Hercule Poirot's Casebook

take her own life. It was, I fancy, a very moving letter ...

young, gentle, unhappy woman driven by blackmail to take/tar

life...

'I think that, almost at once, the idea flashed into your head.

This was a certain man's doing. Let him be punished - fully

and adequately punished! You take the pistol, wipe it and ?!ace

it in the right hand. You take the note and you tear off thop

sheet of the blotting-paper on which the note has been blowd.

You go down, light the fire and put them both on the flay

Then you carry up the ashtray - to further the illusion that

people sat there talking - and you also take up a fragme:'

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enamel cuff link that is on the floor. That is a lucky fred and you

expect it to clinch matters. Then you close the window and lock

the door. There must be no suspicion that you have tampered

with the room. The police must see it exactly as it is - so you do

not seek help in the mews but ring up the police straightaway.

'And so it goes on. You play your chosen rtle with judgment

and coolness. You refuse at first to say anything but cleverly

you suggest doubts of suicide. Later you are quite ready to set

us on the trail of Major Eustace...

'Yes, mademoiselle, it was clever - a very clever murder - for

that is what it is. The attempted murder of Major Eustace.'

Jane Plenderleith sprang to her feet.

'It wasn't murder - it was justice. That man hounded poor Barbara to her death! She was so sweet and helpless. You see,

poor kid, she got involved with a man in India when she first

went out. She was only seventeen and he was a married man

years older than her. Then she had a baby. She could have put

it in a home but she wouldn't hear of that. She went offto some

out of the way spot and came back calling herself Mrs Allen.

Later the child died. She came back here and she fell in love

with Charles - that pompous, stuffed owl; she adored him and

he took her adoration very complacently. If he had been a

different kind of man I'd have advised her to tell him

everything. But as it was, I urged her to hold her tongue. After

all, nobody knew anything about that business except me.

' 'And then that devil Eustace turned up! You know the rest.

He began to bleed her systematically, but it wasn't till that last

evening that she realised that she was exposing Charles too, to

the risk of scandal. Once married to Charles, Eustace had got

he wanted her - married to a rich man with a horror

scandal! When Eustace had gone with the money she

it over. Then she came up and

wrote a letter to me. She said she loved Charles and couldn't

live without him, but that for his own sake she mustn't marry

him. She was taking the best way out, she said.'

Jane flung her head back.

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'Do you wonder I did what I did? And you stand there

calling it murder!'

'Because it is murder,' Poirot's voice was stem. 'Murder can

sometimes seem justified, but it is murder all the same. You are

truthful and clear-minded - face the truth, mademoiselle!

Your friend died, in the last resort, because she had not the

courage to live. We may sympathize with her. We may pity her.

But the fact remains - the act was hers - not another.'

He paused.

'And you? That man is now in prison, he will serve a ',g

sentence for other matters. Do you really wish, of your ,., n

volition, to destroy the life - the life, mind - of any hu?. :,n

being?'

She stared at him. Her eyes darkened. Suddenly .;ne

muttered:

'No. You're right. I don't.'

Then, turning on her heel, she went swiftly from the

The outer door banged...

Japp gave a long - a very prolonged - whistle.

'Well, I'm damned? he said.

Poirot sat down and smiled at him amiably. It was qu: a

long time before the silence was broken. Then Japp said:

'Not murder disguised as suicide, but suicide made to

like murder!'

'Yes, and very cleverly done, too. Nothing

emphasized.'

Japp said suddenly:

'But the attache-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..

of a left-handed person. Jane Plenderleith kept her clul at

Wentworth. Those were Barbara Allen's clu3s. No wonde

girl got, as you say, the wind up when we opened at

cupboard. Her whole plan might have been ruined. But she is

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quick, she realized that she had, for one short moment, given

herself away. She saw that we saw. So she does the best thing

she can think of on the spur of the moment. She tries to focus

our attention on the wrong object. She says of the attache-case

"That's mine. I - it came back with me this morning. So there

can't be anything there." And, as she hoped, away you go on

the 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 attache-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 cannot burn them or put them in a

dustbin. If one leaves them somewhere they may be returned