o’clock.’
‘How long has the butler been there?’
‘Six months. Handsome chap, by the way.’
‘Yes, indeed.Eh bien, my friend, if he has only been there six months he cannot have recognized Lady Edgware since he had not seen her before.’
‘Well, he knew her from her pictures in the papers. And anyway the secretary knew her. She’s been with Lord Edgware five or six years, and she’s the only one who’s absolutely positive.’
‘Ah!’ said Poirot. ‘I should like to see the secretary.’
‘Well, why not come along with me now?’
‘Thank you, mon ami, I should be delighted to do so. You include Hastings in your invitation, I hope?’
Japp grinned.
‘What do you think? Where the master goes, there the dog follows,’ he added in what I could not think was the best of taste.
‘Reminds me of the Elizabeth Canning Case,’ said Japp. ‘You remember? How at least a score of witnesses on either side swore they had seen the gipsy, Mary Squires, in two different parts of England. Good reputable witnesses, too. And she with such a hideous face there couldn’t be two like it. That mystery was never cleared up. It’s very much the same here. Here’s a separate lot of people prepared to swear a woman was in two different places at the same time. Which of ’em is speaking the truth?’
‘That ought not to be difficult to find out.’
‘So you say-but this woman-Miss Carroll, really knew Lady Edgware. I mean she’d lived in the house with her day after day. She wouldn’t be likely to make a mistake.’
‘We shall soon see.’
‘Who comes into the title?’ I asked.
‘A nephew, Captain Ronald Marsh. Bit of a waster, I understand.’
‘What does the doctor say as to the time of death?’ asked Poirot.
‘We’ll have to wait for the autopsy to be exact, you know. See where the dinner had got to.’ Japp’s way of putting things was, I am sorry to say, far from refined. ‘But ten o’clock fits in well enough. He was last seen alive at a few minutes past nine when he left the dinner table and the butler took whisky and soda into the library. At eleven o’clock when the butler went up to bed the light was out-so he must have been dead then. He wouldn’t have been sitting in the dark.’
Poirot nodded thoughtfully. A moment or two later we drew up at the house, the blinds of which were now down.
The door was opened to us by the handsome butler.
Japp took the lead and went in first. Poirot and I followed. The door opened to the left, so that the butler stood against the wall on that side. Poirot was on my right and, being smaller than I was, it was only just as we stepped into the hall that the butler saw him. Being close to him, I heard the sudden intake of his breath and looked sharply at the man to find him staring at Poirot with a kind of startled fear visible on his face. I put the fact away in my mind for what it might be worth.
Japp marched into the dining-room, which lay on our right, and called the butler in after him.
‘Now then, Alton, I want to go into this again very carefully. It was ten o’clock when this lady came?’
‘Her ladyship? Yes, sir.’
‘How did you recognize her?’ asked Poirot.
‘She told me her name, sir, and besides I’ve seen her portrait in the papers. I’ve seen her act, too.’
Poirot nodded.
‘How was she dressed?’
‘In black, sir. Black walking dress, and a small black hat. A string of pearls and grey gloves.’
Poirot looked a question at Japp.
‘White taffeta evening dress and ermine wrap,’ said the latter succinctly.
The butler proceeded. His tale tallied exactly with that which Japp had already passed on to us.
‘Did anybody else come and see your master that evening?’ asked Poirot.
‘No, sir.’
‘How was the front door fastened?’
‘It has a Yale lock, sir. I usually draw the bolts when I go to bed, sir. At eleven, that is. But last night Miss Geraldine was at the opera so it was left unbolted.’
‘How was it fastened this morning?’
‘It was bolted, sir. Miss Geraldine had bolted it when she came in.’
‘When did she come in? Do you know?’
‘I think it was about a quarter to twelve, sir.’
‘Then during the evening until a quarter to twelve, the door could not be opened from outside without a key? From the inside it could be opened by simply drawing back the handle.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘How many latchkeys were there?’
‘His lordship had his, sir, and there was another key in the hall drawer which Miss Geraldine took last night. I don’t know if there were any others.’
‘Does nobody else in the house have a key?’
‘No, sir. Miss Carroll always rings.’
Poirot intimated that that was all he wished to ask and we went in search of the secretary.
We found her busily writing at a large desk.
Miss Carroll was a pleasant efficient-looking woman of about forty-five. Her fair hair was turning grey and she wore pince-nez through which a pair of shrewd blue eyes gleamed out on us. When she spoke I recognized the clear businesslike voice that had spoken to me through the telephone.
‘Ah! M. Poirot,’ she said as she acknowledged Japp’s introduction. ‘Yes. It was with you I made that appointment for yesterday morning.’
‘Precisely, Mademoiselle.’
I thought that Poirot was favourably impressed by her. Certainly she was neatness and precision personified.
‘Well, Inspector Japp?’ said Miss Carroll. ‘What more can I do for you?’
‘Just this. Are you absolutely certain that it was Lady Edgware who came here last night?’
‘That’s the third time you’ve asked me. Of course I’m sure. I saw her.’
‘Where did you see her, Mademoiselle?’
‘In the hall. She spoke to the butler for a minute then she went along the hall and in at the library door.’
‘And where were you?’
‘On the first floor-looking down.’
‘And you were positive you were not mistaken?’
‘Absolutely. I saw her face distinctly.’
‘You could not have been misled by a resemblance?’
‘Certainly not. Jane Wilkinson’s features are quite unique. It was her.’
Japp threw a glance at Poirot as much as to say: ‘You see.’
‘Had Lord Edgware any enemies?’ asked Poirot suddenly.
‘Nonsense,’ said Miss Carroll.
‘How do you mean-nonsense, Mademoiselle?’
‘Enemies! People in these days don’t have enemies. Not English people!’
‘Yet Lord Edgware was murdered.’
‘That was his wife,’ said Miss Carroll.
‘A wife is not an enemy-no?’
‘I’m sure it was a most extraordinary thing to happen. I’ve never heard of such a thing happening-I mean to anyone in our class of life.’
It was clearly Miss Carroll’s idea that murders were only committed by drunken members of the lower
