Hercule Poirot's Casebook

'Education's bad enough, then debts on top of it. Mind you, this lad's not a bad lad.'

Poirot listened sympathetically. He heard a lot of the Air Marshal's accumulated grievances. The lack of grit and stamina in the younger generation, the fantastic way in which mothers spoilt their children and always took their side, the curse of gambling once it got hold of a woman, the folly of playing for higher stakes than you could afford. It was couched.

in general terms, Sir George did not allude directly to either his wife or his son, but his natural transparency made his generalizations very easy to see through.

He broke off suddenly.

'Sorry, mustn't take up your time with something that's right off the subject, especially at this hour of the night - or rather, morning.'

He stifled a yawn.

'I suggest, Sir George, that you should go to bed. You have been most kind and helpful.'

'Right, think I will mm in. You really think there is a chance of gettirsg the plans back?'

Poirot shrugged his shoulders.

'I mean to try. I do not see why not.'

'Well, I'll be off. Goodight.'

He left the room.

Poirot remained in his chair staring thoughtfully at the ce'fling, then he took out a LITTLE notebook and turning to a clean page, he wrote:

Mrs Vanderlyn?

Lady Julia Carfington?

Mrs Macatta?

Reggie Carrington?

Mr Carlile?

Underneath he wrote:

Mrs Vanderlyn and Mr Reggie Carrington?

Mrs Vandefiyn and Lady Julia?

Mrs Vanderlyn and Mr Carlile?

He shook his head in a dissatisfied manner, murmuring:

'C’est plus simple que ça.'

Then he added a few short sentences.

Did Lord Mayfield see a 'shadow'? If not, why did he say he did? Did Sir George see anything? He was positive he had seen nothing AFTER I examined flower-bed. Note: Lord Mayfield near-sighted can read without glasses but has to use a monocle tt look across a room. Sir George is long-sighted. Therefore, from far end of the terrace, his sight is more to be depended upon that, Lord Mayfield's. Yet Lord Mayfield is very positive that he DID see something and is quite unshaken by his friend's denial. Can anyone be quite as above suspicion as Mr Carlile appears to be? Lord Mayfield is very emphatic as to his innocence. Too much so. Why? Because he secretly suspects ban and is ashamed of h suspicions? Or because he definitely suspects some other person. is to say, some person OTHER than Mrs Vanderlyn?

He put the notebook away.

Then, getting up, he were along to the study.

CHAPTER 5

Lord Mayfield was seated at his desk when Poirot entered the study. He swung round, laid down his pen, and looked up inquiringly.

'Well, M. Poirot, had your interview with Carrington?'

Poirot smiled and sat down.

'Yes, Lord Mayfield. He cleared up a point that had puzzled 'What was that?'

'The reason for Mrs Vanderlyn's presence here. You comprehend, I thought it possible -'

Mayfield was quick to realize the cause of Poirot's somewhat exaggerated embarrassment.

'You thought I had a weakness for the lady? Not at all. Far from it. Funnily enough, Carrington thought the same.'

'Yes, he has told me of the conversation he held with the subject.'

Lord Mayfield looked rather rueful.

'My little scheme didn't come off. Always annoying to admit that a Woman has got the better of you.'

'Ah, but she has not got the better of you yet, Mayfield.'

'Do you think we may yet win? Well, I'm glad to hear you so. I'd like to think it was true.'

He sighed.

'I feel I've acted like a complete fool - so pleased with my stratagem for entrapping the lady.'

Hercule Poirot said, as he lit one of his tiny cigarettes:

'What was your stratagem exactly, Lord Mayfield?'

'Well,' Lord Mayfield hesitated. 'I hadn't exactly got down to details.'

'You didn't discuss it with anyone?'

'No.'

'Not even with Mr Carlile?'

'No.'

Poirot smiled.

'You prefer to play a lone hand, Lord Mayfield.'

'I have usually found it the best way,' said the other a little grimly.

'Yes, you are wise. Trust no one. But you did mention the matter to Sir George Carrinon'

'Simply because I realized that the dear fellow was seriously perturbed about me.'

Lord Mayfield smiled at the remembrance.

'He is an old friend of yours?'

'Yes. I have known him for over twenty years.'

'And his wife?'

'I have known his wife also, of course.'

'But (pardon me if I am impertinent) you are not on the same terms of intimacy with her?'

'I don't really see wheat my personal relationships to people has to do with the matter in hand, M. Poirot.'

'But I think, Lord Mayfield, that they may have a good deal to do with it. You agreed, did you not, that my theory of someone in the drawing-room was a possible one?'

'Yes. In fact, I agree with you that that is what must have happened.'

'We will not say "must." That is too self-confident a word.

But if that theory of mine is true, who do you think the person in the drawing-room could have been?'

'Obviously Mrs Vanderlyn. She had been back there once for a book. She could have come back for another book, or a handbag, or a dropped handkerchief- one of a dozen feminine excuses. She arranges with her maid to scream and get Carlile away from the study. Then she slips in and out by the windows as you said.'

'You forget it could not have been Mrs Vanderlyn. Carlile heard her call the maid from upstairs while he was talking to the girl.'

Lord Mayfield bit his lip.

'True. I forgot that.' He looked thoroughly annoyed.

'You see,' said Poirot gently. 'We progress. We have first the simple explanation of a thief who comes from outs/de and makes off with the booty. A very convenient theory as I said at the time, too convenient to be readily accepted. We have disposed of that. Then we come to the theory of the foreign agent, Mrs Vanderlyn, and that again seems to fit together beautifully up to a certain point. But now it looks as though that, too, was too easy - too convenient - to be accepted.'

'You'd wash Mrs Vanderlyn out of it altogether?'

'It was not Mrs Vanderlyn in the drawing-room. It may have been an ally of Mrs Vanderlyn's who committed the theft, but it is just possible that it was committed by another person altogether. If so, we have to consider the question of motive.'

'Isn't this rather far-fetched, M. Poirot?'

'I do not think so. Now what motives could there be? There is the motive of money. The papers may have been stolen with the object of turning them into cash. That is the simplest motive to consider. But the motive might possibly be something quite different.'

'Such as -'

Poirot said slowly:

'It might have been done definitely with the idea or damaging someone.'

'Who?'

'Possibly Mr Carlile. He would be the obvious suspect. Bm there might be more to it than that. The men who control the destiny of a country, Lord Mayfield, are particularly vulnerable to displays of popular feeling.'

'Meaning that the theft was aimed at damaging me?'

Poirot nodded.

'I think I am correct in saying, Lord Mayfield, that about five years ago you passed through a somewhat trying time. You were suspected of friendship with a European Power at that time bitterly unpopular with the electorate of this country.'

'Quite true, M. Poirot.'

'A statesman in these days has a difficult task. He has to pursue the policy he deems advantageous to his country, but he has at the same time to recognize the force of popular feeling.