“Why, Poirot, it was you who remarked on that! The story of the masked
men, the ‘secret,’ the papers!”
Poirot smiled a little.
“Do not be so indignant, I beg of you. I repudiate nothing. The
similarity of the two stories links the two cases together inevitably.
But reflect now on something very curious. It is not Madame Daubreuil
who tells us this tale—if it were all would indeed be plain sailing—it
is Madame Renauld. Is she then in league with the other?”
“I can’t believe that,” I said slowly. “If it is so, she must be the
most consummate actress the world has ever known.”
“Ta-ta-ta,” said Poirot impatiently. “Again you have the sentiment, and
not the logic! If it is necessary for a criminal to be a consummate
actress, then by all means assume her to be one. But is it necessary? I
do not believe Madame Renauld to be in league with Madame Daubreuil for
several reasons, some of which I have already enumerated to you. The
others are self-evident. Therefore, that possibility eliminated, we
draw very near to the truth which is, as always, very curious and
interesting.”
“Poirot,” I cried, “what more do you know?”
“_Mon ami___, you must make your own deductions. You have ‘access to
the facts!’ Concentrate your grey cells. Reason—not like Giraud—but
like Hercule Poirot.”
“But are you _sure?___”
“My friend, in many ways I have been an imbecile. But at last I see
clearly.”
“You know everything?”
“I have discovered what M. Renauld sent for me to discover.”
“And you know the murderer?”
“I know one murderer.”
“What do you mean?”
“We talk a little at cross-purposes. There are here not one crime, but
two. The first I have solved, the second—_eh bien___, I will confess, I
am not sure!”
“But, Poirot, I thought you said the man in the shed had died a natural
death?”
“Ta-ta-ta.” Poirot made his favourite ejaculation of impatience. “Still
you do not understand. One may have a crime without a murderer, but for
two crimes it is essential to have two bodies.”
His remark struck me as so peculiarly lacking in lucidity that I looked
at him in some anxiety. But he appeared perfectly normal. Suddenly he
rose and strolled to the window.
“Here he is,” he observed.
“Who?”
“M. Jack Renauld. I sent a note up to the Villa to ask him to come
here.”
That changed the course of my ideas, and I asked Poirot if he knew that
Jack Renauld had been in Merlinville on the night of the crime. I had
hoped to catch my astute little friend napping, but as usual, he was
omniscient. He, too, had inquired at the station.
“And without doubt we are not original in the idea, Hastings. The
excellent Giraud, he also has probably made his inquiries.”
“You don’t think—” I said, and then stopped. “Ah, no, it would be too
horrible!”
Poirot looked inquiringly at me, but I said no more. It had just
occurred to me that though there were seven women directly or
indirectly connected with the case Mrs. Renauld, Madame Daubreuil and
her daughter, the mysterious visitor, and the three servants—there was,
with the exception of old Auguste who could hardly count, only one
man—Jack Renauld. _And a man must have dug a grave.…___
I had no time to develop further the appalling idea that had occurred
to me, for Jack Renauld was ushered into the room.
Poirot greeted him in a business-like manner.
“Take a seat, monsieur. I regret infinitely to derange you, but you
will perhaps understand that the atmosphere of the Villa is not too
congenial to me. M. Giraud and I do not see eye to eye about
everything. His politeness to me has not been striking and you will
comprehend that I do not intend any little discoveries I may make to
benefit him in any way.”
“Exactly, M. Poirot,” said the lad. “That fellow Giraud is an
ill-conditioned brute, and I’d be delighted to see some one score at
his expense.”
“Then I may ask a little favour of you?”
“Certainly.”
“I will ask you to go to the railway station and take a train to the
next station along the line, Abbalac. Ask there at the cloak-room
whether two foreigners deposited a valise there on the night of the
murder. It is a small station, and they are almost certain to remember.
Will you do this?”
“Of course I will,” said the boy, mystified, though ready for the task.
“I and my friend, you comprehend, have business elsewhere,” explained
Poirot. “There is a train in a quarter of an hour, and I will ask you
not to return to the Villa, as I have no wish for Giraud to get an
inkling of your errand.”
“Very well, I will go straight to the station.”
He rose to his feet. Poirot’s voice stopped him.
“One moment, M. Renauld, there is one little matter that puzzles me.
Why did you not mention to M. Hautet this morning that you were in
Merlinville on the night of the crime?”
Jack Renauld’s face went crimson. With an effort he controlled himself.
“You have made a mistake. I was in Cherbourg, as I told the examining
magistrate this morning.”
Poirot looked at him, his eyes narrowed, cat-like, until they only
showed a gleam of green.
“Then it is a singular mistake that I have made there—for it is shared
by the station staff. They say you arrived by the 11:40 train.”
For a moment Jack Renauld hesitated, then he made up his mind.
“And if I did? I suppose you do not mean to accuse me of participating
in my father’s murder?” He asked the question haughtily, his head
thrown back.
“I should like an explanation of the reason that brought you here.”
“That is simple enough. I came to see my fiancée, Mademoiselle
Daubreuil. I was on the eve of a long voyage, uncertain as to when I
should return. I wished to see her before I went, to assure her of my
unchanging devotion.”
“And you did see her?” Poirot’s eyes never left the other’s face.
There was an appreciable pause before Renauld replied. Then he said:
“Yes.”
“And afterwards?”
“I found I had missed the last train. I walked to St. Beauvais where I
knocked up a garage and got a car to take me back to Cherbourg.”
“St. Beauvais? That is fifteen kilometres. A long walk, M. Renauld.”
“I—I felt like walking.”
Poirot bowed his head as a sign that he accepted the explanation. Jack
Renauld took up his hat and cane and departed. In a trice Poirot jumped
to his feet.
“Quick, Hastings. We will go after him.”
Keeping a discreet distance behind our quarry, we followed him through
the streets of Merlinville. But when Poirot saw that he took the
turning to the station, he checked himself.
“All is well. He has taken the bait. He will go to Abbalac, and will
inquire for the mythical valise left by the mythical foreigners. Yes,
_mon ami___, all that was a little invention of my own.”
“You wanted him out of the way!” I exclaimed.
“Your penetration is amazing, Hastings! Now, if you please, we will go
up to the Villa Geneviève.”