Cards on the Table

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

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First published in Great Britain by

Collins 1936

Agatha Christie® Poirot® Cards on the Table™

Copyright © 1936 Agatha Christie Limited. All rights reserved.

www.agathachristie.com

Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016

Title lettering by Ghost Design

Cover layout design © HarperColl‌insPublishers Ltd 2016. Title lettering by Ghost Design. Cover photograph © Valentino Sani/Arcangel images

Agatha Christie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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Source ISBN: 9780008164898

Ebook Edition © September 2016 ISBN: 9780007422197

Version: 2017-04-13

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Foreword

CHAPTER 1: Mr Shaitana

CHAPTER 2: Dinner at Mr Shaitana’s

CHAPTER 3: A Game of Bridge

CHAPTER 4: First Murderer?

CHAPTER 5: Second Murderer?

CHAPTER 6: Third Murderer?

CHAPTER 7: Fourth Murderer?

CHAPTER 8: Which of Them?

CHAPTER 9: Dr Roberts

CHAPTER 10: Dr Roberts (Continued)

CHAPTER 11: Mrs Lorrimer

CHAPTER 12: Anne Meredith

CHAPTER 13: Second Visitor

CHAPTER 14: Third Visitor

CHAPTER 15: Major Despard

CHAPTER 16: The Evidence of Elsie Batt

CHAPTER 17: The Evidence of Rhoda Dawes

CHAPTER 18: Tea Interlude

CHAPTER 19: Consultation

CHAPTER 20: The Evidence of Mrs Luxmore

CHAPTER 21: Major Despard

CHAPTER 22: Evidence From Combeacre

CHAPTER 23: The Evidence of a Pair of Silk Stockings

CHAPTER 24: Elimination of Three Murderers?

CHAPTER 25: Mrs Lorrimer Speaks

CHAPTER 26: The Truth

CHAPTER 27: The Eye-Witness

CHAPTER 28: Suicide

CHAPTER 29: Accident

CHAPTER 30: Murder

CHAPTER 31: Cards on the Table

Also by Agatha Christie

About the Publisher

Foreword

There is an idea prevalent that a detective story is rather like a big race—a number of starters—likely horses and jockeys. ‘You pays your money and you takes your choice!’ The favourite is by common consent the opposite of a favourite on the race-course. In other words he is likely to be a complete outsider! Spot the least likely person to have committed the crime and in nine times out of ten your task is finished.

Since I do not want my faithful readers to fling away this book in disgust, I prefer to warn them beforehand that this is not that kind of book. There are only four starters and any one of them, given the right circumstances, might have committed the crime. That knocks out forcibly the element of surprise. Nevertheless there should be, I think, an equal interest attached to four persons, each of whom has committed murder and is capable of committing further murders. They are four widely divergent types, the motive that drives each one of them to crime is peculiar to that person, and each one would employ a different method. The deduction must, therefore, be entirely psychological, but it is none the less interesting for that, because when all is said and done it is the mind of the murderer that is of supreme interest.

I may say, as an additional argument in favour of this story, that it was one of Hercule Poirot’s favourite cases. His friend, Captain Hastings, however, when Poirot described it to him, considered it very dull! I wonder with which of them my readers will agree.

CHAPTER 1
Mr Shaitana

‘My dear M. Poirot!’

It was a soft purring voice—a voice used deliberately as an instrument—nothing impulsive or premeditated about it.

Hercule Poirot swung round.

He bowed.

He shook hands ceremoniously.

There was something in his eye that was unusual. One would have said that this chance encounter awakened in him an emotion that he seldom had occasion to feel.

‘My dear Mr Shaitana,’ he said.

They both paused. They were like duellists en garde.

Around them a well-dressed languid London crowd eddied mildly. Voices drawled or murmured.

‘Darling—exquisite!’

‘Simply divine, aren’t they, my dear?’

It was the Exhibition of Snuff-Boxes at Wessex House. Admission one guinea, in aid of the London hospitals.

‘My dear man,’ said Mr Shaitana, ‘how nice to see you! Not hanging or guillotining much just at present? Slack season in the criminal world? Or is there to be a robbery here this afternoon—that would be too delicious.’

‘Alas, Monsieur,’ said Poirot. ‘I am here in a purely private capacity.’

Mr Shaitana was diverted for a moment by a Lovely Young Thing with tight poodle curls up one side of her head and three cornucopias in black straw on the other.

He said:

‘My dear—why didn’t you come to my party? It really was a marvellous party! Quite a lot of people actually spoke to me! One woman even said, “How do you do,” and “Goodbye” and “Thank you so much”—but of course she came from a Garden City, poor dear!’

While the Lovely Young Thing made a suitable reply, Poirot allowed himself a good study of the hirsute adornment on Mr Shaitana’s upper lip.

A fine moustache—a very fine moustache—the only moustache in London, perhaps, that could compete with that of M. Hercule Poirot.

‘But it is not so luxuriant,’ he murmured to himself. ‘No, decidedly it is inferior in every respect. Tout de même, it catches the eye.’

The whole of Mr Shaitana’s person caught the eye—it was designed to do so. He deliberately attempted a Mephistophelian effect. He was tall and thin, his face was long and melancholy, his eyebrows were heavily accented and jet black, he wore a moustache with stiff waxed ends and a tiny black imperial. His clothes were works of art—of exquisite cut—but with a suggestion of the bizarre.

Every healthy Englishman who saw him longed earnestly and fervently to kick him! They said, with a singular lack of originality, ‘There’s that damned Dago, Shaitana!’

Their wives, daughters, sisters, aunts, mothers, and even grandmothers said, varying the idiom according to their generation, words to this effect: ‘I know, my dear. Of course, he is too terrible. But so rich! And such marvellous parties! And he’s always got something amusing and spiteful to tell you about people.’

Whether Mr Shaitana was an Argentine, or a Portuguese, or a Greek, or some other nationality rightly despised by the insular Briton, nobody knew.

But three facts were quite certain:

He existed richly and beautifully in a super flat in Park Lane.

He gave wonderful parties—large parties, small parties, macabre parties, respectable parties and definitely ‘queer’ parties.

He was a man of whom nearly everybody was a little afraid.

Why this last was so can hardly be stated in definite words. There was a feeling, perhaps, that he knew a little too much about everybody. And there was a feeling, too, that his sense of humour was a curious one.

People nearly always felt that it would be better not to risk offending Mr Shaitana.

It was his humour this afternoon to bait that ridiculous-looking little man, Hercule Poirot.

‘So even a policeman needs recreation?’ he said. ‘You study the arts in your old age, M. Poirot?’

Poirot smiled good-humouredly.

‘I see,’ he said, ‘that you yourself have lent three snuff-boxes to the Exhibition.’

Mr Shaitana waved a deprecating hand.

‘One picks up trifles here and there. You must come to my flat one day. I have some interesting pieces. I do not confine myself to any particular period or class of object.’

‘Your tastes are catholic,’ said Poirot smiling.

‘As you say.’

Suddenly Mr Shaitana’s eyes danced, the corners of his lips curled up, his eyebrows assumed a fantastic tilt.

‘I could even show you objects in your own line, M. Poirot!’

‘You have then a private “Black Museum”.’

‘Bah!’ Mr Shaitana snapped disdainful fingers. ‘The cup used by the Brighton murderer, the jemmy of a celebrated burglar—absurd childishness! I should never burden myself with rubbish like that. I collect only the best objects of their kind.’

‘And what do you consider the best objects, artistically speaking, in crime?’ inquired Poirot.

Mr Shaitana leaned forward and laid two fingers on Poirot’s shoulder. He hissed his words dramatically.

‘The human beings who commit them, M. Poirot.’

Poirot’s eyebrows rose a trifle.

‘Aha, I have startled you,’ said Mr Shaitana. ‘My dear, dear man, you and I look on these things as from poles apart! For you crime is a matter of routine: a murder, an investigation, a clue, and ultimately (for you are undoubtedly an able fellow) a conviction. Such banalities would not interest me! I am not interested in poor specimens of any kind. And the caught murderer is necessarily one of the failures. He is second-rate. No, I look on the matter from the artistic point of view. I collect only the best!’

‘The best being—?’ asked Poirot.

‘My dear fellow—the ones who have got away with it! The successes! The criminals who lead an agreeable life which no breath of suspicion has ever touched. Admit that is an amusing hobby.’

‘It was another word I was thinking of—not amusing.’

‘An idea!’ cried Shaitana, paying no attention to Poirot. ‘A little dinner! A dinner to meet my exhibits! Really, that is a most amusing thought. I cannot think why it has never occurred to me before. Yes—yes, I see it all—I see it exactly… You must give me a little time—not next week—let us say the week after next. You are free? What day shall we say?’

‘Any day of the week after next would suit me,’ said Poirot with a bow.

‘Good—then let us say Friday. Friday the 18th, that will be. I will write it down at once in my little book. Really, the idea pleases me enormously.’

‘I am not quite sure if it pleases me,’ said Poirot slowly. ‘I do not mean that I am insensible to the kindness of your invitation—no—not that—’

Shaitana interrupted him.

‘But it shocks your bourgeois sensibilities? My dear fellow, you must free yourself from the limitations of the policeman mentality.’

Poirot said slowly:

‘It is true that I have a thoroughly bourgeois attitude to murder.’

‘But, my dear, why? A stupid, bungled, butchering business—yes, I agree with you. But murder can be an art! A murderer can be an artist.’

‘Oh, I admit it.’

‘Well then?’ Mr Shaitana asked.

‘But he is still a murderer!’

‘Surely, my dear M. Poirot, to do a thing supremely well is a justification! You want, very unimaginatively, to take every murderer, handcuff him, shut him up, and eventually break his neck for him in the early hours of the morning. In my opinion a really successful murderer should be granted a pension out of the public funds and asked out to dinner!’

Poirot shrugged his shoulders.

‘I am not as insensitive to art in crime as you think. I can admire the perfect murder—I can also admire a tiger—that splendid tawny-striped beast. But I will admire him from outside his cage. I will not go inside. That is to say, not unless it is my duty to do so. For you see, Mr Shaitana, the tiger might spring…’

Mr Shaitana laughed.

‘I see. And the murderer?’

‘Might murder,’ said Poirot gravely.

‘My dear fellow—what an alarmist you are! Then you will not come to meet my collection of—tigers?’

‘On the contrary, I shall be enchanted.’

‘How brave!’

‘You do not quite understand me, Mr Shaitana. My words were in the nature of a warning. You asked me just now to admit that your idea of a collection of murderers was amusing. I said I could think of another word other than amusing. That word was dangerous. I fancy, Mr Shaitana, that your hobby might be a dangerous one!’

Mr Shaitana laughed, a very Mephistophelian laugh.

He said:

‘I may expect you, then, on the 18th?’

Poirot gave a little bow.

‘You may expect me on the 18th. Mille remerciments.’

‘I shall arrange a little party,’ mused Shaitana. ‘Do not forget. Eight o’clock.’

He moved away. Poirot stood a minute or two looking after him.

He shook his head slowly and thoughtfully.

CHAPTER 2
Dinner at Mr Shaitana’s

The door of Mr Shaitana’s flat opened noiselessly. A grey-haired butler drew it back to let Poirot enter. He closed it equally noiselessly and deftly relieved the guest of his overcoat and hat.

He murmured in a low expressionless voice:

‘What name shall I say?’

‘M. Hercule Poirot.’

There was a little hum of talk that eddied out into the hall as the butler opened a door and announced:

‘M. Hercule Poirot.’

Sherry-glass in hand, Shaitana came forward to meet him. He was, as usual, immaculately dressed. The Mephistophelian suggestion was heightened tonight, the eyebrows seemed accentuated in their mocking twist.

‘Let me introduce you—do you know Mrs Oliver?’

The showman in him enjoyed the little start of surprise that Poirot gave.

Mrs Ariadne Oliver was extremely well-known as one of the foremost writers of detective and other sensational stories. She wrote chatty (if not particularly grammatical) articles on The Tendency of the Criminal; Famous Crimes Passionnels; Murder for Love v. Murder for Gain. She was also a hot-headed feminist, and when any murder of importance was occupying space in the Press there was sure to be an interview with Mrs Oliver, and it was mentioned that Mrs Oliver had said, ‘Now if a woman were the head of Scotland Yard!’ She was an earnest believer in woman’s intuition.

For the rest she was an agreeable woman of middle age, handsome in a rather untidy fashion with fine eyes, substantial shoulders and a large quantity of rebellious grey hair with which she was continually experimenting. One day her appearance would be highly intellectual—a brow with the hair scraped back from it and coiled in a large bun in the neck—on another Mrs Oliver would suddenly appear with Madonna loops, or large masses of slightly untidy curls. On this particular evening Mrs Oliver was trying out a fringe.

She greeted Poirot, whom she had met before at a literary dinner, in an agreeable bass voice.

‘And Superintendent Battle you doubtless know,’ said Mr Shaitana.

A big, square, wooden-faced man moved forward. Not only did an onlooker feel that Superintendent Battle was carved out of wood—he also managed to convey the impression that the wood in question was the timber out of a battleship.

Superintendent Battle was supposed to be Scotland Yard’s best representative. He always looked stolid and rather stupid.

‘I know M. Poirot,’ said Superintendent Battle.

And his wooden face creased into a smile and then returned to its former unexpressiveness.

‘Colonel Race,’ went on Mr Shaitana.

Poirot had not previously met Colonel Race, but he knew something about him. A dark, handsome, deeply bronzed man of fifty, he was usually to be found in some outpost of empire—especially if there were trouble brewing. Secret Service is a melodramatic term, but it described pretty accurately to the lay mind the nature and scope of Colonel Race’s activities.

Poirot had by now taken in and appreciated the particular essence of his host’s humorous intentions.

‘Our other guests are late,’ said Mr Shaitana. ‘My fault, perhaps. I believe I told them 8.15.’

But at that moment the door opened and the butler announced:

‘Dr Roberts.’

The man who came in did so with a kind of parody of a brisk bedside manner. He was a cheerful, highly-coloured individual of middle age. Small twinkling eyes, a touch of baldness, a tendency to embonpoint and a general air of well-scrubbed and disinfected medical practitioner. His manner was cheerful and confident. You felt that his diagnosis would be correct and his treatments agreeable and practical—‘a little champagne in convalescence perhaps.’ A man of the world!

‘Not late, I hope?’ said Dr Roberts genially.

He shook hands with his host and was introduced to the others. He seemed particularly gratified at meeting Battle.

‘Why, you’re one of the big noises at Scotland Yard, aren’t you? This is interesting! Too bad to make you talk shop but I warn you I shall have a try at it. Always been interested in crime. Bad thing for a doctor, perhaps. Mustn’t say so to my nervous patients—ha ha!’

Again the door opened.

‘Mrs Lorrimer.’

Mrs Lorrimer was a well-dressed woman of sixty. She had finely-cut features, beautifully arranged grey hair, and a clear, incisive voice.

‘I hope I’m not late,’ she said, advancing to her host.

She turned from him to greet Dr Roberts, with whom she was acquainted.

The butler announced:

‘Major Despard.’

Major Despard was a tall, lean, handsome man, his face slightly marred by a scar on the temple. Introductions completed, he gravitated naturally to the side of Colonel Race—and the two men were soon talking sport and comparing their experiences on safari.

For the last time the door opened and the butler announced:

‘Miss Meredith.’

A girl in the early twenties entered. She was of medium height and pretty. Brown curls clustered in her neck, her grey eyes were large and wide apart. Her face was powdered but not made-up. Her voice was slow and rather shy.

She said:

‘Oh dear, am I the last?’

Mr Shaitana descended on her with sherry and an ornate and complimentary reply. His introductions were formal and almost ceremonious.

Miss Meredith was left sipping her sherry by Poirot’s side.

‘Our friend is very punctilious,’ said Poirot with a smile.

The girl agreed.

‘I know. People rather dispense with introductions nowadays. They just say “I expect you know everybody” and leave it at that.’

‘Whether you do or you don’t?’

‘Whether you do or don’t. Sometimes it makes it awkward—but I think this is more awe-inspiring.’

She hesitated and then said:

‘Is that Mrs Oliver, the novelist?’

Mrs Oliver’s bass voice rose powerfully at that minute, speaking to Dr Roberts.

‘You can’t get away from a woman’s instinct, doctor. Women know these things.’

Forgetting that she no longer had a brow she endeavoured to sweep her hair back from it but was foiled by the fringe.

‘That is Mrs Oliver,’ said Poirot.

‘The one who wrote The Body in the Library?’

‘That identical one.’

Miss Meredith frowned a little.

‘And that wooden-looking man—a superintendent, did Mr Shaitana say?’

‘From Scotland Yard.’

‘And you?’

‘And me?’

‘I know all about you, M. Poirot. It was you who really solved the A.B.C. crimes.’

‘Madamoiselle, you cover me with confusion.’

Miss Meredith drew her brows together.

‘Mr Shaitana,’ she began and then stopped. ‘Mr Shaitana—’

Poirot said quietly:

‘One might say he was “crime-minded”. It seems so. Doubtless he wishes to hear us dispute ourselves. He is already egging on Mrs Oliver and Dr Roberts. They are now discussing untraceable poisons.’

Miss Meredith gave a little gasp as she said:

‘What a queer man he is!’

‘Dr Roberts?’

‘No, Mr Shaitana.’

She shivered a little and said:

‘There’s always something a little frightening about him, I think. You never know what would strike him as amusing. It might—it might be something cruel.’

‘Such as fox-hunting, eh?’

Miss Meredith threw him a reproachful glance.

‘I meant—oh! something Oriental!’

‘He has perhaps the tortuous mind,’ admitted Poirot.

‘Torturer’s?’

‘No, no, tortuous, I said.’

‘I don’t think I like him frightfully,’ confided Miss Meredith, her voice dropping.

‘You will like his dinner, though,’ Poirot assured her. ‘He has a marvellous cook.’

She looked at him doubtfully and then laughed.

‘Why,’ she exclaimed, ‘I believe you are quite human.’

‘But certainly I am human!’

‘You see,’ said Miss Meredith, ‘all these celebrities are rather intimidating.’

‘Mademoiselle, you should not be intimidated—you should be thrilled! You should have all ready your autograph book and your fountain-pen.’

‘Well, you see, I’m not really terribly interested in crime. I don’t think women are: it’s always men who read detective stories.’

Hercule Poirot sighed affectedly.

‘Alas!’ he murmured. ‘What would I not give at this minute to be even the most minor of film stars!’

The butler threw the door open.

‘Dinner is served,’ he murmured.

Poirot’s prognostication was amply justified. The dinner was delicious and its serving perfection. Subdued light, polished wood, the blue gleam of Irish glass. In the dimness, at the head of the table, Mr Shaitana looked more than ever diabolical.

He apologized gracefully for the uneven number of the sexes.

Mrs Lorrimer was on his right hand, Mrs Oliver on his left. Miss Meredith was between Superintendent Battle and Major Despard. Poirot was between Mrs Lorrimer and Dr Roberts.

The latter murmured facetiously to him.

‘You’re not going to be allowed to monopolize the only pretty girl all the evening. You French fellows, you don’t waste your time, do you?’

‘I happen to be Belgian,’ murmured Poirot.

‘Same thing where the ladies are concerned, I expect, my boy,’ said the doctor cheerfully.

Then, dropping the facetiousness, and adopting a professional tone, he began to talk to Colonel Race on his other side about the latest developments in the treatment of sleeping sickness.

Mrs Lorrimer turned to Poirot and began to talk of the latest plays. Her judgements were sound and her criticisms apt. They drifted on to books and then to world politics. He found her a well-informed and thoroughly intelligent woman.

On the opposite side of the table Mrs Oliver was asking Major Despard if he knew of any unheard-of-out-of-the-way poisons.

‘Well, there’s curare.’

‘My dear man, vieux jeu! That’s been done hundreds of times. I mean something new!’

Major Despard said drily:

‘Primitive tribes are rather old-fashioned. They stick to the good old stuff their grandfathers and great-grandfathers used before them.’

‘Very tiresome of them,’ said Mrs Oliver. ‘I should have thought they were always experimenting with pounding up herbs and things. Such a chance for explorers, I always think. They could come home and kill off all their rich old uncles with some new drug that no one’s ever heard of.’

‘You should go to civilization, not to the wilds for that,’ said Despard. ‘In the modern laboratory, for instance. Cultures of innocent-looking germs that will produce bona fide diseases.’

‘That wouldn’t do for my public,’ said Mrs Oliver. ‘Besides one is so apt to get the names wrong—staphylococcus and streptococcus and all those things—so difficult for my secretary and anyway rather dull, don’t you think so? What do you think, Superintendent Battle?’

‘In real life people don’t bother about being too subtle, Mrs Oliver,’ said the superintendent. ‘They usually stick to arsenic because it’s nice and handy to get hold of.’

‘Nonsense,’ said Mrs Oliver. ‘That’s simply because there are lots of crimes you people at Scotland Yard never find out. Now if you had a woman there—’

‘As a matter of fact we have—’

‘Yes, those dreadful policewomen in funny hats who bother people in parks! I mean a woman at the head of things. Women know about crime.’

‘They’re usually very successful criminals,’ said Superintendent Battle. ‘Keep their heads well. It’s amazing how they’ll brazen things out.’

Mr Shaitana laughed gently.

‘Poison is a woman’s weapon,’ he said. ‘There must be many secret women poisoners—never found out.’

‘Of course there are,’ said Mrs Oliver happily, helping herself lavishly to a mousse of foie gras.

‘A doctor, too, has opportunities,’ went on Mr Shaitana thoughtfully.

‘I protest,’ cried Dr Roberts. ‘When we poison our patients it’s entirely by accident.’ He laughed heartily.

‘But if I were to commit a crime,’ went on Mr Shaitana.

He stopped, and something in that pause compelled attention.

All faces were turned to him.

‘I should make it very simple, I think. There’s always an accident—a shooting accident, for instance—or the domestic kind of accident.’

Then he shrugged his shoulders and picked up his wine-glass.

‘But who am I to pronounce—with so many experts present…’

He drank. The candlelight threw a red shade from the wine on to his face with its waxed moustache, its little imperial, its fantastic eyebrows…

There was a momentary silence.

Mrs Oliver said:

‘Is it twenty-to or twenty-past? An angel passing… My feet aren’t crossed—it must be a black angel!’

CHAPTER 3
A Game of Bridge

When the company returned to the drawing-room a bridge table had been set out. Coffee was handed round.

‘Who plays bridge?’ asked Mr Shaitana. ‘Mrs Lorrimer, I know. And Dr Roberts. Do you play, Miss Meredith?’

‘Yes. I’m not frightfully good, though.’

‘Excellent. And Major Despard? Good. Supposing you four play here.’

‘Thank goodness there’s to be bridge,’ said Mrs Lorrimer in an aside to Poirot. ‘I’m one of the worst bridge fiends that ever lived. It’s growing on me. I simply will not go out to dinner now if there’s no bridge afterwards! I just fall asleep. I’m ashamed of myself, but there it is.’

They cut for partners. Mrs Lorrimer was partnered with Anne Meredith against Major Despard and Dr Roberts.

‘Women against men,’ said Mrs Lorrimer as she took her seat and began shuffling the cards in an expert manner. ‘The blue cards, don’t you think, partner? I’m a forcing two.’

‘Mind you win,’ said Mrs Oliver, her feminist feelings rising. ‘Show the men they can’t have it all their own way.’

‘They haven’t got a hope, the poor dears,’ said Dr Roberts cheerfully as he started shuffling the other pack. ‘Your deal, I think, Mrs Lorrimer.’

Major Despard sat down rather slowly. He was looking at Anne Meredith as though he had just made the discovery that she was remarkably pretty.

‘Cut, please,’ said Mrs Lorrimer impatiently. And with a start of apology he cut the pack she was presenting to him.

Mrs Lorrimer began to deal with a practised hand.

‘There is another bridge table in the other room,’ said Mr Shaitana.

He crossed to a second door and the other four followed him into a small comfortably furnished smoking-room where a second bridge table was set ready.

‘We must cut out,’ said Colonel Race.

Mr Shaitana shook his head.

‘I do not play,’ he said. ‘Bridge is not one of the games that amuse me.’

The others protested that they would much rather not play, but he overruled them firmly and in the end they sat down. Poirot and Mrs Oliver against Battle and Race.

Mr Shaitana watched them for a little while, smiled in a Mephistophelian manner as he observed on what hand Mrs Oliver declared Two No Trumps, and then went noiselessly through into the other room.

There they were well down to it, their faces serious, the bids coming quickly. ‘One heart.’ ‘Pass.’ ‘Three clubs.’ ‘Three spades.’ ‘Four diamonds.’ ‘Double.’ ‘Four hearts.’

Mr Shaitana stood watching a moment, smiling to himself.

Then he crossed the room and sat down in a big chair by the fireplace. A tray of drinks had been brought in and placed on an adjacent table. The firelight gleamed on the crystal stoppers.

Always an artist in lighting, Mr Shaitana had simulated the appearance of a merely firelit room. A small shaded lamp at his elbow gave him light to read by if he so desired. Discreet floodlighting gave the room a subdued look. A slightly stronger light shone over the bridge table, from whence the monotonous ejaculations continued.

‘One no trump’—clear and decisive—Mrs Lorrimer.

‘Three hearts’—an aggressive note in the voice—Dr Roberts.

‘No bid’—a quiet voice—Anne Meredith’s.

A slight pause always before Despard’s voice came. Not so much a slow thinker as a man who liked to be sure before he spoke.

‘Four hearts.’

‘Double.’

His face lit up by the flickering firelight, Mr Shaitana smiled.

He smiled and he went on smiling. His eyelids flickered a little…

His party was amusing him.

‘Five diamonds. Game and rubber,’ said Colonel Race. ‘Good for you, partner,’ he said to Poirot. ‘I didn’t think you’d do it. Lucky they didn’t lead a spade.’

‘Wouldn’t have made much difference, I expect,’ said Superintendent Battle, a man of gentle magnanimity.

He had called spades. His partner, Mrs Oliver, had had a spade, but ‘something had told her’ to lead a club—with disastrous results.

Colonel Race looked at his watch.

‘Ten-past-twelve. Time for another?’

‘You’ll excuse me,’ said Superintendent Battle. ‘But I’m by way of being an “early-to-bed” man.’

‘I, too,’ said Hercule Poirot.

‘We’d better add up,’ said Race.

The result of the evening’s five rubbers was an overwhelming victory for the male sex. Mrs Oliver had lost three pounds and seven shillings to the other three. The biggest winner was Colonel Race.

Mrs Oliver, though a bad bridge player, was a sporting loser. She paid up cheerfully.

‘Everything went wrong for me tonight,’ she said. ‘It is like that sometimes. I held the most beautiful cards yesterday. A hundred and fifty honours three times running.’

She rose and gathered up her embroidered evening bag, just refraining in time from stroking her hair off her brow.

‘I suppose our host is next door,’ she said.

She went through the communicating door, the others behind her.

Mr Shaitana was in his chair by the fire. The bridge players were absorbed in their game.

‘Double five clubs,’ Mrs Lorrimer was saying in her cool, incisive voice.

‘Five No Trumps.’

‘Double five No Trumps.’

Mrs Oliver came up to the bridge table. This was likely to be an exciting hand.

Superintendent Battle came with her.

Colonel Race went towards Mr Shaitana, Poirot behind him.

‘Got to be going, Shaitana,’ said Race.

Mr Shaitana did not answer. His head had fallen forward, and he seemed to be asleep. Race gave a momentary whimsical glance at Poirot and went a little nearer. Suddenly he uttered a muffled exclamation, bent forward. Poirot was beside him in a minute, he, too, looking where Colonel Race was pointing—something that might have been a particularly ornate shirt stud—but was not…

Poirot bent, raised one of Mr Shaitana’s hands, then let it fall. He met Race’s inquiring glance and nodded. The latter raised his voice.

‘Superintendent Battle, just a minute.’

The superintendent came over to them. Mrs Oliver continued to watch the play of Five No Trumps doubled.

Superintendent Battle, despite his appearance of stolidity, was a very quick man. His eyebrows went up and he said in a low voice as he joined them:

‘Something wrong?’

With a nod Colonel Race indicated the silent figure in the chair.

As Battle bent over it, Poirot looked thoughtfully at what he could see of Mr Shaitana’s face. Rather a silly face it looked now, the mouth drooping open—the devilish expression lacking…

Hercule Poirot shook his head.

Superintendent Battle straightened himself. He had examined, without touching, the thing which looked like an extra stud in Mr Shaitana’s shirt—and it was not an extra stud. He had raised the limp hand and let it fall.

Now he stood up, unemotional, capable, soldierly—prepared to take charge efficiently of the situation.

‘Just a minute, please,’ he said.

And the raised voice was his official voice, so different that all the heads at the bridge table turned to him, and Anne Meredith’s hand remained poised over an ace of spades in dummy.

‘I’m sorry to tell you all,’ he said, ‘that our host, Mr Shaitana, is dead.’

Mrs Lorrimer and Dr Roberts rose to their feet. Despard stared and frowned. Anne Meredith gave a little gasp.

‘Are you sure, man?’

Dr Roberts, his professional instincts aroused, came briskly across the floor with a bounding medical ‘in-at-the-death’ step.

Without seeming to, the bulk of Superintendent Battle impeded his progress.

‘Just a minute, Dr Roberts. Can you tell me first who’s been in and out of this room this evening?’

Roberts stared at him.

‘In and out? I don’t understand you. Nobody has.’

The superintendent transferred his gaze.

‘Is that right, Mrs Lorrimer?’

‘Quite right.’

‘Not the butler nor any of the servants?’

‘No. The butler brought in that tray as we sat down to bridge. He has not been in since.’

Superintendent Battle looked at Despard.

Despard nodded in agreement.

Anne said rather breathlessly, ‘Yes—yes, that’s right.’

‘What’s all this, man,’ said Roberts impatiently. ‘Just let me examine him; may be just a fainting fit.’

‘It isn’t a fainting fit, and I’m sorry—but nobody’s going to touch him until the divisional surgeon comes. Mr Shaitana’s been murdered, ladies and gentlemen.’

‘Murdered?’ A horrified incredulous sigh from Anne.

A stare—a very blank stare—from Despard.

A sharp incisive ‘Murdered?’ from Mrs Lorrimer.

A ‘Good God!’ from Dr Roberts.

Superintendent Battle nodded his head slowly. He looked rather like a Chinese porcelain mandarin. His expression was quite blank.

‘Stabbed,’ he said. ‘That’s the way of it. Stabbed.’

Then he shot out a question:

‘Any of you leave the bridge table during the evening?’

He saw four expressions break up—waver. He saw fear—comprehension—indignation—dismay—horror; but he saw nothing definitely helpful.

‘Well?’

There was a pause, and then Major Despard said quietly (he had risen now and was standing like a soldier on parade, his narrow, intelligent face turned to Battle):

‘I think every one of us, at one time or another, moved from the bridge table—either to get drinks or to put wood on the fire. I did both. When I went to the fire Shaitana was asleep in the chair.’

‘Asleep?’

‘I thought so—yes.’

‘He may have been,’ said Battle. ‘Or he may have been dead then. We’ll go into that presently. I’ll ask you now to go into the room next door.’ He turned to the quiet figure at his elbow: ‘Colonel Race, perhaps you’ll go with them?’

Race gave a quick nod of comprehension.

‘Right, Superintendent.’

The four bridge players went slowly through the doorway.

Mrs Oliver sat down in a chair at the far end of the room and began to sob quietly.

Battle took up the telephone receiver and spoke. Then he said:

‘The local police will be round immediately. Orders from headquarters are that I’m to take on the case. Divisional surgeon will be here almost at once. How long should you say he’d been dead, M. Poirot? I’d say well over an hour myself.’

‘I agree. Alas, that one cannot be more exact—that one cannot say, “This man has been dead one hour, twenty-five minutes and forty seconds.”’

Battle nodded absently.

‘He was sitting right in front of the fire. That makes a slight difference. Over an hour—not more than two and a half: that’s what our doctor will say, I’ll be bound. And nobody heard anything and nobody saw anything. Amazing! What a desperate chance to take. He might have cried out.’

‘But he did not. The murderer’s luck held. As you say, mon ami, it was a very desperate business.’

‘Any idea, M. Poirot, as to motive? Anything of that kind?’

Poirot said slowly:

‘Yes, I have something to say on that score. Tell me, M. Shaitana—he did not give you any hint of what kind of a party you were coming to tonight?’

Superintendent Battle looked at him curiously.

‘No, M. Poirot. He didn’t say anything at all. Why?’

A bell whirred in the distance and a knocker was plied.

‘That’s our people,’ said Superintendent Battle. ‘I’ll go and let ’em in. We’ll have your story presently. Must get on with the routine work.’

Poirot nodded.

Battle left the room.

Mrs Oliver continued to sob.

Poirot went over to the bridge table. Without touching anything, he examined the scores. He shook his head once or twice.

‘The stupid little man! Oh, the stupid little man,’ murmured Hercule Poirot. ‘To dress up as the devil and try to frighten people. Quel enfantillage!’

The door opened. The divisional surgeon came in, bag in hand. He was followed by the divisional inspector, talking to Battle. A camera man came next. There was a constable in the hall.

The routine of the detection of crime had begun.

CHAPTER 4
First Murderer?

Hercule Poirot, Mrs Oliver, Colonel Race and Superintendent Battle sat round the dining-room table.

It was an hour later. The body had been examined, photographed and removed. A fingerprint expert had been and gone.

Superintendent Battle looked at Poirot.

‘Before I have those four in, I want to hear what you’ve got to tell me. According to you there was something behind this party tonight?’

Very deliberately and carefully Poirot retold the conversation he had held with Shaitana at Wessex House.

Superintendent Battle pursed his lips. He very nearly whistled.

‘Exhibits—eh? Murderers all alive oh! And you think he meant it? You don’t think he was pulling your leg?’

Poirot shook his head.

‘Oh, no, he meant it. Shaitana was a man who prided himself on his Mephistophelian attitude to life. He was a man of great vanity. He was also a stupid man—that is why he is dead.’

‘I get you,’ said Superintendent Battle, following things out in his mind. ‘A party of eight and himself. Four “sleuths”, so to speak—and four murderers!’

‘It’s impossible!’ cried Mrs Oliver. ‘Absolutely impossible. None of those people can be criminals.’

Superintendent Battle shook his head thoughtfully.

‘I wouldn’t be so sure of that, Mrs Oliver. Murderers look and behave very much like everybody else. Nice, quiet, well-behaved, reasonable folk very often.’

‘In that case, it’s Dr Roberts,’ said Mrs Oliver firmly. ‘I felt instinctively that there was something wrong with that man as soon as I saw him. My instincts never lie.’

Battle turned to Colonel Race.

‘What do you think, sir?’

Race shrugged his shoulders. He took the question as referring to Poirot’s statement and not to Mrs Oliver’s suspicions.

‘It could be,’ he said. ‘It could be. It shows that Shaitana was right in one case at least! After all, he can only have suspected that these people were murderers—he can’t have been sure. He may have been right in all four cases, he may have been right in only one case—but he was right in one case; his death proved that.’

‘One of them got the wind up. Think that’s it, M. Poirot?’

Poirot nodded.

‘The late Mr Shaitana had a reputation,’ he said. ‘He had a dangerous sense of humour, and was reputed to be merciless. The victim thought that Shaitana was giving himself an evening’s amusement, leading up to a moment when he’d hand the victim over to the police—you! He (or she) must have thought that Shaitana had definite evidence.’

‘Had he?’

Poirot shrugged his shoulders.

‘That we shall never know.’

‘Dr Roberts!’ repeated Mrs Oliver firmly. ‘Such a hearty man. Murderers are often hearty—as a disguise! If I were you, Superintendent Battle, I should arrest him at once.’

‘I dare say we would if there was a Woman at the Head of Scotland Yard,’ said Superintendent Battle, a momentary twinkle showing in his unemotional eye. ‘But, you see, mere men being in charge, we’ve got to be careful. We’ve got to get there slowly.’

‘Oh, men—men,’ sighed Mrs Oliver, and began to compose newspaper articles in her head.

‘Better have them in now,’ said Superintendent Battle. ‘It won’t do to keep them hanging about too long.’

Colonel Race half rose.

‘If you’d like us to go—’

Superintendent Battle hesitated a minute as he caught Mrs Oliver’s eloquent eye. He was well aware of Colonel Race’s official position, and Poirot had worked with the police on many occasions. For Mrs Oliver to remain was decidedly stretching a point. But Battle was a kindly man. He remembered that Mrs Oliver had lost three pounds and seven shillings at bridge, and that she had been a cheerful loser.

‘You can all stay,’ he said, ‘as far as I’m concerned. But no interruptions, please (he looked at Mrs Oliver), and there mustn’t be a hint of what M. Poirot has just told us. That was Shaitana’s little secret, and to all intents and purposes it died with him. Understand?’

‘Perfectly,’ said Mrs Oliver.

Battle strode to the door and called the constable who was on duty in the hall.

‘Go to the little smoking-room. You’ll find Anderson there with four guests. Ask Dr Roberts if he’ll be so good as to step this way.’

‘I should have kept him to the end,’ said Mrs Oliver. ‘In a book, I mean,’ she added apologetically.

‘Real life’s a bit different,’ said Battle.

‘I know,’ said Mrs Oliver. ‘Badly constructed.’

Dr Roberts entered with the springiness of his step slightly subdued.

‘I say, Battle,’ he said. ‘This is the devil of a business! Excuse me, Mrs Oliver, but it is. Professionally speaking, I could hardly have believed it! To stab a man with three other people a few yards away.’ He shook his head. ‘Whew! I wouldn’t like to have done it!’ A slight smile twitched up the corners of his mouth. ‘What can I say or do to convince you that I didn’t do it?’

‘Well, there’s motive, Dr Roberts.’

The doctor nodded his head emphatically.

‘That’s all clear. I hadn’t the shadow of a motive for doing away with poor Shaitana. I didn’t even know him very well. He amused me—he was such a fantastic fellow. Touch of the Oriental about him. Naturally, you’ll investigate my relations with him closely—I expect that. I’m not a fool. But you won’t find anything. I’d no reason for killing Shaitana, and I didn’t kill him.’

Superintendent Battle nodded woodenly.

‘That’s all right, Dr Roberts. I’ve got to investigate as you know. You’re a sensible man. Now, can you tell me anything about the other three people?’

‘I’m afraid I don’t know very much. Despard and Miss Meredith I met for the first time tonight. I knew of Despard before—read his travel book, and a jolly good yarn it is.’

‘Did you know that he and Mr Shaitana were acquainted?’

‘No. Shaitana never mentioned him to me. As I say, I’d heard of him, but never met him. Miss Meredith I’ve never seen before. Mrs Lorrimer I know slightly.’

‘What do you know about her?’

Roberts shrugged his shoulders.

‘She’s a widow. Moderately well off. Intelligent, well-bred woman—first-class bridge player. That’s where I’ve met her, as a matter of fact—playing bridge.’

‘And Mr Shaitana never mentioned her, either?’

‘No.’

‘H’m—that doesn’t help us much. Now, Dr Roberts, perhaps you’ll be so kind as to tax your memory carefully and tell me how often you yourself left your seat at the bridge table, and all you can remember about the movements of the others.’

Dr Roberts took a few minutes to think.

‘It’s difficult,’ he said frankly. ‘I can remember my own movements, more or less. I got up three times—that is, on three occasions when I was dummy I left my seat and made myself useful. Once I went over and put wood on the fire. Once I brought drinks to the two ladies. Once I poured out a whisky and soda for myself.’

‘Can you remember the times?’

‘I could only say very roughly. We began to play about nine-thirty, I imagine. I should say it was about an hour later that I stoked the fire, quite a short time after that I fetched the drinks (next hand but one, I think), and perhaps half-past eleven when I got myself a whisky and soda—but those times are quite approximate. I couldn’t answer for their being correct.’

‘The table with the drinks was beyond Mr Shaitana’s chair?’

‘Yes. That’s to say, I passed quite near him three times.’

‘And each time, to the best of your belief, he was asleep?’

‘That’s what I thought the first time. The second time I didn’t even look at him. Third time I rather fancy the thought just passed through my mind: “How the beggar does sleep.” But I didn’t really look closely at him.’

‘Very good. Now, when did your fellow-players leave their seats?’

Dr Roberts frowned.

‘Difficult—very difficult. Despard went and fetched an extra ash-tray, I think. And he went for a drink. That was before me, for I remember he asked me if I’d have one, and I said I wasn’t quite ready.’

‘And the ladies?’

‘Mrs Lorrimer went over to the fire once. Poked it, I think. I rather fancy she spoke to Shaitana, but I don’t know. I was playing a rather tricky no trump at the time.’

‘And Miss Meredith?’

‘She certainly left the table once. Came round and looked at my hand—I was her partner at the time. Then she looked at the other people’s hands, and then she wandered round the room. I don’t know what she was doing exactly. I wasn’t paying attention.’

Superintendent Battle said thoughtfully:

‘As you were sitting at the bridge table, no one’s chair was directly facing the fireplace?’

‘No, sort of sideways on, and there was a big cabinet between—Chinese piece, very handsome. I can see, of course, that it would be perfectly possible to stab the old boy. After all, when you’re playing bridge, you’re playing bridge. You’re not looking round you, and noticing what is going on. The only person who’s likely to be doing that is dummy. And in this case—’

‘In this case, undoubtedly, dummy was the murderer,’ said Superintendent Battle.

‘All the same,’ said Dr Roberts, ‘it wanted nerve, you know. After all, who is to say that somebody won’t look up just at the critical moment?’

‘Yes,’ said Battle. ‘It was a big risk. The motive must have been a strong one. I wish we knew what it was,’ he added with unblushing mendacity.

‘You’ll find out, I expect,’ said Roberts. ‘You’ll go through his papers, and all that sort of thing. There will probably be a clue.’

‘We’ll hope so,’ said Superintendent Battle gloomily.

He shot a keen glance at the other.

‘I wonder if you’d oblige me, Dr Roberts, by giving me a personal opinion—as man to man.’

‘Certainly.’

‘Which do you fancy yourself of the three?’

Dr Roberts shrugged his shoulders.

‘That’s easy. Off-hand, I’d say Despard. The man’s got plenty of nerve; he’s used to a dangerous life where you’ve got to act quickly. He wouldn’t mind taking a risk. It doesn’t seem to me likely the women are in on this. Take a bit of strength, I should imagine.’

‘Not so much as you might think. Take a look at this.’

Rather like a conjurer, Battle suddenly produced a long thin instrument of gleaming metal with a small round jewelled head.

Dr Roberts leaned forward, took it, and examined it with rich professional appreciation. He tried the point and whistled.

‘What a tool! What a tool! Absolutely made for murder, this little boy. Go in like butter—absolutely like butter. Brought it with him, I suppose.’

‘No. It was Mr Shaitana’s. It lay on the table near the door with a good many other knick-knacks.’

‘So the murderer helped himself. A bit of luck finding a tool like that.’

‘Well, that’s one way of looking at it,’ said Battle slowly.

‘Well, of course, it wasn’t luck for Shaitana, poor fellow.’

‘I didn’t mean that, Dr Roberts. I meant that there was another angle of looking at the business. It occurs to me that it was noticing this weapon that put the idea of murder into our criminal’s mind.’

‘You mean it was a sudden inspiration—that the murder wasn’t premeditated? He conceived the idea after he got here? Er—anything to suggest that idea to you?’

He glanced at him searchingly.

‘It’s just an idea,’ said Superintendent Battle stolidly.

‘Well, it might be so, of course,’ said Dr Roberts slowly.

Superintendent Battle cleared his throat.

‘Well, I won’t keep you any longer, doctor. Thank you for your help. Perhaps you’ll leave your address.’

‘Certainly. 200 Gloucester Terrace, W.2. Telephone No. Bayswater 23896.’

‘Thank you. I may have to call upon you shortly.’

‘Delighted to see you any time. Hope there won’t be too much in the papers. I don’t want my nervous patients upset.’

Superintendent Battle looked round at Poirot.

‘Excuse me, M. Poirot. If you’d like to ask any questions, I’m sure the doctor wouldn’t mind.’

‘Of course not. Of course not. Great admirer of yours, M. Poirot. Little grey cells—order and method. I know all about it. I feel sure you’ll think of something most intriguing to ask me.’

Hercule Poirot spread out his hands in his most foreign manner.

‘No, no. I just like to get all the details clear in my mind. For instance, how many rubbers did you play?’

‘Three,’ said Roberts promptly. ‘We’d got to one game all, in the fourth rubber, when you came in.’

‘And who played with who?’

‘First rubber, Despard and I against the ladies. They beat us, God bless ’em. Walk over; we never held a card.

‘Second rubber, Miss Meredith and I against Despard and Mrs Lorrimer. Third rubber, Mrs Lorrimer and I against Miss Meredith and Despard. We cut each time, but it worked out like a pivot. Fourth rubber, Miss Meredith and I again.’

‘Who won and who lost?’

‘Mrs Lorrimer won every rubber. Miss Meredith won the first and lost the next two. I was a bit up and Miss Meredith and Despard must have been down.’

Poirot said, smiling, ‘The good superintendent has asked you your opinion of your companions as candidates for murder. I now ask you for your opinion of them as bridge players.’

‘Mrs Lorrimer’s first class,’ Dr Roberts replied promptly. ‘I’ll bet she makes a good income a year out of bridge. Despard’s a good player, too—what I call a sound player—long-headed chap. Miss Meredith you might describe as quite a safe player. She doesn’t make mistakes, but she isn’t brilliant.’

‘And you yourself, doctor?’

Roberts’ eyes twinkled.

‘I overcall my hand a bit, or so they say. But I’ve always found it pays.’

Poirot smiled.

Dr Roberts rose.

‘Anything more?’

Poirot shook his head.

‘Well, goodnight, then. Goodnight, Mrs Oliver. You ought to get some copy out of this. Better than your untraceable poisons, eh?’

Dr Roberts left the room, his bearing springy once more. Mrs Oliver said bitterly as the door closed behind him:

‘Copy! Copy indeed! People are so unintelligent. I could invent a better murder any day than anything real. I’m never at a loss for a plot. And the people who read my books like untraceable poisons!’

CHAPTER 5
Second Murderer?

Mrs Lorrimer came into the dining-room like a gentlewoman. She looked a little pale, but composed.

‘I’m sorry to have to bother you,’ Superintendent Battle began.

‘You must do your duty, of course,’ said Mrs Lorrimer quietly. ‘It is, I agree, an unpleasant position in which to be placed, but there is no good shirking it. I quite realize that one of the four people in that room must be guilty. Naturally, I can’t expect you to take my word that I am not the person.’

She accepted the chair that Colonel Race offered her and sat down opposite the superintendent. Her intelligent grey eyes met his. She waited attentively.

‘You knew Mr Shaitana well?’ began the superintendent.

‘Not very well. I have known him over a period of some years, but never intimately.’

‘Where did you meet him?’

‘At a hotel in Egypt—the Winter Palace at Luxor, I think.’

‘What did you think of him?’

Mrs Lorrimer shrugged her shoulders slightly.

‘I thought him—I may as well say so—rather a charlatan.’

‘You had—excuse me for asking—no motive for wishing him out of the way?’

Mrs Lorrimer looked slightly amused.

‘Really, Superintendent Battle, do you think I should admit it if I had?’

‘You might,’ said Battle. ‘A really intelligent person might know that a thing was bound to come out.’

Mrs Lorrimer inclined her head thoughtfully.

‘There is that, of course. No, Superintendent Battle, I had no motive for wishing Mr Shaitana out of the way. It is really a matter of indifference to me whether he is alive or dead. I thought him a poseur, and rather theatrical, and sometimes he irritated me. That is—or rather was—my attitude towards him.’

‘That is that, then. Now, Mrs Lorrimer, can you tell me anything about your three companions?’

‘I’m afraid not. Major Despard and Miss Meredith I met for the first time tonight. Both of them seem charming people. Dr Roberts I know slightly. He’s a very popular doctor, I believe.’

‘He is not your own doctor?’

‘Oh, no.’

‘Now, Mrs Lorrimer, can you tell me how often you got up from your seat tonight, and will you also describe the movements of the other three?’

Mrs Lorrimer did not take any time to think.

‘I thought you would probably ask me that. I have been trying to think it out. I got up once myself when I was dummy. I went over to the fire. Mr Shaitana was alive then. I mentioned to him how nice it was to see a wood fire.’

‘And he answered?’

‘That he hated radiators.’

‘Did anyone overhear your conversation?’

‘I don’t think so. I lowered my voice, not to interrupt the players.’ She added dryly: ‘In fact, you have only my word for it that Mr Shaitana was alive and spoke to me.’

Superintendent Battle made no protest. He went on with his quiet methodical questioning.

‘What time was that?’

‘I should think we had been playing a little over an hour.’

‘What about the others?’

‘Dr Roberts got me a drink. He also got himself one—that was later. Major Despard also went to get a drink—at about 11.15, I should say.’

‘Only once?’

‘No—twice, I think. The men moved about a fair amount—but I didn’t notice what they did. Miss Meredith left her seat once only, I think. She went round to look at her partner’s hand.’

‘But she remained near the bridge table?’

‘I couldn’t say at all. She may have moved away.’

Battle nodded.

‘It’s all very vague,’ he grumbled.

‘I am sorry.’

Once again Battle did his conjuring trick and produced the long delicate stiletto.

‘Will you look at this, Mrs Lorrimer?’

Mrs Lorrimer took it without emotion.

‘Have you ever seen that before?’

‘Never.’

‘Yet it was lying on a table in the drawing-room.’

‘I didn’t notice it.’

‘You realize, perhaps, Mrs Lorrimer, that with a weapon like that a woman could do the trick just as easily as a man.’

‘I suppose she could,’ said Mrs Lorrimer quietly.

She leaned forward and handed the dainty little thing back to him.

‘But all the same,’ said Superintendent Battle, ‘the woman would have to be pretty desperate. It was a long chance to take.’

He waited a minute, but Mrs Lorrimer did not speak.

‘Do you know anything of the relations between the other three and Mr Shaitana?’

She shook her head.

‘Nothing at all.’

‘Would you care to give me an opinion as to which of them you consider the most likely person?’

Mrs Lorrimer drew herself up stiffly.

‘I should not care to do anything of the kind. I consider that a most improper question.’

The superintendent looked like an abashed little boy who has been reprimanded by his grandmother.

‘Address, please,’ he mumbled, drawing his notebook towards him.

‘111 Cheyne Lane, Chelsea.’

‘Telephone number?’

‘Chelsea 45632.’

Mrs Lorrimer rose.

‘Anything you want to ask, M. Poirot?’ said Battle hurriedly.

Mrs Lorrimer paused, her head slightly inclined.

‘Would it be a proper question, madame, to ask you your opinion of your companions, not as potential murderers but as bridge players?’

Mrs Lorrimer answered coldly:

‘I have no objection to answering that—if it bears upon the matter at issue in any way—though I fail to see how it can.’

‘I will be the judge of that. Your answer, if you please, madame.’

In the tone of a patient adult humouring an idiot child, Mrs Lorrimer replied:

‘Major Despard is a good sound player. Dr Roberts overcalls, but plays his hand brilliantly. Miss Meredith is quite a nice little player, but a bit too cautious. Anything more?’

In his turn doing a conjuring trick, Poirot produced four crumpled bridge scores.

‘These scores, madame, is one of these yours?’

She examined them.

‘This is my writing. It is the score of the third rubber.’

‘And this score?’

‘That must be Major Despard’s. He cancels as he goes.’

‘And this one?’

‘Miss Meredith’s. The first rubber.’

‘So this unfinished one is Dr Roberts’?’

‘Yes.’

‘Thank you, madame, I think that is all.’

Mrs Lorrimer turned to Mrs Oliver.

‘Goodnight, Mrs Oliver. Goodnight, Colonel Race.’

Then, having shaken hands with all four of them, she went out.

CHAPTER 6
Third Murderer?

‘Didn’t get any extra change out of her,’ commented Battle. ‘Put me in my place, too. She’s the old-fashioned kind, full of consideration for others, but arrogant as the devil! I can’t believe she did it, but you never know! She’s got plenty of resolution. What’s the idea of the bridge scores, M. Poirot?’

Poirot spread them on the table.

‘They are illuminating, do you not think? What do we want in this case? A clue to character. And a clue not to one character, but to four characters. And this is where we are most likely to find it—in these scribbled figures. Here is the first rubber, you see—a tame business, soon over. Small neat figures—careful addition and subtraction—that is Miss Meredith’s score. She was playing with Mrs Lorrimer. They had the cards, and they won.

‘In this next one it is not so easy to follow the play, since it is kept in the cancellation style. But it tells us perhaps something about Major Despard—a man who likes the whole time to know at a glance where he stands. The figures are small and full of character.

‘This next score is Mrs Lorrimer’s—she and Dr Roberts against the other two—a Homeric combat—figures mounting up above the line each side. Overcalling on the doctor’s part, and they go down; but, since they are both first-class players, they never go down very much. If the doctor’s overcalling induces rash bidding on the other side there is the chance seized of doubling. See—these figures here are doubled tricks gone down. A characteristic handwriting, graceful, very legible, firm.

‘Here is the last score—the unfinished rubber. I collected one score in each person’s handwriting, you see. Figures rather flamboyant. Not such high scores as the preceding rubber. That is probably because the doctor was playing with Miss Meredith, and she is a timid player. His calling would make her more so!

‘You think, perhaps, that they are foolish, these questions that I ask? But it is not so. I want to get at the characters of these four players, and when it is only about bridge I ask, everyone is ready and willing to speak.’

‘I never think your questions foolish, M. Poirot,’ said Battle. ‘I’ve seen too much of your work. Everyone’s got their own ways of working. I know that. I give my inspectors a free hand always. Everyone’s got to find out for themselves what method suits them best. But we’d better not discuss that now. We’ll have the girl in.’

Anne Meredith was upset. She stopped in the doorway. Her breath came unevenly.

Superintendent Battle was immediately fatherly. He rose, set a chair for her at a slightly different angle.

‘Sit down, Miss Meredith, sit down. Now, don’t be alarmed. I know all this seems rather dreadful, but it’s not so bad, really.’

‘I don’t think anything could be worse,’ said the girl in a low voice. ‘It’s so awful—so awful—to think that one of us—that one of us—’

‘You let me do the thinking,’ said Battle kindly. ‘Now, then, Miss Meredith, suppose we have your address first of all.’

‘Wendon Cottage, Wallingford.’

‘No address in town?’

‘No, I’m staying at my club for a day or two.’

‘And your club is?’

‘Ladies’ Naval and Military.’

‘Good. Now, then, Miss Meredith, how well did you know Mr Shaitana?’

‘I didn’t know him well at all. I always thought he was a most frightening man.’

‘Why?’

‘Oh, well, he was! That awful smile! And a way he had of bending over you. As though he might bite you.’

‘Had you known him long?’

‘About nine months. I met him in Switzerland during the winter sports.’

‘I should never have thought he went in for winter sports,’ said Battle, surprised.

‘He only skated. He was a marvellous skater. Lots of figures and tricks.’

‘Yes, that sounds more like him. And did you see much of him after that?’

‘Well—a fair amount. He asked me to parties and things like that. They were rather fun.’

‘But you didn’t like him himself?’

‘No, I thought he was a shivery kind of man.’

Battle said gently:

‘But you’d no special reason for being afraid of him?’

Anne Meredith raised wide limpid eyes to his.

‘Special reason? Oh, no.’

‘That’s all right, then. Now about tonight. Did you leave your seat at all?’

‘I don’t think so. Oh, yes, I may have done once. I went round to look at the others’ hands.’

‘But you stayed by the bridge table all the time?’

‘Yes.’

‘Quite sure, Miss Meredith?’

The girl’s cheeks flamed suddenly.

‘No—no, I think I walked about.’

‘Right. You’ll excuse me, Miss Meredith, but try and speak the truth. I know you’re nervous, and when one’s nervous one’s apt to—well, to say the thing the way you want it to be. But that doesn’t really pay in the end. You walked about. Did you walk over in the direction of Mr Shaitana?’

The girl was silent for a minute, then she said:

‘Honestly—honestly—I don’t remember.’

‘Well, we’ll leave it that you may have done. Know anything about the other three?’

The girl shook her head.

‘I’ve never seen any of them before.’

‘What do you think of them? Any likely murderers amongst them?’

‘I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it. It couldn’t be Major Despard. And I don’t believe it could be the doctor—after all, a doctor could kill anyone in much easier ways. A drug—or something like that.’

‘Then, if it’s anyone, you think it’s Mrs Lorrimer.’

‘Oh, I don’t. I’m sure she wouldn’t. She’s so charming—and so kind to play bridge with. She’s so good herself, and yet she doesn’t make one feel nervous, or point out one’s mistakes.’

‘Yet you left her name to the last,’ said Battle.

‘Only because stabbing seems somehow more like a woman.’

Battle did his conjuring trick. Anne Meredith shrank back.

‘Oh, horrible. Must I—take it?’

‘I’d rather you did.’

He watched her as she took the stiletto gingerly, her face contracted with repulsion.

‘With this tiny thing—with this—’

‘Go in like butter,’ said Battle with gusto. ‘A child could do it.’

‘You mean—you mean’—wide, terrified eyes fixed themselves on his face—‘that I might have done it? But I didn’t. Why should I?’

‘That’s just the question we’d like to know,’ said Battle. ‘What’s the motive? Why did anyone want to kill Shaitana? He was a picturesque person, but he wasn’t dangerous, as far as I can make out.’

Was there a slight indrawing of her breath—a sudden lifting of her breast?

‘Not a blackmailer, for instance, or anything of that sort?’ went on Battle. ‘And anyway, Miss Meredith, you don’t look the sort of girl who’s got a lot of guilty secrets.’

For the first time she smiled, reassured by his geniality.

‘No, indeed I haven’t. I haven’t got any secrets at all.’

‘Then don’t worry, Miss Meredith. We shall have to come round and ask you a few more questions, I expect, but it will be all a matter of routine.’

He got up.

‘Now off you go. My constable will get you a taxi; and don’t you lie awake worrying yourself. Take a couple of aspirins.’

He ushered her out. As he came back Colonel Race said in a low, amused voice:

‘Battle, what a really accomplished liar you are! Your fatherly air was unsurpassed.’

‘No good dallying about with her, Colonel Race. Either the poor kid is dead scared—in which case it’s cruelty, and I’m not a cruel man; I never have been—or she’s a highly accomplished little actress, and we shouldn’t get any further if we were to keep her here half the night.’

Mrs Oliver gave a sigh and ran her hands freely through her fringe until it stood upright and gave her a wholly drunken appearance.

‘Do you know,’ she said, ‘I rather believe now that she did it! It’s lucky it’s not in a book. They don’t really like the young and beautiful girl to have done it. All the same, I rather think she did. What do you think, M. Poirot?’

‘Me, I have just made a discovery.’

‘In the bridge scores again?’

‘Yes, Miss Anne Meredith turns her score over, draws lines and uses the back.’

‘And what does that mean?’

‘It means she has the habit of poverty or else is of a naturally economical turn of mind.’

‘She’s expensively dressed,’ said Mrs Oliver.

‘Send in Major Despard,’ said Superintendent Battle.

CHAPTER 7
Fourth Murderer?

Despard entered the room with a quick springing step—a step that reminded Poirot of something or some one.

‘I’m sorry to have kept you waiting all this while, Major Despard,’ said Battle. ‘But I wanted to let the ladies get away as soon as possible.’

‘Don’t apologize. I understand.’

He sat down and looked inquiringly at the superintendent.

‘How well did you know Mr Shaitana?’ began the latter.

‘I’ve met him twice,’ said Despard crisply.

‘Only twice?’

‘That’s all.’

‘On what occasions?’

‘About a month ago we were both dining at the same house. Then he asked me to a cocktail party a week later.’

‘A cocktail party here?’

‘Yes.’

‘Where did it take place—this room or the drawing-room?’

‘In all the rooms.’

‘See this little thing lying about?’

Battle once more produced the stiletto.

Major Despard’s lip twisted slightly.

‘No,’ he said. ‘I didn’t mark it down on that occasion for future use.’

‘There’s no need to go ahead of what I say, Major Despard.’

‘I beg your pardon. The inference was fairly obvious.’

There was a moment’s pause, then Battle resumed his inquiries.

‘Had you any motive for disliking Mr Shaitana?’

‘Every motive.’

‘Eh?’ The superintendent sounded startled.

‘For disliking him—not for killing him,’ said Despard. ‘I hadn’t the least wish to kill him, but I would thoroughly have enjoyed kicking him. A pity. It’s too late now.’

‘Why did you want to kick him, Major Despard?’

‘Because he was the sort of Dago who needed kicking badly. He used to make the toe of my boot fairly itch.’

‘Know anything about him—to his discredit, I mean?’

‘He was too well dressed—he wore his hair too long—and he smelt of scent.’

‘Yet you accepted his invitation to dinner,’ Battle pointed out.

‘If I were only to dine in houses where I thoroughly approved of my host I’m afraid I shouldn’t dine out very much, Superintendent Battle,’ said Despard drily.

‘You like society, but you don’t approve of it?’ suggested the other.

‘I like it for very short periods. To come back from the wilds to lighted rooms and women in lovely clothes, to dancing and good food and laughter—yes, I enjoy that—for a time. And then the insincerity of it all sickens me, and I want to be off again.’

‘It must be a dangerous sort of life that you lead, Major Despard, wandering about in these wild places.’

Despard shrugged his shoulders. He smiled slightly.

‘Mr Shaitana didn’t lead a dangerous life—but he is dead, and I am alive!’

‘He may have led a more dangerous life than you think,’ said Battle meaningly.

‘What do you mean?’

‘The late Mr Shaitana was a bit of a Nosey Parker,’ said Battle.

The other leaned forward.

‘You mean that he meddled with other people’s lives—that he discovered—what?’

‘I really meant that perhaps he was the sort of man who meddled—er—well, with women.’

Major Despard leant back in his chair. He laughed, an amused but indifferent laugh.

‘I don’t think women would take a mountebank like that seriously.’

‘What’s your theory of who killed him, Major Despard?’

‘Well, I know I didn’t. Little Miss Meredith didn’t. I can’t imagine Mrs Lorrimer doing so—she reminds me of one of my more God-fearing aunts. That leaves the medical gentleman.’

‘Can you describe your own and other people’s movements this evening?’

‘I got up twice—once for an ash-tray, and I also poked the fire—and once for a drink—’

‘At what times?’

‘I couldn’t say. First time might have been about half-past ten, the second time eleven, but that’s pure guesswork. Mrs Lorrimer went over to the fire once and said something to Shaitana. I didn’t actually hear him answer, but, then, I wasn’t paying attention. I couldn’t swear he didn’t. Miss Meredith wandered about the room a bit, but I don’t think she went over near the fireplace. Roberts was always jumping up and down—three or four times at least.’

‘I’ll ask you M. Poirot’s question,’ said Battle with a smile. ‘What did you think of them as bridge players?’

‘Miss Meredith’s quite a good player. Roberts overcalls his hand disgracefully. He deserves to go down more than he does. Mrs Lorrimer’s damned good.’

Battle turned to Poirot.

‘Anything else, M. Poirot?’

Poirot shook his head.

Despard gave his address as the Albany, wished them goodnight and left the room.

As he closed the door behind him, Poirot made a slight movement.

‘What is it?’ demanded Battle.

‘Nothing,’ said Poirot. ‘It just occurred to me that he walked like a tiger—yes, just so—lithe, easy, does the tiger move along.’

‘H’m!’ said Battle. ‘Now, then’—his eyes glanced round at his three companions—‘which of ’em did it?’

CHAPTER 8
Which of Them?

Battle looked from one face to another. Only one person answered his question. Mrs Oliver, never averse to giving her views, rushed into speech.

‘The girl or the doctor,’ she said.

Battle looked questioningly at the other two. But both the men were unwilling to make a pronouncement. Race shook his head. Poirot carefully smoothed his crumpled bridge scores.

‘One of ’em did it,’ said Battle musingly. ‘One of ’em’s lying like hell. But which? It’s not easy—no, it’s not easy.’

He was silent for a minute or two, then he said:

‘If we’re to go by what they say, the medico thinks Despard did it, Despard thinks the medico did it, the girl thinks Mrs Lorrimer did it—and Mrs Lorrimer won’t say! Nothing very illuminating there.’

‘Perhaps not,’ said Poirot.

Battle shot him a quick glance.

‘You think there is?’

Poirot waved an airy hand.

‘A nuance—nothing more! Nothing to go upon.’

Battle continued:

‘You two gentlemen won’t say what you think—’

‘No evidence,’ said Race curtly.

‘Oh, you men!’ sighed Mrs Oliver, despising such reticence.

‘Let’s look at the rough possibilities,’ said Battle. He considered a minute. ‘I put the doctor first, I think. Specious sort of customer. Would know the right spot to shove the dagger in. But there’s not much more than that to it. Then take Despard. There’s a man with any amount of nerve. A man accustomed to quick decisions and a man who’s quite at home doing dangerous things. Mrs Lorrimer? She’s got any amount of nerve, too, and she’s the sort of woman who might have a secret in her life. She looks as though she’s known trouble. On the other hand, I’d say she’s what I call a high-principled woman—sort of woman who might be headmistress of a girls’ school. It isn’t easy to think of her sticking a knife into anyone. In fact, I don’t think she did. And lastly, there’s little Miss Meredith. We don’t know anything about her. She seems an ordinary good-looking, rather shy girl. But one doesn’t know, as I say, anything about her.’

‘We know that Shaitana believed she had committed murder,’ said Poirot.

‘The angelic face masking the demon,’ mused Mrs Oliver.

‘This getting us anywhere, Battle?’ asked Colonel Race.

‘Unprofitable speculation, you think, sir? Well, there’s bound to be speculation in a case like this.’

‘Isn’t it better to find out something about these people?’

Battle smiled.

‘Oh, we shall be hard at work on that. I think you could help us there.’

‘Certainly. How?’

‘As regards Major Despard. He’s been abroad a lot—in South America, in East Africa, in South Africa—you’ve means of knowing those parts. You could get information about him.’

Race nodded.

‘It shall be done. I’ll get all available data.’

‘Oh,’ cried Mrs Oliver. ‘I’ve got a plan. There are four of us—four sleuths, as you might say—and four of them! How would it be if we each took one. Backed our fancy! Colonel Race takes Major Despard, Superintendent Battle takes Dr Roberts, I’ll take Anne Meredith, and M. Poirot takes Mrs Lorrimer. Each of us to follow our own line!’

Superintendent Battle shook his head decisively.

‘Couldn’t quite do that, Mrs Oliver. That is official, you see. I’m in charge. I’ve got to investigate all lines. Besides, it’s all very well to say back your fancy. Two of us might want to back the same horse! Colonel Race hasn’t said he suspects Major Despard. And M. Poirot mayn’t be putting his money on Mrs Lorrimer.’

Mrs Oliver sighed.

‘It was such a good plan,’ she sighed regretfully. ‘So neat.’ Then she cheered up a little. ‘But you don’t mind me doing a little investigating on my own, do you?’

‘No,’ said Superintendent Battle slowly. ‘I can’t say I object to that. In fact, it’s out of my power to object. Having been at this party tonight, you’re naturally free to do anything your own curiosity or interest suggests. But I’d like to point out to you, Mrs Oliver, that you’d better be a little careful.’

‘Discretion itself,’ said Mrs Oliver. ‘I shan’t breathe a word of—of anything—’ she ended a little lamely.

‘I do not think that was quite Superintendent Battle’s meaning,’ said Hercule Poirot. ‘He meant that you will be dealing with a person who has already, to the best of our belief, killed twice. A person, therefore, who will not hesitate to kill a third time—if he considers it necessary.’

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