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Five Little Pigs :: Christie Agatha
Страница: 31 из 147We found it crushed to splinters on thepath up to the house.’
Poirot murmured:
‘You have an answer to everything.’
‘Well, come now, M. Poirot! Without prejudice.She threatens to kill him.She takes the stuff from the laboratory. The empty bottle is found inher room andnobody has handled it but her. She deliberately takes down iced beer to him-a funny thing, anyway, when you realize that they weren’t on speaking terms-’
‘A very curious thing. I had already remarked on it.’
‘Yes. Bit of a give away.Why was she so amiable all of a sudden? He complains of the taste of the stuff-and coniinehas a nasty taste. She arranges to find the body and she sends the other woman off to telephone. Why? So that she can wipe that bottle and glass and then presshis fingers on it. After that she can pipe up and say that it was remorse and that he committed suicide. A likely story.’
‘It was certainly not very well imagined.’
‘No. If you ask me she didn’t take the trouble tothink. She was so eaten up with hate and jealousy. All she thought of was doing him in. And then, when it’s over, when she sees him there dead-well,then, I should say, she suddenly comes to herself and realizes that what she’s done is murder-and that you get hanged for murder. And desperately she goes bald-headed for the only thing she can think of-which is suicide.’
Poirot said:
‘It is very sound what you say there-yes. Her mind might work that way.’
‘In a way it was a premeditated crime and in a way it wasn’t,’ said Hale. ‘I don’t believe she really thought it out, you know. Just went on with it blindly.’
Poirot murmured:
‘I wonder…’
Hale looked at him curiously. He said:
‘Have I convinced you, M. Poirot, that it was a straightforward case?’
‘Almost. Not quite. There are one or two peculiar points…!’
‘Can you suggest an alternative solution-that will hold water?’
Poirot said:
‘What were the movements of the other people on that morning?’
‘We went into them, I can assure you. We checked up on everybody. Nobody had what you could call an alibi-you can’t have with poisoning. Why, there’s nothing to prevent a would-be murderer from handing his victim some poison in a capsule the day before, telling him it’s a specific cure for indigestion and he must take it before lunch-and then going away to the other end of England.’
‘But you don’t think that happened in this case?’
‘Mr Crale didn’t suffer from indigestion.
Poirot murmured:
‘You have an answer to everything.’
‘Well, come now, M. Poirot! Without prejudice.She threatens to kill him.She takes the stuff from the laboratory. The empty bottle is found inher room andnobody has handled it but her. She deliberately takes down iced beer to him-a funny thing, anyway, when you realize that they weren’t on speaking terms-’
‘A very curious thing. I had already remarked on it.’
‘Yes. Bit of a give away.Why was she so amiable all of a sudden? He complains of the taste of the stuff-and coniinehas a nasty taste. She arranges to find the body and she sends the other woman off to telephone. Why? So that she can wipe that bottle and glass and then presshis fingers on it. After that she can pipe up and say that it was remorse and that he committed suicide. A likely story.’
‘It was certainly not very well imagined.’
‘No. If you ask me she didn’t take the trouble tothink. She was so eaten up with hate and jealousy. All she thought of was doing him in. And then, when it’s over, when she sees him there dead-well,then, I should say, she suddenly comes to herself and realizes that what she’s done is murder-and that you get hanged for murder. And desperately she goes bald-headed for the only thing she can think of-which is suicide.’
Poirot said:
‘It is very sound what you say there-yes. Her mind might work that way.’
‘In a way it was a premeditated crime and in a way it wasn’t,’ said Hale. ‘I don’t believe she really thought it out, you know. Just went on with it blindly.’
Poirot murmured:
‘I wonder…’
Hale looked at him curiously. He said:
‘Have I convinced you, M. Poirot, that it was a straightforward case?’
‘Almost. Not quite. There are one or two peculiar points…!’
‘Can you suggest an alternative solution-that will hold water?’
Poirot said:
‘What were the movements of the other people on that morning?’
‘We went into them, I can assure you. We checked up on everybody. Nobody had what you could call an alibi-you can’t have with poisoning. Why, there’s nothing to prevent a would-be murderer from handing his victim some poison in a capsule the day before, telling him it’s a specific cure for indigestion and he must take it before lunch-and then going away to the other end of England.’
‘But you don’t think that happened in this case?’
‘Mr Crale didn’t suffer from indigestion.