‘Well, one never knows with girls! Lie themselves black in the face for the sake of a man.’
‘That does credit to their hearts,’ said Hercule Poirot.
Sugden growled.
‘That’s a foreign way of looking at it. It’s defeating the ends of justice.’
Hercule Poirot said:
‘Justice is a very strange thing. Have you ever reflected on it?’
Sugden stared at him. He said:
‘You’re a queer one, Mr Poirot.’
‘Not at all. I follow a logical train of thought. But we will not enter into a dispute on the question. It is your belief, then, that this demoiselle from the milk shop is not speaking the truth?’
Sugden shook his head.
‘No,’ he said, ‘it’s not like that at all. As a matter of fact, I think she is telling the truth. She’s a simple kind of girl, and I think if she was telling me a pack of lies I’d spot it.’
Poirot said:
‘You have the experience, yes?’
‘That’s just it, Mr Poirot. One does know, more or less, after a lifetime of taking down statements, when a person’s lying and when they’re not. No, I think the girl’s evidence is genuine, and if so, Horbury couldn’t have murdered old Mr Lee, and that brings us right back to the people in the house.’
He drew a deep breath.
‘One of ’em did it, Mr Poirot. One of ’em did it. But which?’
‘You have no new data?’
‘Yes, I’ve had a certain amount of luck over the telephone calls. Mr George Lee put through a call to Westeringham at two minutes to nine. That call lasted under six minutes.’
‘Aha!’
‘As you say! Moreover, no other call was put through—to Westeringham or anywhere else.’
‘Very interesting,’ said Poirot, with approval. ‘M. George Lee says he has just finished telephoning when he hears the noise overhead—but actually he had finished telephoning nearly ten minutes before that. Where was he in those ten minutes? Mrs George Lee says that she was telephoning—but actually she never put through a call at all. Where was she?’
Sugden said:
‘I saw you talking to her, M. Poirot?’
His voice held a question, but Poirot replied:
‘You are in error!’
‘Eh?’
‘I was not talking to her—she was talking to me!’
‘Oh—’ Sugden seemed to be about to brush the distinction aside impatiently; then, as its significance sank in, he said:
‘She was talking to you, you say?’
‘Most definitely. She came out here for that purpose.’