PART FIVE DECEMBER 26TH II
George Lee came into the room, accompanied by his wife.
Colonel Johnson said
Good morning. Sit down, will you? There are a few questions I want to ask both of you.
Something I’m not quite clear about.
I shall be glad to give you any assistance I can,” said George, somewhat pompously.
Magdalene said faintly
Of course
The chief constable gave a slight nod to Sugden. The latter said
About those telephone calls on the night of the crime. You put through a call to
Westeringham, I think you said, Mr. Lee
George said coldly
Yes, I did. To my agent in the constituency. I can refer you to him and
Superintendent Sugden held up his hand to stem the flow.
Quite so—quite so, Mr. Lee. We’re not disputing that point. Your call went through at
exactly.
Well—I—er—couldn’t say as to the exact time.
Ah,” said Sugden. “But we can! We always check up on these things very carefully. Very
carefully indeed. The call was put through at 8:59 and it was terminated at 9:4. Your father, Mr.
Lee, was killed about 9:15. I must ask you once more for an account of your movements.
I’ve told you—I was telephoning
No, Mr. Lee, you weren’t.
Nonsense — you must have made a mistake! Well, I may, perhaps, have just finished
telephoning—I think I debated making another call—was just considering whether it was—er
worth—the expense—when I heard the noise upstairs.
You would hardly debate whether or not to make a telephone call for ten minutes.
George went purple. He began to splutter.
What do you mean? What the devil do you mean? Damned impudence! Are you doubting
my word? Doubting the word of a man of my position? I—er—why should I have to account for
every minute of my time
Superintendent Sugden said with a stolidness that Poirot admired
It’s usual.
George turned angrily on the chief constable.
Colonel Johnson. Do you countenance this—this unprecedented attitude
The chief constable said crisply: “In a murder case, Mr. Lee, then questions must be asked
and answered.
I have answered them! I had finished telephoning and was—er—debating a further call.
You were in this room when the alarm was raised upstairs
I was—yes, I was.
Johnson turned to Magdalene.
I think, Mrs. Lee,” he said, “that you stated that you were telephoning when the alarm broke
out, and that at the time you were alone in this room
Magdalene was flustered. She caught her breath, looked sideways at George—at Sugden
then appealingly at Colonel Johnson. She said
Oh, really—I don’t know—I don’t remember what I said . . . I was so upset. . . .
Sugden said
We’ve got it all written down, you know.
She turned her batteries on him—wide appealing eyes—quivering mouth. But she met in
return the rigid aloofness of a man of stern respectability who didn’t approve of her type.
She said uncertainly
I—I—of course I telephoned. I can’t be quite sure just when
She stopped.
George said
What’s all this? Where did you telephone from? Not in here.
Superintendent Sugden said
I suggest, Mrs. Lee, that you didn’t telephone at all. In that case, where were you and what
were you doing
Magdalene glanced distractedly about her and burst into tears. She sobbed
George, don’t let them bully me! You know that if anyone frightens me and thunders
questions at me, I can’t remember anything at all! I—I don’t know what I was saying that night
it was all so horrible—and I was so upset—and they’re being so beastly to me. . . .
She jumped up and ran sobbing out of the room.
Springing up, George Lee blustered
What d’you mean? I won’t have my wife bullied and frightened out of her life! She’s very
sensitive. It’s disgraceful! I shall have a question asked in the House about the disgraceful bullying
methods of the police. It’s absolutely disgraceful
He strode out of the room and banged the door.
Superintendent Sugden threw his head back and laughed.
He said
We’ve got them going properly! Now we’ll see
Johnson said frowning
Extraordinary business! Looks fishy. We must get a further statement out of her.
Sugden said easily
Oh! She’ll be back in a minute or two. When she’s decided what to say. Eh, Mr. Poirot
Poirot, who had been sitting in a dream, gave a start.
Pardon
I said she’ll be back.
Probably—yes, possibly—oh, yes
Sugden said, staring at him
What’s the matter, Mr. Poirot? Seen a ghost
Poirot said slowly
You know—I am not sure that I have not done just exactly that.
Colonel Johnson said impatiently
Well, Sugden, anything else
Sugden said
I’ve been trying to check up on the order in which everyone arrived on the scene of the
murder. It’s quite clear what must have happened. After the murder when the victim’s dying cry
had given the alarm, the murderer slipped out, locked the door with pliers, or something of that
kind, and a moment or two later became one of the people hurrying to the scene of the crime.
Unfortunately it’s not easy to check exactly whom everyone has seen because people’s memories
aren’t very accurate on a point like that. Tressilian says he saw Harry and Alfred Lee cross the hall
from the dining room and race upstairs. That lets them out, but we don’t suspect them anyway. As
far as I can make out, Miss Estravados got there late—one of the last. The general idea seems to
be that Farr, Mrs. George, and Mrs. David were the first. Each of those three says one of the others
was just ahead of them. That’s what’s so difficult, you can’t distinguish between a deliberate lie
and a genuine haziness of recollection. Everybody ran there—that’s agreed, but in what order they
ran isn’t so easy to get at.
Poirot said slowly
You think that important
Sugden said
It’s the time element. The time, remember, was incredibly short.
Poirot said
I agree with you that the time element is very important in this case.
Sugden went on
What makes it more difficult is that there are two staircases. There’s the main one in the hall
here about equidistant from the dining room and the drawing room doors. Then there’s one the
other end of the house. Stephen Farr came up by the latter. Miss Estravados came along the upper
landing from that end of the house (her room is right the other end). The others say they went up
by this one.
Poirot said
It is a confusion, yes.
The door opened and Magdalene came quickly in. She was breathing fast and had a bright
spot of colour in each cheek. She came up to the table and said quietly
My husband thinks I’m lying down. I slipped out of my room quietly. Colonel Johnson,” she
appealed to him with wide, distressed eyes, “if I tell you the truth you will keep quiet about it
won’t you? I mean you don’t have to make everything public
Colonel Johnson said
You mean, I take it, Mrs. Lee, something that has no connection with the crime
Yes, no connection at all. Just something in my—my private life.
The chief constable said
You’d better make a clean breast of it, Mrs. Lee, and leave us to judge.
Magdalene said, her eyes swimming
Yes, I will trust you. I know I can. You look so kind. You see, it’s like this. There’s
somebody—” She stopped.
Yes, Mrs. Lee
I wanted to telephone to somebody last night—a man—a friend of mine, and I didn’t want
George to know about it. I know it was very wrong of me—but well, it was like that. So I went to
telephone after dinner when I thought George would be safely in the dining room. But when I got
here I heard him telephoning, so I waited.
Where did you wait, madame?” asked Poirot.
There’s a place for coats and things behind the stairs. It’s dark there. I slipped back there
where I could see George come out from this room. But he didn’t come out, and then all the noise
happened and Mr. Lee screamed, and I ran upstairs.
So your husband did not leave this room until the moment of the murder
No.
The chief constable said
And you yourself from nine o’clock to nine fifteen were waiting in the recess behind the
stairs
Yes, but I couldn’t say so, you see! They’d want to know what I was doing there. It’s been
very, very awkward for me, you do see that, don’t you
Johnson said dryly
It was certainly awkward.
She smiled at him sweetly.
I’m so relieved to have told you the truth. And you won’t tell my husband, will you? No
I’m sure you won’t! I can trust you, all of you.
She included them all in her final pleading look, then she slipped quickly out of the room.
Colonel Johnson drew a deep breath.
Well,” he said. “It might be like that! It’s a perfectly plausible story. On the other hand
It might not,” finished Sugden. “That’s just it. We don’t know.
