The A.B.C. Murders (Hercule Poirot 13)

“One of these fresh-air, early-morning colonels. Colonel Jerome. He was out with his dog about 6 am. Went along the front in the direction of Cooden, and down on to the beach. Dog went off and sniffed at something. Colonel called it. Dog didn’t come. Colonel had a look and thought something queer was up. Went over and looked. Behaved very properly. Didn’t touch her at all and rang us up immediately.”

“And the time of death was round about midnight last night?”

“Between midnight and 1 am—that’s pretty certain. Our homicidal joker is a man of his word. If he says the 25th, it is the 25th—though it may have been only by a few minutes.”

Crome nodded.

“Yes, that’s his mentality all right. There’s nothing else? Nobody saw anything helpful?”

“Not as far as we know. But it’s early yet. Everyone who saw a girl in white walking with a man last night will be along to tell us about it soon, and as I imagine there were about four or five hundred girls in white walking with young men last night, it ought to be a nice business.”

“Well, sir, I’d better get down to it,” said Crome. “There’s the café and there’s the girl’s home. I’d better go to both of them. Kelsey can come with me.”

“And Mr. Poirot?” asked the superintendent.

“I will accompany you,” said Poirot to Crome with a little bow.

Crome, I thought, looked slightly annoyed. Kelsey, who had not seen Poirot before, grinned broadly.

It was an unfortunate circumstance that the first time people saw my friend they were always disposed to consider him as a joke of the first water.

“What about this belt she was strangled with?” asked Crome. “Mr. Poirot is inclined to think it’s a valuable clue. I expect he’d like to see it.”

“Du tout,” said Poirot quickly. “You misunderstood me.”

“You’ll get nothing from that,” said Carter. “It wasn’t a leather belt—might have got fingerprints if it had been. Just a thick sort of knitted silk—ideal for the purpose.”

I gave a shiver.

“Well,” said Crome, “we’d better be getting along.”

We set out forthwith.

Our first visit was to the Ginger Cat. Situated on the sea front, this was the usual type of small tearoom. It had little tables covered with orange-checked cloths and basket-work chairs of exceeding discomfort with orange cushions on them. It was the kind of place that specialized in morning coffee, five different kinds of teas (Devonshire, Farmhouse, Fruit, Carlton and Plain), and a few sparing lunch dishes for females such as scrambled eggs and shrimps and macaroni au gratin.

The morning coffees were just getting under way. The manageress ushered us hastily into a very untidy back sanctum.

“Miss—eh—Merrion?” inquired Crome.

Miss Merrion bleated out in a high, distressed-gentlewoman voice:

“That is my name. This is a most distressing business. Most distressing. How it will affect our business I really cannot think!”

Miss Merrion was a very thin woman of forty with wispy orange hair (indeed she was astonishingly like a ginger cat herself). She played nervously with various fichus and frills that were part of her official costume.

“You’ll have a boom,” said Inspector Kelsey encouragingly. “You’ll see! You won’t be able to serve teas fast enough!”

“Disgusting,” said Miss Merrion. “Truly disgusting. It makes one despair of human nature.”

But her eyes brightened nevertheless.

“What can you tell me about the dead girl, Miss Merrion?”

“Nothing,” said Miss Merrion positively. “Absolutely nothing!”

“How long had she been working here?”

“This was the second summer.”