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By Root 508 0

‘and he startled me, you see. It does startle you when you find things are the wrong way round. I mean he following you instead of you following him — only it was earlier — and I had a sort of uneasy feeling. In fact, you know, I was afraid. I don’t know why. He spoke quite politely but I was afraid. Anyway there it was and he said “Come up and see the studio” and so I came up rather a rickety staircase. A kind of ladder staircase and there was this other young man — the dirty young man — and he was painting a picture, and the girl was acting as model. She was quite clean. Rather pretty really. And so there we were and they were quite nice and polite, and then I said I must be getting home, and they told me the right way to get back to the King’s Road. But they can’t really have told me the right way. Of course I might have made a mistake. You know, when people tell you second left and third right, well, you sometimes do it the wrong way round. At least I do. Anyway, I got into a rather peculiar slummy part quite close to the river. The afraid feeling had gone away by then. I must have been quite off my guard when the Peacock hit me.’

‘I think she’s delirous,’ said the nurse in an explanatory voice.

‘No, I’m not,’ said Mrs Oliver. ‘I know what I’m talking about.’

The nurse opened her mouth, caught the sister’s admonitory eye and shut it again quickly.

‘Velvets and satins and long curly hair,’ said Mrs Oliver.

‘A peacock in satin? A real peacock, Madam. You thought you saw a peacock near the river in Chelsea?’

‘A real peacock?’ said Mrs Oliver. ‘Of course not. How silly. What would a real peacock be doing down on Chelsea Embankment?’

Nobody appeared to have an answer to this question.

‘He struts,’ said Mrs Oliver, ‘that’s why I nicknamed him a peacock. Shows off, you know. Vain, I should think. Proud of his looks. Perhaps a lot of other things as well.’ She looked at Poirot. ‘David something. You know who I mean.’

‘You say this young man of the name of David assaulted you by striking you on the head?’

‘Yes I do.’

Hercule Poirot spoke. ‘You saw him?’

‘I didn’t see him,’ said Mrs Oliver, ‘I didn’t know anything about it. I just thought I heard something behind me, and before I could turn my head to look — it all happened! Just as if a ton of bricks or something fell on me. I think I’ll go to sleep now,’ she added.

She moved her head slightly, made a grimace of pain, and relapsed into what appeared to be a perfectly satisfactory unconsciousness.

Chapter 13

Poirot seldom used the key to his flat. Instead, in an old-fashioned manner, he pressed the bell and waited for that admirable factotum, George, to open the door. On this occasion, however, after his visit to the hospital, the door was opened to him by Miss Lemon.

‘You’ve got two visitors,’ said Miss Lemon, pitching her voice in an admirable tone, not as carrying as a whisper but a good many notes lower than her usual pitch. ‘One’s Mr Goby and the other is an old gentleman called Sir Roderick Horsefield. I don’t know which you want to see first.’

‘Sir Roderick Horsefield,’ mused Poirot. He considered this with his head on one side, looking rather like a robin while he decided how this latest development was likely to affect the general picture. Mr Goby, however, materialised with his usual suddenness from the small room which was sacred to Miss Lemon’s typewriting and where she had evidently kept him in storage.

Poirot removed his overcoat. Miss Lemon hung it up on the hall-stand, and Mr Goby, as was his fashion, addressed the back of Miss Lemon’s head.

‘I’ll have a cup of tea in the kitchen with George,’ said Mr Goby. ‘My time is my own. I’ll keep.’

He disappeared obligingly into the kitchen. Poirot went into his sitting-room where Sir Roderick was pacing up and down full of vitality.

‘Run you down, my boy,’ he said genially. ‘Wonderful thing the telephone.’

‘You remembered my name? I am gratified.’

‘Well, I didn’t exactly remember your name,’ said Sir Roderick. ‘Names, you know, have never been my strong point. Never forget a face,’ he ended