I was dumbfounded. Up to the last, I had not been able bring myself to
believe Jack Renauld guilty. I had expected a ringing proclamation of
his innocence when Poirot challenged him. But now, watching him as he
stood, white and limp against the wall, and hearing the damning
admission fall from his lips, I doubted no longer.
But Poirot had turned to Giraud.
“What are your grounds for arresting him?”
“Do you expect me to give them to you?”
“As a matter of courtesy, yes.”
Giraud looked at him doubtfully. He was torn between a desire to refuse
rudely and the pleasure of triumphing over his adversary.
“You think I have made a mistake, I suppose?” he sneered.
“It would not surprise me,” replied Poirot, with a soupçon of malice.
Giraud’s face took on a deeper tinge of red.
“_Eh bien___, come in here. You shall judge for yourself.” He flung
open the door of the _salon___, and we passed in, leaving Jack Renauld
in the care of the two other men.
“Now, M. Poirot,” said Giraud laying his hat on the table, and speaking
with the utmost sarcasm, “I will treat you to a little lecture on
detective work. I will show you how we moderns work.”
“_Bien!___” said Poirot, composing himself to listen. “I will show you
how admirably the Old Guard can listen,” and he leaned back and closed
his eyes, opening them for a moment to remark. “Do not fear that I
shall sleep. I will attend most carefully.”
“Of course,” began Giraud, “I soon saw through all that Chilian
tomfoolery. Two men were in it—but they were not mysterious foreigners!
All that was a blind.”
“Very creditable so far, my dear Giraud,” murmured Poirot. “Especially
after that clever trick of theirs with the match and cigarette end.”
Giraud glared, but continued:
“A man must have been connected with the case, in order to dig the
grave. There is no man who actually benefits by the crime, but there
was a man who thought he would benefit. I heard of Jack Renauld’s
quarrel with his father, and of the threats that he had used. The
motive was established. Now as to means. Jack Renauld was in
Merlinville that night. He concealed the fact—which turned suspicion
into certainty. Then we found a second victim—_stabbed with the same
dagger___. We know when that dagger was stolen. Captain Hastings here
can fix the time. Jack Renauld, arriving from Cherbourg, was the only
person who could have taken it. I have accounted for all the other
members of the household.”
Poirot interrupted:
“You are wrong. There is one other person who could have taken the
dagger.”
“You refer to M. Stonor? He arrived at the front door, in an automobile
which had brought him straight from Calais. Ah, believe me, I have
looked into everything. M. Jack Renauld arrived by train. An hour
elapsed between his arrival, and the moment he presented himself at the
house. Without doubt, he saw Captain Hastings and his companion leave
the shed, slipped in himself and took the dagger, stabbed his
accomplice in the shed—”
“Who was already dead!”
Giraud shrugged his shoulders.
“Possibly he did not observe that. He may have judged him to be
sleeping. Without doubt they had a rendezvous. In any case he knew this
apparent second murder would greatly complicate the case. It did.”
“But it could not deceive M. Giraud,” murmured Poirot.
“You mock yourself at me. But I will give you one last irrefutable
proof. Madame Renauld’s story was false—a fabrication from beginning to
end. We believe Madame Renauld to have loved her husband—_yet she lied
to shield his murderer___. For whom will a woman lie? Sometimes for
herself, usually for the man she loves, _always___ for her children.
That is the last—the irrefutable proof. You cannot get round it.”
Giraud paused, flushed and triumphant. Poirot regarded him steadily.
“That is my case,” said Giraud. “What have you to say to it?”
“Only that there is one thing you have failed to take into account.”
“What is that?”
“Jack Renauld was presumably acquainted with the planning out of the
golf course. He knew that the body would be discovered almost at once,
when they started to dig the bunker.”
Giraud laughed out loud.
“But it is idiotic what you say there! He wanted the body to be found!
Until it was found, he could not presume death, and would have been
unable to enter into his inheritance.”