Lord Edgware Dies

‘His lordship had his, sir, and there was another key in the hall drawer which Miss Geraldine took last night. I don’t know if there were any others.’

‘Does nobody else in the house have a key?’

‘No, sir. Miss Carroll always rings.’

Poirot intimated that that was all he wished to ask and we went in search of the secretary.

We found her busily writing at a large desk. 

Miss Carroll was a pleasant efficient-looking woman of about forty-five. Her fair hair was turning grey and she wore pince-nez through which a pair of shrewd blue eyes gleamed out on us. When she spoke I recognized the clear businesslike voice that had spoken to me through the telephone.

‘Ah! M. Poirot,’ she said as she acknowledged Japp’s introduction. ‘Yes. It was with you I made that appointment for yesterday morning.’

‘Precisely, Mademoiselle.’

I thought that Poirot was favourably impressed by her. Certainly she was neatness and precision personified.

‘Well, Inspector Japp?’ said Miss Carroll. ‘What more can I do for you?’

‘Just this. Are you absolutely certain that it was Lady Edgware who came here last night?’

‘That’s the third time you’ve asked me. Of course I’m sure. I saw her.’

‘Where did you see her, Mademoiselle?’

‘In the hall. She spoke to the butler for a minute then she went along the hall and in at the library door.’

‘And where were you?’

‘On the first floor-looking down.’

‘And you were positive you were not mistaken?’

‘Absolutely. I saw her face distinctly.’ 

‘You could not have been misled by a resemblance?’

‘Certainly not. Jane Wilkinson’s features are quite unique. It was her.’

Japp threw a glance at Poirot as much as to say: ‘You see.’

‘Had Lord Edgware any enemies?’ asked Poirot suddenly.

‘Nonsense,’ said Miss Carroll.

‘How do you mean-nonsense, Mademoiselle?’

‘Enemies! People in these days don’t have enemies. Not English people!’

‘Yet Lord Edgware was murdered.’

‘That was his wife,’ said Miss Carroll.

‘A wife is not an enemy-no?’

‘I’m sure it was a most extraordinary thing to happen. I’ve never heard of such a thing happening-I mean to anyone in our class of life.’

It was clearly Miss Carroll’s idea that murders were only committed by drunken members of the lower classes.

‘How many keys are there to the front door?’

‘Two,’ replied Miss Carroll promptly. ‘Lord Edgware always carried one. The other was kept in the drawer in the hall, so that anybody who was going to be late in could take it. There was a third one, but Captain Marsh lost it. Very careless.’

‘Did Captain Marsh come much to the house?’ 

‘He used to live here until three years ago.’

‘Why did he leave?’ asked Japp.

‘I don’t know. He couldn’t get on with his uncle, I suppose.’

‘I think you know a little more than that, Mademoiselle,’ said Poirot gently.

She darted a quick glance at him.

‘I am not one to gossip, M. Poirot.’

‘But you can tell us the truth concerning the rumours of a serious disagreement between Lord Edgware and his nephew.’

‘It wasn’t so serious as all that. Lord Edgware was a difficult man to get on with.’

‘Even you found that?’

‘I’m not speaking of myself. I never had any disagreement with Lord Edgware. He always found me perfectly reliable.’

‘But as regards Captain Marsh-’

Poirot stuck to it, gently continuing to goad her into further revelations.

Miss Carroll shrugged her shoulders.

‘He was extravagant. Got into debt. There was some other trouble-I don’t know exactly what. They quarrelled. Lord Edgware forbade him the house. That’s all.’

Her mouth closed firmly. Evidently she intended to say no more. 

The room we had inteviewed her in was on the first floor. As we left it, Poirot took me by the arm.

‘A little minute. Remain here if you will, Hastings. I am going down with Japp. Watch till we have gone into the library, then join us there.’

I have long ago given up asking Poirot questions beginning ‘Why?’ Like the Light Brigade ‘Mine not to reason why, mine but to do or die,’ though fortunately it has not yet come to dying! I thought that possibly he suspected the butler of spying on him and wanted to know if such were really the case.

I took up my stand looking over the banisters. Poirot and Japp went first to the front door-out of my sight. Then they reappeared walking slowly along the hall. I followed their backs with my eye until they had gone into the library. I waited a minute or two in case the butler appeared, but there was no sign of anyone, so I ran down the stairs and joined them.

The body had, of course, been removed. The curtains were drawn and the electric light was on. Poirot and Japp were standing in the middle of the room looking round them.

‘Nothing here,’ Japp was saying.

And Poirot replied with a smile:

‘Alas! not the cigarette ash-nor the footprint-nor a lady’s glove-nor even a lingering perfume! Nothing that the detective of fiction so conveniently finds.’ 

‘The police are always made out to be as blind as bats in detective stories,’ said Japp with a grin.