Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie [62]
What other explanation of his wounds can there be?
‘Well, let us see what we can do,’ said M. Bouc, brightening a little at this challenge to his wits. ‘The handkerchief to begin with. Let us by all means be orderly and methodical.’
‘Assuredly,’ said Poirot, nodding his head in a satisfied fashion.
M. Bouc continued somewhat didactically.
‘The initial H is connected with three people—Mrs Hubbard, Miss Debenham, whose second name is Hermione, and the maid Hildegarde Schmidt.’
‘Ah! And of those three?’
‘It is difficult to say. But I think I should vote for Miss Debenham. For all one knows, she may be called by her second name and not her first. Also there is already some suspicion attaching to her. That conversation you overheard, mon cher, was certainly a little curious, and so is her refusal to explain it.’
‘As for me, I plump for the American,’ said Dr Constantine. ‘It is a very expensive handkerchief that, and Americans, as all the world knows, do not care what they pay.’
‘So you both eliminate the maid?’ asked Poirot.
‘Yes. As she herself said, it is the handkerchief of a member of the upper classes.’
‘And the second question—the pipe-cleaner. Did Colonel Arbuthnot drop it, or somebody else?’
‘That is more difficult. The English, they do not stab. You are right there. I incline to the view that someone else dropped the pipe-cleaner—and did so to incriminate the long-legged Englishman.’
‘As you said, M. Poirot,’ put in the doctor, ‘two clues is too much carelessness. I agree with M. Bouc. The handkerchief was a genuine oversight—hence no one will admit that it is theirs. The pipe-cleaner is a faked clue. In support of that theory, you notice that Colonel Arbuthnot shows no embarrassment and admits freely to smoking a pipe and using that type of cleaner.’
‘You reason well,’ said Poirot.
‘Question No. 3—who wore the scarlet kimono?’ went on M. Bouc. ‘As to that I will confess I have not the slightest idea. Have you any views on the subject, Dr Constantine?’
‘None.’
‘Then we confess ourselves beaten there. The next question has, at any rate, possibilities. Who was the man or woman masquerading in Wagon Lit uniform? Well, one can say with certainty a number of people whom it could not be. Hardman, Colonel Arbuthnot, Foscarelli, Count Andrenyi and Hector MacQueen are all too tall. Mrs Hubbard, Hildegarde Schmidt and Greta Ohlsson are too broad. That leaves the valet, Miss Debenham, Princess Dragomiroff and Countess Andrenyi—and none of them sounds likely! Greta Ohlsson in one case and Antonio Foscarelli in the other both swear that Miss Debenham and the valet never left their compartments, Hildegarde Schmidt swears to the Princess being in hers, and Count Andrenyi has told us that his wife took a sleeping draught. Therefore it seems impossible that it can be anybody—which is absurd!’
‘As our old friend Euclid says,’ murmured Poirot.
‘It must be one of those four,’ said Dr Constantine. ‘Unless it is someone from outside who has found a hiding place—and that, we agreed, was impossible.’
M. Bouc had passed on to the next question on the list.
‘No. 5—why do the hands of the broken watch point to 1.15? I can see two explanations of that. Either it was done by the murderer to establish an alibi and afterwards he was prevented from leaving the compartment when he meant to do so by hearing people moving about, or else—wait—I have an idea coming—’
The other two waited respectfully while M. Bouc struggled in mental agony.
‘I have it,’ he said at last. ‘It was not the Wagon Lit murderer who tampered with the watch! It was the person we have called the Second Murderer—the left-handed person—in other words the woman in the scarlet kimono. She arrives later and moves back the hands of the watch in order to make an alibi for herself.’
‘Bravo,’ said Dr Constantine. ‘It is well imagined, that.’
‘In fact,’ said Poirot, ‘she stabbed him in the dark, not realizing that he was dead already, but somehow deduced that he had a watch in his pyjama pocket,