Christie, Agatha - Mrs McGinty's Dead by Christie Agatha

Author:Christie, Agatha [Christie, Agatha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780061749865
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2011-11-23T21:06:27+00:00

Chapter 11

Superintendent Spence sat opposite Hercule Poirot and sighed.

‘I’m not saying you haven’t got anything, M. Poirot,’ he said slowly. ‘Personally, I think you have. But it’s thin. It’s terribly thin!’

Poirot nodded.

‘By itself it will not do. There must be more.’

‘My sergeant or I ought to have spotted that newspaper.’

‘No, no, you cannot blame yourself. The crime was so obvious. Robbery with violence. The room all pulled about, the money missing. Why should there be significance to you in a torn newspaper amongst the other confusion.’

Spence repeated obstinately:

‘I should have got that. And the bottle of ink—’

‘I heard of that by the merest chance.’

‘Yet it meant something to you—why?’

‘Only because of that chance phrase about writing a letter. You and I, Spence, we write so many letters—to us it is such a matter of course.’

Superintendent Spence sighed. Then he laid out on the table four photographs.

‘These are the photos you asked me to get—the original photos that the Sunday Comet used. At any rate they’re a little clearer than the reproductions. But upon my word, they’re not much to go upon. Old, faded—and with women the hair-do makes a difference. There’s nothing definite in any of them to go upon like ears or a profile. That cloche hat and that arty hair and the roses! Doesn’t give you a chance.’

‘You agree with me that we can discard Vera Blake?’

‘I should think so. If Vera Blake was in Broadhinny, everyone would know it—telling the sad story of her life seems to have been her speciality.’

‘What can you tell me about the others?’

‘I’ve got what I could for you in the time. Eva Kane left the country after Craig was sentenced. And I can tell you the name she took. It was Hope. Symbolic, perhaps?’

Poirot murmured:

‘Yes, yes—the romantic approach. “Beautiful Evelyn Hope is dead.” A line from one of your poets. I dare say she thought of that. Was her name Evelyn, by the way?’

‘Yes, I believe it was. But Eva was what she was known as always. And by the way, M. Poirot, now that we’re on the subject, the police opinion of Eva Kane doesn’t quite square with this article here. Very far from it.’

Poirot smiled.

‘What the police think—it is not evidence. But it is usually a very sound guide. What did the police think of Eva Kane?’

‘That she was by no means the innocent victim that the public thought her. I was quite a young chap at the time and remember hearing it discussed by my old Chief and Inspector Traill who was in charge of the case. Traill believed (no evidence, mind you) that the pretty little idea of putting Mrs Craig out of the way was all Eva Kane’s idea—and that she not only thought of it, but she did it. Craig came home one day and found his little friend had taken a short cut. She thought it would all pass off as natural death, I dare say. But Craig knew better. He got the wind up and disposed of the body in the cellar and elaborated the plan of having Mrs Craig die abroad.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.