Elephants Can Remember - Agatha Christie [47]
‘It will not be a very easy thing to investigate,’ said Poirot.
‘No, but I’ve heard things about you. They say that you’re very clever at finding out what did happen. Asking people questions and getting them to tell you things.’
‘Whom do you suggest I should question or ask? When you say Malaya, I presume you are not referring to people of Malayan nationality. You are speaking of what you might call the memsahib days, the days when there were Service communities in Malaya. You are speaking of English people and the gossip in some English station there.’
‘I don’t really mean that that would be any good now. I think whoever it was who gossiped, who talked – I mean, it’s so long ago now that they’d have forgotten all about it, that they are probably dead themselves. I think that my mother’s got a lot of things wrong, that she’s heard things and made up more things about them in her mind.’
‘And you still think that I would be capable –’
‘Well, I don’t mean that I want you to go out to Malaya and ask people things. I mean, none of the people would be there now.’
‘So you think you could not give me names?’
‘Not those sort of names,’ said Desmond. ‘But some names?’
‘Well, I’ll come out with what I mean. I think there are two people who might know what happened and why. Because, you see, they’d have been there. They’d have known, really known, of their own knowledge.’
‘You do not want to go to them yourself ?’
‘Well, I could. I have in a way, but I don’t think, you see, that they – I don’t know. I wouldn’t like to ask some of the things I want to ask. I don’t think Celia would. They’re very nice, and that’s why they’d know. Not because they’re nasty, not because they gossip, but because they might have helped. They might havedone something to make things better, or have tried to do so, only they couldn’t. Oh, I’m putting it all so badly.’
‘No,’ said Poirot, ‘you are doing it very well, and I am interested and I think you have something definite in your mind. Tell me, does Celia Ravenscroft agree with you?’
‘I haven’t said too much to her. You see, she was very fond of Maddy and of Zélie.’
‘Maddy and Zélie?’
‘Oh well, that’s their names. Oh, I must explain. I haven’t done it very well. You see, when Celia was quite a child – at the time when I first knew her, as I say, when we were living next door in the country – she had a French sort of – well, I suppose nowadays we call it an au pair girl but it was called a governess then. You know, a French governess. A mademoiselle. And you see, she was very nice. She played with all of us children and Celia always called her “Maddy” for short – and all the family called her Maddy.’
‘Ah yes. The mademoiselle.’
‘Yes, you see being French I thought – I thought perhaps she would tell you things that she knew and wouldn’t wish to speak about to other people.’
‘Ah. And the other name you mentioned?’
‘Zélie. The same sort of thing, you see. A mademoiselle. Maddy was there, I think, for about two or three years and then, later, she went back to France, or Switzerland I think it was, and this other one came. Younger than Maddy was and we didn’t call her Maddy. Celia called her Zélie. She was very young, pretty and great fun. We were all frightfully fond of her. She played games with us and we all loved her. The family did. And General Ravenscroft was very taken with her. They used to play games together, picquet, you know and lots of things.’
‘And Lady Ravenscroft?’
‘Oh she was devoted to Zélie too, and Zélie was devoted to her. That’s why she came back again after she’d left.’
‘Came back?’
‘Yes, when Lady Ravenscroft was ill, and had been in hospital, Zélie came back and was sort of companion to her and looked after her. I don’t know, but I believe, I think, I’m almost sure that she was there when it – the tragedy – happened. And so, you see she’d know – what really happened.’
‘And you know her address? You know where she is now?’
‘Yes. I know where she is. I’ve got her address. I’ve got both their addresses. I thought perhaps you could go and see her, or both