Chapter 25 Chapter Twenty-Five

The investigation is over— Afterwards, at the invitation of Hercule Poirot, all those who participated in the investigation came to the "Long Meadow" hotel.Poirot was busy, arranging the long drawing room in order.The chairs were arranged in a neat semicircle, Maureen's dogs had to be chased out with great difficulty, and Hercule Poirot, the self-appointed speaker, sat at one end of the drawing room, lightly Clearing his throat lightly, he began a long speech. "ladies and gentlemen--" He paused.What he said next was completely unexpected and almost seemed like a farce.

"Mrs. McGinty is dead. How did she die? Get on your knees, like I do. Mrs. McGinty was dead.how did she die Hands outstretched, like I do. Mrs. McGinty was dead.how did she die like this……" Seeing everyone's strange expressions, he continued: "No, I'm not crazy. Because I repeat to you the rhyme from this children's game, it's not that I'm experiencing my second childhood now. Mrs. Upward made the game. She said:' Mrs. McGinty died. How did she die? Stretch her neck like I did.' That's what she said—and that's what she did, she stretched her neck—so she, too, was like Like Mrs. McGinty, dead...

"In order to make our intentions clear, we must begin at the very beginning—from Mrs. McGinty's murder, and a man, James Bentley, arrested, tried, and sentenced to death. For some reason, in charge of the case Superintendent Spence, does not believe that James Bentley committed murder, despite the evidence. I agree with him. I have come here to answer a question, how did Mrs. McGinty die? Why did she die? die? "I will not tell you the long and complicated process, but I will tell you that something as simple as the inkwell led me to the clue. The copy of " There are four photographs in the Sunday Comet. By now you all know the four photographs, so all I can tell you is that Mrs. McGinty recognized one of them and she was in the I've seen this photo in someone's house.

"She told it to James Bentley, and he paid no attention to it at the time, nor, in fact, later on. He just listened. But he got the impression that Mrs. McGinty had seen the picture at Mrs. Upward's house. And remembered Mrs. McGinty was referring to Mrs. Upward when she said that the woman would not be so proud if the truth came out. We can't quite trust his statement, but she did use the word about pride. There is no doubt that Mrs. Upward was a proud and domineering woman. "As you all know - some of you were there and some of you have heard about it - I showed those four photographs at Mrs Upward's house. From Mrs Upward's reaction, I Capturing her fleeting look of surprise that she recognized the photo, I pressed her and she had to admit it. She said she had 'seen one of the photos but couldn't remember where' When asked which one she had seen, she pointed to the Lily Gamble picture of the child. But, let me tell you, that is not true. For reasons of her own, Mrs. Upward tried Keeping it a secret from anyone knowing which photo she recognized. She pointed to the one she didn't recognize, dismissed me, and prevaricated.

"However, there was one man who was not deceived - the murderer. He knew which photograph Mrs Upward had recognized. I shall not mince words here - the man in the photograph was Ian Vanessa Kane - a woman who was an accomplice, victim or possibly a leading role in the famous Craig murder. "Mrs. Upward was murdered the next night. She was killed for exactly the same reason Mrs. McGinty was killed. Mrs. McGinty stretched her hand, Mrs. Upward stretched her neck—same result. "Before Mrs. Upward was killed, three women received calls. Mrs. Carpenter, Mrs. Rendell, Miss Henderson. All three calls were Mrs. Upward asking the man to come over that night. Look at her. The servants were away that night, and her son and Mrs. Oliver were at the theatre, at Calenque. So it looked as if she wanted to have a private conversation with each of the three women.

"Why three women? Does Mrs. Upward know where she's seen a picture of Eva Kane? Or, does she know where she's seen it but she can't remember it? The three Do the women have anything in common? Aside from their age, there doesn't seem to be anything in common. They're basically all in their thirties. "You may have seen that article in the Sunday Comet. It does say that Eva Kane later had a daughter. The three women Mrs. Upward invited to see her were all the same as Eva Kane's." Daughter is of the same age. "So, it would appear that a young woman is living in Broadhinney, the daughter of the famous murderer Craig and his mistress Eva Kane, and it seems that this young woman will stop at nothing to To prevent the truth from being revealed, indeed, even at the cost of a double murder, for, when Mrs Upward was found dead, there were two cups of coffee on the table, some of which had been drunk, and there was still a faint trace of Traces of lipstick.

"Now, let's go back and look at the three women who got the message on the phone. Mrs. Carpenter answered the phone, but she said she wasn't going to Labnamers that night. Mrs. Rendell was going to go, but she Lying in a chair and falling asleep. Miss Henderson did go to Rabenhams, but the house was dark and there was no answer, so she went away again. "That's what the three women say--but there's an inexplicable piece of evidence. On the second coffee cup, there was lipstick, and there was a bystander, Miss Edna, who affirmed that she saw A fair-haired woman entered the yard. There is evidence of the scene--an expensive foreign perfume; of the several suspected women, only Mrs. Carpenter wore it."

That's it, let's come to an end.Eva Carpenter exclaimed: "It's a lie, it's a vicious lie. It's not me! I've never been there! I haven't been anywhere near that place. Guy, can't you do anything about these lies?" Guy Carpenter was white with rage. "Let me remind you, M. Poirot. There is a libel charge under the law, and all these people here are witnesses." "Is it slander to say that your wife wears a certain perfume - or that she wears a certain lipstick?" "Absurd," cried Eva, "absurd! Anyone could spray my perfume all over the place."

Unexpectedly, Poirot smiled at her. "That's true! Anyone could do it. It's an obviously not very complicated thing to do, and it's clumsy and stupid. As far as I can see, it's done so badly that it's counterproductive. It makes me Got, how should I say, ideas and inspiration. Yes, ideas and inspiration. "Perfume - and the traces of lipstick on the cup. However, it is very easy to wipe the lipstick from the cup - I assure you that any trace will be wiped off fairly easily. Or, the cup itself can be taken away and washed Clean. Why not? There is no one in the house. But it is not done. I ask myself why? The answer to the question seems to be deliberately emphasizing the self-evident fact that this is a murder by a woman I think of the phone calls to the three women—they all received messages. None of them spoke to Mrs. Upward in person. So maybe it wasn’t Mrs. A call from someone desperate to get a woman involved in the crime -- any woman.

"I asked why this was done? There could only be one answer - that it was not a woman who killed Mrs Upward - but a man." He looked around his audience.They were all very quiet, and only two responded. Eva Carpenter sighed and said, "Now you're speaking rationally!" Mrs. Oliver nodded vigorously and said, "Of course." "Therefore, I draw the following conclusions - a man killed Mrs Upward, a man killed Mrs McGinty! What kind of man? The cause of murder must still be the same - all related to one The photo is closely related. Who actually owns that photo? That's the first question. Why keep it?

"Well, that might not be too difficult. Let's say the original reason for keeping it was reminiscence. Once Mrs. McGinty was—get rid of, the picture wouldn't need to be destroyed. But after the second murder After the crime, things were different. At this point, the photograph must have been connected to the murder. It is now a dangerous thing to keep that photograph. So, you will all agree, it must to be destroyed." He looked around at everyone and nodded in agreement. "But, despite all that, the picture is not destroyed! No, it is not destroyed! I know this - because I found it. I found it a few days ago. I am in this room Found it. From the drawer of the cabinet you see standing against the wall. Look this way, please." He held out his hand, holding up the faded photo of a girl holding a rose and laughing foolishly. "Yes," said Poirot, "it is Eva Kane. It is written in pencil on the back. Shall I tell you what it is? 'My mother' . . . " His eyes fell gravely and reproachfully on Maureen Summerhays.She brushed back the hair that fell over her face and gazed at him with bewildered eyes. "I don't understand. I've never—" "No, Mrs. Somerhays, you don't understand. There can only be two reasons for keeping this picture after the second murder. One is innocent nostalgia. You have no guilt, so you may keep This photo. One day at Mrs. Carpenter's, you yourself told us you were an adopted child. I doubt you ever knew your biological mother's name. Others did. That man was full of family pride—a pride that made him deeply attached to his ancestral home, a pride in his ancestry and in his blood. The man would rather die than let the world—and his children—know that Mo Lin Summerhays is the daughter of the murderers Craig and Eva Kane. That man, I said, would rather be dead. But, that wouldn't help, would it? So let's Let's just say we have a man here who's ready to commit murder." Johnny Summerhays got up from his seat.When he spoke, his voice was calm and serene, almost friendly. "You're talking nonsense, aren't you? Self-satisfied, you're spitting out a lot of wild guesswork. Yes, it's all speculation! That my wife—" His rage broke out suddenly, unstoppable like a raging tide. "You dirty bloody scum—" He rushed forward, so fast that the whole room was caught off guard.Poirot stepped back swiftly, and Superintendent Spence suddenly came between Poirot and Summerhays. "Hey, hey, Major Summerhays, calm down - calm down -" Summerhays recovered himself, shrugged his shoulders, and said: "Sorry. That's ridiculous! Anyway—anyone could put a picture in a drawer." "Indeed," said Poirot, "the interesting thing about this photograph is that there are no fingerprints on it." He stopped, then nodded slightly. "But there should have been," he said, "if Mrs. Somerhays had kept it, she would have kept it without evil. So her fingerprints should have been on it." Maureen cried: "I think you're crazy. I've never seen that picture in my life—except that day at Mrs. Upward's." "You are lucky," said Poirot, "I know you are telling the truth. The photograph was put into that drawer only a few minutes before I found it. The contents of that drawer were rummaged that morning. Twice on the ground, both times I put things back together; the first time, the photo wasn't in the drawer, the second time it was. It was put in—and I know who put it in." There was a new tone in his voice.He's no longer a little guy with a funny mustache and ridiculously dyed hair, he's a hunter who gets very close to his prey. "These crimes were committed by a man—for the simplest of reasons—for money. A book was found in Mrs. Upward's room, and on the title page was Evelyn Hope. Hope is the name Eva Kane took when she left the UK. If her real name was Evelyn, then, when her child was born, she would probably name her child that way. But Eve Lin is a man's name as well as a woman's name. Why do we assume that Eva Kane had a girl? Probably because the Sunday Comet said so! The Sunday Comet didn't Elaborating on this. It's just a guess based on a meeting with Eva Kane. However, Eva Kane left the UK before the baby was born - so no one can say for sure gender." "That's where I myself was led astray by that inaccurate random report. "Evelyn Hope, Eva Kane's son, came to England. He was brilliant and attracted the attention of a very wealthy woman who knew nothing about him - only that he The kind of romance that is selectively told to her (it's a simple one - about an unfortunate ballerina who dies of lung disease in Paris!). "She is a lonely woman who has recently lost her own son. The bright young playwright bears her name by contract." "But your real name is Evelyn Hope, isn't it, Mr. Upward?" Robin Upward screamed: "Of course not! I don't know what you're talking about." "You really can't deny it. Someone knows your name. The name Evelyn Hope written in that book is in your handwriting - the same handwriting that says 'my mother' on the back of this photo. Mrs. McGinty saw the picture and the writing on it when she was sorting your things. She told you about that after she had read the Sunday Comet. Mrs. McGinty guessed, That's a picture of Mrs Upward when she was young, because it didn't occur to her that Mrs Upward wasn't your real mother. But you know, if she mentions that and Mrs Upward hears it, it's all over Mrs. Upward has a fanatical view on the question of descent. She will not for a moment tolerate the fact that her adopted son is the offspring of a famous murderer. Nor will she condone your lying on the subject. "Therefore, Mrs. McGinty must be silenced at all costs. Perhaps out of prudence, you promised her a small present. The next night, on your way to the radio, you called at her— You killed her! Like this..." With a sudden movement, Poirot snatched the sugar hammer from the shelf, and swung it up and down, right and left, as if to smash it down on Robin's head. This behavior was so frightening that the surrounding people let out several screams. Robin Upward screamed, high and terrified. He cried, "Don't...don't...it was an accident. I swear it was an accident. I didn't mean to kill her, I lost my mind. I swear." "You washed off the blood and put the ax back in this room where you found it. However, there are new scientific methods to identify the blood—recovering old fingerprints." "Let me tell you, I never meant to kill her...it was a total misunderstanding...anyway, it wasn't my fault...I'm not responsible. It's my blood and there's nothing I can do about it. You can't Kill me for no fault of mine." Spence held his breath and said, "Can't we? See if we can!" He opened his voice and said solemnly and formally: "I must warn you, Mr. Upward, that everything you say..."