“The master, sir? Oh, I don’t think it could have been.”
“But you are not sure,” Poirot persisted.
“Well—I never thought of it, sir.”
Mason was clearly upset at the idea.
“You have heard that your master was also on the train. What more natural than that it should be he who came along the corridor?”
“But the gentleman who was talking to the mistress must have come from outside, sir. He was dressed for the street. In an overcoat and soft hat.”
“Just so, Mademoiselle, but reflect a minute. The train has just arrived at the Gare de Lyon. Many of the passengers promenade themselves upon the quay. Your mistress was about to do so, and for that purpose had doubtless put on her fur coat, eh?”
“Yes, sir,” agreed Mason.
“Your master, then, does the same. The train is heated, but outside in the station it is cold. He puts on his overcoat and his hat and he walks along beside the train, and looking up at the lighted windows he suddenly sees Madame Kettering. Until then he has had no idea that she was on the train. Naturally, he mounts the carriage and goes to her compartment. She gives an exclamation of surprise at seeing him and quickly shuts the door between the two compartments since it is possible that their conversation may be of a private nature.”
He leaned back in his chair and watched the suggestion slowly take effect. No one knew better than Hercule Poirot that the class to which Mason belongs cannot be hurried. He must give her time to get rid of her own preconceived ideas. At the end of three minutes she spoke:
“Well, of course, sir, it might be so. I never thought of it that way. The master is tall and dark, and just about that build. It was seeing the hat and coat that made me say it was a gentleman from outside. Yes, it might have been the master. I would not like to say either way I’m sure.”
“Thank you very much, Mademoiselle. I shall not require you any further. Ah, just one thing more.” He took from his pocket the cigarette case he had already shown to Katherine. “Is that your mistress’s case?” he said to Mason.
“No, sir, it is not the mistress’s—at least—”
She looked suddenly startled. An idea was clearly working its way to the forefront of her mind.
“Yes?” said Poirot encouragingly.
“I think, sir—I can’t be sure, but I think—it is a case that the mistress bought to give to the master.”
“Ah,” said Poirot in a noncommittal manner.
“But whether she ever did give it to him or not, I can’t say, of course.”
“Precisely,” said Poirot, “precisely. That is all, I think, Mademoiselle. I wish you good afternoon.”
Ada Mason retired discreetly, closing the door noiselessly behind her.
Poirot looked across at Van Aldin, a faint smile upon his face. The millionaire looked thunderstruck.
“You think—you think it was Derek?” he queried, “but—everything points the other way. Why, the Count has actually been caught red-handed with the jewels on him.”
“No.”
“But you told me—”
“What did I tell you?”
“That story about the jewels. You showed them to me.”
“No.”
Van Aldin stared at him.
“You mean to say you didn’t show them to me?”
“No.”
“Yesterday—at the tennis?”
“No.”
“Are you crazy, M. Poirot, or am I?”
“Neither of us is crazy,” said the detective. “You ask me a question; I answer it. You say have I not shown you the jewels yesterday? I reply—no. What I showed you, M. Van Aldin, was a first-class imitation, hardly to be distinguished except by an expert from the real ones.”
XXIV
Poirot Gives Advice
It took the millionaire some few minutes to take the thing in. He stared at Poirot as though dumbfounded. The little Belgian nodded at him gently.
“Yes,” he said, “it alters the position, does it not?”
“Imitation!”
He leaned forward.
“All along, M. Poirot, you have had this idea? All along this is what you have been driving at? You never believed that the Comte de la Roche was the murderer?”
“I have had doubts,” said Poirot quietly. “I said as much to you. Robbery with violence and murder”—he shook his head energetically—“no, it is difficult to picture. It does not harmonise with the personality of the Comte de la Roche.”
“But you believe that he meant to steal the rubies?”
“Certainly. There is no doubt as to that. See, I will recount to you the affair as I see it. The Comte knew of the rubies and he laid his plans accordingly. He made up a romantic story of a book he was writing, so as to induce your daughter to bring them with her. He provided himself with an exact duplicate. It is clear, is it not, that substitution is what he was after. Madame, your daughter, was not an expert on jewels. It would probably be a long time before she discovered what had occurred. When she did so—well—I do not think she would prosecute the Comte. Too much would come out. He would have in his possession various letters of hers. Oh yes, a very safe scheme from the Comte’s point of view—one that he has probably carried out before.”
“It seems clear enough, yes,” said Van Aldin musingly.
“It accords with the personality of the Comte de la Roche,” said Poirot.
“Yes, but now—” Van Aldin looked searchingly at the other. “What actually happened? Tell me that, M. Poirot.”
Poirot shrugged his shoulders.
“It is quite simple,” he said; “someone stepped in ahead of the Comte.”
There was a long pause.
Van Aldin seemed to be turning things over in his mind. When he spoke it was without beating about the bush.
“How long have you suspected my son-in-law, M. Poirot?”
“From the very first. He had the motive and the opportunity. Everyone took for granted that the man in Madame’s compartment in Paris was the Comte de la Roche. I thought so, too. Then you happened to mention that you had once mistaken the Comte for your son-in-law. That told me that they were of the same height
