Книга - Death on the Nile
Death on the Nile
Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie’s most exotic murder mystery, reissued with a striking cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers.The tranquillity of a cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway has been shot through the head. She was young, stylish and beautiful, a girl who had everything – until she lost her life.Hercule Poirot recalls an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: ‘I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.’ Yet in this exotic setting’ nothing is ever quite what it seems…
Copyright
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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First published in Great Britain by Collins 1937
Copyright © 1937 Agatha Christie Ltd.
All rights reserved.
www.agathachristie.com (http://www.agathachristie.com)
The moral right of the author is asserted
"Essay by Charles Osborne" excerpted from The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie. Copyright © 1982, 1999 by Charles Osborne. Reprinted with permission.
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Source ISBN: 9780007527557
Ebook Edition © 2010 ISBN: 9780007422289
Version: 2018-09-05
To my old friend Sybil Bennett
who also loves wandering about the world
Contents
Cover (#u0387d37f-74c1-59ab-ad3c-fc34eb377a3f)
Title Page (#uc188b98e-417d-5bec-9d04-b37664020186)
Copyright
Dedication (#u9d2e0ff5-7ffb-5685-9911-ad6bbe0c84ca)
Author’s Foreword
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)
About Agatha Christie
The Agatha Christie Collection
E-Book Extras
www.agathachristie.com (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Author’s Foreword
Death on the Nile was written after coming back from a winter in Egypt. When I read it now I feel myself back again on the steamer from Assuan to Wadi Halfa. There were quite a number of passengers on board, but the ones in this book travelled in my mind and became increasingly real to me–in the setting of a Nile steamer. The book has a lot of characters and a very elaborately worked out plot. I think the central situation is intriguing and has dramatic possibilities, and the three characters, Simon, Linnet, and Jacqueline, seem to me to be real and alive.
My friend, Francis L. Sullivan, liked the book so much that he kept urging me to adapt it for the stage, which in the end I did.
I think, myself, that the book is one of the best of my ‘foreign travel’ ones, and if detective stories are ‘escape literature’ (and why shouldn’t they be!) the reader can escape to sunny skies and blue water as well as to crime in the confines of an armchair.
Chapter 1 (#ulink_b9e42f1a-ecef-531b-a50e-3476f1dbe480)
‘Linnet Ridgeway!’
‘That’s her!’ said Mr Burnaby, the landlord of the Three Crowns.
He nudged his companion.
The two men stared with round bucolic eyes and slightly open mouths.
A big scarlet Rolls-Royce had just stopped in front of the local post office.
A girl jumped out, a girl without a hat and wearing a frock that looked (but only looked) simple. A girl with golden hair and straight autocratic features–a girl with a lovely shape–a girl such as was seldom seen in Malton-under-Wode.
With a quick imperative step she passed into the post office.
‘That’s her!’ said Mr Burnaby again. And he went on in a low awed voice: ‘Millions she’s got…Going to spend thousands on the place. Swimming-pools there’s going to be, and Italian gardens and a ballroom and half of the house pulled down and rebuilt…’
‘She’ll bring money into the town,’ said his friend. He was a lean, seedy-looking man. His tone was envious and grudging.
Mr Burnaby agreed.
‘Yes, it’s a great thing for Malton-under-Wode. A great thing it is.’
Mr Burnaby was complacent about it.
‘Wake us all up proper,’ he added.
‘Bit of difference from Sir George,’ said the other.
‘Ah, it was the ’orses did for him,’ said Mr Burnaby indulgently. ‘Never ’ad no luck.’
‘What did he get for the place?’
‘A cool sixty thousand, so I’ve heard.’
The lean man whistled.
Mr Burnaby went on triumphantly: ‘And they say she’ll have spent another sixty thousand before she’s finished!’
‘Wicked!’ said the lean man. ‘Where’d she get all that money from?’
‘America, so I’ve heard. Her mother was the only daughter of one of those millionaire blokes. Quite like the pictures, isn’t it?’
The girl came out of the post office and climbed into the car.
As she drove off, the lean man followed her with his eyes. He muttered:
‘It seems all wrong to me–her looking like that. Money and looks–it’s too much! If a girl’s as rich as that she’s no right to be a good-looker as well. And she is a good-looker…Got everything, that girl has. Doesn’t seem fair…’
II
Extract from the Social column of the Daily Blague.
Among those supping at Chez Ma Tante I noticed beautiful Linnet Ridgeway. She was with the Hon. Joanna Southwood, Lord Windlesham and Mr Toby Bryce. Miss Ridgeway, as everyone knows, is the daughter of Melhuish Ridgeway who married Anna Hartz. She inherits from her grandfather, Leopold Hartz, an immense fortune. The lovely Linnet is the sensation of the moment and it is rumoured that an engagement may be announced shortly. Certainly Lord Windlesham seemed very épris!!
III
The Hon. Joanna Southwood said:
‘Darling, I think it’s going to be all perfectly marvellous!’
She was sitting in Linnet Ridgeway’s bedroom at Wode Hall.
From the window the eye passed over the gardens to open country with blue shadows of woodlands.
‘It’s rather perfect, isn’t it?’ said Linnet.
She leaned her arms on the window sill. Her face was eager, alive, dynamic. Beside her, Joanna Southwood seemed, somehow, a little dim–a tall thin young woman of twenty-seven, with a long clever face and freakishly plucked eyebrows.
‘And you’ve done so much in the time! Did you have lots of architects and things?’
‘Three.’
‘What are architects like? I don’t think I’ve ever seen any.’
‘They were all right. I found them rather unpractical sometimes.’
‘Darling, you soon put that right! You are the most practical creature!’
Joanna picked up a string of pearls from the dressing table.
‘I suppose these are real, aren’t they, Linnet?’
‘Of course.’
‘I know it’s “of course” to you, my sweet, but it wouldn’t be to most people. Heavily cultured or even Woolworth! Darling, they really are incredible, so exquisitely matched. They must be worth the most fabulous sum!’
‘Rather vulgar, you think?’
‘No, not at all–just pure beauty. What are they worth?’
‘About fifty thousand.’
‘What a lovely lot of money! Aren’t you afraid of having them stolen?’
‘No, I always wear them–and anyway they’re insured.’
‘Let me wear them till dinner-time, will you, darling? It would give me such a thrill.’
Linnet laughed.
‘Of course, if you like.’
‘You know, Linnet, I really do envy you. You’ve simply got everything. Here you are at twenty, your own mistress, with any amount of money, looks, superb health. You’ve even got brains! When are you twenty-one?’
‘Next June. I shall have a grand coming-of-age party in London.’
‘And then are you going to marry Charles Windlesham? All the dreadful little gossip writers are getting so excited about it. And he really is frightfully devoted.’
Linnet shrugged her shoulders.
‘I don’t know. I don’t really want to marry anyone yet.’
‘Darling, how right you are! It’s never quite the same afterwards, is it?’
The telephone shrilled and Linnet went to it.
‘Yes? Yes?’
The butler’s voice answered her:
‘Miss de Bellefort is on the line. Shall I put her through?’
‘Bellefort? Oh, of course, yes, put her through.’
A click and a voice, an eager, soft, slightly breathless voice: ‘Hullo, is that Miss Ridgeway? Linnet!’
‘Jackie darling! I haven’t heard anything of you for ages and ages!’
‘I know. It’s awful. Linnet, I want to see you terribly.’
‘Darling, can’t you come down here? My new toy. I’d love to show it to you.’
‘That’s just what I want to do.’
‘Well, jump into a train or a car.’
‘Right, I will. A frightfully dilapidated two-seater. I bought it for fifteen pounds, and some days it goes beautifully. But it has moods. If I haven’t arrived by tea-time you’ll know it’s had a mood. So long, my sweet.’
Linnet replaced the receiver. She crossed back to Joanna.
‘That’s my oldest friend, Jacqueline de Bellefort. We were together at a convent in Paris. She’s had the most terrible bad luck. Her father was a French Count, her mother was American–a Southerner. The father went off with some woman, and her mother lost all her money in the Wall Street crash. Jackie was left absolutely broke. I don’t know how she’s managed to get along the last two years.’
Joanna was polishing her deep-blood-coloured nails with her friend’s nail pad. She leant back with her head on one side scrutinizing the effect.
‘Darling,’ she drawled, ‘won’t that be rather tiresome? If any misfortunes happen to my friends I always drop them at once! It sounds heartless, but it saves such a lot of trouble later! They always want to borrow money off you, or else they start a dressmaking business and you have to get the most terrible clothes from them. Or they paint lampshades, or do batik scarves.’
‘So, if I lost all my money, you’d drop me tomorrow?’
‘Yes, darling, I would. You can’t say I’m not honest about it! I only like successful people. And you’ll find that’s true of nearly everybody–only most people won’t admit it. They just say that really they can’t put up with Mary or Emily or Pamela any more! “Her troubles have made her so bitter and peculiar, poor dear!”’
‘How beastly you are, Joanna!’
‘I’m only on the make, like everyone else.’
‘I’m not on the make!’
‘For obvious reasons! You don’t have to be sordid when good-looking, middle-aged American trustees pay you over a vast allowance every quarter.’
‘And you’re wrong about Jacqueline,’ said Linnet. ‘She’s not a sponge. I’ve wanted to help her, but she won’t let me. She’s as proud as the devil.’
‘What’s she in such a hurry to see you for? I’ll bet she wants something! You just wait and see.’
‘She sounded excited about something,’ admitted Linnet. ‘Jackie always did get frightfully worked up over things. She once stuck a penknife into someone!’
‘Darling, how thrilling!’
‘A boy was teasing a dog. Jackie tried to get him to stop. He wouldn’t. She pulled him and shook him, but he was much stronger than she was, and at last she whipped out a penknife and plunged it right into him. There was the most awful row!’
‘I should think so. It sounds most uncomfortable!’
Linnet’s maid entered the room. With a murmured word of apology, she took down a dress from the wardrobe and went out of the room with it.
‘What’s the matter with Marie?’ asked Joanna. ‘She’s been crying.’
‘Poor thing! You know I told you she wanted to marry a man who has a job in Egypt. She didn’t know much about him, so I thought I’d better make sure he was all right. It turned out that he had a wife already–and three children.’
‘What a lot of enemies you must make, Linnet.’
‘Enemies?’ Linnet looked surprised.
Joanna nodded and helped herself to a cigarette.
‘Enemies, my sweet. You’re so devastatingly efficient. And you’re so frightfully good at doing the right thing.’
Linnet laughed.
‘Why, I haven’t got an enemy in the world.’
IV
Lord Windlesham sat under the cedar tree. His eyes rested on the graceful proportions of Wode Hall. There was nothing to mar its old-world beauty; the new buildings and additions were out of sight round the corner. It was a fair and peaceful sight bathed in the autumn sunshine. Nevertheless, as he gazed, it was no longer Wode Hall that Charles Windlesham saw. Instead, he seemed to see a more imposing Elizabethan mansion, a long sweep of park, a more bleak background…It was his own family seat, Charltonbury, and in the foreground stood a figure–a girl’s figure, with bright golden hair and an eager confident face…Linnet as mistress of Charltonbury!
He felt very hopeful. That refusal of hers had not been at all a definite refusal. It had been little more than a plea for time. Well, he could afford to wait a little…
How amazingly suitable the whole thing was! It was certainly advisable that he should marry money, but not such a matter of necessity that he could regard himself as forced to put his own feelings on one side. And he loved Linnet. He would have wanted to marry her even if she had been practically penniless, instead of one of the richest girls in England. Only, fortunately, she was one of the richest girls in England…
His mind played with attractive plans for the future. The Mastership of the Roxdale perhaps, the restoration of the west wing, no need to let the Scotch shooting…
Charles Windlesham dreamed in the sun.
V
It was four o’clock when the dilapidated little two-seater stopped with a sound of crunching gravel. A girl got out of it–a small slender creature with a mop of dark hair. She ran up the steps and tugged at the bell.
A few minutes later she was being ushered into the long stately drawing-room, and an ecclesiastical butler was saying with the proper mournful intonation: ‘Miss de Bellefort.’
‘Linnet!’
‘Jackie!’
Windlesham stood a little aside, watching sympathetically as this fiery little creature flung herself open-armed upon Linnet.
‘Lord Windlesham–Miss de Bellefort–my best friend.’
A pretty child, he thought–not really pretty but decidedly attractive, with her dark curly hair and her enormous eyes. He murmured a few tactful nothings and then managed unobtrusively to leave the two friends together.
Jacqueline pounced–in a fashion that Linnet remembered as being characteristic of her.
‘Windlesham? Windlesham? That’s the man the papers always say you’re going to marry! Are you, Linnet? Are you?’
Linnet murmured: ‘Perhaps.’
‘Darling–I’m so glad! He looks nice.’
‘Oh, don’t make up your mind about it–I haven’t made up my own mind yet.’
‘Of course not! Queens always proceed with due deliberation to the choosing of a consort!’
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Jackie.’
‘But you are a queen, Linnet! You always were. Sa Majesté, la reine Linette. Linette la blonde! And I–I’m the Queen’s confidante! The trusted Maid of Honour.’
‘What nonsense you talk, Jackie darling! Where have you been all this time? You just disappear. And you never write.’
‘I hate writing letters. Where have I been? Oh, about three parts submerged, darling. In JOBS, you know. Grim jobs with grim women!’
‘Darling, I wish you’d–’
‘Take the Queen’s bounty? Well, frankly, darling, that’s what I’m here for. No, not to borrow money. It’s not got to that yet! But I’ve come to ask a great big important favour!’
‘Go on.’
‘If you’re going to marry the Windlesham man, you’ll understand, perhaps.’
Linnet looked puzzled for a minute; then her face cleared.
‘Jackie, do you mean–?’
‘Yes, darling, I’m engaged!’
‘So that’s it! I thought you were looking particularly alive somehow. You always do, of course, but even more than usual.’
‘That’s just what I feel like.’
‘Tell me all about him.’
‘His name’s Simon Doyle. He’s big and square and incredibly simple and boyish and utterly adorable! He’s poor–got no money. He’s what you call “county” all right–but very impoverished county–a younger son and all that. His people come from Devonshire. He loves the country and country things. And for the last five years he’s been in the City in a stuffy office. And now they’re cutting down and he’s out of a job. Linnet, I shall die if I can’t marry him! I shall die! I shall die! I shall die…’
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Jackie.’
‘I shall die, I tell you! I’m crazy about him. He’s crazy about me. We can’t live without each other.’
‘Darling, you have got it badly!’
‘I know. It’s awful, isn’t it? This love business gets hold of you and you can’t do anything about it.’
She paused for a minute. Her dark eyes dilated, looked suddenly tragic. She gave a little shiver.
‘It’s–even frightening sometimes! Simon and I were made for each other. I shall never care for anyone else. And you’ve got to help us, Linnet. I heard you’d bought this place and it put an idea into my head. Listen, you’ll have to have a land agent–perhaps two. I want you to give the job to Simon.’
‘Oh!’ Linnet was startled.
Jacqueline rushed on: ‘He’s got all that sort of thing at his fingertips. He knows all about estates–was brought up on one. And he’s got his business training too. Oh, Linnet, you will give him a job, won’t you, for love of me? If he doesn’t make good, sack him. But he will. And we can live in a little house, and I shall see lots of you, and everything in the garden will be too, too divine.’
She got up.
‘Say you will, Linnet. Say you will. Beautiful Linnet! Tall golden Linnet! My own very special Linnet! Say you will!’
‘Jackie–’
‘You will?’
Linnet burst out laughing.
‘Ridiculous Jackie! Bring along your young man and let me have a look at him and we’ll talk it over.’
Jackie darted at her, kissing her exuberantly.
‘Darling Linnet–you’re a real friend! I knew you were. You wouldn’t let me down–ever. You’re just the loveliest thing in the world. Goodbye.’
‘But, Jackie, you’re staying.’
‘Me? No, I’m not. I’m going back to London, and tomorrow I’ll come back and bring Simon and we’ll settle it all up. You’ll adore him. He really is a pet.’
‘But can’t you wait and just have tea?’
‘No, I can’t wait, Linnet. I’m too excited. I must get back and tell Simon. I know I’m mad, darling, but I can’t help it. Marriage will cure me, I expect. It always seems to have a very sobering effect on people.’
She turned at the door, stood a moment, then rushed back for a last quick birdlike embrace.
‘Dear Linnet–there’s no one like you.’
VI
M. Gaston Blondin, the proprietor of that modish little restaurant Chez Ma Tante, was not a man who delighted to honour many of his clientèle. The rich, the beautiful, the notorious, and the well-born might wait in vain to be singled out and paid special attention. Only in the rarest cases did M. Blondin, with gracious condescension, greet a guest, accompany him to a privileged table, and exchange with him suitable and apposite remarks.
On this particular night, M. Blondin had exercised his royal prerogative three times–once for a Duchess, once for a famous racing peer, and once for a little man of comical appearance with immense black moustaches, who, a casual onlooker would have thought, could bestow no favour on Chez Ma Tante by his presence there.
M. Blondin, however, was positively fulsome in his attentions. Though clients had been told for the last half hour that a table was not to be had, one now mysteriously appeared, placed in a most favourable position. M. Blondin conducted the client to it with every appearance of empressement.
‘But naturally, for you there is always a table, Monsieur Poirot! How I wish that you would honour us oftener!’
Hercule Poirot smiled, remembering that past incident wherein a dead body, a waiter, M. Blondin, and a very lovely lady had played a part.
‘You are too amiable, Monsieur Blondin,’ he said.
‘And you are alone, Monsieur Poirot?’
‘Yes, I am alone.’
‘Oh, well, Jules here will compose for you a little meal that will be a poem–positively a poem! Women, however charming, have this disadvantage: they distract the mind from food! You will enjoy your dinner, Monsieur Poirot; I promise you that. Now as to wine–’
A technical conversation ensued, Jules, the maître d’hotel, assisting.
Before departing, M. Blondin lingered a moment, lowering his voice confidentially.
‘You have grave affairs on hand?’
Poirot shook his head.
‘I am, alas, a man of leisure,’ he said softly. ‘I have made the economies in my time and I have now the means to enjoy the life of idleness.’
‘I envy you.’
‘No, no, you would be unwise to do so. I can assure you, it is not so gay as it sounds.’ He sighed. ‘How true is the saying that man was forced to invent work in order to escape the strain of having to think.’
M. Blondin threw up his hands.
‘But there is so much! There is travel!’
‘Yes, there is travel. Already I have not done so badly. This winter I shall visit Egypt, I think. The climate, they say, is superb! One will escape from the fogs, the greyness, the monotony of the constantly falling rain.’
‘Ah! Egypt,’ breathed M. Blondin.
‘One can even voyage there now, I believe, by train, escaping all sea travel except the Channel.’
‘Ah, the sea, it does not agree with you?’
Hercule Poirot shook his head and shuddered slightly.
‘I, too,’ said M. Blondin with sympathy. ‘Curious the effect it has upon the stomach.’
‘But only upon certain stomachs! There are people on whom the motion makes no impression whatever. They actually enjoy it!’
‘An unfairness of the good God,’ said M. Blondin.
He shook his head sadly, and, brooding on the impious thought, withdrew.
Smooth-footed, deft-handed waiters ministered to the table. Toast Melba, butter, an ice pail, all the adjuncts to a meal of quality.
The Negro orchestra broke into an ecstasy of strange discordant noises. London danced.
Hercule Poirot looked on, registered impressions in his neat orderly mind.
How bored and weary most of the faces were! Some of those stout men, however, were enjoying themselves…whereas a patient endurance seemed to be the sentiment exhibited on their partners’ faces. The fat woman in purple was looking radiant…Undoubtedly the fat had certain compensations in life…a zest–a gusto–denied to those of more fashionable contours.
A good sprinkling of young people–some vacant-looking–some bored–some definitely unhappy. How absurd to call youth the time of happiness–youth, the time of greatest vulnerability!
His glance softened as it rested on one particular couple. A well-matched pair–tall broad-shouldered man, slender delicate girl. Two bodies that moved in perfect rhythm of happiness. Happiness in the place, the hour, and in each other.
The dance stopped abruptly. Hands clapped and it started again. After a second encore the couple returned to their table close by Poirot. The girl was flushed, laughing. As she sat, he could study her face, lifted laughing to her companion.
There was something else beside laughter in her eyes. Hercule Poirot shook his head doubtfully.
‘She cares too much, that little one,’ he said to himself. ‘It is not safe. No, it is not safe.’
And then a word caught his ear, ‘Egypt.’
Their voices came to him clearly–the girl’s young, fresh, arrogant, with just a trace of soft-sounding foreign R’s, and the man’s pleasant, low-toned, well-bred English.
‘I’m not counting my chickens before they’re hatched, Simon. I tell you Linnet won’t let us down!’
‘I might let her down.’
‘Nonsense–it’s just the right job for you.’
‘As a matter of fact I think it is…I haven’t really any doubts as to my capability. And I mean to make good–for your sake!’
The girl laughed softly, a laugh of pure happiness.
‘We’ll wait three months–to make sure you don’t get the sack–and then–’
‘And then I’ll endow thee with my worldly goods–that’s the hang of it, isn’t it?’
‘And, as I say, we’ll go to Egypt for our honeymoon. Damn the expense! I’ve always wanted to go to Egypt all my life. The Nile and the Pyramids and the sand…’
He said, his voice slightly indistinct: ‘We’ll see it together, Jackie…together. Won’t it be marvellous?’
‘I wonder. Will it be as marvellous to you as it is to me? Do you really care–as much as I do?’
Her voice was suddenly sharp–her eyes dilated–almost with fear.
The man’s answer came quickly crisp: ‘Don’t be absurd, Jackie.’
But the girl repeated: ‘I wonder…’
Then she shrugged her shoulders. ‘Let’s dance.’
Hercule Poirot murmured to himself:
‘Une qui aime et un qui se laisse aimer. Yes, I wonder too.’
VII
Joanna Southwood said: ‘And suppose he’s a terrible tough?’
Linnet shook her head. ‘Oh, he won’t be. I can trust Jacqueline’s taste.’
Joanna murmured: ‘Ah, but people don’t run true to form in love affairs.’
Linnet shook her head impatiently. Then she changed the subject.
‘I must go and see Mr Pierce about those plans.’
‘Plans?’
‘Yes, some dreadful insanitary old cottages. I’m having them pulled down and the people moved.’
‘How sanitary and public-spirited of you, darling!’
‘They’d have had to go anyway. Those cottages would have overlooked my new swimming pool.’
‘Do the people who live in them like going?’
‘Most of them are delighted. One or two are being rather stupid about it–really tiresome in fact. They don’t seem to realize how vastly improved their living conditions will be!’
‘But you’re being quite high-handed about it, I presume.’
‘My dear Joanna, it’s to their advantage really.’
‘Yes, dear. I’m sure it is. Compulsory benefit.’
Linnet frowned. Joanna laughed.
‘Come now, you are a tyrant, admit it. A beneficent tyrant if you like!’
‘I’m not the least bit of a tyrant.’
‘But you like your own way!’
‘Not especially.’
‘Linnet Ridgeway, can you look me in the face and tell me of any one occasion on which you’ve failed to do exactly as you wanted?’
‘Heaps of times.’
‘Oh, yes, “heaps of times”–just like that–but no concrete example. And you simply can’t think up one, darling, however hard you try! The triumphal progress of Linnet Ridgeway in her golden car.’
Linnet said sharply: ‘You think I’m selfish?’
‘No–just irresistible. The combined effect of money and charm. Everything goes down before you. What you can’t buy with cash you buy with a smile. Result: Linnet Ridgeway, the Girl Who Has Everything.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Joanna!’
‘Well, haven’t you got everything?’
‘I suppose I have…It sounds rather disgusting, somehow!’
‘Of course it’s disgusting, darling! You’ll probably get terribly bored and blasé by and by. In the meantime, enjoy the triumphal progress in the golden car. Only I wonder, I really do wonder, what will happen when you want to go down a street which has a board saying “No Thoroughfare”.’
‘Don’t be idiotic, Joanna.’ As Lord Windlesham joined them, Linnet said, turning to him: ‘Joanna is saying the nastiest things to me.’
‘All spite, darling, all spite,’ said Joanna vaguely as she got up from her seat.
She made no apology for leaving them. She had caught the glint in Windlesham’s eye.
He was silent for a minute or two. Then he went straight to the point.
‘Have you come to a decision, Linnet?’
Linnet said slowly: ‘Am I being a brute? I suppose, if I’m not sure, I ought to say “No”–’
He interrupted her:
‘Don’t say it. You shall have time–as much time as you want. But I think, you know, we should be happy together.’
‘You see,’ Linnet’s tone was apologetic, almost childish, ‘I’m enjoying myself so much–especially with all this.’ She waved a hand. ‘I wanted to make Wode Hall into my real ideal of a country house, and I do think I’ve got it nice, don’t you?’
‘It’s beautiful. Beautifully planned. Everything perfect. You’re very clever, Linnet.’
He paused a minute and went on: ‘And you like Charltonbury, don’t you? Of course it wants modernizing and all that–but you’re so clever at that sort of thing. You enjoy it.’
‘Why, of course, Charltonbury’s divine.’
She spoke with ready enthusiasm, but inwardly she was conscious of a sudden chill. An alien note had sounded, disturbing her complete satisfaction with life. She did not analyse the feeling at the moment, but later, when Windlesham had left her, she tried to probe the recesses of her mind.
Charltonbury–yes, that was it–she had resented the mention of Charltonbury. But why? Charltonbury was modestly famous. Windlesham’s ancestors had held it since the time of Elizabeth. To be mistress of Charltonbury was a position unsurpassed in society. Windlesham was one of the most desirable peers in England.
Naturally he couldn’t take Wode seriously…It was not in any way to be compared with Charltonbury.
Ah, but Wode was hers! She had seen it, acquired it, rebuilt and re-dressed it, lavished money on it. It was her own possession–her kingdom.
But in a sense it wouldn’t count if she married Windlesham. What would they want with two country places? And of the two, naturally Wode Hall would be the one to be given up.
She, Linnet Ridgeway, wouldn’t exist any longer. She would be Countess of Windlesham, bringing a fine dowry to Charltonbury and its master. She would be queen consort, not queen any longer.
‘I’m being ridiculous,’ said Linnet to herself.
But it was curious how she did hate the idea of abandoning Wode…
And wasn’t there something else nagging at her?
Jackie’s voice with that queer blurred note in it saying: ‘I shall die if I can’t marry him! I shall die. I shall die…’
So positive, so earnest. Did she, Linnet, feel like that about Windlesham? Assuredly she didn’t. Perhaps she could never feel like that about anyone. It must be–rather wonderful–to feel like that…
The sound of a car came through the open window.
Linnet shook herself impatiently. That must be Jackie and her young man. She’d go out and meet them.
She was standing in the open doorway as Jacqueline and Simon Doyle got out of the car.
‘Linnet!’ Jackie ran to her. ‘This is Simon. Simon, here’s Linnet. She’s just the most wonderful person in the world.’
Linnet saw a tall, broad-shouldered young man, with very dark blue eyes, crisply curling brown hair, a square chin, and a boyish, appealing, simple smile…
She stretched out a hand. The hand that clasped hers was firm and warm…She liked the way he looked at her, the naïve genuine admiration.
Jackie had told him she was wonderful, and he clearly thought that she was wonderful…
A warm sweet feeling of intoxication ran through her veins.
‘Isn’t this all lovely?’ she said. ‘Come in, Simon, and let me welcome my new land agent properly.’
And as she turned to lead the way she thought: ‘I’m frightfully–frightfully happy. I like Jackie’s young man…I like him enormously…’
And then a sudden pang: ‘Lucky Jackie…’
VIII
Tim Allerton leant back in his wicker chair and yawned as he looked out over the sea. He shot a quick sidelong glance at his mother.
Mrs Allerton was a good-looking, white-haired woman of fifty. By imparting an expression of pinched severity to her mouth every time she looked at her son, she sought to disguise the fact of her intense affection for him. Even total strangers were seldom deceived by this device and Tim himself saw through it perfectly.
He said: ‘Do you really like Majorca, Mother?’
‘Well,’ Mrs Allerton considered, ‘it’s cheap.’
‘And cold,’ said Tim with a slight shiver.
He was a tall, thin young man, with dark hair and a rather narrow chest. His mouth had a very sweet expression: his eyes were sad and his chin was indecisive. He had long delicate hands.
Threatened by consumption some years ago, he had never displayed a really robust physique. He was popularly supposed ‘to write,’ but it was understood among his friends that inquiries as to literary output were not encouraged.
‘What are you thinking of, Tim?’
Mrs Allerton was alert. Her bright, dark-brown eyes looked suspicious.
Tim Allerton grinned at her:
‘I was thinking of Egypt.’
‘Egypt?’ Mrs Allerton sounded doubtful.
‘Real warmth, darling. Lazy golden sands. The Nile. I’d like to go up the Nile, wouldn’t you?’
‘Oh, I’d like it.’ Her tone was dry. ‘But Egypt’s expensive, my dear. Not for those who have to count the pennies.’
Tim laughed. He rose, stretched himself. Suddenly he looked alive and eager. There was an excited note in his voice.
‘The expense will be my affair. Yes, darling. A little flutter on the Stock Exchange. With thoroughly satisfactory results. I heard this morning.’
‘This morning?’ said Mrs Allerton sharply. ‘You only had one letter and that–’
She stopped and bit her lip.
Tim looked momentarily undecided whether to be amused or annoyed. Amusement gained the day.
‘And that was from Joanna,’ he finished coolly. ‘Quite right, Mother. What a queen of detectives you’d make! The famous Hercule Poirot would have to look to his laurels if you were about.’
Mrs Allerton looked rather cross.
‘I just happened to see the handwriting–’
‘And knew it wasn’t that of a stockbroker? Quite right. As a matter of fact it was yesterday I heard from them. Poor Joanna’s handwriting is rather noticeable–sprawls about all over the envelope like an inebriated spider.’
‘What does Joanna say? Any news?’
Mrs Allerton strove to make her voice sound casual and ordinary. The friendship between her son and his second cousin, Joanna Southwood, always irritated her. Not, as she put it to herself, that there was ‘anything in it’. She was quite sure there wasn’t. Tim had never manifested a sentimental interest in Joanna, nor she in him. Their mutual attraction seemed to be founded on gossip and the possession of a large number of friends and acquaintances in common. They both liked people and discussing people. Joanna had an amusing if caustic tongue.
It was not because Mrs Allerton feared that Tim might fall in love with Joanna that she found herself always becoming a little stiff in manner if Joanna were present or when letters from her arrived.
It was some other feeling hard to define–perhaps an unacknowledged jealousy in the unfeigned pleasure Tim always seemed to take in Joanna’s society. He and his mother were such perfect companions that the sight of him absorbed and interested in another woman always startled Mrs Allerton slightly. She fancied, too, that her own presence on these occasions set some barrier between the two members of the younger generation. Often she had come upon them eagerly absorbed in some conversation and, at sight of her, their talk had wavered, had seemed to include her rather too purposefully and as if duty bound. Quite definitely, Mrs Allerton did not like Joanna Southwood. She thought her insincere, affected, and essentially superficial. She found it very hard to prevent herself saying so in unmeasured tones.
In answer to her question, Tim pulled the letter out of his pocket and glanced through it. It was quite a long letter, his mother noted.
‘Nothing much,’ he said. ‘The Devenishes are getting a divorce. Old Monty’s been had up for being drunk in charge of a car. Windlesham’s gone to Canada. Seems he was pretty badly hit when Linnet Ridgeway turned him down. She’s definitely going to marry this land agent person.’
‘How extraordinary! Is he very dreadful?’
‘No, no, not at all. He’s one of the Devonshire Doyles. No money, of course–and he was actually engaged to one of Linnet’s best friends. Pretty thick, that.’
‘I don’t think it’s at all nice,’ said Mrs Allerton, flushing.
Tim flashed her a quick affectionate glance.
‘I know, darling. You don’t approve of snaffling other people’s husbands and all that sort of thing.’
‘In my day we had our standards,’ said Mrs Allerton. ‘And a very good thing too! Nowadays young people seem to think they can just go about doing anything they choose.’
Tim smiled. ‘They don’t only think it. They do it. Vide Linnet Ridgeway!’
‘Well, I think it’s horrid!’
Tim twinkled at her.
‘Cheer up, you old die-hard! Perhaps I agree with you. Anyway, I haven’t helped myself to anyone’s wife or fiancée yet.’
‘I’m sure you’d never do such a thing,’ said Mrs Allerton. She added with spirit, ‘I’ve brought you up properly.’
‘So the credit is yours, not mine.’
He smiled teasingly at her as he folded the letter and put it away again. Mrs Allerton let the thought just flash across her mind: ‘Most letters he shows to me. He only reads me snippets from Joanna’s.’
But she put the unworthy thought away from her, and decided, as ever, to behave like a gentlewoman.
‘Is Joanna enjoying life?’ she asked.
‘So so. Says she thinks of opening a delicatessen shop in Mayfair.’
‘She always talks about being hard up,’ said Mrs Allerton with a tinge of spite, ‘but she goes about everywhere and her clothes must cost her a lot. She’s always beautifully dressed.’
‘Ah, well,’ said Tim, ‘she probably doesn’t pay for them. No, mother, I don’t mean what your Edwardian mind suggests to you. I just mean quite literally that she leaves her bills unpaid.’
Mrs Allerton sighed.
‘I never know how people manage to do that.’
‘It’s a kind of special gift,’ said Tim. ‘If only you have sufficiently extravagant tastes, and absolutely no sense of money values, people will give you any amount of credit.’
‘Yes, but you come to the Bankruptcy Court in the end like poor Sir George Wode.’
‘You have a soft spot for that old horse coper–probably because he called you a rosebud in eighteen seventy-nine at a dance.’
‘I wasn’t born in eighteen seventy-nine,’ Mrs Allerton retorted with spirit. ‘Sir George has charming manners, and I won’t have you calling him a horse coper.’
‘I’ve heard funny stories about him from people that know.’
‘You and Joanna don’t mind what you say about people; anything will do so long as it’s sufficiently ill-natured.’
Tim raised his eyebrows.
‘My dear, you’re quite heated. I didn’t know old Wode was such a favourite of yours.’
‘You don’t realize how hard it was for him, having to sell Wode Hall. He cared terribly about that place.’
Tim suppressed the easy retort. After all, who was he to judge? Instead he said thoughtfully:
‘You know, I think you’re not far wrong there. Linnet asked him to come down and see what she’d done to the place, and he refused quite rudely.’
‘Of course. She ought to have known better than to ask him.’
‘And I believe he’s quite venomous about her–mutters things under his breath whenever he sees her. Can’t forgive her for having given him an absolutely top price for the worm-eaten family estate.’
‘And you can’t understand that?’ Mrs Allerton spoke sharply.
‘Frankly,’ said Tim calmly, ‘I can’t. Why live in the past? Why cling on to things that have been?’
‘What are you going to put in their place?’
He shrugged his shoulders. ‘Excitement, perhaps. Novelty. The joy of never knowing what may turn up from day to day. Instead of inheriting a useless tract of land, the pleasure of making money for yourself–by your own brains and skill.’
‘A successful deal on the Stock Exchange, in fact!’
He laughed. ‘Why not?’
‘And what about an equal loss on the Stock Exchange?’
‘That, dear, is rather tactless. And quite inappropriate today…What about this Egypt plan?’
‘Well–’
He cut in smiling at her: ‘That’s settled. We’ve both always wanted to see Egypt.’
‘When do you suggest?’
‘Oh, next month. January’s about the best time there. We’ll enjoy the delightful society in this hotel a few weeks longer.’
‘Tim,’ said Mrs Allerton reproachfully. Then she added guiltily: ‘I’m afraid I promised Mrs Leech that you’d go with her to the police station. She doesn’t understand any Spanish.’
Tim made a grimace.
‘About her ring? The blood-red ruby of the horseleech’s daughter? Does she still persist in thinking it’s been stolen? I’ll go if you like, but it’s a waste of time. She’ll only get some wretched chambermaid into trouble. I distinctly saw it on her finger when she went into the sea that day. It came off in the water and she never noticed.’
‘She says she is quite sure she took it off and left it on her dressing-table.’
‘Well, she didn’t. I saw it with my own eyes. The woman’s a fool. Any woman’s a fool who goes prancing into the sea in December, pretending the water’s quite warm just because the sun happens to be shining rather brightly at the moment. Stout women oughtn’t to be allowed to bathe anyway; they look so revolting in bathing dresses.’
Mrs Allerton murmured, ‘I really feel I ought to give up bathing.’
Tim gave a shout of laughter.
‘You? You can give most of the young things points and to spare.’
Mrs Allerton sighed and said, ‘I wish there were a few more young people for you here.’
Tim Allerton shook his head decidedly.
‘I don’t. You and I get along rather comfortably without outside distractions.’
‘You’d like it if Joanna were here.’
‘I wouldn’t.’ His tone was unexpectedly resolute. ‘You’re all wrong there. Joanna amuses me, but I don’t really like her, and to have her around much gets on my nerves. I’m thankful she isn’t here. I should be quite resigned if I were never to see Joanna again.’
He added, almost below his breath, ‘There’s only one woman in the world I’ve got a real respect and admiration for, and I think, Mrs Allerton, you know very well who that woman is.’
His mother blushed and looked quite confused.
Tim said gravely: ‘There aren’t very many really nice women in the world. You happen to be one of them.’
IX
In an apartment overlooking Central Park in New York Mrs Robson exclaimed: ‘If that isn’t just too lovely! You really are the luckiest girl, Cornelia.’
Cornelia Robson flushed responsively. She was a big clumsy looking girl with brown doglike eyes.
‘Oh, it will be wonderful!’ she gasped.
Old Miss Van Schuyler inclined her head in a satisfied fashion at this correct attitude on the part of poor relations. ‘I’ve always dreamed of a trip to Europe,’ sighed Cornelia, ‘but I just didn’t feel I’d ever get there.’
‘Miss Bowers will come with me as usual, of course,’ said Miss Van Schuyler, ‘but as a social companion I find her limited–very limited. There are many little things that Cornelia can do for me.’
‘I’d just love to, Cousin Marie,’ said Cornelia eagerly.
‘Well, well, then that’s settled,’ said Miss Van Schuyler. ‘Just run and find Miss Bowers, my dear. It’s time for my eggnog.’
Cornelia departed. Her mother said: ‘My dear Marie, I’m really most grateful to you! You know I think Cornelia suffers a lot from not being a social success. It makes her feel kind of mortified. If I could afford to take her to places–but you know how it’s been since Ned died.’
‘I’m very glad to take her,’ said Miss Van Schuyler. ‘Cornelia has always been a nice handy girl, willing to run errands, and not so selfish as some of these young people nowadays.’
Mrs Robson rose and kissed her rich relative’s wrinkled and slightly yellow face.
‘I’m just ever so grateful,’ she declared.
On the stairs she met a tall capable-looking woman who was carrying a glass containing a yellow foamy liquid.
‘Well, Miss Bowers, so you’re off to Europe?’
‘Why, yes, Mrs Robson.’
‘What a lovely trip!’
‘Why, yes, I should think it would be very enjoyable.’
‘But you’ve been abroad before?’
‘Oh, yes, Mrs Robson. I went over to Paris with Miss Van Schuyler last fall. But I’ve never been to Egypt before.’
Mrs Robson hesitated.
‘I do hope–there won’t be any–trouble.’
She had lowered her voice. Miss Bowers, however, replied in her usual tone:
‘Oh, no, Mrs Robson; I shall take good care of that. I keep a very sharp look-out always.’
But there was still a faint shadow on Mrs Robson’s face as she slowly continued down the stairs.
X
In his office down town Mr Andrew Pennington was opening his personal mail. Suddenly his fist clenched itself and came down on his desk with a bang; his face crimsoned and two big veins stood out on his forehead. He pressed a buzzer on his desk and a smart-looking stenographer appeared with commendable promptitude.
‘Tell Mr Rockford to step in here.’
‘Yes, Mr Pennington.’
A few minutes later, Sterndale Rockford, Pennington’s partner, entered the office. The two men were not unlike–both tall, spare, with greying hair and clean-shaven, clever faces.
‘What’s up, Pennington?’
Pennington looked up from the letter he was rereading. He said. ‘Linnet’s married…’
‘What?’
‘You heard what I said! Linnet Ridgeway’s married!’
‘How? When? Why didn’t we hear about it?’
Pennington glanced at the calendar on his desk.
‘She wasn’t married when she wrote this letter, but she’s married now. Morning of the fourth. That’s today.’
Rockford dropped into a chair.
‘Whew! No warning! Nothing? Who’s the man?’
Pennington referred again to the letter.
‘Doyle. Simon Doyle.’
‘What sort of a fellow is he? Ever heard of him?’
‘No. She doesn’t say much…’ He scanned the lines of clear, upright hand writing. ‘Got an idea there’s something hole-and-corner about this business…That doesn’t matter. The whole point is, she’s married.’
The eyes of the two men met. Rockford nodded.
‘This needs a bit of thinking out,’ he said quietly.
‘What are we going to do about it?’
‘I’m asking you.’
The two men sat silent. Then Rockford asked, ‘Got any plan?’
Pennington said slowly: ‘The Normandie sails today. One of us could just make it.’
‘You’re crazy! What’s the big idea?’
Pennington began: ‘Those British lawyers–’ and stopped.
‘What about ’em. Surely you’re not going over to tackle ’em? You’re mad!’
‘I’m not suggesting that you–or I–should go to England.’
‘What’s the big idea, then?’
Pennington smoothed out the letter on the table.
‘Linnet’s going to Egypt for her honeymoon. Expects to be there a month or more…’
‘Egypt–eh?’
Rockford considered. Then he looked up and met the other’s glance.
‘Egypt,’ he said; ‘that’s your idea!’
‘Yes–a chance meeting. Over on a trip. Linnet and her husband–honeymoon atmosphere. It might be done.’
Rockford said doubtfully: ‘She’s sharp, Linnet is…but–’
Pennington went on softly: ‘I think there might be ways of–managing it.’
Again their eyes met. Rockford nodded.
‘All right, big boy.’
Pennington looked at the clock.
‘We’ll have to hustle–whichever of us is going.’
‘You go,’ said Rockford promptly. ‘You always made a hit with Linnet. “Uncle Andrew.” That’s the ticket!’
Pennington’s face had hardened. He said: ‘I hope I can pull it off.’
‘You’ve got to pull it off,’ his partner said. ‘The situation’s critical…’
XI
William Carmichael said to the thin, weedy youth who opened the door inquiringly: ‘Send Mr Jim to me, please.’
Jim Fanthorp entered the room and looked inquiringly at his uncle. The older man looked up with a nod and a grunt.
‘Humph, there you are.’
‘You asked for me?’
‘Just cast an eye over this.’
The young man sat down and drew the sheaf of papers towards him. The elder man watched him.
‘Well?’
The answer came promptly. ‘Looks fishy to me, sir.’
Again the senior partner of Carmichael, Grant & Carmichael uttered his characteristic grunt.
Jim Fanthorp re-read the letter which had just arrived by air mail from Egypt:
…It seems wicked to be writing business letters on such a day. We have spent a week at Mena House and made an expedition to the Fayum. The day after tomorrow we are going up the Nile to Luxor and Assuan by steamer, and perhaps on to Khartoum. When we went into Cook’s this morning to see about our tickets who do you think was the first person I saw?–my American trustee, Andrew Pennington. I think you met him two years ago when he was over. I had no idea he was in Egypt and he had no idea that I was! Nor that I was married! My letter, telling him of my marriage, must just have missed him. He is actually going up the Nile on the same trip that we are. Isn’t it a coincidence? Thank you so much for all you have done in this busy time. I–
As the young man was about to turn the page, Mr Carmichael took the letter from him.
‘That’s all,’ he said. ‘The rest doesn’t matter. Well, what do you think?’
His nephew considered for a moment–then he said:
‘Well–I think–not a coincidence…’
The other nodded approval.
‘Like a trip to Egypt?’ he barked out.
‘You think that’s advisable?’
‘I think there’s no time to lose.’
‘But, why me?’
‘Use your brains, boy; use your brains. Linnet Ridgeway has never met you; no more has Pennington. If you go by air you may get there in time.’
‘I–I don’t like it.’
‘Perhaps not–but you’ve got to do it.’
‘It’s–necessary?’
‘In my opinion,’ said Mr Carmichael, ‘it’s absolutely vital.’
XII
Mrs Otterbourne, readjusting the turban of native material that she wore draped round her head, said fretfully:
‘I really don’t see why we shouldn’t go on to Egypt. I’m sick and tired of Jerusalem.’
As her daughter made no reply, she said, ‘You might at least answer when you’re spoken to.’
Rosalie Otterbourne was looking at a newspaper reproduction of a face. Below it was printed:
Mrs Simon Doyle, who before her marriage was the well-known society beauty, Miss Linnet Ridgeway. Mr and Mrs Doyle are spending their holiday in Egypt.
Rosalie said, ‘You’d like to move on to Egypt, Mother?’
‘Yes, I would,’ Mrs Otterbourne snapped. ‘I consider they’ve treated us in a most cavalier fashion here. My being here is an advertisement–I ought to get a special reduction in terms. When I hinted as much, I consider they were most impertinent–most impertinent. I told them exactly what I thought of them.’
The girl sighed. She said: ‘One place is very like another. I wish we could get right away.’
‘And this morning,’ went on Mrs Otterbourne, ‘the manager actually had the impertinence to tell me that all the rooms had been booked in advance and that he would require ours in two days’ time.’
‘So we’ve got to go somewhere.’
‘Not at all. I’m quite prepared to fight for my rights.’
Rosalie murmured: ‘I suppose we might as well go on to Egypt. It doesn’t make any difference.’
‘It’s certainly not a matter of life or death,’ agreed Mrs Otterbourne.
But there she was quite wrong–for a matter of life and death was exactly what it was.
Chapter 2 (#ulink_704da554-ea80-5b2d-a946-d3e7daff3fd2)
‘That’s Hercule Poirot, the detective,’ said Mrs Allerton.
She and her son were sitting in brightly painted scarlet basket chairs outside the Cataract Hotel in Assuan. They were watching the retreating figures of two people–a short man dressed in a white silk suit and a tall slim girl.
Tim Allerton sat up in an unusually alert fashion.
‘That funny little man?’ he asked incredulously.
‘That funny little man!’
‘What on earth’s he doing here?’ Tim asked.
His mother laughed. ‘Darling, you sound quite excited. Why do men enjoy crime so much? I hate detective stories and never read them. But I don’t think Monsieur Poirot is here with any ulterior motive. He’s made a good deal of money and he’s seeing life, I fancy.’
‘Seems to have an eye for the best-looking girl in the place.’
Mrs Allerton tilted her head a little on one side as she considered the retreating backs of M. Poirot and his companion.
The girl by his side overtopped him by some three inches. She walked well, neither stiffly nor sloughingly.
‘I suppose she is quite good-looking,’ said Mrs Allerton. She shot a little glance sideways at Tim. Somewhat to her amusement the fish rose at once.
‘She’s more than quite. Pity she looks so bad-tempered and sulky.’
‘Perhaps that’s just expression, dear.’
‘Unpleasant young devil, I think. But she’s pretty enough.’
The subject of these remarks was walking slowly by Poirot’s side. Rosalie Otterbourne was twirling an unopened parasol, and her expression certainly bore out what Tim had just said. She looked both sulky and bad-tempered. Her eyebrows were drawn together in a frown, and the scarlet line of her mouth was drawn downward.
They turned to the left out of the hotel gate and entered the cool shade of the public gardens.
Hercule Poirot was prattling gently, his expression that of beatific good humour. He wore a white silk suit, carefully pressed, and a panama hat, and carried a highly ornamental fly whisk with a sham amber handle.
‘–it enchants me,’ he was saying. ‘The black rocks of Elephantine, and the sun, and the little boats on the river. Yes, it is good to be alive.’
He paused and then added: ‘You do not find it so, Mademoiselle?’
Rosalie Otterbourne said shortly: ‘It’s all right, I suppose. I think Assuan’s a gloomy sort of place. The hotel’s half empty, and everyone’s about a hundred–’
She stopped–biting her lip.
Hercule Poirot’s eyes twinkled.
‘It is true, yes, I have one leg in the grave.’
‘I–I wasn’t thinking of you,’ said the girl. ‘I’m sorry. That sounded rude.’
‘Not at all. It is natural you should wish for companions of your own age. Ah, well, there is one young man, at least.’
‘The one who sits with his mother all the time? I like her–but I think he looks dreadful–so conceited!’
Poirot smiled.
‘And I–am I conceited?’
‘Oh, I don’t think so.’
She was obviously uninterested–but the fact did not seem to annoy Poirot. He merely remarked with placid satisfaction:
‘My best friend says that I am very conceited.’
‘Oh, well,’ said Rosalie vaguely, ‘I suppose you have something to be conceited about. Unfortunately crime doesn’t interest me in the least.’
Poirot said solemnly, ‘I am delighted to learn that you have no guilty secret to hide.’
Just for a moment the sulky mask of her face was transformed as she shot him a swift questioning glance. Poirot did not seem to notice it as he went on:
‘Madame, your mother, was not at lunch today. She is not indisposed, I trust?’
‘This place doesn’t suit her,’ said Rosalie briefly. ‘I shall be glad when we leave.’
‘We are fellow passengers, are we not? We both make the excursion up to Wadi Half a and the Second Cataract?’
‘Yes.’
They came out from the shade of the gardens on to a dusty stretch of road bordered by the river. Five watchful bead-sellers, two vendors of postcards, three sellers of plaster scarabs, a couple of donkey boys and some detached but hopeful infantile riff-raff closed in upon them. ‘You want beads, sir? Very good, sir. Very cheap…’
‘Lady, you want scarab? Look–great queen–very lucky…’
‘You look, sir–real lapis. Very good, very cheap…’
‘You want ride donkey, sir? This very good donkey. This donkey Whiskey and Soda, sir…’
‘You want to go granite quarries, sir? This very good donkey. Other donkey very bad, sir, that donkey fall down…’
‘You want postcard–very cheap–very nice…’
‘Look, lady…Only ten piastres–very cheap–lapis–this ivory…’
‘This very good fly whisk–this all-amber…’
‘You go out in boat, sir? I got very good boat, sir…’
‘You go back to hotel, lady? This first-class donkey…’
Hercule Poirot made vague gestures to rid himself of this human cluster of flies. Rosalie stalked through them like a sleep-walker.
‘It’s best to pretend to be deaf and blind,’ she remarked.
The infantile riff-raffran alongside murmuring plaintively: ‘Bakshish? Bakshish? Hip hip hurrah–very good, very nice…’
Their gaily coloured rags trailed picturesquely, and the flies lay in clusters on their eyelids. They were the most persistent. The others fell back and launched a fresh attack on the next corner.
Now Poirot and Rosalie only ran the gauntlet of the shops–suave, persuasive accents here…
‘You visit my shop today, sir?’ ‘You want that ivory crocodile, sir?’ ‘You not been in my shop yet, sir? I show you very beautiful things.’
They turned into the fifth shop and Rosalie handed over several rolls of film–the object of the walk.
Then they came out again and walked towards the river’s edge.
One of the Nile steamers was just mooring. Poirot and Rosalie looked interestedly at the passengers.
‘Quite a lot, aren’t there?’ commented Rosalie.
She turned her head as Tim Allerton came up and joined them. He was a little out of breath as though he had been walking fast.
They stood there for a moment or two, and then Tim spoke.
‘An awful crowd as usual, I suppose,’ he remarked disparagingly, indicating the disembarking passengers.
‘They’re usually quite terrible,’ agreed Rosalie.
All three wore the air of superiority assumed by people who are already in a place when studying new arrivals.
‘Hullo!’ exclaimed Tim, his voice suddenly excited. ‘I’m damned if that isn’t Linnet Ridgeway.’
If the information left Poirot unmoved, it stirred Rosalie’s interest. She leaned forward and her sulkiness quite dropped from her as she asked: ‘Where? That one in white?’
‘Yes, there with the tall man. They’re coming ashore now. He’s the new husband, I suppose. Can’t remember his name now.’
‘Doyle,’ said Rosalie. ‘Simon Doyle. It was in all the newspapers. She’s simply rolling, isn’t she?’
‘Only about the richest girl in England,’ replied Tim cheerfully.
The three lookers-on were silent watching the passengers come ashore. Poirot gazed with interest at the subject of the remarks of his companions. He murmured: ‘She is beautiful.’
‘Some people have got everything,’ said Rosalie bitterly.
There was a queer grudging expression on her face as she watched the other girl come up the gangplank.
Linnet Doyle was looking as perfectly turned out as if she were stepping on to the centre of the stage of a revue. She had something too of the assurance of a famous actress. She was used to being looked at, to being admired, to being the centre of the stage wherever she went.
She was aware of the keen glances bent upon her–and at the same time almost unaware of them; such tributes were part of her life.
She came ashore playing a role, even though she played it unconsciously. The rich beautiful society bride on her honeymoon. She turned, with a little smile and a light remark, to the tall man by her side. He answered, and the sound of his voice seemed to interest Hercule Poirot. His eyes lit up and he drew his brows together.
The couple passed close to him. He heard Simon Doyle say:
‘We’ll try and make time for it, darling. We can easily stay a week or two if you like it here.’
His face was turned towards her, eager, adoring, a little humble.
Poirot’s eyes ran over him thoughtfully–the square shoulders, the bronzed face, the dark blue eyes, the rather childlike simplicity of the smile.
‘Lucky devil,’ said Tim after they had passed. ‘Fancy finding an heiress who hasn’t got adenoids and flat feet!’
‘They look frightfully happy,’ said Rosalie with a note of envy in her voice. She added suddenly, but so low that Tim did not catch the words, ‘It isn’t fair.’
Poirot heard, however. He had been frowning somewhat perplexedly, but now he flashed a quick glance towards her.
Tim said: ‘I must collect some stuff for my mother now.’
He raised his hat and moved off. Poirot and Rosalie retraced their steps slowly in the direction of the hotel, waving aside fresh proffers of donkeys.
‘So it is not fair, Mademoiselle?’ asked Poirot gently.
The girl flushed angrily.
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘I am repeating what you said just now under your breath. Oh, yes, you did.’
Rosalie Otterbourne shrugged her shoulders.
‘It really seems a little too much for one person. Money, good looks, marvellous figure and–’
She paused and Poirot said:
‘And love? Eh? And love? But you do not know–she may have been married for her money!’
‘Didn’t you see the way he looked at her?’
‘Oh, yes, Mademoiselle. I saw all there was to see–indeed I saw something that you did not.’
‘What was that?’
Poirot said slowly: ‘I saw, Mademoiselle, dark lines below a woman’s eyes. I saw a hand that clutched a sun-shade so tight that the knuckles were white…’
Rosalie was staring at him.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean that all is not the gold that glitters. I mean that, though this lady is rich and beautiful and beloved, there is all the same something that is not right. And I know something else.’
‘Yes?’
‘I know,’ said Poirot, frowning, ‘that somewhere, at some time, I have heard that voice before–the voice of Monsieur Doyle–and I wish I could remember where.’
But Rosalie was not listening. She had stopped dead. With the point of her sunshade she was tracing patterns in the loose sand. Suddenly she broke out fiercely:
‘I’m odious. I’m quite odious. I’m just a beast through and through. I’d like to tear the clothes off her back and stamp on her lovely, arrogant, self-confident face. I’m just a jealous cat–but that’s what I feel like. She’s so horribly successful and poised and assured.’
Hercule Poirot looked a little astonished by the outburst. He took her by the arm and gave her a friendly little shake.
‘Tenez–you will feel better for having said that!’
‘I just hate her! I’ve never hated anyone so much at first sight.’
‘Magnificent!’
Rosalie looked at him doubtfully. Then her mouth twitched and she laughed.
‘Bien,’ said Poirot, and laughed too.
They proceeded amicably back to the hotel.
‘I must find Mother,’ said Rosalie, as they came into the cool dim hall.
Poirot passed out on the other side on to the terrace overlooking the Nile. Here were little tables set for tea, but it was early still. He stood for a few moments looking at the river, then strolled down through the garden.
Some people were playing tennis in the hot sun. He paused to watch them for a while, then went on down the steep path. It was here, sitting on a bench overlooking the Nile, that he came upon the girl of Chez Ma Tante. He recognized her at once. Her face, as he had seen it that night, was securely etched upon his memory. The expression on it now was very different. She was paler, thinner, and there were lines that told of a great weariness and misery of spirit.
He drew back a little. She had not seen him, and he watched her for a while without her suspecting his presence. Her small foot tapped impatiently on the ground. Her eyes, dark with a kind of smouldering fire, had a queer kind of suffering dark triumph in them. She was looking out across the Nile where the white-sailed boats glided up and down the river.
A face–and a voice. He remembered them both. This girl’s face and the voice he had heard just now, the voice of a newly made bridegroom…
And even as he stood there considering the unconscious girl, the next scene in the drama was played.
Voices sounded above. The girl on the seat started to her feet. Linnet Doyle and her husband came down the path. Linnet’s voice was happy and confident. The look of strain and tenseness of muscle had quite disappeared, Linnet was happy.
The girl who was standing there took a step or two forward. The other two stopped dead.
‘Hullo, Linnet,’ said Jacqueline de Bellefort. ‘So here you are! We never seem to stop running into each other. Hullo, Simon, how are you?’
Linnet Doyle had shrunk back against the rock with a little cry. Simon Doyle’s good-looking face was suddenly convulsed with rage. He moved forward as though he would have liked to strike the slim girlish figure.
With a quick birdlike turn of her head she signalled her realization of a stranger’s presence. Simon turned his head and noticed Poirot. He said awkwardly: ‘Hullo, Jacqueline; we didn’t expect to see you here.’
The words were unconvincing in the extreme.
The girl flashed white teeth at them.
‘Quite a surprise?’ she asked. Then, with a little nod, she walked up the path.
Poirot moved delicately in the opposite direction. As he went, he heard Linnet Doyle say:
‘Simon–for God’s sake! Simon–what can we do?’
Chapter 3 (#ulink_6148fcbf-35d9-5d21-811c-24cb6411bae3)
Dinner was over. The terrace outside the Cataract Hotel was softly lit. Most of the guests staying at the hotel were sitting at little tables.
Simon and Linnet Doyle came out, a tall, distinguished looking grey-haired man, with a keen, clean-shaven American face, beside them. As the little group hesitated in the doorway, Tim Allerton rose from his chair nearby and came forward.
‘You don’t remember me I’m sure,’ he said pleasantly to Linnet, ‘but I’m Joanna Southwood’s cousin.’
‘Of course–how stupid of me! You’re Tim Allerton. This is my husband’–a faint tremor in the voice, pride, shyness?–‘and this is my American trustee, Mr Pennington.’
Tim said: ‘You must meet my mother.’
A few minutes later they were sitting together in a party–Linnet in the corner, Tim and Pennington each side of her, both talking to her, vying for her attention. Mrs Allerton talked to Simon Doyle.
The swing doors revolved. A sudden tension came into the beautiful upright figure sitting in the corner between the two men. Then it relaxed as a small man came out and walked across the terrace.
Mrs Allerton said: ‘You’re not the only celebrity here, my dear. That funny little man is Hercule Poirot.’
She had spoken lightly, just out of instinctive social tact to bridge an awkward pause, but Linnet seemed struck by the information.
‘Hercule Poirot? Of course–I’ve heard of him…’
She seemed to sink into a fit of abstraction. The two men on either side of her were momentarily at a loss.
Poirot had strolled across to the edge of the terrace, but his attention was immediately solicited.
‘Sit down, Monsieur Poirot. What a lovely night!’
He obeyed.
‘Mais oui, Madame, it is indeed beautiful.’
He smiled politely at Mrs Otterbourne. What draperies of black ninon and that ridiculous turban effect! Mrs Otterbourne went on in her high complaining voice:
‘Quite a lot of notabilities here now, aren’t there? I expect we shall see a paragraph about it in the papers soon. Society beauties, famous novelists–’
She paused with a slight mock-modest laugh.
Poirot felt, rather than saw, the sulky frowning girl opposite him flinch and set her mouth in a sulkier line than before.
‘You have a novel on the way at present, Madame?’ he inquired.
Mrs Otterbourne gave her little self-conscious laugh again.
‘I’m being dreadfully lazy. I really must set to. My public is getting terribly impatient–and my publisher, poor man! Appeals by every post! Even cables!’
Again he felt the girl shift in the darkness.
‘I don’t mind telling you, Monsieur Poirot, I am partly here for local colour. Snow on the Desert’s Face–that is the title of my new book. Powerful–suggestive. Snow–on the desert–melted in the first flaming breath of passion.’
Rosalie got up, muttering something, and moved away down into the dark garden.
‘One must be strong,’ went on Mrs Otterbourne, wagging the turban emphatically. ‘Strong meat–that is what my books are–all important. Libraries banned–no matter! I speak the truth. Sex–ah! Monsieur Poirot–why is everyone so afraid of sex? The pivot of the universe! You have read my books?’
‘Alas, Madame! You comprehend, I do not read many novels. My work–’
Mrs Otterbourne said firmly: ‘I must give you a copy of Under the Fig Tree. I think you will find it significant. It is outspoken–but it is real!’
‘That is most kind of you, Madame. I will read it with pleasure.’
Mrs Otterbourne was silent a minute or two. She fidgeted with a long chain of beads that was wound twice round her neck. She looked swiftly from side to side.
‘Perhaps–I’ll just slip up and get it for you now.’
‘Oh, Madame, pray do not trouble yourself. Later–’
‘No, no. It’s no trouble.’ She rose. ‘I’d like to show you–’
‘What is it, Mother?’
Rosalie was suddenly at her side.
‘Nothing, dear. I was just going up to get a book for Monsieur Poirot.’
‘The Fig Tree? I’ll get it.’
‘You don’t know where it is, dear. I’ll go.’
‘Yes, I do.’
The girl went swiftly across the terrace and into the hotel.
‘Let me congratulate you, Madame, on a very lovely daughter,’ said Poirot, with a bow.
‘Rosalie? Yes, yes–she is good-looking. But she’s very hard, Monsieur Poirot. And no sympathy with illness. She always thinks she knows best. She imagines she knows more about my health than I do myself–’
Poirot signalled to a passing waiter.
‘A liqueur, Madame? A chartreuse? A crème de menthe?’
Mrs Otterbourne shook her head vigorously.
‘No, no. I am practically a teetotaller. You may have noticed I never drink anything but water–or perhaps lemonade. I cannot bear the taste of spirits.’
‘Then may I order you a lemon squash, Madame?’
He gave the order–one lemon squash and one benedictine.
The swing door revolved. Rosalie passed through and came towards them, a book in her hand.
‘Here you are,’ she said. Her voice was quite expressionless–almost remarkably so.
‘Monsieur Poirot has just ordered me a lemon squash,’ said her mother.
‘And you, Mademoiselle, what will you take?’
‘Nothing.’ She added, suddenly conscious of the curtness: ‘Nothing, thank you.’
Poirot took the volume which Mrs Otterbourne held out to him. It still bore its original jacket, a gaily coloured affair representing a lady, with smartly shingled hair and scarlet fingernails, sitting on a tiger skin, in the traditional costume of Eve. Above her was a tree with the leaves of an oak, bearing large and improbably coloured apples.
It was entitled Under the Fig Tree, by Salome Otterbourne. On the inside was a publisher’s blurb. It spoke enthusiastically of the superb courage and realism of this study of a modern woman’s love life. ‘Fearless, unconventional, realistic,’ were the adjectives used.
Poirot bowed and murmured: ‘I am honoured, Madame.’
As he raised his head, his eyes met those of the authoress’s daughter. Almost involuntarily he made a little movement. He was astonished and grieved at the eloquent pain they revealed.
It was at that moment that the drinks arrived and created a welcome diversion.
Poirot lifted his glass gallantly.
‘A votre santé, Madame–Mademoiselle.’
Mrs Otterbourne, sipping her lemonade, murmured, ‘So refreshing–delicious!’
Silence fell on the three of them. They looked down to the shining black rocks in the Nile. There was something fantastic about them in the moonlight. They were like vast prehistoric monsters lying half out of the water. A little breeze came up suddenly and as suddenly died away. There was a feeling in the air of hush–of expectancy.
Hercule Poirot brought his gaze back to the terrace and its occupants. Was he wrong, or was there the same hush of expectancy there? It was like a moment on the stage when one is waiting for the entrance of the leading lady.
And just at that moment the swing doors began to revolve once more. This time it seemed as though they did so with a special air of importance. Everyone had stopped talking and was looking towards them.
A dark slender girl in a wine-coloured evening frock came through. She paused for a minute, then walked deliberately across the terrace and sat down at an empty table. There was nothing flaunting, nothing out of the way about her demeanour, and yet it had somehow the studied effect of a stage entrance.
‘Well,’ said Mrs Otterbourne. She tossed her turbaned head. ‘She seems to think she is somebody, that girl!’
Poirot did not answer. He was watching. The girl had sat down in a place where she could look deliberately across at Linnet Doyle. Presently, Poirot noticed, Linnet Doyle leant forward and said something and a moment later got up and changed her seat. She was now sitting facing in the opposite direction.
Poirot nodded thoughtfully to himself.
It was about five minutes later that the other girl changed her seat to the opposite side of the terrace. She sat smoking and smiling quietly, the picture of contented ease. But always, as though unconsciously, her meditative gaze was on Simon Doyle’s wife.
After a quarter of an hour Linnet Doyle got up abruptly and went into the hotel. Her husband followed her almost immediately.
Jacqueline de Bellefort smiled and twisted her chair round. She lit a cigarette and stared out over the Nile. She went on smiling to herself.
Chapter 4 (#ulink_3837376b-3eed-508e-baa7-7519293d4b5b)
‘Monsieur Poirot.’
Poirot got hastily to his feet. He had remained sitting out on the terrace alone after everyone else had left. Lost in meditation he had been staring at the smooth shiny black rocks when the sound of his name recalled him to himself.
It was a well-bred, assured voice, a charming voice, although perhaps a trifle arrogant.
Hercule Poirot, rising quickly, looked into the commanding eyes of Linnet Doyle. She wore a wrap of rich purple velvet over her white satin gown and she looked more lovely and more regal than Poirot had imagined possible.
‘You are Monsieur Hercule Poirot?’ said Linnet.
It was hardly a question.
‘At your service, Madame.’
‘You know who I am, perhaps?’
‘Yes, Madame. I have heard your name. I know exactly who you are.’
Linnet nodded. That was only what she had expected. She went on, in her charming autocratic manner: ‘Will you come with me into the card room, Monsieur Poirot? I am very anxious to speak to you.’
‘Certainly, Madame.’
She led the way into the hotel. He followed. She led him into the deserted card room and motioned him to close the door. Then she sank down on a chair at one of the tables and he sat down opposite her.
She plunged straightaway into what she wanted to say. There were no hesitations. Her speech came flowingly.
‘I have heard a great deal about you, Monsieur Poirot, and I know that you are a very clever man. It happens that I am urgently in need of someone to help me–and I think very possibly that you are the man who would do it.’
Poirot inclined his head.
‘You are very amiable, Madame, but you see, I am on holiday, and when I am on holiday I do not take cases.’
‘That could be arranged.’
It was not offensively said–only with the quiet confidence of a young woman who had always been able to arrange matters to her satisfaction.
Linnet Doyle went on: ‘I am the subject, Monsieur Poirot, of an intolerable persecution. That persecution has got to stop! My own idea was to go to the police about it, but my–my husband seems to think that the police would be powerless to do anything.’
‘Perhaps–if you would explain a little further?’ murmured Poirot politely.
‘Oh, yes, I will do so. The matter is perfectly simple.’
There was still no hesitation–no faltering. Linnet Doyle had a clear-cut businesslike mind. She only paused a minute so as to present the facts as concisely as possible.
‘Before I met my husband, he was engaged to a Miss de Bellefort. She was also a friend of mine. My husband broke off his engagement to her–they were not suited in any way. She, I am sorry to say, took it rather hard…I–am very sorry about that–but these things cannot be helped. She made certain–well, threats–to which I paid very little attention, and which, I may say, she has not attempted to carry out. But instead she has adopted the extraordinary course of–of following us about wherever we go.’
Poirot raised his eyebrows.
‘Ah–rather an unusual–er–revenge.’
‘Very unusual–and very ridiculous! But also–annoying.’
She bit her lip.
Poirot nodded.
‘Yes, I can imagine that. You are, I understand, on your honeymoon?’
‘Yes. It happened–the first time–at Venice. She was there–at Danielli’s. I thought it was just coincidence. Rather embarrassing, but that was all. Then we found her on board the boat at Brindisi. We–we understood that she was going on to Palestine. We left her, as we thought, on the boat. But–but when we got to Mena House she was there–waiting for us.’
Poirot nodded.
‘And now?’
‘We came up the Nile by boat. I–I was half expecting to find her on board. When she wasn’t there I thought she had stopped being so–so childish. But when we got here–she–she was here–waiting.’
Poirot eyed her keenly for a moment. She was still perfectly composed, but the knuckles of the hand that was gripping the table were white with the force of her grip.
He said: ‘And you are afraid this state of things may continue?’
‘Yes.’ She paused. ‘Of course the whole thing is idiotic! Jacqueline is making herself utterly ridiculous. I am surprised she hasn’t got more pride–more dignity.’
Poirot made a slight gesture.
‘There are times, Madame, when pride and dignity–they go by the board! There are other–stronger emotions.’
‘Yes, possibly.’ Linnet spoke impatiently. ‘But what on earth can she hope to gain by all this?’
‘It is not always a question of gain, Madame.’
Something in his tone struck Linnet disagreeably. She flushed and said quickly: ‘You are right. A discussion of motives is beside the point. The crux of the matter is that this has got to be stopped.’
‘And how do you propose that that should be accomplished, Madame?’ Poirot asked.
‘Well–naturally–my husband and I cannot continue being subjected to this annoyance. There must be some kind of legal redress against such a thing.’
She spoke impatiently. Poirot looked at her thoughtfully as he asked: ‘Has she threatened you in actual words in public? Used insulting language? Attempted any bodily harm?’
‘No.’
‘Then, frankly, Madame, I do not see what you can do. If it is a young lady’s pleasure to travel in certain places, and those places are the same where you and your husband find themselves–eh bien–what of it? The air is free to all! There is no question of her forcing herself upon your privacy? It is always in public that these encounters take place?’
‘You mean there is nothing that I can do about it?’
Linnet sounded incredulous.
Poirot said placidly: ‘Nothing at all, as far as I can see. Mademoiselle de Bellefort is within her rights.’
‘But–but it is maddening! It is intolerable that I should have to put up with this!’
Poirot said dryly: ‘I must sympathize with you, Madame–especially as I imagine that you have not often had to put up with things.’
Linnet was frowning.
‘There must be some way of stopping it,’ she murmured.
Poirot shrugged his shoulders.
‘You can always leave–move on somewhere else,’ he suggested.
‘Then she will follow!’
‘Very possibly–yes.’
‘It’s absurd!’
‘Precisely.’
‘Anyway, why should I–we–run away? As though–as though–’
She stopped.
‘Exactly, Madame. As though–! It is all there, is it not?’
Linnet lifted her head and stared at him.
‘What do you mean?’
Poirot altered his tone. He leant forward; his voice was confidential, appealing. He said very gently: ‘Why do you mind so much, Madame?’
‘Why? But it’s maddening! Irritating to the last degree! I’ve told you why!’
Poirot shook his head.
‘Not altogether.’
‘What do you mean?’ Linnet asked again.
Poirot leant back, folded his arms and spoke in a detached impersonal manner.
‘Ecoutez, Madame. I will recount to you a little history. It is that one day, a month or two ago, I am dining in a restaurant in London. At the table next to me are two people, a man and a girl. They are very happy, so it seems, very much in love. They talk with confidence of the future. It is not that I listen to what is not meant for me; they are quite oblivious of who hears them and who does not. The man’s back is to me, but I can watch the girl’s face. It is very intense. She is in love–heart, soul, and body–and she is not of those who love lightly and often. With her it is clearly the life and the death. They are engaged to be married, these two; that is what I gather; and they talk of where they shall pass the days of their honeymoon. They plan to go to Egypt.’
He paused. Linnet said sharply: ‘Well?’
Poirot went on: ‘That is a month or two ago, but the girl’s face–I do not forget it. I know that I shall remember if I see it again. And I remember too the man’s voice. And I think you can guess, Madame, when it is I see the one and hear the other again. It is here in Egypt. The man is on his honeymoon, yes–but he is on his honeymoon with another woman.’
Linnet said sharply: ‘What of it? I had already mentioned the facts.’
‘The facts–yes.’
‘Well then?’
Poirot said slowly: ‘The girl in the restaurant mentioned a friend–a friend who, she was very positive, would not let her down. That friend, I think, was you, Madame.’
‘Yes. I told you we had been friends.’
Linnet flushed.
‘And she trusted you?’
‘Yes.’
She hesitated for a moment, biting her lip impatiently; then, as Poirot did not seem disposed to speak, she broke out:
‘Of course the whole thing was very unfortunate. But these things happen, Monsieur Poirot.’
‘Ah! yes, they happen, Madame.’ He paused. ‘You are of the Church of England, I presume?’
‘Yes.’ Linnet looked slightly bewildered.
‘Then you have heard portions of the Bible read aloud in church. You have heard of King David and of the rich man who had many flocks and herds and the poor man who had one ewe lamb–and of how the rich man took the poor man’s one ewe lamb. That was something that happened, Madame.’
Linnet sat up. Her eyes flashed angrily.
‘I see perfectly what you are driving at, Monsieur Poirot! You think, to put it vulgarly, that I stole my friend’s young man. Looking at the matter sentimentally–which is, I suppose, the way people of your generation cannot help looking at things–that is possibly true. But the real hard truth is different. I don’t deny that Jackie was passionately in love with Simon, but I don’t think you take into account that he may not have been equally devoted to her. He was very fond of her, but I think that even before he met me he was beginning to feel that he had made a mistake. Look at it clearly, Monsieur Poirot. Simon discovers that it is I he loves, not Jackie. What is he to do? Be heroically noble and marry a woman he does not care for–and thereby probably ruin three lives–for it is doubtful whether he could make Jackie happy under those circumstances? If he were actually married to her when he met me I agree that it might be his duty to stick to her–though I’m not really sure of that. If one person is unhappy the other suffers too. But an engagement is not really binding. If a mistake has been made, then surely it is better to face the fact before it is too late. I admit that it was very hard on Jackie, and I’m very sorry about it–but there it is. It was inevitable.’
‘I wonder.’
She stared at him.
‘What do you mean?’
‘It is very sensible, very logical–all that you say! But it does not explain one thing.’
‘What is that?’
‘Your own attitude, Madame. See you, this pursuit of you, you might take it in two ways. It might cause you annoyance–yes, or it might stir your pity–that your friend should have been so deeply hurt as to throw all regard for the conventions aside. But that is not the way you react. No, to you this persecution is intolerable–and why? It can be for one reason only–that you feel a sense of guilt.’
Linnet sprang to her feet.
‘How dare you? Really, Monsieur Poirot, this is going too far.’
‘But I do dare, Madame! I am going to speak to you quite frankly. I suggest to you that, although you may have endeavoured to gloss over the fact to yourself, you did deliberately set about taking your husband from your friend. I suggest that you felt strongly attracted to him at once. But I suggest that there was a moment when you hesitated, when you realized that there was a choice–that you could refrain or go on. I suggest that the initiative rested with you–not with Monsieur Doyle. You are beautiful, Madame; you are rich; you are clever; intelligent–and you have charm. You could have exercised that charm or you could have restrained it. You had everything, Madame, that life can offer. Your friend’s life was bound up in one person. You knew that, but, though you hesitated, you did not hold your hand. You stretched it out and, like the rich man in the Bible, you took the poor man’s one ewe lamb.’
There was a silence. Linnet controlled herself with an effort and said in a cold voice: ‘All this is quite beside the point!’
‘No, it is not beside the point. I am explaining to you just why the unexpected appearances of Mademoiselle de Bellefort have upset you so much. It is because though she may be unwomanly and undignified in what she is doing, you have the inner conviction that she has right on her side.’
‘That’s not true.’
Poirot shrugged his shoulders.
‘You refuse to be honest with yourself.’
‘Not at all.’
Poirot said gently: ‘I should say, Madame, that you have had a happy life, that you have been generous and kindly in your attitude towards others.’
‘I have tried to be,’ said Linnet. The impatient anger died out of her face. She spoke simply–almost forlornly.
‘And that is why the feeling that you have deliberately caused injury to someone upsets you so much, and why you are so reluctant to admit the fact. Pardon me if I have been impertinent, but the psychology, it is the most important fact in a case.’
Linnet said slowly: ‘Even supposing what you say were true–and I don’t admit it, mind–what can be done about it now? One can’t alter the past; one must deal with things as they are.’
Poirot nodded.
‘You have the clear brain. Yes, one cannot go back over the past. One must accept things as they are. And sometimes, Madame, that is all one can do–accept the consequences of one’s past deeds.’
‘You mean,’ asked Linnet incredulously, ‘that I can do nothing–nothing?’
‘You must have courage, Madame; that is what it seems like to me.’
Linnet said slowly:
‘Couldn’t you–talk to Jackie–to Miss de Bellefort? Reason with her?’
‘Yes, I could do that. I will do that if you would like me to do so. But do not expect much result. I fancy that Mademoiselle de Bellefort is so much in the grip of a fixed idea that nothing will turn her from it.’
‘But surely we can do something to extricate ourselves?’
‘You could, of course, return to England and establish yourselves in your own house.’
‘Even then, I suppose, Jacqueline is capable of planting herself in the village, so that I should see her every time I went out of the grounds.’
‘True.’
‘Besides,’ said Linnet slowly, ‘I don’t think that Simon would agree to run away.’
‘What is his attitude in this?’
‘He’s furious–simply furious.’
Poirot nodded thoughtfully.
Linnet said appealingly, ‘You will–talk to her?’
‘Yes, I will do that. But it is my opinion that I shall not be able to accomplish anything.’
Linnet said violently: ‘Jackie is extraordinary! One can’t tell what she will do!’
‘You spoke just now of certain threats she had made. Would you tell me what those threats were?’
Linnet shrugged her shoulders.
‘She threatened to–well–kill us both. Jackie can be rather–Latin sometimes.’
‘I see.’ Poirot’s tone was grave.
Linnet turned to him appealingly.
‘You will act for me?’
‘No, Madame.’ His tone was firm. ‘I will not accept a commission from you. I will do what I can in the interests of humanity. That, yes. There is here a situation that is full of difficulty and danger. I will do what I can to clear it up–but I am not very sanguine as to my chance of success.’
Linnet Doyle said slowly: ‘But you will not act for me?’
‘No, Madame,’ said Hercule Poirot.
Chapter 5 (#ulink_1468e50d-cb2b-5871-84d3-5defa9a9491d)
Hercule Poirot found Jacqueline de Bellefort sitting on the rocks directly overlooking the Nile. He had felt fairly certain that she had not retired for the night and that he would find her somewhere about the grounds of the hotel.
She was sitting with her chin cupped in the palms of her hands, and she did not turn her head or look around at the sound of his approach.
‘Mademoiselle de Bellefort?’ asked Poirot. ‘You permit that I speak to you for a little moment?’
Jacqueline turned her head slightly. A faint smile played round her lips.
‘Certainly,’ she said. ‘You are Monsieur Hercule Poirot, I think? Shall I make a guess? You are acting for Mrs Doyle, who has promised you a large fee if you succeed in your mission.’
Poirot sat down on the bench near her.
‘Your assumption is partially correct,’ he said, smiling. ‘I have just come from Madame Doyle, but I am not accepting any fee from her and, strictly speaking, I am not acting for her.’
‘Oh!’
Jacqueline studied him attentively.
‘Then why have you come?’ she asked abruptly.
Hercule Poirot’s reply was in the form of another question.
‘Have you ever seen me before, Mademoiselle?’
She shook her head.
‘No, I do not think so.’
‘Yet I have seen you. I sat next to you once at Chez Ma Tante. You were there with Monsieur Simon Doyle.’
A strange mask like expression came over the girl’s face. She said, ‘I remember that evening…’
‘Since then,’ said Poirot, ‘many things have occurred.’
‘As you say, many things have occurred.’
Her voice was hard with an undertone of desperate bitterness.
‘Mademoiselle, I speak as a friend. Bury your dead!’
She looked startled.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Give up the past! Turn to the future! What is done is done. Bitterness will not undo it.’
‘I’m sure that that would suit dear Linnet admirably.’
Poirot made a gesture.
‘I am not thinking of her at this moment! I am thinking of you. You have suffered–yes–but what you are doing now will only prolong the suffering.’
She shook her head.
‘You’re wrong. There are times when I almost enjoy myself.’
‘And that, Mademoiselle, is the worst of all.’
She looked up swiftly.
‘You’re not stupid,’ she said. She added slowly, ‘I believe you mean to be kind.’
‘Go home, Mademoiselle. You are young; you have brains, the world is before you.’
Jacqueline shook her head slowly.
‘You don’t understand–or you won’t. Simon is my world.’
‘Love is not everything, Mademoiselle,’ Poirot said gently. ‘It is only when we are young that we think it is.’
But the girl still shook her head.
‘You don’t understand.’ She shot him a quick look. ‘You know all about it, of course? You’ve talked to Linnet? And you were in the restaurant that night…Simon and I loved each other.’
‘I know that you loved him.’
She was quick to perceive the inflection of his words. She repeated with emphasis:
‘We loved each other. And I loved Linnet…I trusted her. She was my best friend. All her life Linnet has been able to buy everything she wanted. She’s never denied herself anything. When she saw Simon she wanted him–and she just took him.’
‘And he allowed himself to be–bought?’
Jacqueline shook her dark head slowly.
‘No, it’s not quite like that. If it were, I shouldn’t be here now…You’re suggesting that Simon isn’t worth caring for…If he’d married Linnet for her money, that would be true. But he didn’t marry her for her money. It’s more complicated than that. There’s such a thing as glamour, Monsieur Poirot. And money helps that. Linnet had an “atmosphere”, you see. She was the queen of a kingdom–the young princess–luxurious to her fingertips. It was like a stage setting. She had the world at her feet, one of the richest and most sought-after peers in England wanting to marry her. And she stoops instead to the obscure Simon Doyle…Do you wonder it went to his head?’ She made a sudden gesture. ‘Look at the moon up there. You see her very plainly, don’t you? She’s very real. But if the sun were to shine you wouldn’t be able to see her at all. It was rather like that. I was the moon…When the sun came out, Simon couldn’t see me any more…He was dazzled. He couldn’t see anything but the sun–Linnet.’
She paused and then she went on: ‘So you see it was–glamour. She went to his head. And then there’s her complete assurance–her habit of command. She’s so sure of herself that she makes other people sure. Simon was weak, perhaps, but then he’s a very simple person. He would have loved me and me only if Linnet hadn’t come along and snatched him up in her golden chariot. And I know–I know perfectly–that he wouldn’t ever have fallen in love with her if she hadn’t made him.’
‘That is what you think–yes.’
‘I know it. He loved me–he will always love me.’
Poirot said: ‘Even now?’
A quick answer seemed to rise to her lips, then be stifled. She looked at Poirot and a deep burning colour spread over her face. She looked away; her head dropped down. She said in a low stifled voice: ‘Yes, I know. He hates me now. Yes, hates me…He’d better be careful!’
With a quick gesture she fumbled in a little silk bag that lay on the seat. Then she held out her hand. On the palm of it was a small pearl-handled pistol–a dainty toy it looked.
‘Nice little thing, isn’t it? she said. ‘Looks too foolish to be real, but it is real! One of those bullets would kill a man or a woman. And I’m a good shot.’ She smiled a faraway, reminiscent smile.
‘When I went home as a child with my mother, to South Carolina, my grandfather taught me to shoot. He was the old-fashioned kind that believes in shooting–especially where honour is concerned. My father, too, he fought several duels as a young man. He was a good swordsman. He killed a man once. That was over a woman. So you see, Monsieur Poirot’–she met his eyes squarely–‘I’ve hot blood in me! I bought this when it first happened. I meant to kill one or other of them–the trouble was I couldn’t decide which. Both of them would have been unsatisfactory. If I’d thought Linnet would have looked afraid–but she’s got plenty of physical courage. She can stand up to physical action. And then I thought I’d–wait! That appealed to me more and more. After all, I could do it any time; it would be more fun to wait and–think about it! And then this idea came to my mind–to follow them! Whenever they arrived at some faraway spot and were together and happy, they should see Me! And it worked. It got Linnet badly–in a way nothing else could have done! It got right under her skin…That was when I began to enjoy myself…And there’s nothing she can do about it! I’m always perfectly pleasant and polite! There’s not a word they can take hold of! It’s poisoning everything–everything–for them.’ Her laugh rang out, clear and silvery.
Poirot grasped her arm.
‘Be quiet. Quiet, I tell you.’
Jacqueline looked at him.
‘Well?’ she asked. Her smile was definitely challenging.
‘Mademoiselle, I beseech you, do not do what you are doing.’
‘Leave dear Linnet alone, you mean!’
‘It is deeper than that. Do not open your heart to evil.’
Her lips fell apart; a look of bewilderment came into her eyes.
Poirot went on gravely: ‘Because–if you do–evil will come…Yes, very surely evil will come…It will enter in and make its home within you, and after a little while it will no longer be possible to drive it out.’
Jacqueline stared at him. Her glance seemed to waver, to flicker uncertainly.
She said: ‘I–don’t know–’ Then she cried out definitely, ‘You can’t stop me.’
‘No,’ said Hercule Poirot. ‘I cannot stop you.’ His voice was sad.
‘Even if I were to–kill her, you couldn’t stop me.’
‘No–not if you were willing to pay the price.’
Jacqueline de Bellefort laughed.
‘Oh, I’m not afraid of death! What have I got to live for, after all? I suppose you believe it’s very wrong to kill a person who has injured you–even if they’ve taken away everything you had in the world?’
Poirot said steadily: ‘Yes, Mademoiselle. I believe it is the unforgivable offence–to kill.’
Jacqueline laughed again.
‘Then you ought to approve of my present scheme of revenge; because, you see, as long as it works, I shan’t use that pistol…But I’m afraid–yes, afraid sometimes–it all goes red–I want to hurt her–to stick a knife into her, to put my dear little pistol close against her head and then–just press with my finger–Oh!’
The exclamation startled him.
‘What is it, Mademoiselle!’
She turned her head and was staring into the shadows.
‘Someone–standing over there. He’s gone now.’
Hercule Poirot looked round sharply.
The place seemed quite deserted.
‘There seems no one here but ourselves, Mademoiselle.’ He got up. ‘In any case I have said all I came to say. I wish you good night.’
Jacqueline got up too. She said almost pleadingly, ‘You do understand–that I can’t do what you ask me to do?’
Poirot shook his head.
‘No–for you could do it! There is always a moment! Your friend Linnet–there was a moment, too, in which she could have held her hand…She let it pass by. And if one does that, then one is committed to the enterprise and there comes no second chance.’
‘No second chance…’ said Jacqueline de Bellefort.
She stood brooding for a moment; then she lifted her head defiantly.
‘Good night, Monsieur Poirot.’
He shook his head sadly and followed her up the path to the hotel.
Chapter 6 (#ulink_1d599cc3-69c1-55ec-9277-a3ac44ddc503)
On the following morning Simon Doyle joined Hercule Poirot as the latter was leaving the hotel to walk down to the town.
‘Good morning, Monsieur Poirot.’
‘Good morning, Monsieur Doyle.’
‘You going to the town? Mind if I stroll along with you?’
‘But certainly. I shall be delighted.’
The two men walked side by side, passed out through the gateway and turned into the cool shade of the gardens. Then Simon removed his pipe from his mouth and said, ‘I understand, Monsieur Poirot, that my wife had a talk with you last night?’
‘That is so.’
Simon Doyle was frowning a little. He belonged to that type of men of action who find it difficult to put thoughts into words and who have trouble in expressing themselves clearly.
‘I’m glad of one thing,’ he said. ‘You’ve made her realize that we’re more or less powerless in the matter.’
‘There is clearly no legal redress,’ agreed Poirot.
‘Exactly. Linnet didn’t seem to understand that.’ He gave a faint smile. ‘Linnet’s been brought up to believe that every annoyance can automatically be referred to the police.’
‘It would be pleasant if such were the case,’ said Poirot.
There was a pause. Then Simon said suddenly, his face going very red as he spoke:
‘It’s–it’s infamous that she should be victimized like this! She’s done nothing! If anyone likes to say I behaved like a cad, they’re welcome to say so! I suppose I did. But I won’t have the whole thing visited on Linnet. She had nothing whatever to do with it.’
Poirot bowed his head gravely but said nothing.
‘Did you–er–have you–talked to Jackie–Miss de Bellefort?’
‘Yes, I have spoken with her.’
‘Did you get her to see sense?’
‘I’m afraid not.’
Simon broke out irritably: ‘Can’t she see what an ass she’s making of herself? Doesn’t she realize that no decent woman would behave as she is doing? Hasn’t she got any pride or self-respect?’
Poirot shrugged his shoulders.
‘She has only a sense of–injury, shall we say?’ he replied.
‘Yes, but damn it all, man, decent girls don’t behave like this! I admit I was entirely to blame. I treated her damned badly and all that. I should quite understand her being thoroughly fed up with me and never wishing to see me again. But this following me round–it’s–it’s indecent! Making a show of herself! What the devil does she hope to get out of it?’
‘Perhaps–revenge!’
‘Idiotic! I’d really understand better if she’d tried to do something melodramatic–like taking a pot shot at me.’
‘You think that would be more like her–yes?’
‘Frankly I do. She’s hot-blooded–and she’s got an ungovernable temper. I shouldn’t be surprised at her doing anything while she was in a white-hot rage. But this spying business–’ He shook his head.
‘It is more subtle–yes! It is intelligent!’
Doyle stared at him.
‘You don’t understand. It’s playing hell with Linnet’s nerves.’
‘And yours?’
Simon looked at him with momentary surprise.
‘Me? I’d like to wring the little devil’s neck.’
‘There is nothing, then, of the old feeling left?’
‘My dear Monsieur Poirot–how can I put it? It’s like the moon when the sun comes out. You don’t know it’s there any more. When once I’d met Linnet–Jackie didn’t exist.’
‘Tiens, c’est drôle, ça!’ muttered Poirot.
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Your simile interested me, that is all.’
Again flushing, Simon said: ‘I suppose Jackie told you that I’d only married Linnet for her money? Well, that’s a damned lie! I wouldn’t marry any woman for money! What Jackie doesn’t understand is that it’s difficult for a fellow when–when–a woman cares for him as she cared for me.’
‘Ah?’
Poirot looked up sharply.
Simon blundered on: ‘It–it–sounds a caddish thing to say, but Jackie was too fond of me!’
‘Une qui aime et un qui se laisse aimer,’ murmured Poirot.
‘Eh? What’s that you say? You see, a man doesn’t want to feel that a woman cares more for him than he does for her.’ His voice grew warm as he went on. ‘He doesn’t want to feel owned, body and soul. It’s the damned possessive attitude! This man is mine–he belongs to me! That’s the sort of thing I can’t stick–no man could stick! He wants to get away–to get free. He wants to own his woman; he doesn’t want her to own him.’
He broke off, and with fingers that trembled slightly he lit a cigarette.
Poirot said: ‘And it is like that that you felt with Mademoiselle Jacqueline?’
‘Eh?’ Simon stared and then admitted: ‘Er–yes–well, yes, as a matter of fact I did. She doesn’t realize that, of course. And it’s not the sort of thing I could ever tell her. But I was feeling restless–and then I met Linnet, and she just swept me off my feet! I’d never seen anything so lovely. It was all so amazing. Everyone kowtowing to her–and then her singling out a poor chump like me.’
His tone held boyish awe and astonishment.
‘I see,’ said Poirot. He nodded thoughtfully. ‘Yes–I see.’
‘Why can’t Jackie take it like a man?’ demanded Simon resentfully.
A very faint smile twitched Poirot’s upper lip.
‘Well, you see, Monsieur Doyle, to begin with she is not a man.’
‘No, no–but I meant take it like a good sport! After all, you’ve got to take your medicine when it comes to you. The fault’s mine, I admit. But there it is! If you no longer care for a girl, it’s simply madness to marry her. And, now that I see what Jackie’s really like and the lengths she is likely to go to, I feel I’ve had rather a lucky escape.’
‘The lengths she is likely to go to,’ Poirot repeated thoughtfully. ‘Have you an idea, Monsieur Doyle, what those lengths are?’
Simon looked at him rather startled.
‘No–at least, what do you mean?’
‘You know she carries a pistol about with her?’
Simon frowned, then shook his head.
‘I don’t believe she’ll use that–now. She might have done so earlier. But I believe it’s got past that. She’s just spiteful now–trying to take it out of us both.’
Poirot shrugged his shoulders.
‘It may be so,’ he said doubtfully.
‘It’s Linnet I’m worrying about,’ declared Simon, somewhat unnecessarily.
‘I quite realize that,’ said Poirot.
‘I’m not really afraid of Jackie doing any melodramatic shooting stuff, but this spying and following business has absolutely got Linnet on the raw. I’ll tell you the plan I’ve made, and perhaps you can suggest improvements on it. To begin with, I’ve announced fairly openly that we’re going to stay here ten days. But tomorrow the steamer Karnak starts from Shellal to Wadi Halfa. I propose to book passages on that under an assumed name. Tomorrow we’ll go on an excursion to Philae. Linnet’s maid can take the luggage. We’ll join the Karnak at Shellal. When Jackie finds we don’t come back, it will be too late–we shall be well on our way. She’ll assume we have given her the slip and gone back to Cairo. In fact I might even bribe the porter to say so. Inquiry at the tourist offices won’t help her, because our names won’t appear. How does that strike you?’
‘It is well imagined, yes. And suppose she waits here till you return?’
‘We may not return. We would go on to Khartoum and then perhaps by air to Kenya. She can’t follow us all over the globe.’
‘No; there must come a time when financial reasons forbid. She has very little money, I understand.’
Simon looked at him with admiration.
‘That’s clever of you. Do you know, I hadn’t thought of that. Jackie’s as poor as they make them.’
‘And yet she has managed to follow you so far?’
Simon said doubtfully:
‘She’s got a small income, of course. Something under two hundred a year, I imagine. I suppose–yes, I suppose she must have sold out the capital to do what she’s doing.’
‘So that the time will come when she has exhausted her resources and is quite penniless?’
‘Yes…’
Simon wriggled uneasily. The thought seemed to make him uncomfortable. Poirot watched him attentively.
‘No,’ he remarked. ‘No, it is not a pretty thought…’
Simon said rather angrily, ‘Well, I can’t help it!’ Then he added, ‘What do you think of my plan?’
‘I think it may work, yes. But it is, of course, a retreat.’
Simon flushed.
‘You mean, we’re running away? Yes, that’s true…But Linnet–’
Poirot watched him, then gave a short nod.
‘As you say, it may be the best way. But remember, Mademoiselle de Bellefort has brains.’
Simon said sombrely: ‘Some day, I feel, we’ve got to make a stand and fight it out. Her attitude isn’t reasonable.’
‘Reasonable, mon Dieu!’ cried Poirot.
‘There’s no reason why women shouldn’t behave like rational beings,’ Simon asserted stolidly.
Poirot said dryly: ‘Quite frequently they do. That is even more upsetting!’ He added, ‘I, too, shall be on the Karnak. It is part of my itinerary.’
‘Oh!’ Simon hesitated, then said, choosing his words with some embarrassment: ‘That isn’t–isn’t–er–on our account in any way? I mean I wouldn’t like to think–’
Poirot disabused him quickly:
‘Not at all. It was all arranged before I left London. I always make my plans well in advance.’
‘You don’t just move on from place to place as the fancy takes you? Isn’t the latter really pleasanter?’
‘Perhaps. But to succeed in life every detail should be arranged well beforehand.’
Simon laughed and said: ‘That is how the more skilful murderer behaves, I suppose.’
‘Yes–though I must admit that the most brilliant crime I remember and one of the most difficult to solve was committed on the spur of the moment.’
Simon said boyishly: ‘You must tell us something about your cases on board the Karnak.’
‘No, no; that would be to talk–what do you call it?–the shop.’
‘Yes, but your kind of shop is rather thrilling. Mrs Allerton thinks so. She’s longing to get a chance to cross-question you.’
‘Mrs Allerton? That is the charming grey-haired woman who has such a devoted son?’
‘Yes. She’ll be on the Karnak too.’
‘Does she know that you–?’
‘Certainly not,’ said Simon with emphasis. ‘Nobody knows. I’ve gone on the principle that it’s better not to trust anybody.’
‘An admirable sentiment–and one which I always adopt. By the way, the third member of your party, the tall grey-haired man–’
‘Pennington?’
‘Yes. He is travelling with you?’
Simon said grimly: ‘Not very usual on a honeymoon, you were thinking? Pennington is Linnet’s American trustee. We ran across him by chance in Cairo.’
‘Ah, vraiment! You permit a question? She is of age, Madame your wife?’
Simon looked amused.
‘She isn’t actually twenty-one yet–but she hadn’t got to ask anyone’s consent before marrying me. It was the greatest surprise to Pennington. He left New York on the Carmanic two days before Linnet’s letter got there telling him of our marriage, so he knew nothing about it.’
‘The Carmanic–’ murmured Poirot.
‘It was the greatest surprise to him when we ran into him at Shepheard’s in Cairo.’
‘That was indeed the coincident!’
‘Yes, and we found that he was coming on this Nile trip–so naturally we foregathered; couldn’t have done anything else decently. Besides that, it’s been–well, a relief in some ways.’ He looked embarrassed again. ‘You see, Linnet’s been all strung up–expecting Jackie to turn up anywhere and everywhere. While we were alone together, the subject kept coming up. Andrew Pennington’s a help that way, we have to talk of outside matters.’
‘Your wife has not confided in Mr Pennington?’
‘No.’ Simon’s jaw looked aggressive. ‘It’s nothing to do with anyone else. Besides, when we started on this Nile trip we thought we’d seen the end of the business.’
Poirot shook his head.
‘You have not seen the end of it yet. No–the end is not yet at hand. I am very sure of that.’
‘I say, Monsieur Poirot, you’re not very encouraging.’
Poirot looked at him with a slight feeling of irritation. He thought to himself: ‘The Anglo-Saxon, he takes nothing seriously but playing games! He does not grow up.’
Linnet Doyle–Jacqueline de Bellefort–both of them took the business seriously enough. But in Simon’s attitude he could find nothing but male impatience and annoyance. He said: ‘You will permit me an impertinent question? Was it your idea to come to Egypt for your honeymoon?’
Simon flushed.
‘No, of course not. As a matter of fact I’d rather have gone anywhere else, but Linnet was absolutely set upon it. And so–and so–’
He stopped rather lamely.
‘Naturally,’ said Poirot gravely.
He appreciated the fact that, if Linnet Doyle was set upon anything, that thing had to happen.
He thought to himself: ‘I have now heard three separate accounts of the affair–Linnet Doyle’s, Jacqueline de Bellefort’s, Simon Doyle’s. Which of them is nearest to the truth?’
Chapter 7 (#ulink_15084d0b-5ce7-5322-85d3-45ebf362982d)
Simon and Linnet Doyle set off on their expedition to Philae about eleven o’clock the following morning. Jacqueline de Bellefort, sitting on the hotel balcony, watched them set off in the picturesque sailing-boat. What she did not see was the departure of the car–laden with luggage, and in which sat a demure-looking maid–from the front door of the hotel. It turned to the right in the direction of Shellal.
Hercule Poirot decided to pass the remaining two hours before lunch on the island of Elephantine, immediately opposite the hotel.
He went down to the landing-stage. There were two men just stepping into one of the hotel boats, and Poirot joined them. The men were obviously strangers to each other. The younger of them had arrived by train the day before. He was a tall, dark-haired young man, with a thin face and a pugnacious chin. He was wearing an extremely dirty pair of grey flannel trousers and a high-necked polo jumper singularly unsuited to the climate. The other was a slightly podgy middle-aged man who lost no time in entering into conversation with Poirot in idiomatic but slightly broken English. Far from taking part in the conversation, the younger man merely scowled at them both and then deliberately turned his back on them and proceeded to admire the agility with which the Nubian boatman steered the boat with his toes as he manipulated the sail with his hands.
It was very peaceful on the water, the great smooth slippery black rocks gliding by and the soft breeze fanning their faces. Elephantine was reached very quickly and on going ashore Poirot and his loquacious acquaintance made straight for the museum. By this time the latter had produced a card which he handed to Poirot with a little bow. It bore the inscription: ‘Signor Guido Richetti, Archeologo.’
Not to be outdone, Poirot returned the bow and extracted his own card. These formalities completed, the two men stepped into the Museum together, the Italian pouring forth a stream of erudite information. They were by now conversing in French.
The young man in the flannel trousers strolled listlessly round the Museum, yawning from time to time, and then escaped to the outer air.
Poirot and Signor Richetti at last found him. The Italian was energetic in examining the ruins, but presently Poirot, espying a green-lined sunshade which he recognized on the rocks down by the river, escaped in that direction.
Mrs Allerton was sitting on a large rock, a sketchbook by her side and a book on her lap.
Poirot removed his hat politely and Mrs Allerton at once entered into conversation.
‘Good morning,’ she said. ‘I suppose it would be quite impossible to get rid of some of these awful children.’
A group of small black figures surrounded her, all grinning and posturing and holding out imploring hands as they lisped ‘Bakshish’ at intervals, hopefully.
‘I thought they’d get tired of me,’ said Mrs Allerton sadly. ‘They’ve been watching me for over two hours now–and they close in on me little by little; and then I yell “Imshi” and brandish my sunshade at them and they scatter for a minute or two. And then they come back and stare and stare, and their eyes are simply disgusting, and so are their noses, and I don’t believe I really like children–not unless they’re more or less washed and have the rudiments of manners.’
She laughed ruefully.
Poirot gallantly attempted to disperse the mob for her, but without avail. They scattered and then reappeared, closing in once more.
‘If there were only any peace in Egypt, I should like it better,’ said Mrs Allerton. ‘But you can never be alone anywhere. Someone is always pestering you for money, or offering you donkeys, or beads, or expeditions to native villages, or duck shooting.’
‘It is the great disadvantage, that is true,’ said Poirot.
He spread his handkerchief cautiously on the rock and sat somewhat gingerly upon it.
‘Your son is not with you this morning?’ he went on.
‘No, Tim had some letters to get off before we leave. We’re doing the trip to the Second Cataract, you know.’
‘I, too.’
‘I’m so glad. I want to tell you that I’m quite thrilled to meet you. When we were in Majorca, there was a Mrs Leech there, and she was telling us the most wonderful things about you. She’d lost a ruby ring bathing, and she was just lamenting that you weren’t there to find it for her.
‘Ah, parbleu, but I am not the diving seal!’
They both laughed.
Mrs Allerton went on.
‘I saw you from my window walking down the drive with Simon Doyle this morning. Do tell me what you make of him! We’re so excited about him.’
‘Ah? Truly?’
‘Yes. You know his marriage to Linnet Ridgeway was the greatest surprise. She was supposed to be going to marry Lord Windlesham and then suddenly she gets engaged to this man no one had ever heard of!’
‘You know her well, Madame?’
‘No, but a cousin of mine, Joanna Southwood, is one of her best friends.’
‘Ah, yes, I have read that name in the papers.’ He was silent a moment and then went on, ‘She is a young lady very much in the news, Mademoiselle Joanna Southwood.’
‘Oh, she knows how to advertise herself all right,’ snapped Mrs Allerton.
‘You do not like her, Madame?’
‘That was a nasty remark of mine.’ Mrs Allerton looked penitent. ‘You see I’m old-fashioned. I don’t like her much. Tim and she are the greatest of friends, though.’
‘I see,’ said Poirot.
His companion shot a quick look at him. She changed the subject.
‘How very few young people there are out here! That pretty girl with the chestnut hair and the appalling mother in the turban is almost the only young creature in the place. You have talked to her a good deal, I notice. She interests me, that child.’
‘Why is that, Madame?’
‘I feel sorry for her. You can suffer so much when you are young and sensitive. I think she is suffering.’
‘Yes, she is not happy, poor little one.’
‘Tim and I call her the “sulky girl”. I’ve tried to talk to her once or twice, but she’s snubbed me on each occasion. However, I believe she’s going on this Nile trip too, and I expect we’ll have to be more or less all matey together, shan’t we?’
‘It is a possible contingency, Madame.’
‘I’m very matey really–people interest me enormously. All the different types.’ She paused, then said: ‘Tim tells me that that dark girl–her name is de Bellefort–is the girl who was engaged to Simon Doyle. It’s rather awkward for them–meeting like this.’
‘It is awkward–yes,’ agreed Poirot.
‘You know, it may sound foolish, but she almost frightened me. She looked so–intense.’
Poirot nodded his head slowly.
‘You were not far wrong, Madame. A great force of emotion is always frightening.’
‘Do people interest you too, Monsieur Poirot? Or do you reserve your interest for potential criminals?’
‘Madame–that category would not leave many people outside it.’
Mrs Allerton looked a trifle startled.
‘Do you really mean that?’
‘Given the particular incentive, that is to say,’ Poirot added.
‘Which would differ?’
‘Naturally.’
Mrs Allerton hesitated–a little smile on her lips.
‘Even I perhaps?’
‘Mothers, Madame, are particularly ruthless when their children are in danger.’
She said gravely, ‘I think that’s true–yes, you’re quite right.’
She was silent a minute or two, then she said, smiling: I’m trying to imagine motives for crime suitable for everyone in the hotel. It’s quite entertaining. Simon Doyle, for instance?’
Poirot said, smiling: ‘A very simple crime–a direct short-cut to his objective. No subtlety about it.’
‘And therefore very easily detected?’
‘Yes; he would not be ingenious.’
‘And Linnet?’
‘That would be like the Queen in your Alice in Wonderland, “Off with her head.”’
‘Of course. The divine right of monarchy! Just a little bit of the Naboth’s vineyard touch. And the dangerous girl–Jacqueline de Bellefort–could she do a murder?’
Poirot hesitated for a minute or two, then he said doubtfully, ‘Yes, I think she could.’
‘But you’re not sure?’
‘No. She puzzles me, that little one.’
‘I don’t think Mr Pennington could do one, do you? He looks so desiccated and dyspeptic–with no red blood in him.’
‘But possibly a strong sense of self-preservation.’
‘Yes, I suppose so. And poor Mrs Otterbourne in her turban?’
‘There is always vanity.’
‘As a motive for murder?’ Mrs Allerton asked doubtfully.
‘Motives for murder are sometimes very trivial, Madame.’
‘What are the most usual motives, Monsieur Poirot?’
‘Most frequent–money. That is to say, gain in its various ramifications. Then there is revenge–and love, and fear, and pure hate, and beneficence–’
‘Monsieur Poirot!’
‘Oh, yes, Madame. I have known of–shall we say A?–being removed by B solely in order to benefit C. Political murders often come under the same heading. Someone is considered to be harmful to civilization and is removed on that account. Such people forget that life and death are the affair of the good God.’
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- Язык: Книги на английском языке
- Объём: 320 стр. 9 иллюстраций
- ISBN: 9780007422289
- Дата выхода книги: 11 мая 2019
- Версия: 📚 Электронная книга
Agatha Christie’s most exotic murder mystery, reissued with a striking cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers.The tranquillity of a cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway has been shot through the head. She was young, stylish and beautiful, a girl who had everything – until she lost her life.Hercule Poirot recalls an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: ‘I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.’ Yet in this exotic setting’ nothing is ever quite what it seems…
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