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Five Little Pigs :: Christie Agatha
Страница: 85 из 147I have never told you lies and I don’t now when I say that I am actually happy-that I feel an essential rightness and a peace that I have never known before. It’s all right, darling, it’s all right. Don’t look back and regret and grieve for me-go on with your life and succeed. You can, I know. It’s all, all right, darling, and I’m going to Amyas. I haven’t the least doubt that we shall be together. I couldn’t have lived without him…Do this one thing for me-be happy. I’ve told you-I’m happy. One has to pay one’s debts. It’s lovely to feel peaceful.
Your loving sister,
Caro
Hercule Poirot read it through twice. Then he handed it back. He said:
‘That is a very beautiful letter, mademoiselle-and a very remarkable one. Avery remarkable one.’
‘Caroline,’ said Angela Warren, ‘was a very remarkable person.’
‘Yes, an unusual mind…You take it that this letter indicates innocence?’
‘Of course it does!’
‘It does not say so explicitly.’
‘Because Caro would know that I’d never dream of her being guilty!’
‘Perhaps-perhaps…But it might be taken another way. In the sense that she was guilty and that in expiating her crime she will find peace.’
It fitted in, he thought, with the description of her in court. And he experienced in this moment the strongest doubts he had yet felt of the course to which he had committed himself. Everything so far had pointed unswervingly to Caroline Crale’s guilt. Now, even her own words testified against her.
On the other side was only the unshaken conviction of Angela Warren. Angela had known her well, undoubtedly, but might not her certainty be the fanatical loyalty of an adolescent girl, up in arms for a dearly loved sister?
As though she had read his thoughts Angela Warren said:
‘No, M. Poirot-Iknow Caroline wasn’t guilty.’
Poirot said briskly:
‘The Bon Dieu knows I do not want to shake you on that point. But let us be practical. You say your sister was not guilty. Very well, then,what really happened?’
Angela nodded thoughtfully. She said:
‘That is difficult, I agree. I suppose that, as Caroline said, Amyas committed suicide.’
‘Is that likely from what you know of his character?’
‘Very unlikely.’
‘But you do not say, as in the first case, that youknow it is impossible?’
‘No, because, as I said just now, most peopledo do impossible things-that is to say things that seem out of character. But I presume, if you know them intimately, it wouldn’t be out of character.
Your loving sister,
Caro
Hercule Poirot read it through twice. Then he handed it back. He said:
‘That is a very beautiful letter, mademoiselle-and a very remarkable one. Avery remarkable one.’
‘Caroline,’ said Angela Warren, ‘was a very remarkable person.’
‘Yes, an unusual mind…You take it that this letter indicates innocence?’
‘Of course it does!’
‘It does not say so explicitly.’
‘Because Caro would know that I’d never dream of her being guilty!’
‘Perhaps-perhaps…But it might be taken another way. In the sense that she was guilty and that in expiating her crime she will find peace.’
It fitted in, he thought, with the description of her in court. And he experienced in this moment the strongest doubts he had yet felt of the course to which he had committed himself. Everything so far had pointed unswervingly to Caroline Crale’s guilt. Now, even her own words testified against her.
On the other side was only the unshaken conviction of Angela Warren. Angela had known her well, undoubtedly, but might not her certainty be the fanatical loyalty of an adolescent girl, up in arms for a dearly loved sister?
As though she had read his thoughts Angela Warren said:
‘No, M. Poirot-Iknow Caroline wasn’t guilty.’
Poirot said briskly:
‘The Bon Dieu knows I do not want to shake you on that point. But let us be practical. You say your sister was not guilty. Very well, then,what really happened?’
Angela nodded thoughtfully. She said:
‘That is difficult, I agree. I suppose that, as Caroline said, Amyas committed suicide.’
‘Is that likely from what you know of his character?’
‘Very unlikely.’
‘But you do not say, as in the first case, that youknow it is impossible?’
‘No, because, as I said just now, most peopledo do impossible things-that is to say things that seem out of character. But I presume, if you know them intimately, it wouldn’t be out of character.