drinking sherry. Mrs. Oliver was wearing one of the new horsy hats and a velvet dress with a bow on the chest, on which reposed a large piece of apple core.
'Come in. Come in,' said Mrs. Oliver hospitably and quite as though it were her house and not Poirot's. 'As soon as I got your telephone call, I rang up Doctor Roberts and we came round here, and all his patients are dying but he doesn't care. They're probably getting better really. We want to hear all about everything.'
'Yes, indeed, I'm thoroughly fogged,' said Roberts.
'Eh bien,' said Poirot. 'The case is ended. The murderer of Mr. Shaitana is found at last.'
'So Mrs. Oliver told me. That pretty little thing, Anne Meredith. I can hardly believe it. A most unbelievable murderess.'
'She was a murderess all right,' said Battle. 'Three murders to her credit – and not her fault that she didn't get away with a fourth one.'
'Incredible!' murmured Roberts.
'Not at all,' said Mrs. Oliver. 'Least likely person. It seems to work out in real life just the same as in books.'
'It's been an amazing day,' said Roberts. 'First Mrs. Lorrimer's letter – I suppose that was a forgery, eh?'
'Precisely. A forgery written in triplicate.'
'She wrote one to herself, too?'
'Naturally. The forgery was quite skillful – it would not deceive an expert, of course, but then it was highly unlikely that an expert would have been called in. All the evidence pointed to Mrs. Lorrimer's having committed suicide.'
'You will excuse my curiosity, Monsieur Poirot, but what made you suspect that she had not committed suicide?'
'A little conversation that I had with a maidservant at Cheyne Lane.'
'She told you of Anne Meredith's visit the former evening?'
'That among other things. And then, you see, I had already come to a conclusion in my own mind as to the identity of the guilty person – that is, the person who killed Mr. Shaitana. That person was not Mrs. Lorrimer.'
'What made you suspect Miss Meredith?'
Poirot raised his hand. 'A little minute. Let me approach this matter in my own way. Let me, that is to say, eliminate. The murderer of Mr. Shaitana was not Mrs. Lorrimer, nor was it Major Despard, and curiously enough it was not Anne Meredith -'
He leaned forward. His voice purred, soft and catlike.
'You see, Doctor Roberts, you were the person who killed Mr. Shaitana and you also killed Mrs. Lorrimer -'
There was at least three minutes' silence. Then Roberts laughed a rather menacing laugh.
'Are you quite mad, Monsieur Poirot? I certainly did not murder Mr. Shaitana and I could not possibly have murdered Mrs. Lorrimer. My dear Battle,' he turned to the Scotland Yard man, 'are you standing for this?'
'I think you'd better listen to what Monsieur Poirot has to say,' said Battle quietly.
Poirot said, 'It is true that though I have known for some time that you – and only you – could have killed Shaitana, it would not be an easy matter to prove it. But Mrs. Lorrimer's case is quite different.' He leaned forward. 'It is not a case of my knowing. It is much simpler than that – for we have an eyewitness who saw you do it.'
Roberts grew very quiet. His eyes glittered. He said sharply, 'You are talking rubbish!'
'Oh, no, I am not. It was early in the morning. You bluffed your way into Mrs. Lorrimer's room where she was still heavily asleep under the influence of the drug she had taken the night before. You bluff again – pretend to see at a glance that she is dead! You pack the parlormaid off for brandy, hot water, all the rest of it. You are left alone in the room. The maid has only had the barest peep. And then what happens?
'You may not be aware of the fact Doctor Roberts, but certain firms of window cleaners specialize in early morning work. A window cleaner with his ladder arrived at the same time as you did. He placed his ladder against the side of the house and began his work. The first window he tackled was that of Mrs. Lorrimer's room. When, however, he saw what was going on, he quickly retired to another window, but he had seen something first. He shall tell us his own story.'
Poirot stepped lightly across the floor, turned a door handle, called, 'Come in, Stephens,' and returned.
A big, awkward-looking man with red hair entered. In his hand he held a uniform hat bearing the legend Chelsea Window Cleaners Association which he twirled awkwardly.
Poirot said, 'Is there anybody you recognize in this room?'
The man looked round, then gave a bashful nod of the head toward Doctor Roberts. 'Him,' he said.
'Tell us when you saw him last and what he was doing?'
'This morning it was. Eight o'clock job at a lady's house in Cheyne Lane. I started on the windows there. Lady was in bed. Looked ill she did. She was just turning her head round on the pillow. This gent I took to be a doctor. He shoved her sleeve up and jabbed something into her arm just about here.' He gestured. 'She just dropped back on the pillow again. I thought I'd better hop it to another window, so I did. Hope I didn't do wrong in any way?'
'You did admirably, my friend,' said Poirot.
He said quietly, 'Eh bien, Doctor Roberts?'
'A – a simple restorative,' stammered Roberts. 'A last hope of bringing her round. It's monstrous -'
Poirot interrupted him.
'A simple restorative? N-methyl-cyclo-hexenyl-methyl-malonyl urea,' said Poirot. He rolled out the syllables unctuously. 'Known more simply as Evipan. Used as an anesthetic for short operations. Injected intravenously in large doses it produces instant unconsciousness. It is dangerous to use it after veronal or any barbiturates have been given. I noticed the bruised place on her arm where something had obviously been injected into a vein. A hint to the police surgeon and the drug used was easily discovered by no less a person than Sir Charles Imphrey, the Home Office analyst.'
'That about cooks your goose, I think,' said Superintendent Battle. 'No need to prove the Shaitana business, though, of course, if necessary we can bring a further charge as to the murder of Mr. Charles Craddock – and possibly his wife, also.'
The mention of those two names finished Roberts.
He leaned back in his chair. 'I throw in my hand,' he said. 'You've got me! I suppose that sly devil Shaitana put you wise before you came that evening. And I thought I'd settled his hash so nicely.'
'It isn't Shaitana you've got to thank,' said Battle. 'The honors lie with Monsieur Poirot here.'
He went to the door and two men entered.
Superintendent Battle's voice became official as he made the formal arrest.
As the door closed behind the accused man Mrs. Oliver said happily, if not quite truthfully, 'I always said he did it!'
Chapter 31
CARDS ON THE TABLE
It was Poirot's moment, every face was turned to his in eager anticipation. 'You are very kind,' he said, smiling. 'You know, I think, that I enjoy my little lecture. I am a prosy old fellow.
'This case, to my mind, has been one of the most interesting cases I have ever come across. There was nothing, you see, to go upon. There were four people, one of whom must have committed the crime but which of the four? Was there anything to tell one? In the material sense, no. There were no tangible clues – no fingerprints, no incriminating papers or documents. There were only – the people themselves.
'And one tangible clue, the bridge scores.
'You may remember that from the beginning I showed a particular interest in those scores. They told me something about the various people who had kept them, and they did more. They gave me one valuable hint. I
