Dumb Witness (Hercule Poirot 16)

“You wanted to speak to him?”

She nodded. Her air of nervousness increased.

Poirot came out of the box at that moment and saw us standing together. He came quickly across to us.

“M. Poirot,” she began quickly in a low, hurried voice. “There is something that I would like to say—that I must tell you—”

“Yes, madame.”

“It is important—very important. You see—”

She stopped. Dr. Tanios and the two children had just emerged from the writing room. He came across and joined us.

“Having a few last words with M. Poirot, Bella?”

His tone was good-humoured, the smile on his face pleasantness itself.

“Yes—” She hesitated, then said, ‘Well, that is really all, M. Poirot. I just wanted you to tell Theresa that we will back her up in anything she decides to do. I quite see that the family must stand together.”

She nodded brightly to us, then taking her husband’s arm she moved off in the direction of the dining room.

I caught Poirot by the shoulder. “That wasn’t what she started to say, Poirot!”

He shook his head slowly, watching the retreating couple. “She changed her mind,” I went on. “Yes, mon ami, she changed her mind.” “Why?” “I wish I knew,” he murmured. “She will tell us some other time,” I said hopefully. “I wonder. I rather fear—she may not….”

Eighteen

“A NIGGER IN THE WOODPILE”

We had lunch at a small restaurant not far away. I was eager to learn what he made of th

e various members of the Arundell family.

“Well, Poirot?” I asked impatiently.

With a look of reproof Poirot turned his whole attention to the menu. When he had ordered he leaned back in his chair, broke his roll of bread in half and said with a slightly mocking intonation:

“Well, Hastings?”

“What do you think of them now you’ve seen them all?”

Poirot replied slowly.

“Ma foi, I think they are an interesting lot! Really, this case is an enchanting study! It is, how do you say, the box of surprises? Look how each time I say, ‘I got a letter from Miss Arundell before she died,’ something crops up. From Miss Lawson I learn about the missing money. Mrs. Tanios says at once, ‘About my husband?’ Why about her husband? Why should Miss Arundell write to me, Hercule Poirot, about Dr. Tanios?”

“That woman has something on her mind,” I said.

“Yes, she knows something. But what? Miss Peabody tells us that Charles Arundell would murder his grandmother for twopence, Miss Lawson says that Mrs. Tanios would murder anyone if her husband told her to do so. Dr. Tanios says that Charles and Theresa are rotten to the core, and he hints that their mother was a murderess and says apparently carelessly that Theresa is capable of murdering anyone in cold blood.

“They have a pretty opinion of each other, all these people! Dr. Tanios thinks, or says he thinks, that there was undue influence. His wife, before he came in, evidently did not think so. She does not want to contest the will at first. Later she veers round. See you, Hastings—it is a pot that boils and seethes and every now and then a significant fact comes to the surface and can be seen. There is something in the depths there—yes, there is something! I swear it, by my faith as Hercule Poirot, I swear it!”

I was impressed in spite of myself by his earnestness.

After a minute or two I said:

“Perhaps you are right, but it seems too vague—so nebulous.”

“But you agree with me that there is something?”