}"The truth is that I ought to have seen the whole thing very much sooner. I was handicapped by a serious}
}230 MRS. McGINTyS DEAD
error. I believed that I had been deliberately pushed
with the intention of sending me onto a railway line—
and that the person who had done so was the murderer
of Mrs McGinty. Now Robin Upward was practically
the only person in Broadhinny who could }not }have been
at Kilchester station at that time."}
}There was a sudden chuckle from Johnnie Summerhayes.}
}"Probably some old market woman with a basket. They do shove."}
}Poirot said:}
}"Actually, Robin Upward was too conceited to fear me at all. It is a characteristic of murderers. Fortunately, perhaps. For in this case there was very little evidence."}
}Mrs Oliver stirred.}
}"Do you mean to say," she demanded incredulously, "that Robin murdered his mother whilst I sat outside in the car, and that I hadn't the least idea of it? There wouldn't have been time!"}
}"Oh yes, there would. People's ideas of time are usually ludicrously wrong. Just notice sometime how swiftly a stage can be reset. In this case it was mostly a matter of props."}
}"Good theatre," murmured Mrs Oliver mechanically.
"Yes, it was pre-eminently a theatrical murder. All very much contrived."}
}"And I sat there in the car—and hadn't the least idea!"}
}"I am afraid," murmured Poirot, "that your woman's intuition was taking a day off...." }
} CHAPTER 27} }"I'm not going back to Breather & Scuttle," said Maude Williams. "They're a lousy firm anyway."
"And they have served their purpose."
What do you mean by that, M. Poirot?'
"Why did you come to this part of the world?"
"I suppose being Mr Knowall, you think you know?"
"I have a little idea."
"And what is this famous idea?"
Poirot was looking meditatively at Maude's hair.
"I have been very discreet," he said. "It has been assumed that the woman who went into Mrs Upward's house, the fair haired woman that Edna saw, was Mrs Carpenter, and that she has denied being there simply out of fright. Since it was Robin Upward who killed Mrs Upward, her presence has no more significance than that of Miss Henderson. But all the same I do not think she }was} there. I think, Miss Williams, that the woman Edna saw was }you."
}"Why me?" Her voice was hard.}
}Poirot countered with another question.
"Why were you so interested in Broadhinny? Why, when you went over there, did you ask Robin Upward for an autograph—you are not the autograph hunting type. What did you know about the Upwards? Why did you come to this part of the world in the first place?}
}231}
}232 MRS. McGINTY'S }DEAD}
}How did you know that Eva Kane died in Australia} }and the name she took when she left England?"}
}"Good at guessing, aren't you? Well, I've nothing to hide, not really."}
}She opened her handbag. From a worn notecase she pulled out a small newspaper cutting frayed with age. It showed the face that Poirot by now knew so well, the simpering face of Eva Kane.}
}Written across it were the words, }She killed my mother... .}
}Poirot handed it back to her.
"Yes, I thought so. Your real name is Craig?" Maude nodded.}
}"I was brought up by some cousins—very decent they were. But I was old enough when it all happened not to forget. I used to think about it a good deal. About }her. }She was a nasty bit of goods all right— children know! My father was just—weak. And besotted by her. But he took the rap. For something, I've always believed, that }she }did. Oh yes, I know he's an accessory after the fact—but it's not quite the same thing is it? }I }always meant to find out what had become of }her. }When I was grown up, I got detectives on to it. They traced her to Australia and finally reported that she was dead. She'd left a son—Evelyn Hope he called himself.}
}"Well, that seemed to close the account. But then I got pally with a young actor chap. He mentioned someone called Evelyn Hope who'd come from Australia, but who now called himself Robin Upward and who wrote plays. I was interested. One night Robin Upward was pointed out to me—and he was with his }mother. }So I thought that, after all, Eva Kane }wasn't }dead. Instead, she was queening it about with a packet of money.}
}"I got myself a job down here. I was curious—and}
}MRS. McGINTY'S DEAD 233
a bit more than curious. All right, I'll admit it, I thought
I'd like to get even with her in some way.... When you
brought up all this business about James Bentley, I
jumped to the conclusion that it was Mrs Upward who'd
killed Mrs McGinty. Eva Kane up to her tricks again. I
happened to hear from Michael West that Robin Upward and Mrs Oliver were coming over to this show at
the Cullenquay Rep. I decided to go to Broadhinny and
beard the woman. I meant—I don't quite know what I
meant. I'm telling you everything—I took a little pistol
I had in the war with me. To frighten her? Or more?
Honestly, I don't know... "}
}"Well, I got there. There was no sound in the house. The door was unlocked. I went in. You know how I found her. Sitting there dead, her face all purple and swollen. All the things I'd been thinking seemed silly and melodramatic. I knew that I'd never, really, want to kill anyone when it came to it. ... But I did realise that it might be awkward to explain what I'd been doing in the house. It was a cold night and I'd got gloves on, so I knew I hadn't left any fingerprints, and I didn't think for a moment anyone had seen me. That's all." She paused and added abruptly, "What are you going to} }do about it?"}
}"Nothing," said Hercule Poirot. "I wish you good} }luck in life, that is all."}
}Epilogue}
}Hercule Poirot and Superintendent Spence were celebrating at the }Vieille Grand'mere.}
}As coffee was served Spence leaned back in his chair and gave a deep sigh of repletion.}
}"Not at all bad grub here," he said approvingly. "A bit frenchified, perhaps, but after all where }can }you get a decent steak and chips nowadays?"}
}"I had been dining here on the evening you first came to me," said Poirot reminiscently.}
}"Ah, a lot of water under the bridge since then. I've got to hand it to you, M. Poirot. You did the trick all right." A slight smile creased his wooden countenance. "Lucky that young man didn't realise how very little evidence we'd really got. Why, a clever counsel would have made mincemeat of it! But he lost his head completely, and gave the show away. Spilt the beans and incriminated himself up to the hilt. Lucky for us!"}
}"It was not entirely luck.' said Poirot reprovingly. "I played him, as you play the big fish! He thinks I take the evidence against Mrs Summerhayes seriously —when it is not so, he suffers the reaction and goes to pieces. And besides, he is a coward. I whirl the sugar hammer and he thinks I mean to hit him. Acute fear always produces the truth."}
}"Lucky you didn't suffer from Major Summerhayes' reaction," said Spence with a grin. "Got a temper, he}
234
MRS. McGinty's DEAD 235
has, }and }quick on his feet. I only got between you just
in time. Has he forgiven you yet?"
"Oh yes, we are the firmest friends. And I have given Mrs Summerhayes a cookery book and have also taught her personally how to make an omelette. }Bon Dieu, }what I suffered in that house!"
He closed his eyes.
"Complicated business, the whole thing," ruminated Spence, uninterested in Poirot's agonised memories. "Just shows how true the old saying is that everyone's got something to hide. Mrs Carpenter, now, had a narrow squeak of being arrested for murder. If ever a woman acted guilty, she did, and all for what?"
"Eh bien, what?" asked Poirot curiously.
}"Just the usual business of a rather unsavoury past. She'd been a taxi dancer—and a bright girl with plenty of men friends! She wasn't a war widow when she came and settled down in Broadhinny. Only what they call nowadays an 'unofficial wife.' Well, of course all that wouldn't do for a stuffed shirt like Guy Carpenter, so she'd spun him a very different sort of tale. And she was frantic lest the whole thing would come out once we started poking round into people's origins."}
}He sipped his coffee, and then gave a low chuckle.}
}"Then take the Wetherbys, Sinister sort of house. Hate and malice. Awkward frustrated son of girl. And what's behind that? Nothing sinister. Just moneyl Plain pounds, shillings and pence."}
"As simple as that!"
}"The girl has the money—quite a lot of it. Left her by an aunt. So mother keeps tight hold of her in case she should want to marry. And stepfather loathes her because }she }has the dibs and pays the bills. I gather he himself has been a failure at anything he's tried. A mean cuss—and as for Mrs W., she's pure poison dissolved in sugar."}
236 MRS. McGINTY'S DEAD
}"I agree with you." Poirot nodded his head in a satisfied fashion. "It is fortunate that the girl has money. It makes her marriage to James Bentley much more easy to arrange."}
}Superintendent Spence looked surprised.
"Going to marry James Bentley? Deirdre Henderson? Who says so?"}
}"I say so," said Poirot. "I occupy myself with the affair. I have, now that our little problem is over, too much time on my hands. I shall employ myself in forwarding this marriage. As yet, the two concerned have no idea of such a thing. But they are attracted. Left to themselves, nothing would happen—but they have to reckon with Hercule Poirot. You will see! The affair will march."
Spence grinned.}
}"Don't mind sticking your fingers in other people's pies, do you?"}
}"Mon cher, }that does not come well from you," said Poirot reproachfully.}
}"Ah, you've got me there. All the same, James Bentley is a poor stick."}
}"Certainly he is a poor stick! At the moment he is positively aggrieved because he is not going to be hanged."}
}"He ought to be down on his knees with gratitude to you," said Spence.}
}"Say, rather, to you. But apparently he does not think so."}
}"Queer cuss."}
}"As you say, and yet at least two women have been prepared to take an interest in him. Nature is very unexpected."}
}"I thought it was Maude Williams you were going to pair off with him."}
}"He shall make his choice," said Poirot. "He shall}
}MRS. McGINTY'S DEAD 237}
—how do you say it?—award the apple. But I think that it is Deirdre Henderson that he will choose. Maude Williams has too much energy and vitality. With her he would retire even farther into his shell."
}"Can't think why either of them should want him!"}
}"The ways of Nature are indeed inscrutable."}
}"All the same, you'll have your work cut out. First} }bringing him up to the scratch—and then prising the }girl loose from poison puss mother—she'll fight you }tooth and claw!"}
}"Success is on the side of the big battalions."}
}"On the side of the big moustaches, I suppose you}
}mean."}
}Spence roared. Poirot stroked his moustache complacently and suggested a brandy.}
}"I don't mind if I do, M. Poirot."}
}Poirot gave the order.}
}"Ah," said Spence, "I knew there was something else I had to tell you. You remember the Rendells?"}
}"Naturally."}
}"Well, when we were checking up on him, something rather odd came to light. It seems that when his first wife died in Leeds where his practice was at that time, the Police there got some rather nasty anonymous letters about him. Saying, in effect, that he'd poisoned her. Of course people do say that sort of thing. She'd been attended by an outside doctor, reputable man, and he seemed to think her death was quite above board. There was nothing to go upon except the fact that they'd mutually insured their lives in each other's favour, and people do do that. . . . Nothing for us to go upon, as I say, and yet—I wonder? What do }you }think?"}
Poirot remembered Mrs Rendell's frightened air. Her mention of anonymous letters, and her insistence that she did aot believe anything they said. He remembered,
238 MRS. McGINTY'S }DEAD}
too, her certainty that his inquiry about Mrs McGinty was only a pretext.
}He said, "I should imagine that it was not only the Police who got anonymous letters."
"Sent them to her, too?"
"I think so. When I appeared in Broadhinny, she thought I was on her husband's track, and that the McGinty business was a pretext. Yes—and he thought so, too.... That explains it! It was Dr Rendell who tried to| push me under the train that night!"}
}"Think he'll have a shot at doing this wife in, too?'}
}"I think she would be wise not to insure her life in his favour," said Poirot drily. "But if he believes we have an eye on him he will probably be prudent."}
}"We'll do what we can. We'll keep an eye on our genial doctor, and make it clear we're doing so."
Poirot raised his brandy glass.
"To Mrs Oliver," he said.
"What put her into your head suddenly?"
"Woman's intuition," said Poirot.
There was silence for a moment, then Spence said slowly: "Robin Upward is coming up for trial next week. You know, Poirot, I can't help feeling doubtful—"}
}Poirot interrupted him with horror.
}"Mon Dieu! }You are not now doubtful about Robin Upward's guilt, are you? Do not say you want to start over again."}
}Superintendent Spence grinned reassuringly.
"Good Lord, no. }He's }a murderer all right!" He added: "Cocky enough for anythingl"}
Agatha Christie, Mrs. McGinty's Dead
(Series: Hercule Poirot # 30)
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