Lord Edgware Dies

‘I am sorry,’ she said. ‘I am afraid I have been making rather a fool of myself. You still refuse to tell me why my father called you in?’

‘Called him?’ said Miss Carroll in lively astonishment.

‘You misunderstand, Miss Marsh. I have not refused to tell you.’

Poirot was forced to come out into the open.

‘I was only considering how far that interview might have been said to be confidential. Your father did not call me in. I sought an interview with him on behalf of a client. That client was Lady Edgware.’

‘Oh! I see.’

An extraordinary expression came over the girl’s face. I thought at first it was disappointment. Then I saw it was relief.

‘I have been very foolish,’ she said slowly. ‘I thought my father had perhaps thought himself menaced by some danger. It was stupid.’

‘You know, M. Poirot, you gave me quite a turn just now,’ said Miss Carroll, ‘when you suggested that woman had done a second murder.’

Poirot did not answer her. He spoke to the girl.

‘Do you believe Lady Edgware committed the murder, Mademoiselle?’

She shook her head.

‘No, I don’t. I can’t see her doing a thing like that. She’s much too-well, artificial.’ 

‘I don’t see who else can have done it,’ said Miss Carroll. ‘And I don’t think women of that kind have got any moral sense.’

‘It needn’t have been her,’ argued Geraldine. ‘She may have come here and just had an interview with him and gone away, and the real murderer may have been some lunatic who got in afterwards.’

‘All murderers are mentally deficient-of that I am assured,’ said Miss Carroll. ‘Internal gland secretion.’

At that moment the door opened and a man came in-then stopped awkwardly.

‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I didn’t know anyone was in here.’

Geraldine made a mechanical introduction.

‘My cousin, Lord Edgware. M. Poirot. It’s all right, Ronald. You’re not interrupting.’

‘Sure, Dina? How do you do, M. Poirot? Are your grey cells functioning over our particular family mystery?’

I cast my mind back trying to remember. That round, pleasant, vacuous face, the eyes with slight pouches underneath them, the little moustache marooned like an island in the middle of the expanse of face.

Of course! It was Carlotta Adams’ escort on the night of the supper party in Jane Wilkinson’s suite.

Captain Ronald Marsh. Now Lord Edgware.

Chapter 13. The Nephew

The new Lord Edgware’s eye was a quick one. He noticed the slight start I gave.

‘Ah! you’ve got it,’ he said amiably. ‘Aunt Jane’s little supper party. Just a shade bottled, wasn’t I? But I fancied it passed quite unperceived.’

Poirot was saying goodbye to Geraldine Marsh and Miss Carroll.

‘I’ll come down with you,’ said Ronald genially.

He led the way down the stairs, talking as he went.

‘Rum thing-life. Kicked out one day, lord of the manor the next. My late unlamented uncle kicked me out, you know, three years ago. But I expect you know all about that, M. Poirot?’

‘I had heard the fact mentioned-yes,’ replied Poirot composedly.

‘Naturally. A thing of that kind is sure to be dug up. The earnest sleuth can’t afford to miss it.’ 

He grinned.

Then he threw open the dining-room door.

‘Have a spot before you go.’

Poirot refused. So did I. But the young man mixed himself a drink and continued to talk.

‘Here’s to murder,’ he said cheerfully. ‘In the space of one short night I am converted from the creditor’s despair to the tradesman’s hope. Yesterday ruin stared me in the face, today all is affluence. God bless Aunt Jane.’

He drained his glass. Then, with a slight change of manner, he spoke to Poirot.

‘Seriously, though, M. Poirot, what are you doing here? Four days ago Aunt Jane was dramatically declaiming, “Who will rid me of this insolent tyrant?” and lo and behold she is ridded! Not by your agency, I hope? The perfect crime, by Hercule Poirot, ex-sleuth hound.’

Poirot smiled.

‘I am here this afternoon in answer to a note from Miss Geraldine Marsh.’

‘A discreet answer, eh? No, M. Poirot, what are you really doing here? For some reason or other you are interesting yourself in my uncle’s death.’

‘I am always interested in murder, Lord Edgware.’

‘But you don’t commit it. Very cautious. You should teach Aunt Jane caution. Caution and a shade more camouflage. You’ll excuse me calling her Aunt Jane. It amuses me. Did you see her blank face when I did it the other night? Hadn’t the foggiest notion who I was.’

‘En verite?’

‘No. I was kicked out of here three months before she came along.’

The fatuous expression of good nature on his face failed for a moment. Then he went on lightly:

‘Beautiful woman. But no subtlety. Methods are rather crude, eh?’

Poirot shrugged his shoulders.

‘It is possible.’

Ronald looked at him curiously.

‘I believe you think she didn’t do it. So she’s got round you too, has she?’

‘I have a great admiration for beauty,’ said Poirot evenly. ‘But also for-evidence.’

He brought the last word out very quietly.

‘Evidence?’ said the other sharply.