Hercule Poirot's Christmas

‘And therefore,’ said Sugden, ‘George Lee could have killed the old man. Mrs George Lee could have killed him. Pilar Estravados could have killed him; and either Mr or Mrs David Lee could have killed him, but no tboth.’

‘You do not, then, accept that alibi?’

Superintendent Sugden shook his head emphatically.

‘Not on your life! Husband and wife – devoted to each other! They may be in it together, or if one of them did it, the other is ready to swear to an alibi. I look at it this way: Someone was in the music-room playing the piano. Itmay have been David Lee. It probably was, since he was an acknowledged musician, but there’s nothing to say his wife was there too except her word and his. In the same way, itmay have been Hilda who was playing that piano while David Lee crept upstairs and killed his father! No, it’s an absolutely different case from the two brothers in the dining-room. Alfred Lee and Harry Lee don’t love each other. Neither of them would perjure himself for the other’s sake.’

‘What about Stephen Farr?’

‘He’s a possible suspect because that gramophone alibi is a bit thin. On the other hand, it’s the sort of alibi that’s really sounder than a good cast-iron dyed-in-the-wool alibi which, ten to one, has been faked up beforehand!’

Poirot bowed his head thoughtfully.

‘I know what you mean. It is the alibi of a man who did not know that he would be called upon to provide such a thing. ’ 

‘Exactly! And anyway, somehow, I don’t believe a stranger was mixed up in this thing.’

Poirot said quickly:

‘I agree with you. It is here a family affair. It is a poison that works in the blood – it is intimate – it is deep-seated. There is here, I think, hate and knowledge…’

He waved his hands.

‘I do not know – it is difficult!’

Superintendent Sugden had waited respectfully, but without being much impressed. He said:

‘Quite so, Mr Poirot. But we’ll get at it, never fear, with elimination and logic. We’ve got the possibilities now – the people with opportunity. George Lee, Magdalene Lee, David Lee, Hilda Lee, Pilar Estravados, and I’ll add, Stephen Farr. Now we come to motive. Who had a motive for putting old Mr Lee out of the way? There again we can wash out certain people. Miss Estravados, for one. I gather that as the will stands now, she doesn’t get anything at all. If Simeon Lee had died before her mother, her mother’s share would have come down to her (unless her mother willed it otherwise), but as Jennifer Estravados predeceased Simeon Lee, that particular legacy reverts to the other members of the family. So it was definitely to Miss Estravados’ interests to keep the old man alive. He’d taken a fancy to her; it’s pretty certain he’d have left her a good slice of money when he made a new will. She had everything to lose and nothing to gain by his murder. You agree to that?’

‘Perfectly.’

‘There remains, of course, the possibility that she cut his throat in the heat of a quarrel, but that seems extremely unlikely to me. To begin with, they were on the best of terms, and she hadn’t been here long enough to bear him a grudge about anything. It therefore seems highly unlikely that Miss Estravados has anything to do with the crime – except that you might argue that to cut a man’s throat is an unEnglish sort of thing to do, as your friend Mrs George put it?’

‘Do not call her my friend,’ said Poirot hastily. ‘Or I shall speak of your friend Miss Estravados, who finds you such a handsome man!’

He had the pleasure of seeing the superintendent’s official poise upset again. The police officer turned crimson. Poirot looked at him with malicious amusement.

He said, and there was a wistful note in his voice:

‘It is true that your moustache is superb…Tell me, do you use for it a special pomade?’

‘Pomade? Good lord, no!’

‘What do you use?’

‘Use? Nothing at all. It – it just grows.’

Poirot sighed.

‘You are favoured by nature.’ He caressed his own luxuriant black moustache, then sighed. ‘However expensive the preparation,’ he murmured, ‘to restore the natural colour does somewhat impoverish the quality of the hair.’

Superintendent Sugden, uninterested in hair-dressing problems, was continuing in a stolid manner:

‘Considering the motive for the crime, I should say that we can probably wash out Mr Stephen Farr. It’s just possible that there was some hanky-panky between his father and Mr Lee and the former suffered, but I doubt it. Farr’s manner was too easy and assured when he mentioned that subject. He was quite confident – and I don’t think he was acting. No, I don’t think we’ll find anything there.’

‘I do not think you will,’ said Poirot.