Chapter 20 Chapter Twenty

Hercule Poirot paused in front of the large cast-iron gate. He looked along the winding drive ahead. The remaining golden-brown dead leaves were slowly falling from the trees. Primrose season was over. Poirot sighed, turned aside, and tapped lightly on the door of the little white porter's room. After a few minutes he heard footsteps inside, slow, hesitant steps, and Mrs. Folliat opened the door, and this time he was not surprised to see her old and frail. She said, "M. Poirot? You again?" "Can I go in?" "certainly." He goes in with her. She offered him tea and he declined, and then she asked in a calm voice:

"Why are you here?" "I think you can guess, ma'am." Her answer was oblique. "I'm very tired." "I know," he continued. "Three people have died by now, Heidi Stars, Marlene Tucker, and Old Model." She said suddenly: "Model? It was an accident, he fell off the pier, he was very old, half blind, and he was drinking in a tavern." "It's not an accident, Mordel knows too much." "What does he know?" "He knew a face, or the way he walked, or a voice—that sort of thing, I talked to him the first day I came here, and he told me all about the Folliat family—about Your father-in-law and your husband, and your son who was killed in the war. Only they didn't both die, did they? Your son Henry went down with his ship, but your second son, James, he wasn't killed, he fled. He might have been reported as 'missing believed dead' at first, and then you told everyone he was killed. It's nobody's business, no one doesn't believe it. Why would they Do not believe."

Poirot paused, then went on: "Don't think I have no sympathy for you, ma'am. Life has been hard for you, I know. You may have no delusions about your younger son, but he is your son after all, and you love him. You did everything you could to give him a new life. You took care of a young girl, an imbecile but very rich girl. Oh yes, she was rich. You told the outside world that her parents lost all their property , that she is poor, that you advised her to marry a rich man several years her senior. Why should anyone disbelieve your story? It is no one's business again, her parents and next of kin are dead, A law firm in Paris at the behest of Saint-Merville's lawyer. When she married, she took control of her estate. She, as you told me, was docile, warm, and easily swayed. Her husband She signs whatever papers she is asked to sign, and securities may be changed and resold several times, but in the end the desired financial results are achieved. Sir George Staces, your son's new status, becomes a Rich man and his wife became a poor man. It is not illegal to call yourself 'Sir', unless it is to cheat money, the title brings confidence - it implies, if not birth, then must be wealth. So rich Sir George Stars, older and changed in appearance, grew a beard, bought 'Nather House', and came to live where he belonged, although he had not lived there since he was a boy. After the devastation of war, none of those who remained could possibly have recognized him, but old Model did. He kept it a secret, but he said to me slyly at the time 'there's always a Folliat in Nassar In the house, it was a private joke of his own."

"That's all going well, or so you think. Your plan, I fully believe, ends here. Your son has wealth, his ancestral house, and despite his wife's intellect, she's a Beautiful, docile girl, and you hope he treats her well, that she's happy." Mrs. Folliat said in a low voice: "I thought it would be like that—I'd take care of Heidi and love her. It never occurred to me..." "It never occurred to you--and your son was careful not to tell you--that he was married to her when he married her. Oh, yes--we've searched all the records we know must exist. You His son married a girl in Rias de Italy, a girl from the underworld who he hid after fleeing. She didn't want to leave him, and he didn't intend to part with her. He used Heidi as a means of obtaining wealth. He promised the marriage, but in his own heart, he knew from the beginning what he was going to do."

"No, no, I don't believe it! I can't believe...that woman...that evil woman." Poirot continued indifferently: "He was determined to murder, and Hattie had no relatives and few friends. He brought her here as soon as they got back to England. The servants hardly saw her that first night, and the woman they saw the next morning Not Heidi, but his Italian wife who was made up as Heidi and behaved more or less like Heidi. And it could end there, the fake Heidi would live like the real Heidi for the rest of her life, although her intellect would undoubtedly Unexpected increase, due to vague so-called 'new cure'. The secretary, Miss Breuys, has learned that there is nothing wrong with Mrs. Stace's intellect."

"But then a completely unexpected thing happened. One of Heidi's cousins ​​wrote that he was going to come to England on a yacht trip. Although the cousin hadn't seen her for several years, he couldn't Been tricked by a counterfeit." "Strange," said Poirot, interrupting his narrative, "though it occurred to me that D'Souza might not be the real D'Souza, it never occurred to me that the truth of the matter was on the other hand—that is, that Heidi was not the real D'Souza. Heidi." He continued: "There could be a few different ways of dealing with that situation, Mrs Stacey might say she's sick and avoid the meeting, but if D'Souza stays in England for a long time she doesn't plan to keep avoiding her. And there's already another trouble Old Model, old and talkative, used to talk to his granddaughter. She was probably the only one who bothered to listen to him, and even she didn't believe most of what he said because she thought he was 'crazy'. But some of what he said about seeing 'the dead bodies of some women in the woods' and 'Sir George Stars is really Mr James' impressed her enough that she tentatively hinted at Sir George In doing so, of course, she signed her own death certificate. Sir George and his wife could not risk such word getting out, and I think he gave her a small sum to keep it quiet, and proceeded to draw up his plan.

"They worked out their plans very carefully. They already knew the date on which De Sousa would arrive at the helm, which coincided with the date chosen by the garden party. They arranged their plans so that Marlene would be killed and Mrs. Stace 'disappeared', leaving suspicion looming on D'Souza. Hence the reference to him as a 'bad guy' and the accusation: 'he killed'. Mrs. Staths is scheduled to disappear permanently (possibly conveniently with an unidentifiable body appeared at some point identified by Sir George), and then she switched to a new identity. In effect, 'Heidi' simply resumed her own Italian identity. She only had to play the double for a little over twenty-four hours The role was, with Sir George's complicity, easy. On the day of my arrival, 'Mrs. Stace' was supposed to remain in her room until just before tea. Except Sir George No one else has ever seen her in her room. In fact, she sneaks out, catches a bus or train to Exeter, and is in the company of another schoolgirl (several of whom there are during the season) Coming down from Exeter, she told her the story of her friend having a bad ham and beef pie. She came to the guest house, booked a bed, went out for an 'exploration', and by tea time, Mrs Stace It was in the drawing room, Mrs. Stace went to bed early after supper - but Miss Brewys slipped out shortly after she caught a glimpse of her. She spent the night at the guest house, but left early and went back to the 'Nather House' Breakfast as Mrs. Staces. She again spent the morning in her room with a 'headache', this time trying to pretend to be an 'intruder', being scolded by Sir George from the window of his wife's room, who pretended to step back and talk to He speaks to his wife in the room. Clothing change is not difficult - shorts and T-shirt under the kind of smarts that Mrs. Stars likes to wear. Thick white make-up when Mrs. Stars , wearing a big coolie-style hat to cover her face; when she was an Italian girl, she wore a bright peasant woman's headscarf, with a sun-tanned face and maroon curly hair, no one would think that the two were the same woman.

"And so the last act was enacted. Just before four o'clock, Mrs. Stars asked Miss Breuys to bring a tray of refreshments to Marlene. It was because she was afraid that Miss Breuys herself might would have done that, and it would have been fatal if Miss Bruise showed up at the wrong time. Perhaps she maliciously arranged for Miss Bruise to be at the scene around the time of the murder. Then, choosing the right moment, she sneaked in Out of the back of the deserted fortune-telling booth, into the arbor in the undergrowth, where she had hidden a change of clothing in a hiker's pack. She slid through the woods, calling Marlene Let her in and strangle the unsuspecting girl on the spot. She throws the big coolie hat into the river, then changes into hiker clothes and attire, and puts her primrose organdy dress and high heels in her backpack Here—an Italian student from the youth hostel soon joined her Dutch friend in the garden fair on the lawn, and then took the bus with her to leave as planned. I don’t know where she is now. I suspect It was in Soho, where she undoubtedly had members of the underworld of her nationality who could provide her with the necessary documents. In any case, the police were not looking for an Italian girl, but the simple, imbecile, exotic Heidi Shi Darth.

"But poor Heidi Stars is dead, ma'am, as you know it well yourself. You revealed it when I spoke to you in the drawing room on the day of the garden party. Marlene's death was a great deal to you. Big shock - you had no idea what they were almost doing; but you made it very clear, even though I was too dumb to catch it at the time, when you said 'Heidi' you were talking about two different people - - one you don't like, 'dead well' woman, to whom you warned me 'don't believe a word she says' - the other girl you mentioned in the past tense, to her , you defended her passionately. I think, ma'am, you are very fond of poor Heidi Stars..."

There was a long pause. Mrs Folliat sat quite still in her chair, when at last she rose and spoke, her voice icy. "Your whole story is quite speculative, M. Poirot. I really think you must be crazy. . . . It's all a figment of your imagination, and you have no proof." Poirot went to a window and opened it. "Listen, ma'am, what do you hear?" "The clacking of the pickaxes...they're digging up the concrete foundations of that weird building...what a nice place to hide a body—a tree has been dug out where the ground has been damaged. Later, for For the sake of safety, cement is laid on the ground where the corpses are buried, and a strange building is built on the cement ground..." He continued gently: "Sir George's strange building (meaning "folly")' The strange building of the master of the house of the thurs."

Mrs Folliat let out a long, blood-curdling sigh. "Such a beautiful place," said Poirot. "Only one is evil... the man who owns this place..." "I know," she said gruffly, "I've always known...even as a child, he frightened me...ruthless...with no mercy...and without conscience...but he's my son and I love him...I should have spoken out after Heidi died...but he is my son. How can I betray him? So for my silence-the poor silly girl was killed... And in her wisdom, dear old Mordel . . . how far will she rest?" "A murderer never rests," said Poirot. She hangs her head.For a while she remained like this, covering her eyes with her hands. Then Mrs. Folliat of "Nasse House," descended from a long line of heroic figures, stood up.She looked directly at Poirot and her voice was formal and distant. "Thank you, M. Poirot," she said. "Thank you for coming to tell me this yourself. Will you go now? Some things you have to face alone..."