One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (Hercule Poirot 23)

“I do not concern myself with divorce.”

“Really? Then I don’t see how you live.”

“I manage, my friend, I manage.”

“But you’re right at the top of the tree, aren’t you, M. Poirot?” put in Gladys Nevill. “Mr. Morley used to say so. I mean you’re the sort of person Royalty calls in, or the Home Office or Duchesses.”

Poirot smiled upon her.

“You flatter me,” he said.

IX

Poirot walked home through the deserted streets in a thoughtful frame of mind.

When he got in, he rang up Japp.

“Forgive my troubling you, my friend, but did you ever do anything in the matter of tracing that telegram that was sent to Gladys Nevill?”

“Still harping on the subject? Yes, we did, as a matter of fact. There was a telegram and—rather clever—the aunt lives at Richbourne in Somerset. The telegram was handed in at Richbarn—you know, the London suburb.”

Hercule Poirot said appreciatively:

“That was clever—yes, that was clever. If the recipient happened to glance at where the telegram was handed in, the word would look sufficiently like Richbourne to carry conviction.”

He paused.

“Do you know what I think, Japp?”

“Well?”

“There are signs of brains in this business.”

“Hercule Poirot wants it to be murder, so it’s got to be murder.”

“How do you explain that telegram?”

“Coincidence. Someone was hoaxing the girl.”

“Why should they?”

“Oh, my goodness, Poirot, why do people do things? Practical jokes, hoaxes. Misplaced sense of humour, that’s all.”

“And somebody felt like being funny just on the day that Morley was going to make a mistake over an injection.”

“There may have been a certain amount of cause and effect. Because Miss Nevill was away, Morley was more rushed than usual and consequently was more likely to make a mistake.”

“I am still not satisfied.”

“I daresay—but don’t you see where your view is leading you? If anybody got la Nevill out of the way, it was probably Morley himself. Making his killing of Amberiotis deliberate and not an accident.”

Poirot was silent. Japp said:

“You see?”

Poirot said:

“Amberiotis might have been killed in some other way.”