Agatha Christie - Murder in Mesopotamia

‘I thought it possible that there was some discreditable incident, perhaps a criminal incident, in Mr Mercado’s past which his wife had somehow or other succeeded in hushing up. Nevertheless his career hung on a thread. If anything of this past incident were bruited about, Mr Mercado would be ruined. His wife was always on the watch. But there was Mrs Leidner to be reckoned with. She had a sharp intelligence and a love of power. She might even induce the wretched man to confide in her. It would just have suited her peculiar temperament to feel she knew a secret which she could reveal at any minute with disastrous effects.

‘Here, then, was a possible motive for murder on the part of the Mercados. To protect her mate, Mrs Mercado, I felt sure, would stick at nothing! Both she and her husband had had the opportunity – during that ten minutes when the courtyard was empty.’

Mrs Mercado cried out, ‘It’s not true!’

Poirot paid no attention.

‘I next considered Miss Johnson. Was she capable of murder?

‘I thought she was. She was a person of strong will and iron self-control. Such people are constantly repressing themselves – and one day the dam bursts! But if Miss Johnson had committed the crime it could only be for some reason connected with Dr Leidner. If in any way she felt convinced that Mrs Leidner was spoiling her husband’s life, then the deep unacknowledged jealousy far down in her would leap at the chance of a plausible motive and give itself full rein.

‘Yes, Miss Johnson was distinctly a possibility.

‘Then there were the three young men.

‘First Carl Reiter. If, by any chance, one of the expedition staff was William Bosner, then Reiter was by far the most likely person. But if he was William Bosner, then he was certainly a most accomplished actor! If he were merely himself, had he any reason for murder?

‘Regarded from Mrs Leidner’s point of view, Carl Reiter was far too easy a victim for good sport. He was prepared to fall on his face and worship immediately. Mrs Leidner despised undiscriminating adoration – and the door-mat attitude nearly always brings out the worst side of a woman. In her treatment of Carl Reiter Mrs Leidner displayed really deliberate cruelty. She inserted a gibe here – a prick there. She made the poor young man’s life a hell to him.’

Poirot broke off suddenly and addressed the young man in a personal, highly confidential manner.

‘Mon ami, let this be a lesson to you. You are a man. Behave, then, like a man! It is against Nature for a man to grovel. Women and Nature have almost exactly the same reactions! Remember it is better to take the largest plate within reach and fling it at a woman’s head than it is to wriggle like a worm whenever she looks at you!’

He dropped his private manner and reverted to his lecture style.

‘Could Carl Reiter have been goaded to such a pitch of torment that he turned on his tormentor and killed her? Suffering does queer things to a man. I could not besure that it was not so!

‘Next William Coleman. His behaviour, as reported by Miss Reilly, is certainly suspicious. If he was the criminal it could only be because his cheerful personality concealed the hidden one of William Bosner. I do not think William Coleman, as William Coleman, has the temperament of a murderer. His faults might lie in another direction. Ah! perhaps Nurse Leatheran can guess what they would be?’

How did the man do it? I’m sure I didn’t look as though I was thinking anything at all.

‘It’s nothing really,’ I said, hesitating. ‘Only if it’s to be all truth, Mr Coleman did say once himself that he would have made a good forger.’

‘A good point,’ said Poirot. ‘Therefore if he had come across some of the old threatening letters, he could have copied them without difficulty.’

‘Oy, oy, oy!’ called out Mr Coleman. ‘This is what they call a frame-up.’

Poirot swept on.

‘As to his being or not being William Bosner, such a matter is difficult of verification. But Mr Coleman has spoken of a guardian – not of a father – and there is nothing definitely to veto the idea.’

‘Tommyrot,’ said Mr Coleman. ‘Why all of you listen to this chap beats me.’

‘Of the three young men there remains Mr Emmott,’ went on Poirot. ‘He again might be a possible shield for the identity of William Bosner. Whatever personal reasons he might have for the removal of Mrs Leidner I soon realized that I should have no means of learning them from him. He could keep his own counsel remarkably well, and there was not the least chance of provoking him nor of tricking him into betraying himself on any point. Of all the expedition he seemed to be the best and most dispassionate judge of Mrs Leidner’s personality. I think that he always knew her for exactly what she was – but what impression her personality made on him I was unable to discover. I fancy that Mrs Leidner herself must have been provoked and angered by his attitude.

‘I may say that of all the expedition,as far as character and capacity were concerned, Mr Emmott seemed to me the most fitted to bring a clever and well-timed crime off satisfactorily.’

For the first time, Mr Emmott raised his eyes from the toes of his boots.

‘Thank you,’ he said.

There seemed to be just a trace of amusement in his voice.

‘The last two people on my list were Richard Carey and Father Lavigny.

‘According to the testimony of Nurse Leatheran and others, Mr Carey and Mrs Leidner disliked each other. They were both civil with an effort. Another person, Miss Reilly, propounded a totally different theory to account for their attitude of frigid politeness.

‘I soon had very little doubt that Miss Reilly’s explanation was the correct one. I acquired my certitude by the simple expedient of provoking Mr Carey into reckless and unguarded speech. It was not difficult. As I soon saw, he was in a state of high nervous tension. In fact he was – and is – very near a complete nervous breakdown. A man who is suffering up to the limit of his capacity can seldom put up much of a fight.

‘Mr Carey’s barriers came down almost immediately. He told me, with a sincerity that I did not for a moment doubt, that he hated Mrs Leidner.

‘And he was undoubtedly speaking the truth. He did hate Mrs Leidner. But why did he hate her?

‘I have spoken of women who have a calamitous magic. But men have that magic too. There are men who are able without the least effort to attract women. What they call in these days le sex appeal! Mr Carey had this quality very strongly. He was to begin with devoted to his friend and employer, and indifferent to his employer’s wife. That did not suit Mrs Leidner. She must dominate – and she set herself out to capture Richard Carey. But here, I believe, something entirely unforeseen took place. She herself for perhaps the first time in her life, fell a victim to an overmastering passion. She fell in love – really in love – with Richard Carey.

‘And he – was unable to resist her. Here is the truth of the terrible state of nervous tension that he has been enduring. He has been a man torn by two opposing passions. He loved Louise Leidner – yes, but he also hated her. He hated her for undermining his loyalty to his friend. There is no hatred so great as that of a man who has been made to love a woman against his will.

‘I had here all the motive that I needed. I was convinced thatat certain moments the most natural thing for Richard Carey to do would have been to strike with all the force of his arm at the beautiful face that had cast a spell over him.

‘All along I had felt sure that the murder of Louise Leidner was a crime passionnel. In Mr Carey I had found an ideal murderer for that type of crime.