Taken at the Flood - Agatha Christie [69]
Her voice faltered.
‘We should have known that David was — a dangerous person. Charles is dead — murdered — and but for me he would be alive. I sent him to his death.’
After a little she went on in a dry voice:
‘You can imagine what I have felt like ever since.’
‘Nevertheless,’ said Poirot, ‘you were quick enough to see a further development of the scheme? It was you who induced Major Porter to identify your cousin as “Robert Underhay”?’
But at once she broke out vehemently:
‘No, I swear to you, no. Not that! No one was more astonished…Astonished? We were dumbfounded! when this Major Porter came down and gave evidence that Charles — Charles! — was Robert Underhay. I couldn’t understand it — I still can’t understand it!’
‘But someone went to Major Porter. Someone persuaded him or bribed him — to identify the dead man as Underhay?’
Frances said decisively:
‘It was not I. And it was not Jeremy. Neither of us would do such a thing. Oh, I dare say that sounds absurd to you! You think that because I was ready to blackmail, that I would stoop just as easily to fraud. But in my mind the two things are worlds apart. You must understand that I felt — indeed I still feel — that we have a right to a portion of Gordon’s money. What I had failed to get by fair means I was prepared to get by foul. But deliberately to swindle Rosaleen out of everything, by manufacturing evidence that she was not Gordon’s wife at all — oh, no, indeed, M. Poirot, I would not do a thing like that. Please, please, believe me.’
‘I will at least admit,’ said Poirot slowly, ‘that every one has their own particular sins. Yes, I will believe that.’
Then he looked at her sharply.
‘Do you know, Mrs Cloade, that Major Porter shot himself this afternoon?’
She shrank back, her eyes wide and horrified.
‘Oh, no, M. Poirot — no!’
‘Yes, Madame. Major Porter, you see, was au fond an honest man. Financially he was in very low water, and when temptation came he, like many other men, failed to resist it. It may have seemed to him, he can have made himself feel, that his lie was almost morally justified. He was already deeply prejudiced in his mind against the woman his friend Underhay had married. He considered that she had treated his friend disgracefully. And now this heartless little gold-digger had married a millionaire and had got away with her second husband’s fortune to the detriment of his own flesh and blood. It must have seemed tempting to him to put a spoke in her wheel — no more than she deserved. And merely by identifying a dead man he himself would be made secure for the future. When the Cloades got their rights, he would get his cut…Yes — I can see the temptation…But like many men of his type he lacked imagination. He was unhappy, very unhappy, at the inquest. One could see that. In the near future he would have to repeat his lie upon oath. Not only that; a man was now arrested, charged with murder — and the identity of the dead man supplied a very potent motive for that charge.
‘He went back home and faced things squarely. He took the way out that seemed best to him.’
‘He shot himself?’
‘Yes.’
Frances murmured: ‘He didn’t say who — who — ’
Slowly Poirot shook his head.
‘He had his code. There was no reference whatever as to who had instigated him to commit perjury.’
He watched her closely. Was there an instant flash of relief, of relaxed tension? Yes, but that might be natural enough in any case…
She got up and walked to the window. She said:
‘So we are back where we were.’
Poirot wondered what was passing in her mind.
Chapter 11
Superintendent Spence, the following morning, used almost Frances’ words:
‘So we’re back where we started,’ he said with a sigh. ‘We’ve got to find who this fellow Enoch Arden really was.’
‘I can tell you that, Superintendent,’ said Poirot. ‘His name was Charles Trenton.’
‘Charles Trenton!’ The Superintendent whistled. ‘H’m! One of the Trentons — I suppose she put him up to it — Mrs Jeremy, I mean…However, we shan’t be able to prove her connection with it. Charles Trenton? I seem to remember —