The Mystery of the Blue Train

Poirot came to them in a moment or two, full of abject apologies and clearly so crestfallen that harsh words would have been superfluous. Van Aldin received his apologies gravely, but managed to restrain himself from making acid comments.

They had dinner on the train, and afterwards, somewhat to the surprise of the other two, Poirot suggested that they should all three sit up in Van Aldin's compartment.

The millionaire looked at him curiously.

“Is there anything that you are keeping back from us. Monsieur Poirot?”

“I?” Poirot opened his eyes in innocent surprise. “But what an idea.”

Van Aldin did not answer, but he was not satisfied. The conductor was told that he need not make up the beds. Any surprise he might have felt was obliterated by the largeness of the tip which Van Aldin handed to him. The three men sat in silence. Poirot fidgeted and seemed restless. Presently he turned to the secretary.

“Major Knighton, is the door of your compartment bolted? The door into the corridor, I mean.”

“Yes; I bolted it myself just now.”

“Are you sure?” said Poirot.

“I will go and make sure, if you like,” said Knighton smiling.

“No, no, do not derange yourself. I will see for myself.”

He passed through the connecting door and returned in a second or two, nodding his head.

“Yes, yes, it is as you said. You must pardon an old man's fussy ways.”

He closed the connecting door and resumed his place in the right-hand corner.

The hours passed. The three men dozed fitfully, waking with uncomfortable starts. Probably never before had three people booked berths on the most luxurious train available, then declined to avail themselves of the accommodation they had paid for. Every now and then Poirot glanced at his watch, and then nodded his head and composed himself to slumber once more. On one occasion he rose from his seat and opened the connecting door, peered sharply into the adjoining compartment, and then returned to his seat, shaking his head.

“What is the matter?” whispered Knighton. “You are expecting something to happen, aren't you?”

“I have the nerves,” confessed Poirot. “I am like the cat upon the hot tiles. Every little noise it makes me jump.”

Knighton yawned.

“Of all the darned uncomfortable journeys,” he murmured. “I suppose you know what you are playing at, Monsieur Poirot.”

He composed himself to sleep as best he could. Both he and Van Aldin had succumbed to slumber, when Poirot, glancing for the fourteenth time at his watch, leant across and tapped the millionaire on the shoulder.

“Eh? What is it?”

“In five or ten minutes, Monsieur, we shall arrive at Lyons.”

“My God!” Van Aldin's face looked white and haggard in the dim light. “Then it must have been about this time that poor Ruth was killed.”

He sat staring straight in front of him. His lips twitched a little, his mind reverting back to the terrible tragedy that had saddened his life.

There was the usual long screaming sigh of the brake, and the train slackened speed and drew into Lyons. Van Aldin let down the window and leant out.

“If it wasn't Derek – if your new theory is correct, it is here that the man left the train?” he asked over his shoulder.

Rather to his surprise Poirot shook his head.

“No,” he said thoughtfully, “no man left the train, but I think – yes, I think, a woman may have done so.”

Knighton gave a gasp.

“A woman?” demanded Van Aldin sharply.

“Yes, a woman,” said Poirot, nodding his head. “You may not remember. Monsieur Van Aldin, but Miss Grey in her evidence mentioned that a youth in a cap and overcoat descended on to the platform ostensibly to stretch his legs. Me, I think that that youth was most probably a woman.”

“But who was she?”

Van Aldin's face expressed incredulity, but Poirot replied seriously and categorically.

“Her name – or the name under which she was known, for many years – is Kitty Kidd, but you, Monsieur Van Aldin, knew her by another name – that of Ada Mason.”

Knighton sprang to his feet.

“What?” he cried.

Poirot swung round to him.

“Ah! – before I forget it.” He whipped something from a pocket and held it out.

“Permit me to offer you a cigarette – out of your own cigarette-case. It was careless of you to drop it when you boarded the train on the ceinture at Paris.”

Knighton stood staring at him as though stupefied. Then he made a movement, but Poirot flung up his hand in a warning gesture.

“No, don't move,” he said in a silky voice; “the door into the next compartment is open, and you are being covered from there this minute. I unbolted the door into the corridor when we left Paris, and our friends the police were told to take their places there. As I expect you know, the French police want you rather urgently, Major Knighton – or shall we say – Monsieur le Marquis?”

Chapter 35. Explanations

“Explanations?”

Poirot smiled. He was sitting opposite the millionaire at a luncheon table in the latter's private suite at the Negresco. Facing him was a relieved but very puzzled man. Poirot leant back in his chair, lit one of his tiny cigarettes, and stared reflectively at the ceiling.

“Yes, I will give you explanations. It began with the one point that puzzled me. You know what that point was? The disfigured face. It is not an uncommon thing to find when investigating a crime and it rouses an immediate question, the question of identity. That naturally was the first thing that occurred to me. Was the dead woman really Mrs. Kettering? But that line led me nowhere, for Miss Grey's evidence was positive and very reliable, so I put that idea aside. The dead woman was Ruth Kettering.”

“When did you first begin to suspect the maid?”

“Not for some time, but one peculiar little point drew my attention to her. The cigarette-case found in the railway carriage and which she told us was one which Mrs. Kettering had given to her husband. Now that was, on the face of it, most improbable, seeing the terms that they were on. It awakened a doubt in my mind as to the general veracity of Ada Mason's statements. There was the rather suspicious fact to be taken into consideration, that she had only been with her mistress for two months. Certainly it did not seem as if she could have had anything to do with the crime since she had been left behind in Paris and Mrs. Kettering had been seen alive by several people afterwards, but-”

Poirot leant forward. He raised an emphatic forefinger and wagged it with intense emphasis at Van Aldin.

“But I am a good detective. I suspect. There is nobody and nothing that I do not suspect. I believe nothing that I am told. I say to myself: how do we know that Ada Mason was left behind in Paris? And at first the answer to that question seemed completely satisfactory. There was the evidence of your secretary, Major Knighton, a complete outsider whose testimony might be supposed to be entirely impartial, and there was the dead woman's own words to the conductor on the train. But I put the latter point aside for the moment, because a very curious idea – an idea perhaps fantastic and impossible – was growing up in my mind. If by any outside chance it happened to be true, that particular piece of testimony was worthless.

“I concentrated on the chief stumblingblock to my theory. Major Knighton's statement that he saw Ada Mason at the Ritz after the Blue Train had left Paris. That seemed conclusive enough, but yet, on examining the