They came to Baghdad - Agatha Christie [62]
Suddenly with a stifled exclamation Victoria sat bolt upright and her daydreams were a thing of the past. She was wildly excited.
Edward turned an inquiring head.
‘What’s the matter, Charing Cross?’
‘I’ve just remembered,’ said Victoria, ‘about Sir Rupert Crofton Lee.’
As Edward still turned a blank inquiring look upon her Victoria proceeded to elucidate her meaning which truth to tell, she did not do very clearly.
‘It was a boil,’ she said, ‘on his neck.’
‘A boil on his neck?’ Edward was puzzled.
‘Yes, in the aeroplane. He sat in front of me, you know, and that hood thing he wore fell back and I saw it – the boil.’
‘Why shouldn’t he have a boil? Painful, but lots of people get them.’
‘Yes, yes, of course they do. But the point is that that morning on the balcony he hadn’t.’
‘Hadn’t what?’
‘Hadn’t got a boil. Oh, Edward, do try and take it in. In the aeroplane he had a boil and on the balcony at the Tio he hadn’t got a boil. His neck was quite smooth and unscarred – like yours now.’
‘Well, I suppose it had gone away.’
‘Oh no, Edward, it couldn’t have. It was only a day later, and it was just coming up. It couldn’t have gone away – not completely without a trace. So you see what it means – yes, it must mean – the man at the Tio wasn’t Sir Rupert at all.’
She nodded her head with vehemence. Edward stared at her.
‘You’re crazy, Victoria. It must have been Sir Rupert. You didn’t see any other difference in him.’
‘But don’t you see, Edward, I’d never really looked at him properly – only at his – well, you might call it general effect. The hat – and the cape – and the swashbuckling attitude. He’d be a very easy man to impersonate.’
‘But they’d have known at the Embassy –’
‘He didn’t stay at the Embassy, did he? He came to the Tio. It was one of the minor secretaries or people who met him. The Ambassador’s in England. Besides, he’s travelled and been away from England so much.’
‘But why –’
‘Because of Carmichael, of course. Carmichael was coming to Baghdad to meet him – to tell him what he’d found out. Only they’d never met before. So Carmichael wouldn’t know he wasn’t the right man – and he wouldn’t be on his guard. Of course – it was Rupert Crofton Lee (the false one) who stabbed Carmichael! Oh, Edward, it all fits in.’
‘I don’t believe a word of it. It’s crazy. Don’t forget Sir Rupert was killed afterwards in Cairo.’
‘That’s where it all happened. I know now. Oh Edward, how awful. I saw it happen.’
‘You saw it happen – Victoria, are you quite mad?’
‘No, I’m not in the least mad. Just listen, Edward. There was a knock on my door – in the hotel in Heliopolis – at least I thought it was on my door and I looked out, but it wasn’t – it was one door down, Sir Rupert Crofton Lee’s. It was one of the stewardesses or air hostesses or whatever they call them. She asked him if he would mind coming to BOAC office – just along the corridor. I came out of my room just afterwards. I passed a door which had a notice with BOAC on it, and the door opened and he came out. I thought then that he had had some news that made him walk quite differently. Do you see, Edward? It was a trap, the substitute was waiting, all ready, and as soon as he came in, they just conked him on the head and the other one came out and took up the part. I think they probably kept him somewhere in Cairo, perhaps in the hotel as an invalid, kept him drugged and then killed him just at the right moment when the wrong one had come back to Cairo.’
‘It’s a magnificent story,’ said Edward. ‘But you know, Victoria, quite frankly you are making the whole thing up. There’s no corroboration of it.