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Five Little Pigs :: Christie Agatha
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‘They found her fingerprints on the bottle?’
‘No, they didn’t-they found onlyhis -and they were phoney ones. She was alone with the body, you see, while the governess went to call up a doctor. And what she must have done was to wipe the bottle and glass and then press his fingers on them. She wanted to pretend, you see, that she’d never even handled the stuff. Well, that didn’t work. Old Rudolph, who was prosecuting, had a lot of fun with that-proved quite definitely by demonstration in court that a mancouldn’t hold a bottle with his fingers in that position! Of coursewe did our best to prove that hecould -that his hands would take up a contorted attitude when he was dying-but frankly our stuff wasn’t very convincing.’
Hercule Poirot said:
‘The coniine in the bottle must have been put there before she took it down to the garden.’
‘There was no coniine in the bottle at all. Only in the glass.’
He paused-his large handsome face suddenly altered-he turned his head sharply. ‘Hallo,’ he said. ‘Now then, Poirot,what are you driving at?’
Poirot said:
‘IfCaroline Crale was innocent, how did that coniine get into the beer? The defence said at the time that Amyas Crale himself put it there. But you say to me that that was in the highest degree unlikely-and for my part I agree with you. He was not that kind of man. Then, if Caroline Crale did not do it,someone else did.’
Depleach said with almost a splutter:
‘Oh, damn it all, man, you can’t flog a dead horse. It’s all over and done with years ago. Of course she did it. You’d know that well enough if you’d seen her at the time. It was written all over her! I even fancy that the verdict was a relief to her. She wasn’t frightened. No nerves at all. Just wanted to get through the trial and have it over. A very brave woman, really…’
‘And yet,’ said Hercule Poirot, ‘when she died she left a letter to be given to her daughter in which she swore solemnly that she was innocent.’
‘I dare say she did,’ said Sir Montague Depleach. ‘You or I would have done the same in her place.’
‘Her daughter says she was not that kind of woman.’
‘The daughter says-pah! What doesshe know about it? My dear Poirot, the daughter was a mere infant at the time of the trial. What was she-four-five? They changed her name and sent her out of England somewhere to some relatives. What canshe know or remember?’
‘Children know people very well sometimes.’
‘Maybe they do. But that doesn’t follow in this case.
‘They found her fingerprints on the bottle?’
‘No, they didn’t-they found onlyhis -and they were phoney ones. She was alone with the body, you see, while the governess went to call up a doctor. And what she must have done was to wipe the bottle and glass and then press his fingers on them. She wanted to pretend, you see, that she’d never even handled the stuff. Well, that didn’t work. Old Rudolph, who was prosecuting, had a lot of fun with that-proved quite definitely by demonstration in court that a mancouldn’t hold a bottle with his fingers in that position! Of coursewe did our best to prove that hecould -that his hands would take up a contorted attitude when he was dying-but frankly our stuff wasn’t very convincing.’
Hercule Poirot said:
‘The coniine in the bottle must have been put there before she took it down to the garden.’
‘There was no coniine in the bottle at all. Only in the glass.’
He paused-his large handsome face suddenly altered-he turned his head sharply. ‘Hallo,’ he said. ‘Now then, Poirot,what are you driving at?’
Poirot said:
‘IfCaroline Crale was innocent, how did that coniine get into the beer? The defence said at the time that Amyas Crale himself put it there. But you say to me that that was in the highest degree unlikely-and for my part I agree with you. He was not that kind of man. Then, if Caroline Crale did not do it,someone else did.’
Depleach said with almost a splutter:
‘Oh, damn it all, man, you can’t flog a dead horse. It’s all over and done with years ago. Of course she did it. You’d know that well enough if you’d seen her at the time. It was written all over her! I even fancy that the verdict was a relief to her. She wasn’t frightened. No nerves at all. Just wanted to get through the trial and have it over. A very brave woman, really…’
‘And yet,’ said Hercule Poirot, ‘when she died she left a letter to be given to her daughter in which she swore solemnly that she was innocent.’
‘I dare say she did,’ said Sir Montague Depleach. ‘You or I would have done the same in her place.’
‘Her daughter says she was not that kind of woman.’
‘The daughter says-pah! What doesshe know about it? My dear Poirot, the daughter was a mere infant at the time of the trial. What was she-four-five? They changed her name and sent her out of England somewhere to some relatives. What canshe know or remember?’
‘Children know people very well sometimes.’
‘Maybe they do. But that doesn’t follow in this case.