Big Four - Agatha Christie [39]
‘Why do you say that, mademoiselle? Who should wish to poison Dr Savaronoff?’
She shook her head.
‘I do not know. I am in the dark. And my uncle, he will not trust me. It is natural, perhaps. You see, he hardly knows me. He saw me as a child, and not since till I came to live with him here in London. But this much I do know, he is in fear of something. We have many secret societies in Russia, and one day I overheard something which made me think it was of just such a society he went in fear. Tell me, monsieur’—she came a step nearer, and dropped her voice—‘have you ever heard of a society called the “Big Four”?’
Poirot jumped nearly out of his skin. His eyes positively bulged with astonishment.
‘Why do you—what do you know of the Big Four, mademoiselle?’
‘There is such an association, then! I overheard a reference to them, and asked my uncle about it afterwards. Never have I seen a man so afraid. He turned all white and shaking. He was in fear of them, monsieur, in great fear, I am sure of it. And, by mistake, they killed the American, Wilson.’
‘The Big Four,’ murmured Poirot. ‘Always the Big Four! An astonishing coincidence, mademoiselle, your uncle is still in danger. I must save him. Now recount to me exactly the events of that fatal evening. Show me the chessboard, the table, how the two men sat—everything.’
She went to the side of the room and brought out a small table. The top of it was exquisite, inlaid with squares of silver and black to represent a chessboard.
‘This was sent to my uncle a few weeks ago as a present, with the request that he would use it in the next match he played. It was in the middle of the room—so.’
Poirot examined the table with what seemed to me quite unnecessary attention. He was not conducting the inquiry at all as I would have done. Many of the questions seemed to me pointless, and upon really vital matters he seemed to have no questions to ask. I concluded that the unexpected mention of the Big Four had thrown him completely off his balance.
After a minute examination of the table and the exact position it had occupied, he asked to see the chessmen. Sonia Daviloff brought them to him in a box. He examined one or two of them in a perfunctory manner.
‘An exquisite set,’ he murmured absentmindedly.
Still not a question as to what refreshments there had been, or what people had been present.
I cleared my throat significantly.
‘Don’t you think, Poirot, that—’
He interrupted me peremptorily.
‘Do not think, my friend. Leave all to me. Mademoiselle, is it quite impossible that I should see your uncle?’
A faint smile showed itself on her face.
‘He will see you, yes. You understand, it is my part to interview all strangers first.’
She disappeared. I heard a murmur of voices in the next room, and a minute later she came back and motioned us to pass into the adjoining room.
The man who lay there on a couch was an imposing figure. Tall, gaunt, with huge bushy eyebrows and white beard, and a face haggard as the result of starvation and hardships, Dr Savaronoff was a distinct personality. I noted the peculiar formation of his head, its unusual height. A great chess player must have a great brain, I knew. I could easily understand Dr Savaronoff being the second greatest player in the world.
Poirot bowed.
‘M. le Docteur, may I speak to you alone?’
Savaronoff turned to his niece.
‘Leave us, Sonia.’
She disappeared obediently.
‘Now, sir, what is it?’
‘Dr Savaronoff, you have recently come into an enormous fortune. If you should—die unexpectedly, who inherits it?’
‘I have made a will leaving everything to my niece, Sonia Daviloff. You do not suggest—’
‘I suggest nothing, but you have not seen your niece since she was a child. It would have been easy for anyone to impersonate her.’
Savaronoff seemed thunderstruck by the suggestion. Poirot went on easily.
‘Enough as to that: I give you the word of warning, that is all. What I want you to do now is to describe to me the game of chess the other evening.’
‘How do you mean—describe it?’
‘Well, I do not play the chess myself,