After The Funeral Part 56

"But she cares for you ?"

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"Well, she's been rather tiresome... Women do cling so.

However, as you say, the police at any rate will be satisfied." "You think so ? '

"Well, I could hardly be taking a hatchet to Cora if I was dallying,,with Sorrel miles and miles away. She's got a cottage in Kent.

"I see--I seeand this Miss Dainton, she will testify for you ?"

"She won't like it--but as it's murder, I suppose she'll have to do it."

"She will do it, perhaps, even if you were not dally/ng with her."

"What do you mean ?" Michael looked suddenly black as thunder.

"The lady is fond of you. When they are fond, women will swear to what is true--and also to what is untrue."

"Do you mean to say that you don't believe me ?"

"It does not matter if I believe you or not. It is not 1 you have to satisfy." "Who then ?"

Poirot smiled.

"Inspector Morton--who has just come out on the terrace through the side door."

Michael Shane wheeled round sharply.

CHAPTER XXIII "I tg^RD OV were here, M. Poirot," said Inspector Morton.

The two men were pacing the terrace together.

"I came over with Superintendent Parwell from Matchfield.

Dr. Larraby rang him up about Mrs. Leo Abernethie and he's come over here to make a few inquiries. The doctor wasn't satisfied."

"And you, my friend," inquired Poirot, "where do you come in ? You are a long way from your native Berks.h.i.+re."

"I wanted to ask a few questions---and the people I wanted to ask them of seemed very conveniently a.s.sembled here."

He paused before adding, "Your doing ?"

"Yes, my doing."

"And as a result Mrs. Leo Abernethie gets knocked out." "You must not blame me for that. If she had come to me... But she did not. Instead she rang up her lawyer in London."

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"And was in process of spilling the beans to him when--Wonk I"

"When--as you say--Wonk I '

"And what had she managed to tell him ?"

"Very little. She had only got as far as telling him that she was looking at herself in the gla.s.s."

"Ah! well," said Inspector Morton philosophically.

"Women will do it." He looked sharply at Poirot. "That suggests something to y, ou ?"

"Yes, I think I kndw what it was she was going to tell him."

"Wonderful guesser, aren't you ? You always were.

Well, what was it ?"

"Excuse me, are you inquiring into the death of Richard Abernethie ?"

"Officially, no. Actually, of course, if it has a bearing on the murder of Mrs. Lansquenet "

"It has a bearing on that, yes. But I will ask you, my friend, to give me a few more hours. I shall know by then ii what I have imagined--imagined only, you comprehend--is

correct. If it is. "

"Well, if it is ?"

"Then I may be able to place in your hands a piece of concrete evidence."

"We could certainly do with it," said Insl,,ctor Morton with feeling. He looked askance at Poirot. What have you been holding back ?"

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Since the piece of evidence I have imagined may not in fact exist. I have only deduced its existence from various sc.r.a.ps of conversation. I may,"

said Poirot in a completely unconvinced tone, "be wrong."

Morton smiled.

"But that doesn't often happen to you ?"

"No. Though I will admit--yes, I am forced to admit--that it has happened to me."

"I must say I'm glad to hear it I To be always right must be sometimes monotonous."

"I do not find it so," Poirot a.s.sured him.

Inspector Morton laughed.

"And you're asking me to hold of[ with my questioning ?"

"No, no, not at all. Proceed as you had planned to do.

I suppose you were not actually contemplating an arrest ?"

Morton shook his head.

"Much too flimsy for that. We'd have to get a decision from the Public Prosecutor first--and we're a long way from

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that. No, just statements from certain parties of their movements on the day in question--in one case with a caution, perhaps."

"I see. Mrs. Banks ?"

"Smart, aren't you ? Yes. She was there that day. Her car was parked in that quarry."

"She was not seen actually driving the car ?"

"No." The Inspector added, "It's bad, you know, that she's never said a word about being down there that day. She's got to explain that satisfactorily."

"She is quite skilful at expla'nations," said Poirot dryly. "Yes. Clever young lady. Perhaps a thought too clever."

"It is never wise to be too clever. That is how murderers get caught. Has anything more come up about George Crossfield ?"

"Nothing definite. He's a very ordinary type. There are a lot of young men like him going about the country in trains and buses or on bicycles. People find it hard to remember when a week or so has gone by if it was Wednesday or Thursday when they were at a certain place or noticed a certain person."

He paused and went on: "We've had one piece of rather curious information--from the Motler Superior of some convent or other. Two of her nuns had been out collecting from door to door. It seems that they went to Mrs. Lansquenet's cottage on the day before she was murdered, but couldn't make anyone hear when they knocked and rang.

That's natural enough--she was up North at the Abernethie funeral and Gilchrist had been given the day off and had gone on an excursion to Bournemouth. The point is that they say there was someone in the cottage. They say they heard sighs and groans. I've queried whether it wasn't a day later but the Mother Superior is quite definite that that couldn't be so. It's all entered up in some book. Was there someone searching for something in the cottage that day, who seized the opportunity of both the women being away ? And did that somebody not find what he or she was looking for and come back the next day ? I don't set much store on the sighs and still less on the groans. Even nuns are suggestible and a cottage where murder has occurred positively asks for groans. The point is, was there someone in the cottage who shouldn't have been there ? And if so, who was it ? All the Abernethie crowd were at the funeral."

Poirot asked a seemingly irrelevant question: x76