Hercule Poirot - Christie Agatha (читать книгу онлайн бесплатно полностью без регистрации txt) 📗

Superintendent Sugden said gently bur firmly:

‘I rather fancy that we soon shall. We haven’t done any questioning of the household yet.’

Colonel Johnson cut in:

‘Look here, Sugden, one thing strikes me. Whoever turned that key from the outside must have had some knowledge of the job. That’s to say, he probably has had criminal experience. These sort of tools aren’t easy to manage.’

‘You mean it was a professional job, sir?’

‘That’s what I mean.’

‘It does seem like it,’ the other admitted. ‘Following that up, it looks as though there were a professional thief among the servants. That would explain the diamonds being taken and the murder would follow on logically from that.’

‘Well, anything wrong with that theory?’

‘It’s what I thought myself to begin with. But it’s difficult. There are eight servants in the house; six of them are women, and of those six, five have been here for four years and more. Then there’s the butler and the footman. The butler has been here for close on forty years-bit of a record that, I should say. The footman’s local, son of the gardener, and brought up here. Don’t see very well how he can be a professional. The only other person is Mr Lee’s valet attendant. He’s comparatively new, but he was out of the house-still is-went out just before eight o’clock.’

Colonel Johnson said:

‘Have you got a list of just who exactly was in the house?’

‘Yes, sir. I got it from the butler.’ He took out his note-book. ‘Shall I read it to you?’

‘Please, Sugden.’

‘Mr and Mrs Alfred Lee. Mr George Lee, M.P., and his wife, Mr Henry Lee, Mr and Mrs David Lee. Miss’-the superintendent paused a little, taking the words carefully-‘Pilar’-he pronounced it like a piece of architecture-‘Estravados. Mr Stephen Farr. Then for the servants: Edward Tressilian, butler. Walter Champion, footman. Emily Reeves, cook. Queenie Jones, kitchenmaid. Gladys Spent, head housemaid. Grace Best, second housemaid. Beatrice Moscombe, third housemaid. Joan Kench, betweenmaid. Sydney Horbury, valet attendant.’ 

‘That’s the lot, eh?’

‘That’s the lot, sir.’

‘Any idea where everybody was at the time of the murder?’

‘Only roughly. As I told you, I haven’t questioned anybody yet. According to Tressilian, the gentlemen were in the dining-room still. The ladies had gone to the drawing-room. Tressilian had served coffee. According to his statement, he had just got back to his pantry when he heard a noise upstairs. It was followed by a scream. He ran out into the hall and upstairs in the wake of the others.’

Colonel Johnson said:

‘How many of the family live in the house, and who are just staying here?’

‘Mr and Mrs Alfred Lee live here. The others are just visiting.’

Johnson nodded.

‘Where are they all?’

‘I asked them to stay in the drawing-room until I was ready to take their statements.’

‘I see. Well, we’d better go upstairs and take a look at the doings.’

The superintendent led the way up the broad stairs and along the passage.

As he entered the room where the crime had taken place, Johnson drew a deep breath. 

‘Pretty horrible,’ he commented.

He stood for a minute studying the overturned chairs, the smashed china, and the blood-bespattered debris.

A thin elderly man stood up from where he had been kneeling by the body and gave a nod.

‘Evening, Johnson,’ he said. ‘Bit of a shambles, eh?’

‘I should say it was. Got anything for us, doctor?’

The doctor shrugged his shoulders. He grinned.

‘I’ll let you have the scientific language at the inquest! Nothing complicated about it. Throat cut like a pig. He bled to death in less than a minute. No sign of the weapon.’

Poirot went across the room to the windows. As the superintendent had said, one was shut and bolted. The other was open about four inches at the bottom. A thick patent screw of the kind known many years ago as an anti-burglar screw secured it in that position.

Sugden said: ‘According to the butler, that window was never shut wet or fine. There’s a linoleum mat underneath it in case rain beat in, but it didn’t much, as the overhanging roof protects it.’

Poirot nodded.

He came back to the body and stared down at the old man.

The lips were drawn back from the bloodless gums in something that looked like a snarl. The fingers were curved like claws. 

Poirot said:

‘He does not seem a strong man, no.’

The doctor said:

‘He was pretty tough, I believe. He’d survived several pretty bad illnesses that would have killed most men.’

Poirot said: ‘I do not mean that. I mean, he was not big, not strong physically.’

‘No, he’s frail enough.’

Poirot turned from the dead man. He bent to examine an overturned chair, a big chair of mahogany. Beside it was a round mahogany table and the fragments of a big china lamp. Two other smaller chairs lay nearby, also the smashed fragments of a decanter and two glasses, a heavy glass paperweight was unbroken, some miscellaneous books, a big Japanese vase smashed in pieces, and a bronze statuette of a naked girl completed the debris.

Poirot bent over all these exhibits, studying them gravely, but without touching them. He frowned to himself as though perplexed.

The chief constable said:

‘Anything strike you, Poirot?’

Hercule Poirot sighed. He murmured:

‘Such a frail shrunken old man-and yet-all this.’

Johnson looked puzzled. He turned away and said to the sergeant, who was busy at his work:

‘What about prints?’

‘Plenty of them, sir, all over the room.’ 

‘What about the safe?’

‘No good. Only prints on that are those of the old gentleman himself.’

Johnson turned to the doctor.

‘What about bloodstains?’ he asked. ‘Surely whoever killed him must have got blood on him.’

The doctor said doubtfully:

‘Not necessarily. Bleeding was almost entirely from the jugular vein. That wouldn’t spout like an artery.’

‘No, no. Still, there seems a lot of blood about.’

Poirot said:

‘Yes, there is a lot of blood-it strikes one, that. A lot of blood.’

Superintendent Sugden said respectfully:

‘Do you-er-does that suggest anything to you, Mr Poirot?’

Poirot looked about him. He shook his head perplexedly.

He said:

‘There is something here-some violence…’ He stopped a minute, then went on: ‘Yes, that is it-violence…And blood-an insistence onblood…There is-how shall I put it?-there istoo much blood. Blood on the chairs, on the tables, on the carpet…The blood ritual? Sacrificial blood? Is that it? Perhaps. Such a frail old man, so thin, so shrivelled, so dried up-and yet-in his death-so much blood…’ 

His voice died away. Superintendent Sugden, staring at him with round, startled eyes, said in an awed voice:

‘Funny-that’s what she said-the lady…’

Poirot said sharply:

‘What lady? What was it she said?’

Sugden answered: ‘Mrs Lee-Mrs Alfred. Stood over there by the door and half whispered it. It didn’t make sense to me.’

‘What did she say?’

‘Something about who would have thought the old gentleman had so much blood in him…’

Poirot said softly:

‘ “Who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?”The words of Lady Macbeth. She said that…Ah, that is interesting…’

Alfred Lee and his wife came into the small study where Poirot, Sugden and the chief constable were standing waiting. Colonel Johnson came forward.

‘How do you do, Mr Lee? We’ve never actually met, but as you know, I’m chief constable of the county. Johnson’s my name. I can’t tell you how distressed I am by this.’ 

Alfred, his brown eyes like those of a suffering dog, said hoarsely:

‘Thank you. It’s terrible-quite terrible. I-this is my wife.’

Lydia said in her quiet voice:

‘It has been a frightful shock to my husband-to all of us-but particularly to him.’

Her hand was on her husband’s shoulder.

Colonel Johnson said:

‘Won’t you sit down, Mrs Lee? Let me introduce M. Hercule Poirot.’

Hercule Poirot bowed. His eyes went interestedly from husband to wife.

Lydia’s hands pressed gently on Alfred’s shoulder.

‘Sit down, Alfred.’

Alfred sat. He murmured:

‘Hercule Poirot. Now, who-who-?’

He passed his hand in a dazed fashion over his forehead.

Lydia Lee said:

‘Colonel Johnson will want to ask you a lot of questions, Alfred.’

The chief constable looked at her with approval. He was thankful that Mrs Alfred Lee was turning out to be such a sensible and competent woman.

Alfred said:

‘Of course. Of course…’ 

Johnson said to himself;

‘Shock seems to have knocked him out completely. Hope he can pull himself together a bit.’

Aloud he said:

‘I’ve got a list here of everybody who was in the house tonight. Perhaps you’ll tell me, Mr Lee, if it is correct.’

He made a slight gesture to Sugden and the latter pulled out his note-book and once more recited the list of names.

The businesslike procedure seemed to restore Alfred Lee to something more like his normal self. He had regained command of himself, his eyes no longer looked dazed and staring. When Sugden finished, he nodded in agreement.

‘That’s quite right,’ he said.

‘Do you mind telling me a little more about your guests? Mr and Mrs George Lee and Mr and Mrs David Lee are, I gather, relatives?’

‘They are my two younger brothers and their wives.’

‘They are staying here only?’

‘Yes, they came to us for Christmas.’

‘Mr Henry Lee is also a brother?’

‘Yes.’

‘And your two other guests? Miss Estravados and Mr Farr?’

‘Miss Estravados is my niece. Mr Farr is the son of my father’s one-time partner in South Africa.’ 

‘Ah, an old friend.’

Lydia intervened.

‘No, actually we have never seen him before.’

‘I see. But you invited him to stay with you for Christmas?’

Alfred hesitated, then looked towards his wife. She said clearly:

‘Mr Farr turned up quite unexpectedly yesterday. He happened to be in the neighbourhood and came to call upon my father-in-law. When my father-in-law found he was the son of his old friend and partner, he insisted on his remaining with us for Christmas.’