Michael Stoddart nodded. He looked very young and embarrassed.
'Ran across her in Mertonshire. At the Hunt Ball. Her father's a retired General – blood and thunder, shoot 'em down – pukka Sahib – all that sort of thing. There are four daughters and they are all a bit wild – driven to it with a father like that, I should say. And it's a bad part of the county where they live – armaments works nearby and a lot of money – none of the old-fashioned country feeling – a rich crowd and most of them pretty vicious. The girls have got in with a bad set.'
Hercule Poirot looked at him thoughtfully for some minutes. Then he said: 'I perceive now why you desired my presence. You want me to take the affair in hand?'
'Would you? I feel I ought to do something about it – but I confess I'd like to keep Sheila Grant out of the limelight if I could.'
'That can be managed I fancy. I should like to see the young lady.'
'Come along.'
He led the way out of the room. A voice called fretfully from the door opposite.
'Doctor – for God's sake, doctor, I'm going crazy.'
Stoddart went into the room. Poirot followed. It was a bedroom in a complete state of chaos – powder spilled on the floor – pots and jars everywhere, clothes flung about. On the bed was a woman with unnaturally blonde hair and a vacant, vicious face. She called out: 'I've got insects crawling all over me… I have. I swear I have. I'm going mad… For God's sake, give me a shot of something.'
Dr Stoddart stood by the bed, his tone was soothing – professional.
Hercule Poirot went quietly out of the room. There was another door opposite him. He opened that.
It was a tiny room – a mere slip of a room – plainly furnished. On the bed a slim, girlish figure lay motionless.
Hercule Poirot tip-toed to the side of the bed and looked down upon the girl.
Dark hair, a long, pale face – and – yes, young – very young…
A gleam of white showed between the girl's lids. Her eyes opened, startled, frightened eyes. She stared, sat up, tossing her head in an effort to throw back the thick mane of blue-black hair. She looked like a frightened filly – she shrank away a little – as a wild animal shrinks when it is suspicious of a stranger who offers it food.
She said – and her voice was young and thin and abrupt: 'Who the hell are you?'
'Do not be afraid. Mademoiselle.'
'Where's Dr Stoddart?'
That young man came into the room at that minute.
The girl said with a note of relief in her voice: 'Oh! there you are! Who's this?'
'This is a friend of mine, Sheila. How are you feeling now?'
The girl said: 'Awful. Lousy… Why did I take that foul stuff?'
Stoddart said dryly: 'I shouldn't do it again, if I were you.'
'I – I shan't.'
Hercule Poirot said: 'Who gave it to you?'
Her eyes widened, her upper lip twitched a little.
She said: 'It was here – at the party. We all tried it. It – it was wonderful at first.'
Hercule Poirot said gently: 'But who brought it here?'
She shook her head.
'I don't know… It might have been Tony – Tony Hawker. But I don't really know anything about it.'
Poirot said gently: 'Is it the first time you have taken cocaine, Mademoiselle?'
She nodded.
'You'd better make it the last,' said Stoddart brusquely.
'Yes – I suppose so – but it was rather marvellous.'
'Now look here, Sheila Grant,' said Stoddart. 'I'm a doctor and I know what I'm talking about. Once start this drug-taking racket and you'll land yourself in unbelievable misery. I've seen some and I know. Drugs ruin people, body and soul. Drink's a gentle little picnic compared to drugs. Cut it right out from this minute. Believe me, it isn't funny! What do you think your father would say to tonight's business?'
'Father?' Sheila Grant's voice rose. 'Father?' She began to laugh. 'I can just see Father's face! He mustn't know about it. He'd have seven fits!'
'And quite right too,' said Stoddart.
'Doctor – doctor -' the long wail of Mrs Grace's voice came from the other room.
Stoddart muttered something uncomplimentary under his breath and went out of the room.
Sheila Grant stared at Poirot again. She was puzzled.
She said: 'Who are you really? You weren't at the party.'
'No, I was not at the party. I am a friend of Dr Stoddart's.'
'You're a doctor, too? You don't look like a doctor.'
'My name,' said Poirot, contriving as usual to make the simple statement sound like the curtain of the first act of a play, 'my name is Hercule Poirot.'
The statement did not fail of its effect. Occasionally Poirot was distressed to find that a callous younger generation had never heard of him.
But it was evident that Sheila Grant had heard of him. She was flabbergasted – dumbfounded. She stared and stared.
III
It has been said, with or without justification for the statement, that everyone has an aunt in Torquay.
It has also been said that everyone has at least a second cousin in Mertonshire. Mertonshire is a reasonable distance from London, it has hunting, shooting and fishing, it has several very picturesque but slightly self-conscious villages, it has a good system of railways and a new arterial road facilitates motoring to and from the metropolis. Servants object to it less than they do to other, more rural, portions of the British Isles. As a result, it is practically impossible to live in Mertonshire unless you have an income that runs into four figures, and what with income-tax and one thing and another, five figures is better.
Hercule Poirot being a foreigner, had no second cousins in the county, but he had acquired by now a large circle of friends and he had no difficulty in getting himself invited for a visit in that part of the world. He had, moreover, selected as hostess a dear lady whose chief delight was exercising her tongue on the subject of her neighbours – the only drawback being that Poirot had to submit to hearing a great deal about people in whom he had no interest whatever, before coming to the subject of the people he was interested in.
'The Grants? Oh yes, there are four of them. Four girls. I don't wonder the poor General can't control them. What can a man do with four girls?' Lady Carmichael's hands flew up eloquently.
Poirot said: 'What indeed?' and the lady continued: 'Used to be a great disciplinarian in his regiment, so he told me. But those girls defeat him. Not like when I was young. Old Colonel Sandys was such a martinet, I remember, that his poor daughters -'
(Long excursion into the trials of the Sandys girls and other friends of Lady Carmichael's youth.)
'Mind you,' said Lady Carmichael, reverting to her first theme. 'I don't say there's anything really wrong about those girls. Just high spirits – and getting in with an undesirable set. It's not what it used to be down here. The oddest people come here. There's not what you might call 'county' left. It's all money, money, money nowadays. And you do hear the oddest stories! Who did you say? Anthony Hawker? Oh yes, I know him. What I call a very unpleasant young man. But apparently rolling in money. He comes down here to hunt – and he gives parties – very lavish parties – and rather peculiar parties, too, if one is to believe all one is told – not that I ever do, because I do think people are so ill-natured. They always believe the worst. You know, it's become quite a fashion to say a person drinks or takes drugs. Somebody said to me the other day that young girls were natural inebriates, and I really don't think that was a nice thing to say at all. And if anyone's at all peculiar or vague in their manner, everyone says 'drugs' and that's unfair, too. They say it about Mrs Larkin and though I don't care for the woman, I do really think it's nothing more than absent-mindedness. She's a great friend of your Anthony Hawker, and that's
