Agatha Christie - Parker Pyne Investigates

Both men agreed.

"You, General?"

"I never saw the young man until we crossed the Lebanon in the same car from Beirut."

"And that Armenian rat?"

"He couldn't be a pal," said O'Rourke with decision. "And no Armenian would have the nerve to kill anyone."

"I have, perhaps, a small additional piece of evidence," said Mr Parker Pyne.

He repeated the conversation he had had with Smethurst in the cafй at Damascus.

He made use of the phrase - "don't like to go back on a pal," said O'Rourke thoughtfully. "And he was worried."

"Has no one else anything to add?" asked Mr Parker Pyne.

The doctor coughed.

"It may have nothing to do with it -" he began.

He was encouraged.

"It was just that I heard Smethurst say to Hensley, 'You can't deny that there is a leakage in your department.'"

"When was this?"

"Just before starting from Damascus yesterday morning. I thought they were just talking shop. I didn't imagine - " He stopped.

"My friends, this is interesting," said the General. "Piece by piece you assemble the evidence."

"You said a sandbag, doctor," said Mr Parker Pyne. "Could a man manufacture such a weapon?"

"Plenty of sand," said the doctor drily. He took some up in his hand as he spoke.

"If you put some in a sock," began O'Rourke and hesitated.

Everyone remembered two short sentences spoken by Hensley the night before.

"Always carry spare socks. Never know."

There was silence. Then Mr Parker Pyne said quietly. "Squadron Leader Loftus, I believe Mr Hensley's spare socks are in the pocket of his overcoat which is now in the car."

Their eyes went for one minute to where a moody figure was pacing to and from on the horizon. Hensley had held aloof since the discovery of the dead man. His wish for solitude had been respected since it was known that he and the dead man had been friends.

Mr Parker Pyne went on.

"Will you get them and bring them here?"

The doctor hesitated.

"I don't like -" he muttered. He looked again at that pacing figure. "Seems a bit low down -"

"You must get them please," said Mr Parker Pyne. "The circumstances are unusual. We are marooned here. And we have got to know the truth. If you will fetch those socks I fancy we shall be a step nearer."

Loftus turned away obediently.

Mr Parker Pyne drew General Poli a little aside.

"General, I think it was you who sat across the aisle from Captain Smethurst."

"That is so."

"Did anyone get up and pass down the car?"

"Only the English lady, Miss Pryce. She went to the wash place at the back."

"Did she stumble at all?"

"She lurched a little with the movement of the car, naturally."

"She was the only person you saw moving about?"

"Yes."

The General looked at him curiously and said, "Who are you, I wonder? You take command, yet you are not a soldier."

"I have seen a good deal of life," said Mr Parker Pyne.

"You have traveled, eh?"

"No," said Mr Parker Pyne. "I have sat in an office."

Loftus returned carrying the socks. Mr Parker Pyne took them from him and examined them. To the inside of one of them wet sand still adhered.

Mr Parker Pyne drew a deep breath.

"Now I know," he said.

All their eyes went to the pacing figure on the horizon.

"I should like to look at the body if I may," said Mr Parker Pyne.

He went with the doctor to where Smethurst's body had been laid down covered with a tarpaulin.

The doctor removed the cover.

"There's nothing to see," he said.

But Mr Parker Pyne's eyes were fixed on the dead man's tie.

"So Smethurst was an old Etonian," he said. Loftus looked surprised.

Then Mr Parker Pyne surprised him still further.

"What do you know of young Williamson?" he asked.

"Nothing at all. I only met him at Beirut. I'd come from Egypt. But why? Surely -"

"Well, it's on his evidence we're going to hang a man, isn't it?" said Mr Parker Pyne cheerfully. "One's got to be careful."

He still seemed to be interested in the dead man's tie and collar. He unfastened the studs and removed the collar. Then he uttered an exclamation.

"See that?"

On the back of the collar was a small round blood-stain.

He peered closer down at the uncovered neck.

"This man wasn't killed by a blow on the head, doctor," he said briskly. "He was stabbed - at the base of the skull. You can just see the tiny puncture."

"And I missed it!"

"You'd got your preconceived notion," said Mr Parker Pyne apologetically. "A blow on the head. It's easy enough to miss this. You can hardly see the wound. A quick stab with a small sharp instrument and death would be instantaneous. The victim wouldn't even cry out."

"Do you mean a stiletto? You think the General -"

"Italians and stilettos go together in the popular fancy - Hullo, here comes a car!"

A touring car had appeared over the horizon.

"Good," said O'Rourke as he came up to join them. "The ladies can go on in that."

"What about our murderer?" asked Mr Parker Pyne.

"You mean Hensley -"

"No, I don't mean Hensley," said Mr Parker Pyne. "I happen to know that Hensley's innocent."

"You - but why?"

"Well, you see, he had sand in his sock."

O'Rourke stared.

"I know, my boy," said Mr Parker Pyne gently, "it doesn't sound like sense, but it is. Smethurst wasn't hit on the head, you see, he was stabbed."

He paused a minute and then went on.

"Just cast your mind back to the conversation I told you about - the conversation we had in the cafй. You picked out what was, to you, the significant phrase. But it was another phrase that struck me. When I said to him that I did the Confidence trick he said 'What, you too?' Doesn't that strike you as rather curious? I don't know that you'd describe a series of speculations from a Department as a 'Confidence Trick.' Confidence Trick is more descriptive of someone like the absconding Mr Samuel Long, for instance."

The doctor started O'Rourke said. "Yes - perhaps..."

"I said in jest that perhaps the absconding Mr Long was one of our party. Suppose that that is the truth."

"What - but it's impossible!"

"Not at all. What do you know of people besides their passports and the accounts they give of themselves. Am I really Mr Parker Pyne? Is General Poli really an Italian General? And what of the masculine Miss Pryce senior who needs a shave most distinctly."

"But he - but Smethurst - didn't know Long?"

"Smethurst is an old Etonian. Long, also, was at Eton. Smethurst may have known him although he didn't tell you so. He may have recognised him amongst us. And if so, what is he to do? He has a simple mind, and he worries over the matter. He decides at last to say nothing till Baghdad is reached. But after that he will hold his tongue no longer."

"You think one of us is Long," said O'Rourke, still dazed.

He drew a deep breath.

"It must be the Italian fellow - it must. Or what about the Armenian?"

"To make up as a foreigner and get a foreign passport is really much more difficult than to remain English," said Mr Parker Pyne.

"Miss Pryce?" cried O'Rourke incredulously.

"No," said Mr Parker Pyne. "This is our man!"

He laid what seemed an almost friendly hand on the shoulder of the man beside him. But there was nothing friendly in his voice, and the fingers were vice-like in their grip.

"Squadron Leader Loftus or Mr Samuel Long, it doesn't matter which you call him!"

"But that's impossible - impossible," spluttered O'Rourke. "Loftus has been in the service for years."

"But you've never met him before, have you? He was a stranger to all of you. It isn't the real Loftus, naturally."

The quiet man found his voice.

"Clever of you to guess. How did you, by the way?"