Chapter 16 Chapter 15: Poirot Makes a Proposal

Dr. Rayleigh was already on his feet.After everyone had gone out, he carefully closed the door.Then, looking at Poirot as if asking for permission, he went to close the window facing the courtyard.Then, he sat down again on the seat in front of the table. "Good!" said Poirot, "we have no one to interfere now, and we can talk freely. We have heard what our fellow members of the expedition team want to tell us—but, by the way, head nurse, what do you think?" My face became a little red.There was no denying that this strange little old man had a keen eye.He's seen what I've just thought of--I think my face expresses what's on my mind too clearly.

"Ah, it's nothing—" I said, hesitantly. "Go ahead, Miss Nurse," said Dr. Rayleigh, "don't keep the specialist waiting." "That's really nothing." I said hastily, "It can be said that a thought suddenly crossed my mind. I thought, maybe even if someone really knows or suspects something, it's not easy to reveal it in front of others—or, Even, maybe in front of Dr. Leidner—saying it." M. Poirot nodded his head in an effort to agree.This rather surprised me. "Not at all, not at all. What you say is fair. But let me explain. We had a little party, and it was not in vain. In England, you'll have a cavalry procession before the Marseilles." You got a chance to see and judge those racehorses as they passed the grandstands. That's what my little party was for. To use a racing term, I wanted to see which horses were eligible to race .

Dr. Leidner cried out violently: "I absolutely do not believe that any of our colleagues are involved in this murder!" Then, turning to me, he said imperatively: "Miss Nurse, I should be very grateful if you could tell Mr. Poirot at this very moment exactly what you said to my wife two days ago." At his urging, I immediately gave the account of the conversation, recalling as far as I could the exact words Mrs. Leidner used. When I had finished, M. Poirot said: "Very well. You have a very bright and methodical mind. You have been of great help to me here." He turned to Dr. Leidner and said:

"Do you have any of these letters?" "Here are the letters. I thought you'd want to read them first." Poirot took the letters from him and examined them carefully.I'm a bit disappointed that he didn't dust the paper with powder, or check it with a microscope or something - but I know he's not very young anymore, so maybe his methods aren't very new.He read the letter the way any ordinary person reads a letter. When he had read the letter, he put it down and cleared his throat. "Now," said he, "let us proceed to ascertain these facts and examine them in order. The first of these letters was received shortly after your wife and you were married in America. There are others, But they were all destroyed. Another one was received later. Not long after the second letter, you two were almost poisoned by gas. After that, you went to foreign countries. For almost two years, no further letters were sent. This year when your excavation period began, letters started arriving again—that is, within the last three weeks. Is that correct?"

"Absolutely." "Your wife is clearly in a panic. After you consulted with Dr. Rayleigh, you asked Nurse Leatheran to accompany her to assuage her fears?" "correct." "Then something happened--saw hands knocking on the window--a ghostly face--and heard noises from the antiquities room. Didn't you see the phenomenon yourself?" "No." "Actually, no one but Mrs. Leidner." "Father Lavigne saw a light in the antiquities room." "By the way, I haven't forgotten that." He was silent for a moment, and then said, "Does your wife have a will?"

"I don't think so." "why?" "Unworthy of standing from her point of view." "Isn't she a very rich person?" "Yes, while she was alive. Her father bequeathed her a considerable sum, which was kept in the bank. She had no access to the principal, and if she had children, the sum passed to them upon her death. —If there are no children, it will be transferred to the Pitts City Museum." Poirot pondered, tapping on the table repeatedly, "Then, I think," he said, "we can rule out a motive for murder in this case. Do you understand? That's the motive I'm looking for first. Who benefits from the death of the deceased? Benefit now It's the museum. In other cases, if she doesn't make a will but has a sizable fortune, then who exactly should bear the money—you? Or her ex-husband? I think that's Makes for an interesting question. But there's a catch: the ex-husband has to be resurrected to get the money; if so, I think he's in danger of being arrested. Still, so long after the war, I think He will not necessarily be executed. Even so, there is no need for such speculation now. As I said, I usually solve the money problem first. The second step, I always suspect the husband or wife of the deceased. In this case Say, first of all, it has now been proved that you would not go near your wife's bedroom yesterday afternoon. Secondly, after your wife's death, you will not get money, but will lose it. As for the third point—"

He pauses. "What?" said Dr. Leidner. "Thirdly," said Poirot slowly, "I can tell by looking whether a person loves another deeply. I believe, Dr. Leidner, that your love for your wife is the most important thing in your life." thing, isn't it?" Dr. Leidner replied simply: "Yes." Poirot nodded. "So," he said, "we can continue our analysis." "Good! Good! Let's calm down and continue our research." Dr. Rayleigh said impatiently. Poirot looked at him reproachfully. "Don't be impatient, my friend. A case like this must be approached in an orderly and planned manner. In fact, this is my practice in every case I investigate. Now that we have eliminated some possible guesses, we can proceed now. Research is very important. Like you guys always say, the most important thing is to have all your cards on the table—nothing to hide."

"Exactly," said Dr. Rayleigh. "That's why I want to know the whole truth," continued Poirot. Dr. Leidner looked at him in amazement. "I can assure you, M. Poirot, that I have nothing to hide. I have told you all I know, without reservation." "Tout de meme (still), you didn't tell me 'all'." "Told you all, indeed. I can't think of a detail that I've missed." He looked distressed. Poirot shook his head slightly. "No," he said, "for example, you didn't tell me why you put Nurse Leatheran in this house."

"But, I've said this, it's obvious. Because my wife is nervous—because of her fear—" Poirot bent forward and wagged a finger slowly and emphatically. "No, no, no! There's one thing that doesn't quite make sense here. Your wife is in danger, yes, she's being threatened with death, yes. Instead of going to the police—not even a private eye—you're calling in a Nurse - this is puzzling! This is it!" "I—I—" Dr. Leidner paused.His face slowly turned red. "I thought--" He stopped here, unable to speak. "Now we're going to get to the bottom of it," Poirot encouraged him, "and you thought . . . what?"

Dr. Leidner still did not speak.He looked troubled and unwilling. "You know," Poirot's voice became very moving, "everything you tell me, except that, sounds real. Why a nurse? There is an answer—yes. In fact, there can only be One answer: You yourself don't believe your wife is in danger." Then, Dr. Leidner broke down with a cry. "May the Lord help me!" he whined, "I don't believe it. I don't believe it." Poirot watched him like a cat intently on a mouse-hole—and jumped on the mouse as soon as it appeared. "So, what on earth were you thinking?" he asked.

"I do not know I do not know." "But, as a matter of fact, you do know. You know perfectly well. Perhaps I can help you by guessing. Do you suspect, Dr. Leidner, that these letters were written by your wife herself?" He didn't need to answer that.Poirot guessed right, it was so obvious.The hand he raised kept trembling, as if he was begging for forgiveness, which already explained everything. I took a deep breath.It turned out that the suspicion that had almost formed in my heart was right!I recall Dr. Leidner's strange tone when he asked me what I thought about that matter.So, I thought about it and nodded slowly.Then suddenly I saw Poirot's eyes looking at me. "Miss Nurse, did you have the same thought at that time?" "I did happen to think so," I said matter-of-factly. "What reason?" I explained to him that the letter which Mr. Coleman had shown me was in a handwriting very similar to these letters. Poirot turned to Dr Leidner. "Did you notice the similarity too?" Dr. Leidner nodded. "Yes, I noticed. The letters were small and illegible--not as large and generous as Louis's. But there were a few letters of the same shape. I Show it to you." He took some letters from the breast pocket of his coat, and at last he selected one and handed it to Poirot.It was part of a letter his wife wrote to him.Poirot compared them carefully with the anonymous letters. "Yes," he whispered, "yes, there are several resemblances—the S is oddly written, the e is plain. I'm not a handwriting expert—I can't say for sure ( On this point, I have never found two handwriting experts to agree on a point) - but let's say this at least - there are striking similarities between the two handwritings. It is likely that the letters are from the same person Written. However, this is not certain, and we must take into account all possible contingencies.” Poirot leaned back in his chair, and thoughtfully said: "There are three possibilities. First, this phenomenon of similar handwriting is purely coincidental. Second, these threatening letters are Mrs. Leidner's for some unknown reason. Written by herself. Third, these letters were written by someone deliberately imitating her handwriting. Why? It seems unreasonable to do so. Of these three possibilities, one of them must be correct." He considered for a moment, then turned to Dr. Leidner, regaining his brisk manner. "When you think Mrs. Leidner might have written it herself. What do you think?" Dr. Leidner shook his head. "I try not to think about it. I think it's scary." "Have you ever found a reason to explain it?" "This—" he hesitated, "I think she's always thinking about the past, always worrying. Does it affect her brain a little bit. I think she may have written these letters herself without knowing that she did it." Yes. It's possible, isn't it?" He turned to Dr. Rayleigh; Dr. Rayleigh pouted. "The human mind can think of almost anything," he answered vaguely. But his eyes flashed like lightning, and they looked at Poirot quickly.Poirot dropped the subject, as if on his own terms. "The letters are very interesting," he said, "but we must concentrate on the case as a whole. There are three answers, as I see it." "Three..." "That's right. First answer. Mrs. Leidner must have written threatening letters to herself for some reason (which is perhaps easier for a physician to understand than a layman). The Vache poisoning incident was her own. (Remember, she was the one who woke you up and told you she smelled gas.) But if Mrs. Leidner had written the letters herself, then there was no way she would have let the imaginary sender harm her. Danger of death. So, we'll have to look elsewhere for the murderer. Actually, we'll have to look for it among your staff. That's right." This was in reply to Dr. Leidner's soft protest. "That's the only reasonable conclusion. One of them killed her in order to pay off a personal grudge. That man, I think, probably knew about the letters—or, at any rate, knew that Mrs. Leidner was afraid of a certain or pretend to be afraid of him. From the murderer's point of view, that would make him safe—it would not have occurred to him that he had killed him. He felt that a mysterious outsider must have done it—that is, to write The person who sent the threatening letter. "A variant of this answer is that the murderer really wrote the letters himself, because he knew Mrs. Leidner's past history. But if that is the case, we don't quite understand why the murderer imitated Mrs. Leidner's handwriting, because, we thought, it would have been more advantageous to him or her if the letters appeared to have been written by an outsider. "I find the third answer the most interesting. I presume that the letters are genuine, that they were written by Mrs. Leidner's ex-husband (or his brother), and that, in fact, he was one of the members of the mission. "