'And the whole thing has really been so extraordinary-'
She broke off.
'Most people really wouldn't believe it.
But you would, I think, because you know something about human nature.'
'I know a little about human nature,' admitted Poirot.
'Inspector Grange came to see me. He'd got it into his head that I'd quarrelled with John-which is true in a way, though not in the way he meant- I told him that I hadn't seen John for fifteen years-and he simply didn't believe me. But it's true, M. Poirot.'
Poirot said, 'Since it is true, it can easily be proved, so why worry?'
She returned his smile in the friendliest fashion.
'The real truth is that I simply haven't dared to tell the Inspector what actually happened on Saturday evening. It's so absolutely fantastic that he certainly wouldn't believe it. But I felt I must tell someone. That's why I have come to you.'
Poirot said quietly, 'I am flattered.'
That fact, he noted, she took for granted.
She was a woman, he thought, who was very sure of the effect she was producing. So sure that she might, occasionally, make a mistake.
'John and I were engaged to be married fifteen years ago. He was very much in love with me-so much so that it rather-alarmed me sometimes. He wanted me to give up acting-to give up having any mind or life of my own. He was so possessive and masterful that I felt I couldn't go through with it, and I broke off the engagement. I'm afraid he took that very hard.'
Poirot clicked a discreet and sympathetic tongue.
'I didn't see him again until last Saturday night. He walked home with me. I told the Inspector that we talked about old times-that's true in a way. But there was far more than that.'
'Yes?'
'John went mad-quite mad. He wanted to leave his wife and children, he wanted me to get a divorce from my husband and marry him. He said he'd never forgotten me-that the moment he saw me time stood still…'
She closed her eyes, she swallowed. Under her make-up her face was very pale.
She opened her eyes again and smiled almost timidly at Poirot.
'Can you believe that a-a feeling like that is possible?' she asked.
'I think it is possible, yes,' said Poirot.
'Never to forget-to go on waiting-planning-hoping-to determine with all one's heart and mind to get what one wants in the end… There are men like that, M. Poirot.'
'Yes-and women.'
She gave him a hard stare.
'I'm talking about men-about John Christow. Well, that's how it was. I protested at first, laughed, refused to take him seriously. Then I told him he was mad…
It was quite late when he went back to the house. We'd argued and argued…He was still-just as determined.'
She swallowed again.
'That's why I sent him a note the next morning. I couldn't leave things like that. I had to make him realize that what he wanted was-impossible.'
'It was impossible?'
'Of course it was impossible! He came over. He wouldn't listen to what I had to say. He was just as insistent. I told him that it was no good, that I didn't love him, that I hated him…' She paused, breathing hard. 'I had to be brutal about it. So we parted in anger…And now-he's dead.'
He saw her hands creep together, saw the twisted fingers and the knuckles stand out.
They were large, rather cruel hands.
The strong emotion that she was feeling communicated itself to him. It was not sorrow, not grief-no, it was anger. The anger, he thought, of a baffled egoist.
'Well, M. Poirot?' Her voice was controlled and smooth again. 'What am I to do? Tell the story, or keep it to myself. It's what happened-but it takes a bit of believing.'
Poirot looked at her, a long considering gaze.
He did not think that Veronica Cray was telling the truth, and yet there was an undeniable undercurrent of sincerity. It happened, he thought, but it did not happen like that…
And suddenly he got it. It was a true story, inverted. It was she who had been unable to forget John Christow. It was she who had I been baffled and repulsed. And now, unable to bear in silence the furious anger of a tigress deprived of what she considered her legitimate prey, she had invented a version of the truth that should satisfy her wounded pride and feed a little the aching hunger for a man who had gone beyond the reach of her clutching hands. Impossible to admit that she, Veronica Cray, could not have what she wanted! So she had changed it all round.
Poirot drew a deep breath and spoke:
'If all this had any bearing on John Christow's death, you would have to speak out, but if it has not-and I cannot see why it should have-then I think you are quite justified in keeping it to yourself.'
He wondered if she was disappointed. He had a fancy that in her present mood, she would like to hurl her story into the printed page of a newspaper. She had come to him -why? To try out her story? To test his reaction? Or to use him-to induce him to pass the story on.
If his mild response disappointed her, she did not show it. She got up and gave him one of those long, well- manicured hands.
'Thank you, M. Poirot. What you say seems eminently sensible. I'm so glad I came to you. I-I felt I wanted somebody to know.'
'I shall respect your confidence, Madame.'
When she had gone, he opened the windows a little. Scents affected him. He did not like Veronica's scent. It was expensive but cloying, overpowering like her personality.
He wondered, as he flapped the curtains, whether Veronica Cray had killed John Christow.
She would have been willing to kill him -he believed that. She would have enjoyed pressing the trigger-would have enjoyed seeing him stagger and fall.
But behind that vindictive anger was something cold and shrewd, something that appraised chances, a cool, calculating intelligence.
However much Veronica Cray wished to kill John Christow, he doubted whether she would have taken the risk.
Chapter XXIII
The inquest was over. It had been the merest formality of an affair, and though warned of this beforehand, yet nearly everyone had a resentful sense of anticlimax.
Adjourned for a fortnight at the request of the police.
Gerda had driven down with Mrs. Patterson from London in a hired Daimler. She had on a black dress and an unbecoming hat and looked nervous and bewildered.
Preparatory to stepping back into the Daimler, she paused as Lady Angkatell came up to her.
'How are you, Gerda dear? Not sleeping too badly, I hope. I think it went off as well as we could hope for, don't you? So sorry we haven't got you with us at The Hollow, but I quite understand how distressing that would be.'
Mrs. Patterson said in her bright voice, glancing reproachfully at her sister for not introducing her properly:
'This was Miss Collier's idea-to drive straight down and back. Expensive, of course, but we thought it was worth it.'
