Poirot's Early Cases - Agatha Christie [121]
Mary Delafontaine said, ‘I suppose you guessed from the letter. I knew she had written—but I didn’t know how much she’d said.’
Poirot answered evasively, ‘I knew at least that it was a family matter. If it had been a question of Katrina there would have been no point in hushing things up. I understand that you or your husband handled Miss Barrowby’s securities to your own profit, and that she found out—’
Mary Delafontaine nodded. ‘We’ve done it for years—a little here and there. I never realized she was sharp enough to find out. And then I learned she had sent for a detective; and I found out, too, that she was leaving her money to Katrina—that miserable little creature!’
‘And so the strychnine was put in Katrina’s bedroom? I comprehend. You save yourself and your husband from what I may discover, and you saddle an innocent child with murder. Had you no pity, madame?’
Mary Delafontaine shrugged her shoulders—her blue forget-me-not eyes looked into Poirot’s. He remembered the perfection of her acting the first day he had come and the bungling attempts of her husband. A woman above the average—but inhuman.
She said, ‘Pity? For that miserable intriguing little rat?’ Her contempt rang out.
Hercule Poirot said slowly, ‘I think, madame, that you have cared in your life for two things only. One is your husband.’
He saw her lips tremble.
‘And the other—is your garden.’
He looked round him. His glance seemed to apologize to the flowers for that which he had done and was about to do.
POIROT’S EARLY CASES by Agatha Christie
Copyright © 1974 Agatha Christie Limited (a Chorion company)
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ePub edition edition published September 2004 ISBN 9780061749599
This e-book was set from the Agatha Christie Signature Edition published 2002 by HarperCollins Publishers, London.
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First published in Great Britain by Collins 1974
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
About Agatha Christie
The Agatha Christie Collection
E-book Extra
The Affair at the Victory Ball
The Adventure of the Clapham Cook
The Cornish Mystery
The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly
The Double Clue
The King of Clubs
The Lemesurier Inheritance
The Lost Mine
The Plymouth Express
The Chocolate Box
The Submarine Plans
The Third-Floor Flat
Double Sin
The Market Basing Mystery
Wasps Nest
The Veiled Lady
Problem at Sea
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Copyright
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About the Publisher