Agatha Christie - Murder in Mesopotamia

Nobody had seen him come back from that stroll.

The big doors had been closed and barred at nine o’clock as usual. Nobody, however, remembered unbarring them in the morning. The two house-boys each thought the other one must have done the unfastening.

Had Father Lavigny ever returned the night before? Had he, in the course of his earlier walk, discovered anything of a suspicious nature, gone out to investigate it later, and perhaps fallen a third victim?

Captain Maitland swung round as Dr Reilly came up with Mr Mercado behind him.

‘Hallo, Reilly. Got anything?’

‘Yes. The stuff came from the laboratory here. I’ve just been checking up the quantities with Mercado. It’s H.C.L. from the lab.’

‘The laboratory – eh? Was it locked up?’

Mr Mercado shook his head. His hands were shaking and his face was twitching. He looked a wreck of a man.

‘It’s never been the custom,’ he stammered. ‘You see – just now – we’re using it all the time. I – nobody ever dreamt–’

‘Is the place locked up at night?’

‘Yes – all the rooms are locked. The keys are hung up just inside the living-room.’

‘So if anyone had a key to that they could get the lot.’

‘Yes.’

‘And it’s a perfectly ordinary key, I suppose?’

‘Oh, yes.’

‘Nothing to show whether she took it herself from the laboratory?’ asked Captain Maitland.

‘She didn’t,’ I said loudly and positively.

I felt a warning touch on my arm. Poirot was standing close behind me.

And then something rather ghastly happened.

Not ghastly in itself – in fact it was just the incongruousness that made it seem worse than anything else.

A car drove into the courtyard and a little man jumped out. He was wearing a sun helmet and a short thick trench coat.

He came straight to Dr Leidner, who was standing by Dr Reilly, and shook him warmly by the hand.

‘Vous voila, mon cher,’ he cried. ‘Delighted to see you. I passed this way on Saturday afternoon – en route to the Italians at Fugima. I went to the dig but there wasn’t a single European about and alas! I cannot speak Arabic. I had not time to come to the house. This morning I leave Fugima at five – two hours here with you – and then I catch the convoy on. Eh bien, and how is the season going?’

It was ghastly.

The cheery voice, the matter-of-fact manner, all the pleasant sanity of an everyday world now left far behind. He just bustled in, knowing nothing and noticing nothing – full of cheerful bonhomie.

No wonder Dr Leidner gave an inarticulate gasp and looked in mute appeal at Dr Reilly.

The doctor rose to the occasion.

He took the little man (he was a French archaeologist called Verrier who dug in the Greek islands, I heard later) aside and explained to him what had occurred.

Verrier was horrified. He himself had been staying at an Italian dig right away from civilization for the last few days and had heard nothing.

He was profuse in condolences and apologies, finally striding over to Dr Leidner and clasping him warmly by both hands.

‘What a tragedy! My God, what a tragedy! I have no words. Mon pauvre collegue.’

And shaking his head in one last ineffectual effort to express his feelings, the little man climbed into his car and left us.

As I say, that momentary introduction of comic relief into tragedy seemed really more gruesome than anything else that had happened.

‘The next thing,’ said Dr Reilly firmly, ‘is breakfast. Yes, I insist. Come, Leidner, you must eat.’

Poor Dr Leidner was almost a complete wreck. He came with us to the dining-room and there a funereal meal was served. I think the hot coffee and fried eggs did us all good, though no one actually felt they wanted to eat. Dr Leidner drank some coffee and sat twiddling his bread. His face was grey, drawn with pain and bewilderment.

After breakfast, Captain Maitland got down to things.

I explained how I had woken up, heard a queer sound and had gone into Miss Johnson’s room.

‘You say there was a glass on the floor?’

‘Yes. She must have dropped it after drinking.’

‘Was it broken?’

‘No, it had fallen on the rug. (I’m afraid the acid’s ruined the rug, by the way.) I picked the glass up and put it back on the table.’

‘I’m glad you’ve told us that. There are only two sets of fingerprints on it, and one set is certainly Miss Johnson’s own. The other must be yours.’

He was silent for a moment, then he said: ‘Please go on.’

I described carefully what I’d done and the methods I had tried, looking rather anxiously at Dr Reilly for approval. He gave it with a nod.

‘You tried everything that could possibly have done any good,’ he said. And though I was pretty sure I had done so, it was a relief to have my belief confirmed.

‘Did you know exactly what she had taken?’ Captain Maitland asked.

‘No – but I could see, of course, that it was a corrosive acid.’

Captain Maitland asked gravely: ‘Is it your opinion, nurse, that Miss Johnson deliberately administered this stuff to herself?’

‘Oh, no,’ I exclaimed. ‘I never thought of such a thing!’

I don’t know why I was so sure. Partly, I think, because of M. Poirot’s hints. His ‘murder is a habit’ had impressed itself on my mind. And then one doesn’t readily believe that anyone’s going to commit suicide in such a terribly painful way.

I said as much and Captain Maitland nodded thoughtfully. ‘I agree that it isn’t what one would choose,’ he said. ‘But if anyone were in great distress of mind and this stuff were easily obtainable it might be taken for that reason.’

‘Was she in great distress of mind?’ I asked doubtfully.

‘Mrs Mercado says so. She says that Miss Johnson was quite unlike herself at dinner last night – that she hardly replied to anything that was said to her. Mrs Mercado is quite sure that Miss Johnson was in terrible distress over something and that the idea of making away with herself had already occurred to her.’

‘Well, I don’t believe it for a moment,’ I said bluntly.

Mrs Mercado indeed! Nasty slinking little cat!

‘Then what do you think?’

‘I think she was murdered,’ I said bluntly.

He rapped out his next question sharply. I felt rather that I was in the orderly room.

‘Any reasons?’

‘It seems to me by far and away the most possible solution.’

‘That’s just your private opinion. There was no reason why the lady should be murdered?’

‘Excuse me,’ I said, ‘there was. She found out something.’

‘Found out something? What did she find out?’

I repeated our conversation on the roof word for word.

‘She refused to tell you what her discovery was?’

‘Yes. She said she must have time to think it over.’

‘But she was very excited by it?’

‘Yes.’

‘A way of getting in from outside.’ Captain Maitland puzzled over it, his brows knit. ‘Had you no idea at all of what she was driving at?’

‘Not in the least. I puzzled and puzzled over it but I couldn’t even get a glimmering.’

Captain Maitland said: ‘What do you think, M. Poirot?’

Poirot said: ‘I think you have there a possible motive.’

‘For murder?’

‘For murder.’

Captain Maitland frowned.

‘She wasn’t able to speak before she died?’

‘Yes, she just managed to get out two words.’

‘What were they?’

‘The window…’

‘The window?’ repeated Captain Maitland. ‘Did you understand to what she was referring?’

I shook my head.

‘How many windows were there in her bedroom?’

‘Just the one.’