’ve answered the police questions. I don’t feel called upon to answer yours.’ 

Poirot said:

‘Mine is a very simple one. Only this. On the morning of your wife’s death, did you have a bath after you finished typing and before you went out to play tennis?’

‘A bath? No, of course I didn’t! I’d had a bathe only an hour earlier!’

Hercule Poirot said:

‘Thank you. That is all.’

‘But look here. Oh-’ the other paused irresolutely.

Poirot withdrew, gently closing the door.

Kenneth Marshall said:

‘The fellow’s crazy!’

VI

Just outside the bar Poirot encountered Mr Gardener. He was carrying two cocktails and was clearly on his way to where Mrs Gardener was ensconced with her jig-saw.

He smiled at Poirot in genial fashion.

‘Care to join us, M. Poirot?’

Poirot shook his head. He said:

‘What did you think of the inquest, Mr Gardener?’

Mr Gardener lowered his voice. He said:

‘Seemed kind of indeterminate to me. Your police, I gather, have got something up their sleeves.’

‘It is possible,’ said Hercule Poirot.

Mr Gardener lowered his voice still further.

‘I shall be glad to get Mrs Gardener away. She’s a very, very sensitive woman, and this affair has got on her nerves. She’s very highly strung.’

Hercule Poirot said:

‘Will you permit me, Mr Gardener, to ask you one question?’

‘Why, certainly, M. Poirot. Delighted to assist in any way I can.’

Hercule Poirot said:

‘You are a man of the world-a man, I think, of considerable acumen. What, frankly, was your opinion of the late Mrs Marshall?’

Mr Gardener’s eyebrows rose in surprise. He glanced cautiously round and lowered his voice.

‘Well, M. Poirot, I’ve heard a few things that have been kind of going around, if you get me, especially among the women.’ Poirot nodded. ‘But if you ask me I’ll tell you my candid opinion and that is that that woman was pretty much of a darned fool!’

Hercule Poirot said thoughtfully:

‘Now that is very interesting.’

VII

Rosamund Darnley said: ‘So it’s my turn, is it?’

‘Pardon?’

She laughed.

‘The other day the Chief Constable held his inquisition. You sat by. Today, I think, you are conducting your own unofficial inquiry. I’ve been watching you. First Mrs Redfern, then I caught a glimpse of you through the lounge window where Mrs Gardener is doing her hateful jig-saw puzzle. Now it’s my turn.’

Hercule Poirot sat down beside her. They were on Sunny Ledge. Below them the sea showed a deep-glowing green. Farther out it was a pale dazzling blue.

Poirot said:

‘You are very intelligent, Mademoiselle. I have thought so ever since I arrived here. It would be a pleasure to discuss this business with you.’

Rosamund Darnley said softly:

‘You want to know what I think about the whole thing?’

‘It would be most interesting.’

Rosamund said:

‘I think it’s really very simple. The clue is in the woman’s past.’ 

‘The past? Not the present?’

‘Oh! not necessarily the very remote past. I look at it like this. Arlena Marshall was attractive, fatally attractive, to men. It’s possible, I think, that she also tired of them rather quickly. Amongst her-followers, shall we say-was one who resented that. Oh, don’t misunderstand me, it won’t be someone who sticks out a mile. Probably some tepid little man, vain and sensitive-the kind of man who broods. I think he followed her down here, waited his opportunity and killed her.’

‘You mean that he was an outsider, that he came from the mainland?’

‘Yes. He probably hid in that cave until he got his chance.’

Poirot shook his head. He said:

‘Would she go there to meet such a man as you describe? No, she would laugh and not go.’

Rosamund said:

‘She mayn’t have known she was going to meet him. He may have sent her a message in some other person’s name.’

Poirot murmured:

‘That is possible.’

Then he said:

‘But you forget one thing, Mademoiselle. A man bent on murder could not risk coming in broad daylight across the causeway and past the hotel. Someone might have seen him.’

‘They might have-but I don’t think that it’s certain. I think it’s quite possible that he could have come without anyone noticing him at all.’

‘It would bepossible, yes, that I grant you. But the point is that he could notcount on that possibility.’

Rosamund said:

‘Aren’t you forgetting something? The weather.’

‘The weather?’

‘Yes. The day of the murder was a glorious day, but the day before, remember, there was rain and thick mist. Anyone could come on to the island then without being seen. He had only to go down to the beach and spend the night in the cave. That mist, M. Poirot, is important.’