One, two, buckle my shoe - Agatha Christie [13]
Reilly grinned broadly.
‘The one who walked out on me? He’s never been to me before. I know nothing about him. He rang up and particularly asked for an appointment this morning.’
‘Where did he ring up from?’
‘Holborn Palace Hotel. He’s an American, I fancy.’
‘So Alfred said.’
‘Alfred should know,’ said Mr Reilly. ‘He’s a film fan, our Alfred.’
‘And your other patient?’
‘Barnes? A funny precise little man. Retired Civil Servant. Lives out Ealing way.’
Japp paused a minute and then said:
‘What can you tell us about Miss Nevill?’
Mr Reilly raised his eyebrows.
‘The bee-yewtiful blonde secretary? Nothing doing, old boy! Her relations with old Morley were perfectly pewer — I’m sure of it.’
‘I never suggested they weren’t,’ said Japp, reddening slightly.
‘My fault,’ said Reilly. ‘Excuse my filthy mind, won’t you? I thought it might be an attempt on your part to cherchez la femme.
‘Excuse me for speaking your language,’ he added parenthetically to Poirot. ‘Beautiful accent, haven’t I? It comes of being educated by nuns.’
Japp disapproved of this flippancy. He asked:
‘Do you know anything about the young man she is engaged to? His name is Carter, I understand. Frank Carter.’
‘Morley didn’t think much of him,’ said Reilly. ‘He tried to get la Nevill to turn him down.’
‘That might have annoyed Carter?’
‘Probably annoyed him frightfully,’ agreed Mr Reilly cheerfully.
He paused and then added:
‘Excuse me, this is a suicide you are investigating, not a murder?’
Japp said sharply:
‘If it were a murder, would you have anything to suggest?’
‘Not I! I’d like it to be Georgina! One of those grim females with temperance on the brain. But I’m afraid Georgina is full of moral rectitude. Of course I could easily have nipped upstairs and shot the old boy myself, but I didn’t. In fact, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to kill Morley. But then I can’t conceive of his killing himself.’
He added — in a different voice:
‘As a matter of fact, I’m very sorry about it…You mustn’t judge by my manner. That’s just nervousness, you know. I was fond of old Morley and I shall miss him.’
VII
Japp put down the telephone receiver. His face, as he turned to Poirot, was rather grim.
He said:
‘Mr Amberiotis isn’t feeling very well — would rather not see any one this afternoon.
‘He’s going to see me — and he’s not going to give me the slip either! I’ve got a man at the Savoy ready to trail him if he tries to make a get-away.’
Poirot said thoughtfully:
‘You think Amberiotis shot Morley?’
‘I don’t know. But he was the last person to see Morley alive. And he was a new patient. According to his story, he left Morley alive and well at twenty-five minutes past twelve. That may be true or it may not. If Morley was all right then we’ve got to reconstruct what happened next. There was still five minutes to go before his next appointment. Did someone come in and see him during that five minutes? Carter, say? Or Reilly? What happened? Depend upon it, by half-past twelve, or five-and-twenty to one at the latest, Morley was dead — otherwise he’d either have sounded his buzzer or else sent down word to Miss Kirby that he couldn’t see her. No, either he was killed, or else somebody told him something which upset the whole tenor of his mind, and he took his own life.’
He paused.
‘I’m going to have a word with every patient he saw this morning. There’s just the possibility that he may have said something to one of them that will put us on the right track.’
He glanced at his watch.
‘Mr Alistair Blunt said he could give me a few minutes at four-fifteen. We’ll go to him first. His house is on Chelsea Embankment. Then we might take the Sainsbury Seale woman on our way to Amberiotis. I’d prefer to know all we can before tackling our Greek friend. After that, I’d like a word or two with the American who, according to you “looked like murder”.’
Hercule Poirot shook his head.
‘Not murder — toothache.’
‘All the same, we’ll see this Mr Raikes. His conduct was queer to say the least of it. And we’ll check up on Miss