Sad Cypress (Hercule Poirot 22) - Page 55

“Have you, then, a case of suicide among your patients about which you are not satisfied?”

Peter Lord shook his head.

He sat down opposite Poirot.

He said:

“There’s a young woman. She’s been arrested and she’s going to be tried for murder! I want you to find evidence that will prove that she didn’t do it!”

Poirot’s eyebrows rose a little higher. Then he assumed a discreet and confidential manner.

He said:

“You and this young lady—you are affianced—yes? You are in love with each other?”

Peter Lord laughed—a sharp, bitter laugh.

He said:

“No, it’s not like that! She has the bad taste to prefer a long-nosed supercilious ass with a face like a melancholy horse! Stupid of her, but there it is!”

Poirot said:

“I see.”

Lord said bitterly:

“Oh, yes, you see all right! No need to be so tactful about it. I fell for her straightaway. And because of that I don’t want her hanged. See?”

Poirot said:

“What is the charge against her?”

“She’s accused of murdering a girl called Mary Gerrard, by poisoning her with morphine hydrochloride. You’ve probably read the account of the inquest in the papers.”

Poirot said:

“And the motive?”

“Jealousy!”

“And in your opinion she didn’t do it?”

“No, of course not.”

Hercule Poirot looked at him thoughtfully for a moment or two, then he said:

“What is it exactly that you want me to do? To investigate this matter?”

“I want you to get her off.”

“I am not a defending counsel, mon cher.”

“I’ll put it more clearly: I want you to find evidence that will enable her counsel to get her off.”

Hercule Poirot said:

“You put this a little curiously.”

Tags: Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot Mystery
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