He had eaten rabbit stew and spinach and hard potatoes and a rather peculiar pudding, not scorched this time. Instead, 'The water got in,' Maureen had explained. He had drunk half a cup of muddy coffee. He did not feel well.
The door was opened by the elderly housekeeper Mrs Scott, and he asked for Mrs Rendell.
She was in the drawing-room with the radio on and started up when he was announced.
He had the same impression of her that he had had the first time he saw her. Wary, on her guard, frightened of him, or frightened of what he represented.
She seemed paler and more shadowy than she had done. He was almost certain that she was thinner.
'I want to ask you a question, madame.'
'A question? Oh? Oh yes?'
'Did Mrs Upward telephone to you on the day of her death?'
She stared at him. She nodded.
'At what time?'
'Mrs Scott took the message. It was about six o'clock, I think.'
'What was the message? To ask you to go there that evening?'
'Yes. She said that Mrs Oliver and Robin were going into Kilchester and she would be all alone as it was Janet's night out. Could I come down and keep her company.'
'Was any time suggested?'
'Nine o'clock or after.'
'And you went?'
'I meant to. I really meant to. But I don't know how it was, I fell fast asleep after dinner that night. It was after ten when I woke up. I thought it was too late.'
'You did not tell the police about Mrs Upward's call?'
Her eyes widened. They had a rather innocent childlike stare.
'Ought I to have done? Since I didn't go, I thought it didn't matter. Perhaps, even, I felt rather guilty. If I'd gone, she might have been alive now.' She caught her breath suddenly. 'Oh, I hope it wasn't like that.'
'Not quite like that,' said Poirot.
He paused and then said:
'What are you afraid of, Madame?'
She caught her breath sharply.
'Afraid? I'm not afraid.'
'But you are.'
'What nonsense. What – what should I be afraid of?'
Poirot paused for a moment before speaking.
'I thought perhaps you might be afraid of me…'
She didn't answer. But her eyes widened. Slowly, defiantly, she shook her head.
Chapter 24
I
'This way to Bedlam,' said Spence.
'It is not as bad as that,' said Poirot soothingly.
'That's what you say. Every single bit of information that comes in makes things more difficult. Now you tell me that Mrs Upward rang up three women. Asked them to come that evening. Why three? Didn't she know herself which of them was Lily Gamboll? Or isn't it a case of Lily Gamboll at all? Take that book with the name of Evelyn Hope in it. It suggests, doesn't it, that Mrs Upward and Eva Kane are one and the same.'
'Which agrees exactly with James Bentley's impression of what Mrs McGinty said to him.'
'I thought he wasn't sure.'
'He was not sure. It would be impossible for James Bentley to be sure of anything. He did not listen properly to what Mrs McGinty was saying. Nevertheless, if James Bentley had an impression that Mrs McGinty was talking about Mrs Upward, it may very well be true. Impressions often are.'
'Our latest information from Australia (it was Australia she went to, by the way, not America) seems to be to the effect that the 'Mrs Hope' in question died out there twenty years ago.'
'I have already been told that,' said Poirot.
'You always know everything, don't you, Poirot?'
Poirot took no notice of this gibe. He said:
'At the one end we have Mrs Hope deceased in Australia – and at the other?
'At the other end we have Mrs Upward, the widow of a rich North Country manufacturer. She lived with him near Leeds, and had a son. Soon after the son's birth, her husband died. The boy was inclined to be tubercular and since her husband's death she lived mostly abroad.'
'And when does this saga begin?'
'The saga begins four years after Eve Kane left England. Upward met his wife somewhere abroad and brought her home after the marriage.'
'So actually Mrs Upward could be Eva Kane. What was her maiden name?'
'Hargraves, I understand. But what's in a name?'
'What indeed. Eva Kane, or Evelyn Hope, may have died in Australia – but she may have arranged a convenient decease and resuscitated herself as Hargraves and made a wealthy match.'
'It's all a long time ago,' said Spence. 'But supposing that it's true. Supposing she kept a picture of herself and supposing that Mrs McGinty saw it – then one can only assume that she killed Mrs McGinty.'
'That could be, could it not? Robin Upward was broadcasting that night. Mrs Rendell mentions going to the cottage that evening, remember, and not being able to make herself heard. According to Mrs Sweetiman, Janet Groom told her that Mrs Upward was not really as crippled as she made out.'
'That's all very well, Poirot, but the fact remains that she herself was killed – after recognising a photograph. Now you want to make out that the two deaths are not connected.'
'No, no. I do not say that. They are connected all right.'
'I give it up.'
'Evelyn Hope. There is the key to the problem.'
'Evelyn Carpenter? Is that your idea? Not Lily Gamboll – but Eva Kane's daughter! But surely she wouldn't kill her own mother.'
'No, no. This is not matricide.'
'What an irritating devil you are, Poirot. You'll be saying next that Eva Kane and Lily Gamboll, and Janice Courtland and Vera Blake are all living in Broadhinny. All four suspects.'
'We have more than four. Eva Kane was the Craigs' nursery governess, remember.'
'What's that got to do with it?'
'Where there is a nursery governess, there must be children – or at least a child. What happened to the Craig children?'
'There was a girl and a boy, I believe. Some relative took them.'
'So there are two more people to take into account. Two people who might have kept a photograph for the third reason I mentioned – revenge.'
'I don't believe it,' said Spence.
Poirot sighed.
'It has to be considered, all the same. I think I know the truth – though there is one fact that baffles me utterly.'
