'He might tell me – yes.'
Japp looked at him curiously. He said:
'You know, I've known you a long time – twenty years? Something like that. But I still don't always catch on to what you're driving at. I know you've got a bee in your bonnet about young Frank Carter. For some reason or other, you don't want him to be guilty -'
Hercule Poirot shook his head energetically.
'No, no, there you are wrong. It is the other way about -'
'I thought perhaps it was on account of that girl of his – the blond piece. You're a sentimental old buzzard in some ways -'
Poirot was immediately indignant.
'It is not I who am sentimental! That is an English failing! It is in England that they weep over young sweethearts and dying mothers and devoted children. Me, I am logical. If Frank Carter is a killer, then I am certainly not sentimental enough to wish to unite him in marriage to a nice but commonplace girl who, if he is hanged, will forget him in a year or two and find someone else.'
'Then why don't you want to believe he is guilty?'
'I do want to believe he is guilty.'
'I suppose you mean that you've got hold of something which more or less conclusively proves him to be innocent? Why hold it up, then? You ought to play fair with us, Poirot.'
'I am playing fair with you. Presently, very shortly, I will give you the name and address of a witness who will be invaluable to you for the prosecution. Her evidence ought to clinch the case against him.'
'But then – Oh! You've got me all tangled up. Why are you so anxious to see him?'
'To satisfy myself,' said Hercule Poirot.
And he would say no more.
III
Frank Carter, haggard, white-faced, still feebly inclined to bluster, looked on his unexpected visitor with unconcealed disfavor. He said rudely:
'So it's you, you ruddy little foreigner? What do you want?'
'I want to see you and talk to you.'
'Well, you see me all right. But I won't talk. Not without my lawyer. That's right, isn't it? You can't go against that. I've got the right to have my solicitor present before I say a word.'
'Certainly you have. You can send for him if you like – but I should prefer that you did not.'
'I daresay. Think you're going to trap me into making some damaging admissions, eh?'
'We are quite alone, remember.'
'That's a bit unusual, isn't it? Got your Police pals listening in, I've no doubt.'
'You are wrong. This is a private interview between you and me.'
Frank Carter laughed. He looked cunning and unpleasant. He said:
'Come off it! You don't take me in with that old gag.'
'Do you remember a girl called Agnes Fletcher?'
'Never heard of her.'
'I think you will remember her, though you may never have taken much notice of her. She was houseparlormaid at 58 Queen Charlotte Street.'
'Well, what of it?'
Hercule Poirot said slowly:
'On the morning of the day that Mr. Morley was shot, this girl Agnes happened to look over the banisters from the top floor. She saw you on the stairs – waiting and listening. Presently she saw you go along to Mr. Morley's room. The time was then twenty-six minutes or thereabouts past twelve.'
Frank Carter trembled violently. Sweat came out on his brow. His eyes, more furtive than ever, went wildly from side to side. He shouted angrily:
'It's a lie! It's a damned lie! You've paid her – the police have paid her – to say she saw me.'
'At that time,' said Hercule Poirot, 'by your own account, you had left the house and were walking in the Marylebone Road.'
'So I was. That girl's lying. She couldn't have seen me. It's a dirty plot. If it's true, why didn't she say so before?'
Hercule Poirot said quietly:
'She did mention it at the time to her friend and colleague the cook. They were worried and puzzled and didn't know what to do. When a verdict of suicide was brought in they were much relieved and decided that it wasn't necessary for them to say anything.'
'I don't believe a word of it! They're in it together, that's all. A couple of dirty, lying little…'
He tailed off into furious profanity.
Hercule Poirot waited.
When Carter's voice at last ceased, Poirot spoke again, still in the same calm, measured voice.
'Anger and foolish abuse will not help you. These girls are going to tell their story and it is going to be believed. Because, you see, they are telling the truth. The girl, Agnes Fletcher, did see you. You were there on the stairs at that time. You had not left the house. And you did go into Mr. Morley's room.'
He paused and then asked quietly: 'What happened then?.'
'It's a lie, I tell you!'
Hercule Poirot felt very tired – very old. He did not like Frank Carter. He disliked him very much. In his opinion Frank Carter was a bully, a liar, a swindler – altogether the type of young man the world could well do without. He, Hercule Poirot, had only to stand back and let this young man persist in his lies and the world would be rid of one of its more unpleasant inhabitants…
Hercule Poirot said:
'I suggest that you tell me the truth…'
He realized the issue very clearly. Frank Carter was stupid – but he wasn't so stupid as not to see that to persist in his denial was his best and safest course.
Let him once admit that he had gone into that room at twenty-six minutes past twelve and he was taking a step into grave danger. For after that, any story he told would have a good chance of being considered a lie.
Let him persist in his denial, then. If so, Hercule Poirot's duty would be over. Frank Carter would in all probability be hanged for the murder of Henry Morley – and it might be, justly hanged.
Hercule Poirot had only to get up and go. Frank Carter said again:
'It's a lie!'
There was a pause. Hercule Poirot did not get up and go. He would have liked to do so – very much.
Nevertheless, he remained.
He leaned forward. He said – and his voice held all the compelling force of his powerful personality -
'I am not lying to you. I ask you to believe me. If you did not kill Morley your only hope is to tell me the exact truth of what happened that morning.'
The mean, treacherous face looking at him, wavered, became uncertain. Frank Carter pulled at his lip. His eyes went from side to side, terrified frankly animal eyes.
It was touch and go now…
Then suddenly, overborne by the strength of the personality confronting him, Frank Carter surrendered.
He said hoarsely:
'All right, then – I'll tell you. God curse you if you let me down now! I did go in… I went up the stairs and waited till I could be sure of getting him alone. Waited there, up above Morley's landing. Then a gent came out and went down – fat gent. I was just making up my mind to go – when another gent came out of Morley's room and went down too. I knew I'd got to be quick. I went along and nipped into his room without knocking. I was all set to have it out with him. Mucking about, putting my girl against me – damn him -'
