‘I must confess-nothing whatever!’

‘Splendid!’ said Sugden with heavy sarcasm, returning them to his pocket. ‘Weare getting on!’

Poirot said:

‘Mrs George Lee, she recounts that the young lady stooped and picked these bagatelles up in a furtive manner. Should you say that that was true?’

Sugden considered the point.

‘N-o,’ he said hesitatingly. ‘I shouldn’t quite go as far as that. She didn’t look guilty-nothing of that kind-but she did set about it rather-well, quickly and quietly-if you know what I mean.And she didn’t know I’d seen her do it! That I’m sure of. She jumped when I rounded on her.’

Poirot said thoughtfully:

‘Then therewas a reason? But what conceivable reason could there have been? That little piece of rubber is quite fresh. It has not been used for anything. It can have no meaning whatsoever; and yet-’

Sugden said impatiently:

‘Well, you can worry about it if you like, Mr Poirot. I’ve got other things to think about.’

Poirot asked:

‘The case stands-where, in your opinion?’

Sugden took out his note-book.

‘Let’s get down tofacts. To begin with, there are the people whocouldn’t have done it. Let’s get them out of the way first-’

‘They are-?’

‘Alfred and Harry Lee. They’ve got a definite alibi. Also Mrs Alfred Lee, since Tressilian saw her in the drawing-room only about a minute before the row started upstairs. Those three are clear. Now for the others. Here’s a list. I’ve put it this way for clearness.’

He handed the book to Poirot.

???? At the time of the crime

???? George Lee?

???? Mrs George Lee?

???? David Lee playing piano in music-room

???? (confirmed by his wife)

???? Mrs David Lee in music-room (confirmed by husband)

???? Miss Estravados in her bedroom (no confirmation)

???? Stephen Farr in ballroom playing gramophone

???? (confirmed by three of staff

???? who could hear the music in

???? servants’ hall).

Poirot said, handing back the list:

‘And therefore?’

‘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; andeither Mr or Mrs David Lee could have killed him, but notboth.’

‘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 probablywas, since he was an acknowledged musician, but there’s nothing to say his wife was there tooexcept 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 manwho 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 afamily affair. It is a poison that works in the blood-it is intimate-it is deep-seated. There is here, I think,hate andknowledge…’

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 thepossibilities now-the people withopportunity. George Lee, Magdalene Lee, David Lee, Hilda Lee, Pilar Estravados, and I’ll add, Stephen Farr. Now we come tomotive. Who had amotive 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 hermy friend,’ said Poirot hastily. ‘Or I shall speak ofyour 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 specialpomade?’

‘Pomade? Good lord, no!’

‘What do you use?’

‘Use? Nothing at all. It-it justgrows.’

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 themotive 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.

‘And there’s one other person with a motive for keeping old Mr Lee alive-his son Harry. It’s true that he benefits under the will, but I don’t believehe was aware of the fact. Certainly couldn’t have beensure of it! The general impression seemed to be that Harry had been definitely cut out of his share of the inheritance at the time he cut loose. But now he was on the point of coming back into favour! It was all to his advantage that his father should make a new will. He wouldn’t be such a fool as to kill him now. Actually, as we know, hecouldn’t have done it. You see, we’re getting on; we’re clearing quite a lot of people out of the way.’

‘How true. Very soon there will be nobody left!’ 

Sugden grinned.

‘We’re not going as fast as that! We’ve got George Lee and his wife, and David Lee and Mrs David. They all benefit by the death, and George Lee, from all I can make out, is grasping about money. Moreover, his father was threatening to cut down supplies. So we’ve got George Lee with motive and opportunity!’

‘Continue,’ said Poirot.

‘And we’ve got Mrs George! As fond of money as a cat is fond of cream; and I’d be prepared to bet she’s heavily in debt at the minute! She was jealous of the Spanish girl. She was quick to spot that the other was gaining an ascendancy over the old man. She’d heard him say that he was sending for the lawyer. So she struck quickly. You could make out a case.’

‘Possibly.’

‘Then there’s David Lee and his wife. They inherit under the present will, but I don’t believe, somehow, that the money motive would be particularly strong in their case.’

‘No?’

‘No. David Lee seems to be a bit of a dreamer-not a mercenary type. But he’s-well, he’sodd. As I see it, there are three possible motives for this murder: There’s the diamond complication, there’s the will, and there’s-well-just plainhate.’

‘Ah, you see that, do you?’ 

Sugden said:

‘Naturally. It’s been present in my mind all along.If David Lee killed his father, I don’t think it was for money. And if he was the criminal it might explain the-well, the blood-letting!’

Poirot looked at him appreciatively.

‘Yes, I wondered when you would take that into consideration.So much blood -that is what Mrs Alfred said. It takes one back to ancient rituals-to blood sacrifice, to the anointing with the blood of the sacrifice…’

Sugden said, frowning:

‘You mean whoever did it was mad?’

‘Mon cher-there are all sorts of deep instincts in man of which he himself is unaware. The craving for blood-the demand for sacrifice!’

Sugden said doubtfully:

‘David Lee looks a quiet, harmless fellow.’

Poirot said:

‘You do not understand the psychology. David Lee is a man who lives in the past-a man in whom the memory of his mother is still very much alive. He kept away from his father for many years because he could not forgive his father’s treatment of his mother. He came here, let us suppose, to forgive.But he may not have been able to forgive…We do know one thing-that when David Lee stood by his father’s dead body, some part of him was appeased and satisfied. “The mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small.” Retribution! Payment! The wrong wiped out by expiation!’

Sugden gave a sudden shudder. He said:

‘Don’t talk like that, Mr Poirot. You give me quite a turn. It may be that it’s as you say. If so, Mrs David knows-and means to shield him all she knows how. I can imagine her doing that. On the other hand, I can’t imagine her being a murderess. She’s such a comfortable commonplace sort of woman.’