Murder in Mesopotamia: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot 14)

He broke off rather lamely. Poirot did not insist.

He tapped thoughtfully on the table with the end of his pencil and carefully straightened an inkpot that stood in front of him.

“It seems then,” he said, “that that is as near as we can get for the moment. If any one of you thinks of something that has for the time being slipped his or her memory, do not hesitate to come to me with it. It will be well now, I think, for me to have a few words alone with Dr. Leidner and Dr. Reilly.”

It was the signal for a breaking up of the party. We all rose and filed out of the door. When I was halfway out, however, a voice recalled me.

“Perhaps,” said M. Poirot, “Nurse Leatheran will be so kind as to remain. I think her assistance will be valuable to us.”

I came back and resumed my seat at the table.

Fifteen

POIROT MAKES A SUGGESTION

Dr. Reilly had risen from his seat. When everyone had gone out he carefully closed the door. Then, with an inquiring glance at Poirot, he proceeded to shut the window giving on the courtyard. The others were already shut. Then he, too, resumed his seat at the table.

“Bien!” said Poirot. “We are now private and undisturbed. We can speak freely. We have heard what the members of the expedition have to tell us and—But yes, ma soeur, what is it that you think?”

I got rather red. There was no denying that the queer little man had sharp eyes. He’d seen the thought passing through my mind—I suppose my face had shown a bit too clearly what I was thinking!

“Oh, it’s nothing—” I said hesitating.

“Come on, nurse,” said Dr. Reilly. “Don’t keep the specialist waiting.”

“It’s nothing really,” I said hurriedly. “It only just passed through my mind, so to speak, that perhaps even if anyone did know or suspect something it wouldn’t be easy to bring it out in front of everybody else—or even, perhaps, in front of Dr. Leidner.”

Rather to my astonishment, M. Poirot nodded his head in vigorous agreement.

“Precisely. Precisely. It is very just what you say there. But I will explain. That little reunion we have just had—it served a purpose. In England before the races you have a parade of the horses, do you not? They go in front of the grandstand so that everyone may have an opportunity of seeing and judging them. That is the purpose of my little assembly. In the sporting phrase, I run my eye over the possible starters.”

Dr. Leidner cried out violently, “I do not believe for one minute that any member of my expedition is implicated in this crime!”

Then, turning to me, he said authoritatively: “Nurse, I should be much obliged if you would tell M. Poirot here and now exactly what passed between my wife and you two days ago.”

Thus urged, I plunged straightaway into my own story, trying as far as possible to recall the exact words and phrases Mrs. Leidner had used.

When I had finished, M. Poirot said: “Very good. Very good. You have the mind neat and orderly. You will be of great service to me here.”

He turned to Dr. Leidner.

“You have these letters?”

“I have them here. I thought that you would want to see them first thing.”

Poirot took them from him, read them, and scrutinized them carefully as he did so. I was rather disappointed that he didn’t dust powder over them or examine them with a microscope or anything like that—but I realized that he wasn’t a very young man and that his methods were probably not very up to date. He just read them in the way that anyone might read a letter.

Having read them he put them down and cleared his throat.

“Now,” he said, “let us proceed to get our facts clear and in order. The first of these letters was received by your wife shortly after her marriage to you in America. There had been others but these she destroyed. The first letter was followed by a second. A very short time after the second arrived you both had a near escape from coal gas poisoning. You then came abroad and for nearly two years no further letters were received. They started again at the beginning of your season this year—that is to say within the last three weeks. That is correct?”

“Absolutely.”

“Your wife displayed every sign of panic and, after consulting Dr. Reilly, you engaged Nurse Leatheran here to keep your wife company and allay her fears?”

“Yes.”

“Certain incidents occurred—hands tapping at the window—a spectral face—noises in the antika room. You did not witness any of these phenomena yourself?”