Chapter 12 Chapter Twelve

The law firm of Fullerton, Harrison & Leadbetter had a great reputation, and the building was a classic old-fashioned building.Time flies, and there is no one named Harrison or Leadbetter in the firm today.In addition to a Mr. Atkinson, a young Mr. Cole, there is also Jeremy, Mr. Fullerton, one of the founders of the firm. Mr. Fullerton was a thin old man, with a dead face, a stern voice, and a strangely penetrating eye. His hand was on a letter he had just read.He lowered his head and read it again, savoring the meaning carefully, then he raised his head and looked at the person introduced in the letter.

"Mr. Hercule Poirot?" The man in front of him was an elderly foreigner, very smartly dressed, except that the patent leather shoes on his feet did not match, and Mr. Fullerton thought that the shoes might be too Tighten up, from the corners of his eyes one can vaguely see that he is enduring the pain.A well-dressed foreigner.And everybody said good things about him to get him to come to me, like Henry from CID, Inspector Raglan, even retired Superintendent Spence from Metropolitan Police Headquarters vouched for him. "Captain Spence, is it?" said Mr. Fullerton. Fullerton knew Spence.When he was in office, he did a good job, and those who were higher than him appreciated him very much.He vaguely remembered some in his mind.There is a case that has caused a sensation and is known to all women and children; on the surface it seems to be nothing serious, like an old routine, but in fact it is not.of course!He remembered that his nephew Robert had intervened in that case. He was an assistant lawyer. The murderer was a psychopath and seemed too lazy to defend himself. Only sentenced to fifteen years in prison, or a certain number of years in prison.It's not the same thing at all, killing for life--it's a pity that hanging has been abolished.

Fullerton thought to himself, today's thugs don't think it's a big deal to kill someone. Once you kill someone, no one will recognize you. Spence, who was in charge of the investigation of the case, was quiet and stubbornly insisted that they had caught the wrong man, and it turned out that they had caught the wrong man, and found evidence that they had caught the wrong man, a foreigner, a retired member of the Belgian police. detective.Certainly not young.Probably old-fashioned by now, thought Fullerton, but I'd better be careful, what he wants is information, and it can't be wrong to give him information, because he has hardly any information that is useful to the case. .This is a child murder case.

Mr. Fullerton might have thought he had a good guess about the perpetrator, but he was not so sure, since there were at least three suspects.Any one of the three idle young men could be the murderer."Mentally unsound" and "psychiatrist's report" echoed in his ears, and there was no doubt that the case would end there.Drowning a child at a party, though—is still rather peculiar.Although some students did not heed the warning, took a stranger's car, did not return home, but found the body in the nearby gravel pile.The two cases are very different.gravel pile.What year is it?It's been many years.

After thinking for four minutes or so, Mr. Fullerton cleared his throat (he was clearly asthmatic) and spoke. "Mr. Hercule Poirot," he called again, "what can I do for you? I suppose you're here on account of this little girl, Joyce Reynolds? What a vile business." .It's vicious. I don't know how I can help you. I know very little about the case." "If I'm not mistaken, you're the Drake family's legal counsel?" "Well, yes, yes. Poor Hugo, Drake. Very nice people. I've known them since they bought Apple Grove and settled down. It's been years, and sadly, there was one He came down with polio when they were on vacation overseas in 2009. His mental health was not compromised. However, he was always a good athlete and played multiple sports and it was sad that this happened to him How can it not be sad to know that I have been disabled for life!"

"You also appear to be in charge of Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe's legal affairs?" "Yes, his aunt. She moved here after she broke down, so that she could live nearer to her nephews and nieces. Bought a quarry house. It cost a fortune, and it's worth it." Not that much--but she wasn't short of money. Rich. She could have found a nicer house, but it was the quarry that caught her and fascinated her. She had a gardener, I believe. A man of two minds. Handsome and long-haired, yet capable. He toiled in his quarry garden, earned accolades, and was profiled in Home & Garden magazine, among others. Yes, Llewellyn S. Mrs. Mythes is good at employing people. Don't just cultivate a lad because he's handsome. Some old ladies are too foolish to do that. But this lad is one of the best in his line of work. I'm going a little far, Llewellyn S. Mrs. Mythes has been dead for nearly two years."

"Death was very sudden." Fullerton glared at Poirot. "Oh, no, I don't think so. She has a bad heart, and the doctors try to persuade her not to exercise more, but she is not controlled by others. She never worries about her health." After coughing a few times, he continued , "We don't seem to be talking about what you said when you came." "Not necessarily," replied Poirot. "If you have no objection, I would like to ask a few questions on another matter. Could you tell me something about one of your clerks named Leslie Ferrier?" thing."

Mr. Fullerton was taken aback. "Leslie, Ferrier," he said, "Leslie, Ferrier, let me see, you almost forgot what his name was. Yes, yes, yes. Get a knife Hacked, right?" "I'm talking about him." "Ah, I can't say I can tell you a lot, after all, it's been so many years. It was hacked to death near the Green Swan Hotel late one night. Didn't catch! The murderer, I dare say the police are not without suspects, only But the main thing is that there is no evidence.” "Emotional entanglement as a motive?" asked Poirot. "Yes, I think it must be. Out of jealousy, he has been in contact with a married woman. Her husband owns a hotel, the Green Swan Hotel in Woodley New Village. It is very inconspicuous. Later, Little Rice Leigh got hooked up with other women—supposedly more than one, and he was pretty good with girls, got into trouble once.”

"As your employee, are you satisfied with him?" "Overall not satisfied. He has his strengths, he is very polite to customers, and he is also very easy to learn during the contract probationary period. If only he can concentrate on work, pay attention to his behavior, and not go around the situation It would have been better, with my old eyes, the girls weren't good enough for him. There was an argument at the Green Swan Hotel one night, and Leslie Ferrier was killed on the way home." "Do you think it should be a certain girl, or the hostess of the Green Swan Hotel who should be responsible?"

"As a matter of fact, no one has any clue about this case, and I think the police's point of view is jealousy—but—" He shrugged. "But you have some doubts?" "Oh, I doubt it," replied Mr. Fullerton. "I think you seem to think that's not the case at all." "Well, I'd rather believe the evidence, and the police would rather have more evidence. I recall the prosecutor's office saying no." "Could it be quite different?" "Yes, several reasons could be listed. Little Ferrier was unstable, well-bred, and loving mother--a widow. His father was not very satisfactory, and made his wife suffer. Our lad is a bit like his father, and has a Twice he hangs out with a dubious gang, I assume he's innocent, he's young, but I warn him not to hang out with bad guys, not to get too involved with some wrongdoing. Frankly, if it wasn't for him Mother, I'm not going to keep him. He's young and capable, so I warned him once or twice, thinking it would work. But the vibe is so bad these days, it's been going on for ten years."

"You think someone might have dragged him into the water, don't you?" "It's very possible that once you get entangled with this kind of person, you will be in danger. Once you want to leak secrets, it's not uncommon for people to be stabbed in the back." "No witnesses?" "No. No one saw it. How could it be? They've arranged for such things to be proven alibi, and so on." "There may still be witnesses. Ordinary people would not expect her to be there, say a child." "In the middle of the night? Near the Green Swan Hotel? Almost impossible, M. Poirot." "Perhaps," Poirot insisted, "perhaps the child still remembers. The child came back from a friend's house, which may not be far from her own. She may have taken a trail to see something from behind the fence." "Monsieur Poirot, you have such a rich imagination that what you say is simply inconceivable to me." "I don't think," replied Poirot, "that some things are really seen by children. They are often not expected to be there." "But surely they'll tell what they've seen as soon as they get home?" "Probably not," said Poirot. "Perhaps they can't figure out what's going on, especially if what they've seen is horrific. Children don't usually talk about seeing a car accident or some kind of violence when they go home." Events. They keep their mouths shut, they never tell anyone, but they go on and on about it. Sometimes they are very happy; because they know a secret, a secret they keep in their hearts." "Shouldn't they tell their mothers?" said Mr. Fullerton. "I don't know," replied Poirot. "From my own experience, there are many things that children do not want to tell their mothers." "Can you tell me why you are so interested in the case of Leslie Ferrier? It is possible that the young man was killed by the knife, but such things are not uncommon these days." "I don't know anything about him. The reason why I want to know him is because he died unexpectedly and not too long ago. Maybe there are important clues in it." "Mr. Poirot," Mr. Fullerton said sharply, "I really don't understand why you came to me, and I don't know what you are interested in. You can't doubt that Joyce, Reynolds Is there any connection between death and the death of this capable young man who made many small mistakes a few years ago?" "One can doubt everything," retorted Poirot, "and thus know more." "I'm sorry, to solve the case is to find evidence." "You have probably heard, and several witnesses have heard, that the girl Joyce, the deceased, said that she had witnessed a murder." "A place like this," said Mr. Fullerton, "gets it all over the place at the first sign. And it's so embellished that it's not worth believing." "You have a point," said Poirot. "I've looked into it. Joyce is only thirteen. A nine-year-old may remember what he witnessed - a man who hit someone with a car and then slipped away in the dark. There was a knife fight during the night, or a governess was strangled to death, etc.—these may have left a deep impression on the child's mind, and at the same time, she didn't know exactly what happened. Clearly, so she kept her mouth shut, thinking about it in her mind, and then slowly forgot, something that happened suddenly might wake up her memory, do you think it is possible?" "Hey, yes, yes, but—but I think it's still a bit of a stretch." "I've heard that another foreign girl is missing here. Whether her name is Olga or Sonia—I don't know what." "Olga, Seminova, yes, yes." "I'm afraid it's not very trustworthy, is it?" "right." "Is she serving that Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe you were talking about? Mrs. Drake's aunt—" "Yes, she had some girls in her service--two foreign girls among them. One fell out with her when he first arrived, I remember; Mrs. Smythe can't stand fools, and at last she got Olga, and this last venture was a success, and the girl was quite to her liking, and if I remember not mistakenly, she was not very pretty," said Mr Fullerton. , "She is not tall, short and fat, and serious, and the neighbors don't like her very much." "But Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe liked her," Poirot reminded him. "She couldn't do without her - it's not wise to be so dependent on her." "Well, that's true." "I'm sure," said Mr. Fullerton, "that you've heard what I'm telling you, and it's been all over the place." "I heard Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe left a lot of money for girls." "It is astounding," said Mr. Fullerton, "that Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe's will has remained largely unchanged for many years, except that some charities have been added, or some heirs have died, and so Crossing out their names, I seem to be telling you something you have already inquired about. I wonder if you are still interested. Her main property is generally designated to be inherited by her nephew Hugo, Drake and his wife. De Mrs. Lake was also his cousin, that is to say, Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe's niece; Left quite a few things. But the last time she made changes to her will was three weeks before she died, and it wasn't a document drawn up by our firm, it was a supplementary clause written by her that mentioned a charity or two - no There used to be so much—the old servants got nothing, and almost all the property was inherited by Olga and Seminova, saying that it was to thank her for her meticulous care and thoughtfulness. It was simply too shocking, not at all Like what Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe did before." "And then?" asked Poirot. "You've probably heard that, according to experts, this addendum is a forgery, just a bit like Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe's handwriting, that's all. Mrs. Smythe doesn't like to use a typewriter Olga wrote her personal letters, imitating her own handwriting as much as possible, and sometimes making her sign her own. Olga did this many times, and it is said that after the death of Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe, Olga intensified it. , and even felt that imitating the old lady's handwriting could be faked, but it couldn't be hidden from the eyes of experts. No matter what, it couldn't be done." "Aren't you planning to take more actions to verify the authenticity of this document?" "Yes. But in the meantime the girl grew impatient, and, as you said, she—disappeared."