Evil Under the Sun (Hercule Poirot 24)

“I don’t think so. If she had, she never mentioned them. I know that her father and mother died when she was a child and she had no brothers or sisters.”

“In any case,

I suppose, she had nothing very much to leave?”

Kenneth Marshall said coldly:

“On the contrary. Only two years ago, Sir Robert Erskine, who was an old friend of hers, died and left her most of his fortune. It amounted, I think, to about fifty thousand pounds.”

Inspector Colgate looked up. An alertness came into his glance. Up to now he had been silent. Now he asked:

“Then actually, Captain Marshall, your wife was a rich woman?”

Kenneth Marshall shrugged his shoulders.

“I suppose she was really.”

“And you still say she did not make a will?”

“You can ask the solicitors. But I’m pretty certain she didn’t. As I tell you, she thought it unlucky.”

There was a pause then Marshall added:

“Is there anything further?”

Weston shook his head.

“Don’t think so—eh Colgate? No. Once more, Captain Marshall, let me offer you all my sympathy in your loss.”

Marshall blinked. He said jerkily:

“Oh—thanks.”

He went out.

V

The three men looked at each other.

Weston said:

“Cool customer. Not giving anything away, is he? What do you make of him, Colgate?”

The Inspector shook his head.

“It’s difficult to tell. He’s not the kind that shows anything. That sort makes a bad impression in the witness-box, and yet it’s a bit unfair on them really. Sometimes they’re as cut up as anything and yet can’t show it. That kind of manner made the jury bring in a verdict of Guilty against Wallace. It wasn’t the evidence. They just couldn’t believe that a man could lose his wife and talk and act so coolly about it.”

Weston turned to Poirot.

“What do you think, Poirot?”

Hercule Poirot raised his hands.

He said:

“What can one say? He is the closed box—the fastened oyster. He has chosen his rôle. He has heard nothing, he has seen nothing, he knows nothing!”

“We’ve got a choice of motives,” said Colgate. “There’s jealousy and there’s the money motive. Of course, in a way, a husband’s the obvious suspect. One naturally thinks of him first. If he knew his missus was carrying on with the other chap—”