“Oh, yes. But I didn’t think about it particularly. I thought it was someone out shooting rabbits, although now I remember I did think it sounded quite close at hand.”
“You returned to the house—which way?”
“I came in through this window.”
Ruth indicated with a turn of her head the window behind her.
“Was anyone in here?”
“No. But Hugo and Susan and Miss Lingard came in from the hall almost immediately. They were talking about shooting and murders and things.”
“I see,” said Poirot. “Yes, I think I see now. . . .”
Major Riddle said rather doubtfully:
“Well—er—thank you. I think that’s all for the moment.”
Ruth and her husband turned and left the room.
“What the devil——” began Major Riddle, and ended rather hopelessly: “It gets more and more difficult to keep track of this business.”
Poirot nodded. He had picked up the little piece of earth that had fallen from Ruth’s shoe and was holding it thoughtfully in his hand.
“It is like the mirror smashed on the wall,” he said. “The dead man’s mirror. Every new fact we come across shows us some different angle of the dead man. He is reflected from every conceivable point of view. We shall have soon a complete picture. . . .”
He rose and put the little piece of earth tidily in the waste-paper basket.
“I will tell you one thing, my friend. The clue to the whole mystery is the mirror. Go into the study and look for yourself, if you do not believe me.”
Major Riddle, said decisively:
“If it’s murder, it’s up to you to prove it. If you ask me, I say it’s definitely suicide. Did you notice what the girl said about a former agent having swindled old Gervase? I bet Lake told that tale for his own purposes. He was probably helping himself a bit, Sir Gervase suspected it, and sent for you because he didn’t know how far things had gone between Lake and Ruth. Then this afternoon Lake told him they were married. That broke Gervase up. It was ‘too late’ now for anything to be done. He determined to get out of it all. In fact his brain, never very well-balanced at the best of times, gave way. In my opinion that’s what happened. What have you got to say against it?”
Poirot stood still in the middle of the room.
“What have I to say? This: I have nothing to say against your theory—but it does not go far enough. There are certain things it does not take into account.”
“Such as?”
“The discrepancies in Sir Gervase’s moods today, the finding of Colonel Bury’s pencil, the evidence of Miss Cardwell (which is very important), the evidence of Miss Lingard as to the order in which people came down to dinner, the position of Sir Gervase’s chair when he was found, the paper bag which had held oranges and, finally, the all-important clue of the broken mirror.”
Major Riddle stared.
“Are you going to tell me that that rigmarole makes sense?” he asked.
Hercule Poirot replied softly:
“I hope to make it do so—by tomorrow.”
Eleven
It was just after dawn when Hercule Poirot awoke on the following morning. He had been given a bedroom on the east side of the house.
Getting out of bed, he drew aside the window blind and satisfied himself that the sun had risen, and that it was a fine
morning.
He began to dress with his usual meticulous care. Having finished his toilet, he wrapped himself up in a thick overcoat and wound a muffler round his neck.