“Miss Williams continued on down and Mrs. Crale went into the Battery garden. Almost at once, however, Mrs. Crale screamed and Miss Williams hurried back. Mr. Crale was reclining on a seat and he was dead.
“At Mrs. Crale’s urgent request Miss Williams left the Battery garden and hurried up to the house to telephone for a doctor. On her way, however, she met Mr. Meredith Blake and entrusted her errand to him, herself returning to Mrs. Crale whom she felt might be in need of someone. Dr. Faussett arrived on the scene a quarter of an hour later. He saw at once that Mr. Crale had been dead for some time—he placed the probable time of death at between one and two o’clock. There was nothing to show what had caused death. There was no sign of any wound and Mr. Crale’s attitude was a perfectly natural one. Nevertheless Dr. Faussett, who was well acquainted with Mr. Crale’s state of health, and who knew positively that there was no disease or weakness of any kind, was inclined to take a grave view of the situation. It was at this point that Mr. Philip Blake made a certain statement to Dr. Faussett.”
Superintendent Hale paused, drew a deep breath and passed, as it were, to Chapter Two.
“Subsequently Mr. Blake repeated this statement to Inspector Conway. It was to this effect. He had that morning received a telephone message from his brother, Mr. Meredith Blake (who lived at Handcross Manor, a mile and a half away). Mr. Meredith Blake was an amateur chemist—or perhaps herbalist would describe it best. On entering his laboratory that morning, Mr. Meredith Blake had been startled to note that a bottle containing a preparation of hemlock, which had been quite full the day before, was now nearly empty. Worried and alarmed by this fact he had rung up his brother to ask his advice as to what he should do about it. Mr. Philip Blake had urged his brother to come over to Alderbury at once and they would talk the matter over. He himself walked part way to meet his brother and they had come up to the house together. They had come to no decision as to what course to adopt and had left the matter in order to consult again after lunch.
“As a result of further inquiries, Inspector Conway ascertained the following facts: On the preceding afternoon five people had walked over from Alderbury to tea at Handcross Manor. There were Mr. and Mrs. Crale, Miss Angela Warren, Miss Elsa Greer and Mr. Philip Blake. During the time spent there, Mr. Meredith Blake had given quite a dissertation on his hobby and had taken the party into his little laboratory and ‘shown them round.’ In the course of this tour, he had mentioned certain specific drugs—one of which was coniine, the active principle of the spotted hemlock. He had explained its properties, had lamented the fact that it had now disappeared from the Pharmacopœia and boasted that he had known small doses of it to be very efficacious in whooping cough and asthma. Later he had mentioned its lethal properties and had actually read to his guests some passage from a Greek author describing its effects.”
Superintendent Hale paused, refilled his pipe and passed on to Chapter Three.
“Colonel Frere, the Chief Constable, put the case into my hands. The result of the autopsy put the matter beyond any doubt. Coniine, I understand, leaves no definite postmortem appearances, but the doctors knew what to look for, and an ample amount of the drug was recovered. The doctor was of the opinion that it had been administered two or three hours before death. In front of Mr. Crale, on the table, there had been an empty glass and an empty beer bottle. The dregs of both were analysed. There was no coniine in the bottle, but there was in the glass. I made inquiries and learned that although a case of beer and glasses were kept in a small summerhouse in the Battery garden in case Mr. Crale should feel thirsty when painting, on this particular morning Mrs. Crale had brought down from the house a bottle of freshly iced beer. Mr. Crale was busy painting when she arrived and Miss Greer was posing for him, sitting on one of the battlements.
“Mrs. Crale opened the beer, poured it out and put the glass into her husband’s hand as he was standing before the easel. He tossed it off in one draught—a habit of his, I learned. Then he made a grimace, set down the glass on the table, and said: ‘Everything tastes foul to me today!’ Miss Greer upon that laughed and said, ‘Liver!’ Mr. Crale said: ‘Well, at any rate it was cold.’”
Hale paused. Poirot said:
“At what time did this take place?”
“At about a quarter past eleven. Mr. Crale continued to paint. According to Miss Greer, he later complained of stiffness in the limbs and grumbled that he must have got a touch of rheumatism. But he was the type of man who hates to admit to illness of any kind, and he undoubtedly tried not to admit that he was feeling ill. His irritable demand that he should be left alone and the others go up to lunch was quite characteristic of the man, I should say.”
Poirot nodded.
Hale continued.
“So Crale was left alone in the Battery garden. No doubt he dropped down on the seat and relaxed as soon as he was alone. Muscular paralysis would then set in. No help was at hand, and death supervened.”
Again Poirot nodded.
Hale said:
“Well, I proceeded according to routine. There wasn’t much difficulty in getting down to the facts. On the preceding day there had been a set-to between Mrs. Crale and Miss Greer. The latter had pretty insolently described some change in the arrangement of the furniture ‘when I am living here.’ Mrs. Crale took her up, and said, ‘What do you mean? When you are living here.’ Miss Greer replied: ‘Don’t pretend you don’t know what I mean, Caroline. You’re just like an ostrich that buries its head in the sand. You know perfectly well that Amyas and I care for each other and are going to be married.’ Mrs. Crale said: ‘I know nothing of the kind.’ Miss Greer then said: ‘Well, you know it now.’ Whereupon, it seems, Mrs. Crale turned to her husband who had just come into the room and said: ‘Is it true, Amyas, that you are going to marry Elsa?’”
Poirot said with interest:
“And what did Mr. Crale say to that?”
“Apparently he turned on Miss Greer and shouted at her: ‘What the devil do you mean by blurting that out? Haven’t you got the sense to hold your tongue?’
“Miss Greer said: ‘I think Caroline ought to recognize the truth.’
“Mrs. Crale said to her husband: ‘Is it true, Amyas?’
“He wouldn’t look at her, it seems, turned his face away and mumbled something.
“She said: ‘Speak out. I’ve got to know.’ Whereupon he said:
“‘Oh, it’s true enough—but I don’t want to discuss it now.’
“Then he flounced out of the room again and Miss Greer said:
“‘You see!’ and went on—with something about its being no good for Mrs. Crale to adopt a dog-in-the-manger attitude about it. They must all behave like rational people. She herself hoped that Caroline and Amyas would always remain good friends.”
“And what did Mrs. Crale say to that?” asked Poirot curiously.
“According to the witnesses she laughed. She said: ‘Over my dead body, Elsa.’ She went to the door and Miss Greer called after her: ‘What do you mean?’ Mrs. Crale looked back and said: ‘I’ll kill Amyas before I give him up to you.’”
Hale paused.