One, two, buckle my shoe - Agatha Christie [11]
‘Could anybody have walked in from outside?’
‘No, they couldn’t. They’d have to have a key, see?’
‘But it was quite easy to leave the house?’
‘Oh, yes, just turn the handle and go out and pull the door to after you. As I was saying most of ’em do. They often come down the stairs while I’m taking up the next party in the lift, see?’
‘I see. Now just tell us who came first this morning and so on. Describe them if you can’t remember their names.’
Alfred reflected a minute. Then he said: ‘Lady with a little girl, that was for Mr Reilly and a Mrs Soap or some such name for Mr Morley.’
Poirot said:
‘Quite right. Go on.’
‘Then another elderly lady — bit of a toff she was — come in a Daimler. As she went out a tall military gent come in, and just after him, you came,’ he nodded to Poirot.
‘Right.’
‘Then the American gent came —’
Japp said sharply:
‘American?’
‘Yes, sir. Young fellow. He was American all right — you could tell by his voice. Come early, he did. His appointment wasn’t till eleven-thirty — and what’s more he didn’t keep it — neither.’
Japp said sharply:
‘What’s that?’
‘Not him. Come in for him when Mr Reilly’s buzzer went at eleven-thirty — a bit later it was, as a matter of fact, might have been twenty to twelve — and he wasn’t there. Must have funked it and gone away.’ He added with a knowledgeable air, ‘They do sometimes.’
Poirot said:
‘Then he must have gone out soon after me?’
‘That’s right, sir. You went out after I’d taken up a toff what come in a Rolls. Coo — it was a loverly car, Mr Blunt — eleven-thirty. Then I come down and let you out, and a lady in. Miss Some Berry Seal, or something like that — and then I — well, as a matter of fact I just nipped down to the kitchen to get my elevenses, and when I was down there the buzzer went — Mr Reilly’s buzzer — so I come up and, as I say, the American gentleman had hooked it. I went and told Mr Reilly and he swore a bit, as is his way.’
Poirot said:
‘Continue.’
‘Lemme see, what happened next? Oh, yes, Mr Morley’s buzzer went for that Miss Seal, and the toff came down and went out as I took Miss Whatsername up in the lift. Then I come down again and two gentlemen came — one a little man with a funny squeaky voice — I can’t remember his name. For Mr Reilly, he was. And a fat foreign gentleman for Mr Morley.
‘Miss Seal wasn’t very long — not above a quarter of an hour. I let her out and then I took up the foreign gentleman. I’d already taken the other gent into Mr Reilly right away as soon as he came.’
Japp said:
‘And you didn’t see Mr Amberiotis, the foreign gentleman, leave?’
‘No, sir, I can’t say as I did. He must have let himself out. I didn’t see either of those two gentlemen go.’
‘Where were you from twelve o’clock onwards?’
‘I always sit in the lift, sir, waiting until the front-door bell or one of the buzzers goes.’
Poirot said:
‘And you were perhaps reading?’
Alfred blushed again.
‘There ain’t no harm in that, sir. It’s not as though I could be doing anything else.’
‘Quite so. What were you reading?’
‘Death at Eleven-Forty-Five, sir. It’s an American detective story. It’s a corker, sir, it really is! All about gunmen.’
Poirot smiled faintly. He said:
‘Would you hear the front door close from where you were?’
‘You mean anyone going out? I don’t think I should, sir. What I mean is, I shouldn’t notice it! You see, the lift is right at the back of the hall and a little round the corner. The bell rings just behind it, and the buzzers too. You can’t miss them.’
Poirot nodded and Japp asked:
‘What happened next?’
Alfred frowned in a supreme effort of memory.
‘Only the last lady, Miss Shirty. I waited for Mr Morley’s buzzer to go, but nothing happened and at one o’clock the lady who was waiting, she got rather ratty.’
‘It did not occur to you to go up before and see if Mr Morley was ready?’
Alfred shook his head very positively.
‘Not me, sir. I wouldn’t have dreamed of it. For all I knew the last gentleman was still up there. I’d got to wait for the buzzer. Of course if I’d knowed as Mr Morley had done himself