Chapter 13 Chapter Thirteen

After Hercule Poirot got up to take his leave, Jeremy Fullerton sat at the desk, tapping the surface with his fingertips, but his eyes were looking into the distance—he was lost in thought. He picked up a document and lowered his eyes, but he still couldn't concentrate. The phone rang, and he grabbed the receiver. "Miss Miles?" "Mr. Holden is waiting for you, sir." "I see, yes, I made an appointment with him three quarters of an hour ago, did he say why he came so late?...Okay, okay, I understand. Last time he was late for the same reason, please Tell him I was just talking to another client and I'm running out of time, you ask him to come back next week, okay? Things like this can't go on."

"Yes, Mr. Fullerton." He put down the microphone, his eyes fell on the document, still immersed in his thoughts just now, he still couldn't read it.The past came to mind, and it had been two years--almost exactly two years--and this morning this queer, patent-leather, bearded little old man was waking up his memory with all kinds of questions. A conversation from two years ago rang in his ears. He seemed to see that chunky figure again, sitting on the chair opposite him—brown skin, big dark red mouth, high cheekbones, a pair of blue eyes under thick black eyebrows staring at him.It's a face full of emotion, full of life, a face that's been through a lot of suffering—maybe it's always been suffering—but never learned to give in to suffering, and this kind of person will fight to the end.But where is she now?He thought to himself, she still managed to escape—how did she manage to escape?Who can help her?Will someone help her?Someone must have helped her.

He thought she must have returned to some troubled country in Central Europe, where she had been born and bred, and had to return at last, or there was nothing for her to do but catch her. Jeremy Fullerton resolutely upholds the dignity of the law. He believes in the law and looks down on many judges today who give prisoners a lighter sentence and accepts the influence of academia.Like students stealing books, young women stealing from supermarkets, girls stealing money from employers, boys stealing coins from phone boxes, etc. They are not desperate at all, and most of them don't really need it. It’s just that I have been spoiled since I was a child, and I feel that I can reach out for anything that I can’t afford.However, despite his firm belief that the law should be strictly enforced, Mr. Fullerton was sympathetic, often full of sympathy for people, and although Olga's self-justification did not change his mind, he was full of pity for her .

"I came to ask you for help, I thought you would help me, last year you were very kind, you filled out the form for me to stay in the UK for another year and they said to me: 'You can answer any questions you don't want to Don't answer, a lawyer can speak for you.' So I came to you." "The circumstances you say—" Mr. Fullerton remembered how indifferently he had spoken, the more indifferently because his heart was filled with pity, "—do not exist. I cannot defend you this time, I have already Representing the Drakes. As you know, I was formerly Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe's personal attorney."

"But she's dead, and she doesn't need a private lawyer when she's dead." "She's very fond of you," said Mr. Fullerton. "Yes, she likes me, and that's all I want to tell you. That's why she wants to leave me the money." "All her money?" "Yes, why not? She doesn't like her relatives." "You are mistaken. She is very fond of her niece and nephew." "Well, she may like Mr. Drake, but she doesn't like Mrs. Drake. She finds her annoying. Mrs. Drake always interferes with her and doesn't let her do what she likes, and doesn't let her eat what she loves. Things to eat."

"She is responsible to the old lady, and she wants to make her follow the doctor's orders, such as taboos and less exercise." "Generally people don't like to follow the doctor's orders. They don't want relatives to interfere. They want to do what they want, do what they want, eat what they want, she is rich, she can afford everything she wants. As long as She likes it, she can afford everything, she's pretty rich, she can buy anything with her own money. The Drakes are rich themselves, they have a nice house, nice clothes, and two cars Cars, they are doing so well, why give them?"

"They were the only relatives she had." "She wanted to leave the money to me, she sympathized with me, she knew that I had suffered a lot, she knew that after my father was arrested, my mother and I never saw him again, and she knew how my mother died. The whole family People are dying and I've endured the horrors. You don't know what it's like to live in a country controlled by the police, I've lived in one like that before. You're speaking for the police, you're not standing My side." "Yes," said Mr. Fullerton, "I am not on your side, and I am sorry that this happened to you, but it was all of your own making."

"No! I didn't do anything I shouldn't! What did I do? I treated her well and did what she asked me to do. I got her lots of things they wouldn't let her eat, chocolate, butter Wait, she's only been given vegetable oil, she doesn't like vegetable oil, she wants some butter, she likes a lot of butter." "It's not just about butter," Mr Fullerton said. "I served her, I treated her like a family member! So she thanked me. So when she died, I found that she showed mercy, left me all the money, and had the official document signed, and Drake People from my family came to me and told me that I could not inherit. They could say anything. They said that I forced her to write the will. They also said something even more outrageous. It is too shameful. They said that the will was my own. She wrote it. She wrote it and sent me away. She called the cleaners, and Jim, and the gardener in. She said she wanted them to sign the papers, not me, Because the money was left to me, why shouldn't I get it? Why can't I have a little bit of luck in my life, a little bit of joy? When I got the news, I looked forward to doing many things. It's just wonderful Unspeakable."

"I don't doubt it at all, I really don't doubt it." "Why can't I have my dreams? Why can't I be happy? I'm going to live a happy, prosperous life, have everything I want, what have I done wrong? No, tell you, I didn't do anything Wrong, nothing." "I tried to explain it to you," said Fullerton. "It's all a lie. You say I'm lying. You say I wrote the document myself. I didn't write it myself. She wrote it. No one can say otherwise." "Many things have been said," said Mr. Fullerton. "Listen, don't defend yourself. Listen to me. Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe used to ask you to ghostwrite her letters, and to imitate her." Is it true that the more you can imitate your handwriting, the better? Because she thinks it is impolite to use a typewriter to write letters to relatives and friends. Typewriter. Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe doesn't think so. Do you see what I mean?"

"Well, I understand. She often asks me to do this. She will say, Olga, you write these four letters back and forth, as I told you and what you wrote down in shorthand. You write them with a pen and handwriting. It has to be as close to mine as possible, she told me to practice imitating her handwriting, noticing how she writes each letter...just look more or less like mine, she said, and sign mine Name, I don't want it to be known that I can't even write letters, you know, my wrists are getting weaker with rheumatism, and even so I don't want to use a typewriter for personal letters."

"You could just write in your usual hand," said Mr. Fullerton, "and write at the end that the secretary wrote it, wouldn't it?" "She didn't want me to do it, she wanted people to think she wrote it herself." It must be true, thought Mr Fullerton, in the usual way of Louise Llewellyn Smythe.She deeply hates mentioning the fact that she is getting older and is not as good as before. For example, some things she used to do can’t be done now, she can’t walk that far, or climbing mountains is not as fast as before, and her hands are not as flexible as before (especially the right hand) Wait, she wishes she could tell someone: "I'm in great shape, and I can do anything I want." Yes, Olga was telling the truth.It was for this reason, and for other factors, that at first Louise Llewellyn Smythe drew up and signed the Riders without suspicion, Mr. Fullerton recalls, in his own office, They grew suspicious, for both he and his young partner knew Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe's handwriting very well.It was young Cole who spoke first. "I can't believe that the Riders were written by Louise Llewellyn Smythe. I hear she's had arthritis lately. Look at these things in her own handwriting. Here's what I got from her official papers. Picked it out. That rider isn't quite right." Mr. Fullerton also felt that something was wrong.He said that he would ask experts to identify it, and the results were very clear. All the experts agreed that the additional clause was not written by Louise Llewellyn Smythe.If only Olga were less greedy, Mr. Fullerton thought, and if he would be content to write at the beginning of the Additional Clause (as it does at the beginning of this document)—"Because of her great concern and patience with me, I leave To her--" can only start like this, and then explain that I have left a considerable amount of inheritance for this girl, but leave all relatives aside, especially her nephew, who was neutral in the past twenty years. He had been her remaining heir in a will, leaving him, too, and leaving everything to the outsider Olga Seminova—it wasn't like Louise, Llewellyn Smythe could do that. of.In fact, such a document could be overturned on the pretext that there was undue pressure, no, the short-tempered boy was too greedy.Maybe Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe had said to leave her some money, because she was so kind to her, because she was kind, and because she did everything the old lady wanted and was favored by the old lady. From this Olga imagined that she would get everything, that the old lady would leave her everything, that she would get all the money.All the money, the house, the jewelry, everything.Greedy girl, now pays her dues. Mr. Fullerton went against his own wishes and could not stick to his due position as a legal worker. He couldn't help pity her and express deep sympathy for her. Since the day she was born, she has suffered a lot. She experienced hardships, experienced the violence of a country controlled by the secret police, lost her parents, lost her sister and brother, suffered various injustices, and lived in constant fear, all of which formed her personality.Formed no doubt since the day she was born, yet never had a chance to show it before.This is a childish greed. "Everyone is against me," said Olga, "everyone is against me. You are all against me. You are doing it unfairly, just because I am a foreigner, because I do not belong to this country, because I do not know how to say What, what to do, what can I do? Why don't you tell me?" "Because I really don't think you have much to do," said Mr. Fullerton. "Your best chance is to tell the truth." "If I tell you what you want, it's a lie. It's not true. She wrote the will. She wrote it there. She let me out when it was signed." "Did you know? There is evidence against you. It is said that Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe often does not know what papers she is signing. She has several official documents to sign, and she does not look at them until she signs them." Which one is in front of you?" "Then she doesn't even know what she's talking about." "My dear boy," said Mr. Fullerton, "your best hope is that you are a first-time offender, and you are a foreigner, and you have only a rough command of English. Then you may be given a lighter sentence—or indeed a reprieve." "Well, it's just talking, and it sounds nice. I will be thrown into prison and never released." "Look, you're talking nonsense again," said Mr. Fullerton. "If only I could escape, if only I could escape and hide so no one can find me." "Once a warrant is issued, you can be found anywhere." "If I run fast I won't, if I leave immediately, I won't if someone helps me. I can escape, escape from the UK, take a boat or fly, I can find someone to forge passport visas and all necessary documents. , someone will help me. I have some friends, some people who like me, someone who will help me escape and disappear, that's all I need. I can wear a wig, and I can walk on two crutches." "Listen," said Mr. Fullerton gravely, "I sympathize with you. I can refer you to a lawyer who will do his best to help you. You cannot hope to escape. You talk like a three-year-old child." "I've got enough money. I've saved a lot." Then she added, "You're trying to be nice to me, yes, I believe. But you're not going to do anything because it's all about the law , but someone will help me, someone will, and I will flee to a place where no one will find me." Mr. Fullerton thought that no one had found her, and he wanted to know—yes; he would like to know—where had she been staying?Where is it now?