Chapter 17 Chapter Seventeen

"Excuse me, ma'am, may I have a word with you?" Mrs. Oliver was standing on the balcony of her friend's house, looking around to see if Hercule Poirot was coming.He had called to tell her he would be there in a while, and a middle-aged woman in clean clothes was standing in front of her, rubbing her hands in cotton gloves back and forth uneasily. "What is it?" asked Mrs. Oliver. "I'm sorry to disturb you, ma'am, but I thought—oh, I thought—" Mrs. Oliver would not interrupt her, wondering to herself why the woman was so nervous. "You're the lady who wrote the storybooks? Murder stories and stuff like that?"

"Yes," replied Mrs. Oliver, "exactly." The woman aroused her curiosity. Was she saying this to get her autograph, or was she asking for a photo with her autograph?Who knows, the result was far beyond her expectations. "I think it's best to find you, and you can tell me what to do." The woman said. "Sit down and talk," said Mrs. Oliver. She had a premonition that the Mrs. X in front of her (she also wore a ring on her hand, she was undoubtedly a wife) would not be able to talk about the topic for a while, so the woman sat down and continued to rub her gloved hands back and forth.

"You have something to worry about?" Mrs. Oliver tried to guide her to the point. "Well, I want you to give me an idea. This happened a long time ago. I didn't worry much at the time, but it's like this. The more I think about it, the more I want to talk to some acquaintance, ask him to take a idea." "I see." Mrs. Oliver wanted to reassure the other party, so she replied. "It's really unexpected to see what has happened recently." "You mean—" "I'm talking about what happened at the Hallowe'en night party. It shows that there are unreliable people in this area, doesn't it? It shows that some things that happened before were not as imagined. I mean, maybe some things are not as imagined. I don’t know if you understand it or not.”

"Oh?" Mrs. Oliver asked with a heavier tone, "I don't know what to call you." "My name is Leaman. Mrs. Leaman, I work as a cleaner for the ladies here, started five years after my husband died, I used to work for Mrs Llewellyn Smythe, Colonel Weston She lived at Quarry House before the couple moved in. I don't know if you knew her." "No," replied Mrs. Oliver, "we don't know each other. This is my first time here." "That's right, then you don't know much about what happened at that time, and you don't know about those rumors."

"I've heard a little about it here," replied Mrs. Oliver. "I don't know anything about the law. I'm always anxious. I'm afraid it has something to do with the law. I mean, I need to see a lawyer. They can take care of this. I don't want to go to the police. It should have nothing to do with the police. It's legal, right?" "Not necessarily." Mrs. Oliver said cautiously. "You may have heard them talk about attaching, attaching—" "A rider to a will?" Mrs. Oliver reminded her. "Yes, yes, that's what I said. Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe wrote a rider, leaving all the money to the foreign girl who served her, which is astonishing, because she has native Relatives, she moved here to be near them, she loved them, especially Mr. Drake, and people wondered. Then the lawyers spoke up, too, and they said Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe hadn't It was written by the foreign girl who wrote this additional clause, how about leaving all the money to her? They also said that there will be a lawsuit. Mrs. Drake wants to overturn the will-I don’t know if it’s the word.”

"Lawyers have to tell if a will is real or not. Yes, I remember hearing it." Mrs. Oliver encouraged her to go on, "Perhaps you understand something?" "It's not a good thing either." Mrs. Leaman sighed softly.Mrs. Oliver had heard such a sigh, or lament, more than once before. She wondered if this Mrs. Leaman was not very trustworthy, maybe she liked to stand outside the door and eavesdrop on people's conversations. "I didn't say anything at the time," said Mrs. Leaman, "because I didn't know very well, I just thought it was strange. You have seen a lot, I admit, and I really wanted to find out at the time. Mrs. Smythe was a servant, and I should like to find out."

"That's right," Mrs. Oliver replied. "If I feel like I've done something I shouldn't have done, that's fine. But, you know, I don't really feel like I did something wrong, at least at the time," she said. "Oh, yes," said Mrs. Oliver, "I'm sure I'll understand you, go on. What about the provisos?" "One day Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe--she was feeling sick, and she called us in, and me, and Jim, and he helped with the garden, and the bricks, and the coal, and we went in into her room, with some papers open in front of her. Then she turned to the foreign girl—we'll call her Miss Olga—and said: 'Get out, dear, because you have to avoid this part.' So Miss Olga went out, and Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe sent us both to her, and she said: Look, here is my will. She took some blotting paper and put it on The top half of the paper, the bottom half was still blank, and she said: I'm going to write something on this paper and sign it, and I want you two to be witnesses, and she started to write. She always uses a dip pen, she doesn't Prefers a different pen. She signs two or three lines and says to me, "Here, Mrs. Leaman, put your name here, your name, and your address." And then to Jim, " You write your name and address below, here, okay, now you all saw what I wrote, saw my signature, and you signed it yourself, right, and then she said, that’s all .Thank you, and we went out. Hey, I didn't think much about it, but I was still a little curious. You know, doors are not easy to close. You have to push and hear a sound to close. I didn't look at it on purpose when I closed it, I mean-"

"I understand what you mean," said Mrs. Oliver vaguely. "I saw Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe struggling to her feet--she was sometimes aching with rheumatism--going to the shelf, drawing a book, and putting the document just signed (in an envelope) ) into the book. A big, wide book, on the bottom shelf. She put the book back on the shelf and, well, like you said, I didn't give it a second thought, really, but wait After what happened, of course I felt that, at least, I—" She stopped abruptly. Mrs. Oliver was inspired. "But," she said, "you must not have waited long before—"

"Yes, to be honest, yes. I admit that I am very curious. After all, after signing it, you don't know what the document is, right? It's human nature." "Yes," said Mrs. Oliver, "it's human nature." Curiosity, she thought, was an important part of Mrs. Leaman's nature. "The next day Mrs Llewellyn Smythe went to Manchester, and I cleaned her bedroom—actually it was a bedroom-sitting room—as usual, because she needed to go to bed from time to time. Look at the content. They often say that you have to read the small print clearly when buying something or signing a contract.'”

"It's handwriting this time," said Mrs. Oliver. "So I thought it was okay—not stealing, I thought that since I had to sign it, I should have the right to know what it was, and I searched the bookshelves. The bookshelves should have been dusted too. I found it, on the bottom shelf, the book was very old, maybe Queen Victoria. I found the envelope, the paper inside was folded, and the title of the book was All the Secrets of the World, what a coincidence What do you think?" "Yes," said Mrs. Oliver, "what a coincidence you took out that document and read it."

"Yes, ma'am. I don't know if I did something wrong, but I read it and it was indeed a legal document. The last page was written by her the morning before. The ink was fresh, and the dip pen was new, so I couldn't recognize it." Difficult, though the handwriting is a little crooked." "What's written on it?" Mrs. Oliver was very curious, no less than Mrs. Leaman back then. "Ah, it seems to be about—I don't remember the exact words—a rider, saying that she enumerated every estate in her will, and that she left the whole estate to Olga—I don't remember her last name, probably What is it, Seminova, this kind of one, because she received her meticulous care and care during her illness, below her signature, and my signature and Jim's signature, I will put it back where it was after reading it lest Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe see me touching her things. "What a surprise, I thought to myself, that the foreign girl got all her money! Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe is known to be quite rich. Her husband used to be a shipbuilder and left her a A lot of money, I think, some people are just lucky, and I tell you, I don't like Miss Olga very much, she is sometimes sensitive and has a bad temper. But I must say that she is very polite to the old lady. Patience. She knows how to use her heart and eyes, and she has really benefited. I changed my mind and didn't leave any money to my relatives. Maybe I quarreled with them. Maybe it won't be long before the rain is over and the sky will clear and she will put it away. Tear it up, make another will or write another rider, anyway, I put it back and forget about it. "When the will dispute arose, some people said how and why it was forged, and there was no way Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe wrote that rider herself - that's what they said, it wasn't the old lady who wrote it at all, it was someone else's." one" "I see," replied Mrs. Oliver, "and how did you do it?" "I didn't do anything, and that's why I was worried... I didn't know what was going on for a while. Then I thought about it and I didn't know what to do. I thought it was just talk, because the lawyers talked to Everyone doesn't like foreigners. I don't like foreigners very much myself, I admit, how can I say that the girl is smug and smug, I think it's a legal thing, and they will say she has no right to it. Because she is not related, in fact it is about the same, they gave up the prosecution, there was no trial at all, everyone knows that Olga escaped and went back to somewhere in Central Europe, where she was born, it seems that she probably There is a ghost in my heart, maybe she coerced the old lady to write it. Who can tell? I have a nephew who is going to be a doctor. He said that hypnosis can do many wonderful things. I guess she is using it on the old lady. hypnotized." "How long since now?" "Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe has been dead for almost two years, I think." "You didn't worry about it?" "No, no, not at the time. Because you know I didn't think it mattered at the time. Everything was safe and Mademoiselle Olga didn't run away with the money, so I didn't think I'd be summoned at all—" "You don't think so now?" "Just because of the horrible murder—the kid was put in the apple bucket, and she talked about a murder, and she saw a murder, and I guess Olga murdered the old lady, because she knew The inheritance would all go to her and then there was trouble and the lawyers and the police were alerted and she got scared and ran away, so I thought maybe I should - I should tell someone I think you're a good fit and you'll have a problem with the legal department Little friends, maybe the police have friends too, you can explain to them that I just dusted the shelf and that this document was hidden in a book and I put it back where it was. I didn't take it and I didn't do anything bad thing." "But you actually took it out, didn't you? You saw Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe write a rider to her will, you saw her sign it, you and Jim were both there, and signed Named. Right?" "right." "Since you both saw Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe sign your name, it's possible that the undersignment was forged, isn't it? Not sure if you saw it alone." "I saw her sign it herself, and I'm absolutely telling the truth, Jim would say the same thing, except he's moved to Australia, been gone for over a year, I don't know his address, he's not local .” "Then what do you want me to do for you?" "Ah, I wanted to ask you if I needed to say or do anything--I mean now. Tell you, I've never been asked. I've never been asked if I know about wills." "Your name is Liman, what's your name?" "Harriet." "Harriet, Leman, what's Jim's last name?" "Oh, what's the last name? Jenkins, that's right. James, Jenkins, I'd be very grateful if you could help me, because I'm so worried. Trouble is coming, and if Miss Olga kills Lou Mrs. Erin Smythe's words, and Joyce saw her murder... After hearing the lawyers say that she was going to get a lot of money, Miss Olga was so proud, but when the police questioned her, she suddenly slipped away. Gone, no one asked me anything, no one. And now I wonder if I should have said it." "I think," said Mrs. Oliver, "that you will probably have to say this to Mrs. Llewellyn Smythe's lawyer at the time, and I am sure a good lawyer will understand your feelings and your motives. " "Well, I'm sure if you'd speak for me and tell them what happened, I didn't mean to—you've seen enough—tell them I didn't mean to be dishonest. I mean, I everything that's done—" "All you did was keep silent," said Mrs. Oliver. "That seems like a good explanation." "I would be most obliged if you would speak for me first, and explain." "I'll do my best," said Mrs. Oliver. She glanced down the garden path and saw a well-dressed man approaching. "Then thank you very much. They said that you are kind-hearted, and I will never forget your great kindness." She got up, put the gloves back on (she had been rubbing them all off in agony), curtseyed, and walked away quickly. Mrs. Oliver waited for Poirot's arrival.