Does the next one fit in with that? A merveille! Good! We can proceed. This next little fact – no! Ah, that is curious! There is something missing – a link in the chain that is not there. We examine. We search. And that little curious fact, that perhaps paltry little detail that will not tally, we put it here!' Poirot made an extravagant gesture with his hand. 'It is significant! It is tremendous!'
'Y-es, I see,' Raynor murmured dubiously.
Poirot shook his forefinger so fiercely in Raynor's face that the secretary almost quailed before it. 'Ah, beware! Peril to the detective who says, 'It is so small, it does not matter. It will not agree. I will forget it.' That way lies confusion! Everything matters.' Poirot suddenly stopped and tapped his head. 'Ah! Now I remember what I wanted to talk to you about. It was one of those small, unimportant little facts. I wanted to talk to you, Monsieur Raynor, about dust.'
Raynor smiled politely. 'Dust?'
'Precisely. Dust,' Poirot repeated. 'My friend Hastings, he reminded me just now that I am a detective and not a housemaid. He thought himself very clever to make such a remark, but I am not so sure. The housemaid and the detective, after all, have something in common. The housemaid, what does she do? She explores all the dark corners with her broom. She brings into the light of day all the hidden things that have rolled conveniently out of sight. Does not the detective do much the same?'
Raynor looked bored, but murmured, 'Very interesting, Monsieur Poirot.' He moved to the chair by the table and sat, before asking, 'But – is that all you were intending to say?'
'No, not quite,' replied Poirot. He leaned forward.
'You did not throw dust in my eyes, Monsieur Raynor, because there was no dust. Do you understand?'
The secretary stared at him intently. 'No, I'm afraid I didn't.'
'There was no dust on that box of drugs. Mademoiselle Barbara commented on the fact. But there should have been dust. That shelf on which it stands -' and Poirot gestured towards it as he spoke – 'is thick with dust. It was then that I knew -'
'Knew what?'
'I knew,' Poirot continued, 'that someone had taken that box down recently. That the person who poisoned Sir Claud Amory would not need to go near the box last night, since he had on some earlier occasion helped himself to all the poison he needed, choosing a time when he knew he would not be disturbed. You did not go near the box of drugs last night, because you had already taken from it the hyoscine you needed. But you did handle the coffee, Monsieur Raynor.'
Raynor smiled patiently. 'Dear me! Do you accuse me of murdering Sir Claud?'
'Do you deny it?' asked Poirot.
Raynor paused before replying. When he spoke again, a harsher tone had entered his voice. 'Oh, no,' he declared, 'I don't deny it. Why should I? I'm really rather proud of the whole thing. It ought to have gone off without a hitch. It was sheer bad luck that made Sir Claud open the safe again last night. He's never done such a thing before.'
Poirot sounded rather drowsy as he asked, 'Why are you telling me all this?'
'Why not? You're so sympathetic. It's a pleasure to talk to you.' Raynor laughed, and continued. 'Yes, things very nearly went wrong. But that's what I really pride myself on, turning a failure into a success.' A triumphant expression appeared on his face. 'To devise a hiding place on the spur of the moment was really rather creditable. Would you like me to tell you where the formula is now?'
His drowsiness now accentuated, Poirot seemed to find difficulty in speaking clearly. 'I – I do not understand you,' he whispered.
'You made one little mistake, Monsieur Poirot,' Raynor told him with a sneer. 'You underestimated my intelligence. I wasn't really taken in just now by your ingenious red herring about poor old Carelli. A man with your brains couldn't seriously have believed that Carelli – why, it won't bear thinking about. You see, I'm playing for big stakes. That piece of paper, delivered in the right quarters, means fifty thousand pounds to me.' He leaned back. 'Just think what a man of my ability can do with fifty thousand pounds.'
In a voice of increasing drowsiness, Poirot managed to reply, 'I – I do not – like to think of it.'
'Well, perhaps not. I appreciate that,' Raynor conceded. 'One has to allow for a different point of view.'
Poirot leaned forward, and appeared to be making an effort to pull himself together. 'And it will not be so,' he exclaimed. 'I will denounce you. I, Hercule Poirot -' He broke off suddenly.
'Hercule Poirot will do nothing,' declared Raynor, as the detective sank back in his seat. With a laugh which was close to a sneer, the secretary continued, 'You never guessed, did you, even when you said that the whisky was bitter? You see, my dear Monsieur Poirot, I took not just one but several tubes of hyoscine from that box. If anything, you have had slightly more than I gave Sir Claud.'
'Ah, mon Dieu,' Poirot gasped, struggling to rise. In a weak voice he tried to call, ' Hastings! Has-' His voice faded away, and he sank back into his chair. His eyelids closed.
Raynor got to his feet, pushed his chair aside, and moved to stand over Poirot. 'Try to keep awake, Monsieur Poirot,' he said. 'Surely you'd like to see where the formula was hidden, wouldn't you?'
He waited for a moment, but Poirot's eyes remained closed. 'A swift, dreamless sleep, and no awakening, as our dear friend Carelli puts it,' Raynor commented drily as he went to the mantelpiece, took the spills, folded them, and put them in his pocket. He moved towards the French windows, pausing only to call over his shoulder, 'Goodbye, my dear Monsieur Poirot.'
He was about to step out into the garden when he was halted by the sound of Poirot's voice, speaking cheerfully and naturally. 'Would you not like the envelope as well?'
Raynor spun around, and at the same moment Inspector Japp entered the library from the garden. Moving back a few steps, Raynor paused irresolutely, and then decided to bolt. He rushed to the French windows, only to be seized by Japp and by Constable Johnson, who also suddenly appeared from the garden.
Poirot rose from his chair, stretching himself. 'Well, my dear Japp,' he asked. 'Did you get it all?'
Dragging Raynor back to the center of the room with the aid of his constable, Japp replied, 'Every word, thanks to your note, Poirot. You can hear everything perfectly from the terrace there, just outside the window. Now, let's go over him and see what we can find.' He pulled the spills from Raynor's pocket and threw them onto the coffee-table.
He next pulled out a small tube. 'Aha! Hyoscine! Empty.'
'Ah, Hastings,' Poirot greeted his friend, as he entered from the hall carrying a glass of whisky and soda, which he handed to the detective.
'You see?' Poirot addressed Raynor in his kindliest manner. 'I refused to play in your comedy. Instead, I made you play in mine. In my note, I gave instructions to Japp and also to Hastings. Then I make things easy for you by complaining of the heat. I know you will suggest a drink. It is, after all, the opening that you need. After that, it is all so straightforward. When I go to the door, the good Hastings, he is ready outside with another whisky and soda. I change glasses and I am back again. And so – on with the comedy.'
Poirot gave the glass back to Hastings. 'Myself, I think I play my part rather well,' he declared.
There was a pause while Poirot and Raynor surveyed each other. Then Raynor spoke. 'I've been afraid of you ever since you came into this house. My scheme could have worked. I could have set myself up for life with the fifty thousand pounds – perhaps even more – that I would have got for that wretched formula. But, from the moment you arrived, I stopped feeling absolutely confident that I'd get away with killing that pompous old fool and stealing his precious scrap of paper.'
'I have observed already that you are intelligent,' Poirot replied. He sat again in the arm-chair, looking distinctly pleased with himself, as Japp began to speak rapidly.
'Edward Raynor, I arrest you for the wilful murder of Sir Claud Amory, and I warn you that anything you say may be used in evidence.' Japp made a gesture to the constable to take Raynor away.
Chapter 20
As Raynor made his exit in the custody of Constable Johnson, the two men passed Miss Amory, who was
