Poirot's Early Cases - Agatha Christie [48]
Mrs Oglander looked rather astonished at this opening.
‘It is for that reason that I have come—to allay a mother’s anxiety. The murderer of Mr Reedburn will not be discovered. Have no fear. I, Hercule Poirot, tell you so. I am right, am I not? Or is it a wife that I must reassure?’
There was a moment’s pause. Mrs Oglander seemed searching Poirot with her eyes. At last she said quietly: ‘I don’t know how you know—but yes, you are right.’
Poirot nodded gravely. ‘That is all, madame. But do not be uneasy. Your English policemen have not the eyes of Hercule Poirot.’ He tapped the family portrait on the wall with his fingernail.
‘You had another daughter once. She is dead, madame?’
Again there was a pause, as she searched him with her eyes. Then she answered: ‘Yes, she is dead.’
‘Ah!’ said Poirot briskly. ‘Well, we must return to town. You permit that I return the king of clubs to the pack? It was your only slip. You understand, to have played bridge for an hour or so, with only fifty-one cards—well, no one who knows anything of the game would credit it for a minute! Bonjour!’
‘And now, my friend,’ said Poirot as we stepped towards the station, ‘you see it all!’
‘I see nothing! Who killed Reedburn?’
‘John Oglander, Junior. I was not quite sure if it was the father or the son, but I fixed on the son as being the stronger and younger of the two. It had to be one of them, because of the window.’
‘Why?’
‘There were four exits from the library—two doors, two windows; but evidently only one would do. Three exits gave on the front, directly or indirectly. The tragedy had to occur in the back window in order to make it appear that Valerie Saintclair came to Daisymead by chance. Really, of course, she fainted, and John Oglander carried her across over his shoulders. That is why I said he must be a strong man.’
‘Did they go there together, then?’
‘Yes. You remember Valerie’s hesitation when I asked her if she was not afraid to go alone? John Oglander went with her—which didn’t improve Reedburn’s temper, I fancy. They quarrelled, and it was probably some insult levelled at Valerie that made Oglander hit him. The rest, you know.’
‘But why the bridge?’
‘Bridge presupposes four players. A simple thing like that carries a lot of conviction. Who would have supposed that there had been only three people in that room all the evening?’
I was still puzzled.
‘There’s one thing I don’t understand. What have the Oglanders to do with the dancer Valerie Saintclair?’
‘Ah, that I wonder you did not see. And yet you looked long enough at that picture on the wall—longer than I did. Mrs Oglander’s other daughter may be dead to her family, but the world knows her as Valerie Saintclair!’
‘What?’
‘Did you not see the resemblance the moment you saw the two sisters together?’
‘No,’ I confessed. ‘I only thought how extraordinarily dissimilar they were.’
‘That is because your mind is so open to external romantic impressions, my dear Hastings. The features are almost identical. So is the colouring. The interesting thing is that Valerie is ashamed of her family, and her family is ashamed of her. Nevertheless, in a moment of peril, she turned to her brother for help, and when things went wrong, they all hung together in a remarkable way. Family strength is a marvellous thing. They can all act, that family. That is where Valerie gets her histrionic talent from. I, like Prince Paul, believe in heredity! They deceived me! But for a lucky accident, and test question to Mrs Oglander by which I got her to contradict her daughter’s account of how they were sitting, the Oglander family would have put a defeat on Hercule Poirot.’
‘What shall you tell the Prince?’
‘That Valerie could not possibly have committed the crime, and that I doubt if that tramp will ever be found. Also, to convey my compliments to Zara. A curious coincidence, that! I think I shall call this little affair the Adventure of the King of Clubs. What do you think, my friend?’
The Lemesurier Inheritance
I
In company with Poirot, I have investigated many strange