uttered an exclamation. From beneath the heavy rep curtains
there protruded a foot - a woman's foot in a gaping patcn.r
leather shoe.
Jimmy went to the curtain.s and drew them sharply apart. In
208
recess of the window a woman's huddled body Iy on the
flor, a sticky dark pool beside it. She was dead, there was no
doubt of that. Jimmy was attempting to raise her up when
Donovan stopped him.
'You'd better not do that. She oughm't to be touched till the
police come.'
'The police. Oh, of course. I say, Donovan, what a ghtly
business. Who do you think she is? Mrs Ernestine Grt?'
'Looks like it. At any rate, if there's anyone else in the flt
they're keeping jolly quiet.'
'What do we do next?' asked Jimmy. 'Run out and get a
policeman or ring up from Pat's fit?'
'I should think ringing up would be best. Come on, we
might as well go out the front door. We can't spend the whole
night going up and down in that evil-smelliug ·
Jimmy agreed. Just as they were passing through the door he
hesitated. 'Look here; do you think one of us ought to stay -just
to keep an eye on things - till the police come?'
'Yes, I think you're right. If you'll stay I'll nm up and
telephone.'
He ran quickly up the stairs and rang the bell of the flat
above. Pat came to open it, a very pretty Pat with a flushed face
' and a cooking apron on. Her eyes widened in surprise.
'You? But how - Donovan, what is it? Is anything the matter?'
He took both her hands in his. 'It's all right, Pat - only we've
made a rather unpleasant discovery in the flat below. A woman - dead.'
'Oh!' She gave a little gasp. 'How horrible.. Has she had a fit
or something?'
'No. It looks - well - it looks rather as though she had been
murdered.'
'Oh, Donovan!'
'I know. It's pretty beastly.'
Her hands were still in his. She had left them there - was
even clinging to him. Darling Pat - how he loved her. Did she
care at all for him? Sometimes he thought she did. Sometimes
209
he was afraid that Jimmy Faulkener- remembrances of Jimmy
waiting patienfiy below made him start guiltily.
'Pat, dear, we must telephone to the police.'
'Monsieur is right,' said a voice behind him. 'And i, the
meantime, while we are waiting their arrival, perhaps I c: be
of some slight assistance.'
They had been standing in the doorway of the flat, anti ao
they peered out on the landing. A figure was standing on the
stairs a little way above them. It moved down and into thei
range of vision.
They stood staring at the little man with a very fierce
moustache and an egg-shaped head. He wore a resplendent
dressing-gown and embroidered slippers. He bowed gallantly
to Patricia.
'Mademoiselle!' he said. 'I am, as perhaps you know, the
tenant of the flat above. I like to be up high - in the air - the
view over London. I take the flat in the name of Mr O'Connor.
But I am not an Irishman. I have another name. That is why
I venture to put myself at your service. Permit me.' With a
flourish he pulled out a card and handed it to Pat. She read it.
'M. Hercule Poirot. Oh? She caught her breath. 'The M.
Poirot! The great detective? And you will really help?'
'That is my intention, mademoiselle. I nearly offered my
help earlier in the evening.'
Pat looked puzzled.
'I heard you discussing how to gain admission to your flat
Me, I am very fever at picking locks. I could, without doubt,
have opened your door for you, but I hesitated to suggest it.
You would have had the grave suspicions of me.'
Pat laughed.
'Now, monsieur,' said Poirot to Donovan. 'Go in, I pray of
you, and telephone to the police. I will descend to the flat
below.'
Pat came down the stairs with him. They found Jimmy on
guard, and Pat explained Poirot's presence, jimmy, in his turn,
explained to Poirot his and Donovan's adventures. The
detective listened attentively.
210
'The lift door was unbolted, you sy? You e ino the
tchcn, but the lihl it would not mrn on.'
I-Ie direcxed his footsteps o the kitchen as he spoke. His
fgers pressed the switch. ,
'Tiens! Voild ce qui est curieux! hesidasthelightfiashedon.
'It functions perfectly now. I wonder -' He held up a finger to
ensure silence and listened. A faint sound broke the stillness the
sound of an unmistakable snore. 'Ah!' said Poirot. 'La charnbre de domestique.'
He tiptoed across the kitchen into a little pmtry, out of
which led a door. He opened the door and switched on the
light. The room was the kind of dog kennel designed by the
builders of flats to accommodate a human being. The floor
space was almost entirely occupied by the bed. In the bed was
a rosy-cheeked girl lying on her back with her mouth wide
open, snoring placidly.
Poirot switched off the light and beat a retreat.
'She will not wake,' he said. 'We will let her sleep till the
police come.'
He went back to the sitting-room. Donovan had joined
them.
'The police will be here almost immediately, they sy' he
rid breathlessly. 'We are to touch nothing.'
Poirot nodded. 'We will not touch,' he said. 'We will look,
· at is all.'
He moved into the room. Mildred had come down with
Donovan, and all four young people stood in the doorway and
watched him with breathless interest.
'What I can't understand, sir, is this,' said Donovaa. 'I never
went near the window - how did the blood come on my hand?'
'My young friend, the answer to that stares you in the face.
Of what colour is the tablecloth? Red, is it not? and doubtless
you did put your band on the table.'
'Yes, I did. Is that - ? He itopped.
Poirot nodded. He was bending over the table. He indicated
with his hand a dark patch on the red.
'It was here that the crime was committed,' he said solemnly.
'The body was moved afterwards.'
211
Then he stood uptight and looked slowly round t3,
He did not move, he handled nothing, but neverth?
four watching felt as though every object in that rather Crows
place gave up ks secret to his observant eye.
Hercule Poirot nodded his head as though satisfied. A 1:
sigh escaped him. 'I see,' he said.
'You see what?' asked Donovan curiously.
'I see,' said Poirot, 'what you doubtless felt - that the ro0
is overfull of furniture.'
Donovan smiled ruefully. 'I did go barging about a bit,' 1
confessed. 'Of course, everything was in a different place
Pat's room, and I couldn't make it out.'
'Not everything,' said Poirot.
Donovan looked at him inq 'mtingly.
'I mean,' said Poirot apologetically, 'that certain things au
always fnted. In a block of flats the door, the window,
fireplace - they are in the sa
me place in the rooms which a
below each other.'
'Isn't that rather splitting hairs?' asked Mildred. She w looking at Poirot with faint disapproval.
'One should always speak with absolute accuracy. That isa
little - how do you say? - fad of mine.'
There was the noise of footsteps on the stairs, and three nm
came in. They were a police inspector, a constable, and
divisional surgeon. The inspector recognized Poirot and
greeted him in an almost reverential manner. Then he turned
to the others.
'I shall want statements from everyone,' he began, 'but in the
first place -'
Poirot interrupted. 'A little suggestion. We will go back to
the flat upstairs and mademoiselle here shall do what she was
planning to do - make us an omelette. Me, I have a passion for
the omelettes. Then, M. l'Inspecteur, when you have finished
here, you will mount to us and ask questions at your leisure.'
It was arranged accordingly, and Poirot went up with them.
'M. Poirot,' said Pat, 'I think you're a perfect dear. And you
shall have a lovely omelette. I really make omelettes frightfully well.'
212
,That is good. Once, mademoiselle, I loved a beaudful youn
· 'ri who resembled you greatly - but alas{ - she could
Enghsh gl ,
·
the best'
not cook. So perhaps everything was for
·
There was a faint sadness in his voice, and Jimmy Faulkener
looked at him curiously.
Once in the flat, however, he exerted himself o please and
amuse. The grim trsgedy below was almost forgotten.
The omelette had been consumed iud duly praised by the
time that Inspector Rice's footsteps were heard, lie cne in
accompanied by the doctor, having left the constable below.
'Well, Monsieur PoiroC he said. 'It all seems dear and
above-board - not much in your line, though we may irmd it
hard to catch the man. I'd just like to hear how the discovery
came to be made.'
Donovan iud Jimmy between them recounted the happen
ings of the evening. The inspector turned reproachfully to Pat.
'You shouldn't leave your lift door unboked, miss. You
really shouldn't.'
'I shan't again,' said Pat, with a shiver. 'Somebody might
come in and murder me like that poor woman below.'
'Ah, but they didn't come in that way, though,' said time
inspector.
·
' 'd
'You will recount to us what you have discovered, yes? sin
Poirot..
'I don't know as I ought to - but seeing it's you, IVl.'
Poirot -'
'Prc/sSne,' said Poirot. 'And these young people- they
'The newspapers will get hold of ii, anyway, soon emaoug, h,'
said the inspeaor. 'There's no real secret about the mater.
Well, the dead woman's lkirs Grant, ifil right. I hsd the porter
up to identify her. Woman of shout thirty-five. She was sittin8
at the table, arid she was shot with an automatic p/stol of small
calibre, probably by someone sitting opposite her ai table. She
fell forward, and that's how the bloodstain came on the table.'
'But wouldn't someone have heard the shot}' asked
Mildred.
'The pistol was fined with a silencer. No, you wouldnk hea
213
anything. By the way, did you hear the screech the maid let out when we told her her mistress was dead? No. Well, that just
shows how unlikely it was that anyone would hear the other.'
'Has the maid no story to tell?' asked Poirot.
'It was her evening out. She's got her own key. She came in
about ten o'clock. Everything was quiet. She thought her
mistress had gone to bed.'
'She did not look in the sitting-room, then?'
'Yes, she took the letters in there which had come by the
evening post, but she saw nothing unusual - any more than Mr
Faulkener and Mr Bailey did. You see, the murderer had
concealed the body rather neatly behind the curtains.'
'But it was a curious thing to do, don't you think?'
Poirot's voice was very gentle, yet it held something that
made the inspector look up quickly.
'Didn't want the crime discovered till he'd had time to make
.his getaway.'
'Perhaps, perhaps - but continue with what you were
saying.'
'The maid went out at five o'clock. The doctor here put:3 the
time of death as - roughly - about four to five hours ago. That's
right, isn't it?'
The doctor, who was a man of few words, contented hiaself
with jerking his head afFmnatively.
'It's a quarter to twelve now. The actual time can, I think, be
narrowed down to a fairly del'mite hour.'
He took out a crumpled sheet of paper.
'We found this in the pocket of the dead woman's dress. You
needn't be afraid of handling it. There are no f'mgerprint$ on
it.'
Poirot smoothed out the sheet. Across it some words were
printed in small, prim capitals.
I
WILL COME TO SEE YOU THIS EVENING AT HALF PAST SEVEN.
'A compromising document to leave behind,' commuted
Poirot, as he handed it back.
214
'Well, he didn't know she'd got it in her pocket,' said the
inspector. 'He probably thought she'd destroyed it. We've
evidence that he was a careful man, though. The pistol she was
shot with we found under the body - and there again no
fingerprints. They'd been wiped off very carefully with a silk
handkerchief.'
'How do you know,' said Poirot, 'that it was a silk
handkerchief?.'
'Because we found it,' said e inspector triumphantly. 'At
the last, as he was drawing the axrtains, he must have let it fall
unnoticed.'
He handed across a big white silk handkerchief - a good-quality
handkerchief. It did not need the inspector's finger to
draw Poirot's attention to the mark on it in the centre. It was
neatly marked and quite legible. Poirot read the name out.
'John Fraser.'
'That's it,' said the inspector. 'John Fraser - J.F. in the note.
We know the name of the man we have to look for, and I dare
say when we f'md out a little about the dead woman, sntl her
relations come forward, we shall soon get a line on him.'
'I wonder,' said Poirot. 'No, mon chef, somehow I do not
think he will be easy to ['md, your John Fraser. He is a strange
man - csreful, since he marks his handkerchiefs and wipes the
pistol with which he has committed the crime - yet careless
since he loses his handkerchiefand does not search for a letter
that might incriminate him.'
'Flurried, that's what he was,' said the inspector.
'It is possible,' said Poirot. 'Yes, it is possible. And he was
not seen entering the building?'
'There are all sorts of people going in and out sll the time.
These are big blocks. I suppose none of you -' he addressed the
four collectively -'saw anyone coming out of the flat?'
Pat shook her head. 'We went out earlier - about seven
o'clock.'
'I see.' The inspector rose. Poi
rot accompanied him to the
door.
'As a little favour, may I examine the flat below?'
'Why, certainly, M. Poirot. I know what they think of yon at
215
headquarters. I'll leave you a key. I've got two. E
empty. The maid cleared out to some relatives too
stay there alone.' ' oo s.
'I thank you,' said M. Poirot. He went back into ?:¢
thoughtful.
'You're not satisfied, M. Poirot?' said Jimmy.
'No,' said Poirot. 'I am not satisfied.'
Donovan looked at him curiously. 'What is it that well,
worries you?
Poirot did not answer. He remained silent for a minute or
.two, frowning, as though in thought, then he made a sudden
mpatent movemem of the shoulders.
'I will say good night to you, mademoiselle. You must be
tired. You have had much cooking to do - eh?'
Pat laughed. 'Only the omelette. I didn't do dinner.
Donovan and Jimmy came and called for us, and we went out
to a little place in Soho.'
'And then without doubt, you went to a theatre?'
'Yes. The Brown Eyes of Caroline.'
'Ah!' said Poirot. 'It should have been blue eyes - the blue
eyes of mademoiselle.,
He made a sentimental gesture, and then once more wished
Pat good night, also Mildred, who was staying the night by
special request, as Pat admitted fnmkiy that she would get the
horrors if left alone on this Pm'ticular night.
The two young men accompanied Poirot. When the door
was shut, md they were preparing to say goodbye to him on le
landing, Poirot forestalled them.
'My young friends, you heard me say I was not satisfied?/;h
b/eh, it is true - I am not. I go now to make some little
investigations of my own. You would like to accompany me
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