Hercule Poirot's Christmas

Lydia stopped and plucked at a bit of yew. Her face went a little paler. She said:

‘But that’s awful! It only leaves – the family!’

‘Exactly.’

‘M. Poirot, I can’t believe it!’

‘Madame, you can and you do believe it!’

She seemed about to protest. Then suddenly she smiled ruefully.

She said:

‘What a hypocrite one is!’

He nodded.

‘If you were to be frank with me, madame,’ he said, ‘you would admit that to you it seems quite natural that one of his family should murder your father-in-law.’

Lydia said sharply:

‘That’s really a fantastic thing to say, M. Poirot!’

‘Yes, it is. But your father-in-law was a fantastic person!’

Lydia said:

‘Poor old man. I can feel sorry for him now. When he was alive, he just annoyed me unspeakably!’

Poirot said: 

‘So I should imagine!’

He bent over one of the stone sinks.

‘They are very ingenious, these. Very pleasing.’

‘I’m glad you like them. It’s one of my hobbies. Do you like this Arctic one with the penguins and the ice?’

‘Charming. And this – what is this?’

‘Oh, that’s the Dead Sea – or going to be. It isn’t finished yet. You mustn’t look at it. Now this one is supposed to be Piana in Corsica. The rocks there, you know, are quite pink and too lovely where they go down into the blue sea. This desert scene is rather fun, don’t you think?’

She led him along. When they had reached the farther end she glanced at her wrist-watch.

‘I must go and see if Alfred is awake.’

When she had gone Poirot went slowly back again to the garden representing the Dead Sea. He looked at it with a good deal of interest. Then he scooped up a few of the pebbles and let them run through his fingers.

Suddenly his face changed. He held up the pebbles close to his face.

‘Sapristi!’ he said. ‘This is a surprise! Now what exactly does this mean?’

Part 5. December 26th

The chief constable and Superintendent Sugden stared at Poirot incredulously. The latter returned a stream of small pebbles carefully into a small cardboard box and pushed it across to the chief constable.

‘Oh, yes,’ he said. ‘It is the diamonds all right.’

‘And you found them where, did you say? In the garden?’

‘In one of the small gardens constructed by Madame Alfred Lee.’

‘Mrs Alfred?’ Sugden shook his head. ‘Doesn’t seem likely.’

Poirot said:

‘You mean, I suppose, that you do not consider it likely that Mrs Alfred cut her father-in-law’s throat?’

Sugden said quickly:

‘We know she didn’t do that. I meant it seemed unlikely that she pinched these diamonds.’ 

Poirot said:

‘One would not easily believe her a thief – no.’

Sugden said:

‘Anybody could have hidden them there.’

‘That is true. It was convenient that in that particular garden – the Dead Sea as it represents – there happened to be pebbles very similar in shape and appearance.’

Sugden said:

‘You mean she fixed it like that beforehand? Ready?’

Colonel Johnson said warmly:

‘I don’t believe it for a moment. Not for a moment. Why should she take the diamonds in the first place?’

‘Well, as to that–’ Sugden said slowly.

Poirot nipped in quickly:

‘There is a possible answer to that. She took the diamonds to suggest a motive for the murder. That is to say she knew that murder was going to be done though she herself took no active part in it.’

Johnson frowned.

‘That won’t hold water for a minute. You’re making her out to be an accomplice – but whose accomplice would she be likely to be? Only her husband’s. But as we know that he, too, had nothing to do with the murder, the whole theory falls to the ground.’

Sugden stroked his jaw reflectively.

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘that’s so. No, if Mrs Lee took the diamonds – and it’s a big if – it was just plain robbery, and it’s true she might have prepared that garden specially as a hiding-place for them till the hue and cry had died down. Another possibility is that of coincidence. That garden, with its similarity of pebbles, struck the thief, whoever he or she was, as an ideal hiding-place.’

Poirot said:

‘That is quite possible. I am always prepared to admit one coincidence.’

Superintendent Sugden shook his head dubiously.

Poirot said:

‘What is your opinion, Superintendent?’

The superintendent said cautiously:

‘Mrs Lee’s a very nice lady. Doesn’t seem likely that she’d be mixed up in any business that was fishy. But, of course, one never knows.’

Colonel Johnson said testily:

‘In any case, whatever the truth is about the diamonds, her being mixed up in the murder is out of the question. The butler saw her in the drawing-room at the actual time of the crime. You remember that, Poirot?’

Poirot said:

‘I had not forgotten that.’

The chief constable turned to his subordinate.

‘We’d better get on. What have you to report? Anything fresh?’

‘Yes, sir. I’ve got hold of some new information. To start with – Horbury. There’s a reason why he might be scared of the police.’

‘Robbery? Eh?’