The Abc Murders by Agatha Christie

Author:Agatha Christie [Christie, Agatha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: detective
Publisher: http://english-e-books.net/
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

A Sick Lady

Poirot returned to his seat and sat down.

'It is unfortunate that she is so intelligent,' he said quietly.

'Megan Barnard. Mademoiselle Megan. "Words," she says. She realises that there is no meaning in anything I am saying. Nobody else noticed.

'Didn't you mean what you said?'

'I simply said the same thing many times.'

'But why?'

'Eh bien - to start - shall we say - the conversations. And there is something else, Hastings. Murder can often help people find romance.'

'Poirot! I cried. I was shocked. 'I'm sure none of these people was thinking of anything except -'

'Did you see how Franklin Clarke suddenly bent forward and looked at Mademoiselle Megan? And did you also notice how annoyed Mademoiselle Thora Grey was about it? And Mr Donald Fraser, he -'

'Poirot,' I said. 'You have a very romantic mind.'

Suddenly the door opened. To my great surprise, Thora Grey entered.

'Forgive me for coming back,' she said. 'But there was something that I think I would like to tell you, Monsieur Poirot

'Certainly, mademoiselle. Please sit down.'

Thora Grey sat down and began to speak, choosing her words carefully.

'Mr Clarke told you that I decided to leave Combeside. He is a very kind and loyal person. But it is not quite like that. Lady Clarke wished me to leave. She is very ill, and her brain is confused because of the drugs they give her. The drugs make her suspicious and imaginative. She started to dislike me and told me to leave the house.'

I admired the girl's honesty.

'It's very good of you to come and tell us this,' I said.

'It's always better to be honest she said with a little smile. 'It was rather a shock to me,' she said sadly. 'I had no idea Lady Clarke disliked me so much. In fact, I always thought she was rather fond of me.' She got up. 'That's all that I came to say. Goodbye.'

I went downstairs with her.

When I came back, I said, 'I think that was very brave of her.'

'Do you know,' said Poirot, 'I am sure that already, in our conversations this afternoon, something important was said. It is strange - I do not know exactly what it was... something that reminded me of something which I had already seen or heard or noted...'

'Something at Churston?'

'No, not at Churston... before that... It doesn't matter. I will remember.'

A few days later we went down to Combeside again to see Lady Clarke. It was a September day at the beginning of autumn. There was a deep sadness surrounding the house. The downstairs rooms were closed. We were shown into a small room where a hospital nurse came to meet us.

'Monsieur Poirot?' she asked. 'I'm Nurse Capstick'

'How is Lady Clarke ? asked Poirot.

'Not bad. One can't hope for much improvement, of course, but some new treatment has made things a little easier for her.'

'I suppose her husband's death was a terrible shock?' asked Poirot.

'Well, Monsieur Poirot,' said the nurse, 'Lady Clarke doesn't always know what's happening because of the drugs.

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.