Elephants Can Remember - Agatha Christie [50]
‘I’ve got to dash now,’ said Mrs Oliver, ‘Going to meet an old War Horse – provided by my elephant No. 1, Julia Carstairs. I think she’s got his name wrong – she always does – but I hope she’s got his address right.’
Chapter 12
Celia Meets Hercule Poirot
‘Well, madame,’ said Poirot, ‘and how did you fare with Sir Hugo Foster?’
‘To begin with his name wasn’t Foster – it was Fothergill. Trust Julia to get a name wrong. She’s always doing it.’
‘So elephants are not always reliable in the names they remember?’
‘Don’t talk of elephants – I’ve finished with elephants.’
‘And your War Horse?’
‘Quite an old pet – but useless as a source of information. Obsessed by some people called Barnet who did have a child killed in an accident in Malaya. But nothing to do with the Ravenscrofts. I tell you I’ve finished with elephants –’
‘Madame, you have been most persevering, most noble.’
‘Celia is coming along in about half an hour’s time. You wanted to meet her, didn’t you? I’ve told her that you are – well, helping me in this matter. Or would you rather she came to see you?’
‘No,’ said Poirot, ‘I think I should like her to come in the way you have arranged.’
‘I don’t suppose she’ll stay very long. If we get rid of her in about an hour, that would be all right, just to think over things a bit, and then Mrs Burton-Cox is coming.’
‘Ah yes. That will be interesting. Yes, that will bevery interesting.’
Mrs Oliver sighed. ‘Oh dear, it’s a pity, though, isn’t it?’ She said again, ‘We do have too much material, don’t we?’
‘Yes,’ said Poirot. ‘We do not know what we are looking for. All we know of still is, in all probability, the double suicide of a married couple who lived quiet and happy lives together. And what have we got to show for cause, for reason? We’ve gone forward and back to the right, to the left, to the west, to the east.’
‘Quite right,’ said Mrs Oliver. ‘Everywhere. We haven’t been to the North Pole yet,’ she added.
‘Nor to the South Pole,’ said Poirot. ‘So what is there, when it all comes to it?’
‘Various things,’ said Poirot. ‘I have made here a list. Do you want to read it?’
Mrs Oliver came over and sat beside him and looked over his shoulder.
‘Wigs,’ she said, pointing to the first item. ‘Why wigs first?’
‘Four wigs,’ said Poirot, ‘seem to be interesting. Interesting and rather difficult to solve.’
‘I believe the shop she got her wigs from has gone out of the trade now. People go to quite different places for wigs and they’re not wearing so many as they did just then. People used to wear wigs to go abroad. You know, because it saves bother in travelling.’
‘Yes, yes,’ said Poirot, ‘we will do what we can with wigs. Anyway, that is one thing that interests me. And then there are other stories. Stories of mental disturbance in the family. Stories of a twin sister who was mentally disturbed and spent a good many years of her life in a mental home.’
‘It doesn’t seem to lead anywhere,’ said Mrs Oliver. ‘I mean to say, I suppose she could have come and shot the two of them, but I don’t really see why.’
‘No,’ said Poirot, ‘the fingerprints on the revolver were definitely only the fingerprints of General Ravenscroft and his wife, I understand. Then there are stories of a child, a child in Malaya was murdered or attacked, possibly by this twin sister of Lady Ravenscroft. Possibly by some quite different woman – possibly by an amah or a servant. Point two. You know a little more about money.’
‘Where does money come into it?’ said Mrs Oliver, in some surprise.
‘It does not come into it,’ said Poirot. ‘That is what is so interesting. Money usually comes in. Money someone got as a result of that suicide. Money lost as a resultof it. Money somewhere causing difficulties, causing trouble, causing covetousness and desire. It is difficult, that. Difficult to see. There does not seem to have been any large amount of money anywhere. There are various stories of love-affairs, women who were attractive to the husband, men who were attractive to the wife. An affair on one side or the