The Mysterious Affair at Styles hp-1 Read online

  "My father was English," said Mrs. Cavendish, "but my mother was a Russian."

  "Ah," I said, "now I understand-"

  "Understand what?"

  "A hint of something foreign-different-that there has always been about you."

  "My mother was very beautiful, I believe. I don't know, because I never saw her. She died when I was quite a little child. I believe there was some tragedy connected with her death-she took an overdose of some sleeping draught by mistake. However that may be, my father was broken-hearted. Shortly afterwards, he went into the Consular Service. Everywhere he went, I went with him. When I was twenty-three, I had been nearly all over the world. It was a splendid life-I loved it."

  There was a smile on her face, and her head was thrown back. She seemed living in the memory of those old glad days.

  "Then my father died. He left me very badly off. I had to go and live with some old aunts in Yorkshire." She shuddered. "You will understand me when I say that it was a deadly life for a girl brought up as I had been. The narrowness, the deadly monotony of it, almost drove me mad." She paused a minute, and added in a different tone: "And then I met John Cavendish."

  "Yes?"

  "You can imagine that, from my aunts' point of view, it was a very good match for me. But I can honestly say it was not this fact which weighed with me. No, he was simply a way of escape from the insufferable monotony of my life."

  I said nothing, and after a moment, she went on:

  "Don't misunderstand me. I was quite honest with him. I told him, what was true, that I liked him very much, that I hoped to come to like him more, but that I was not in any way what the world calls 'in love' with him. He declared that that satisfied him, and so-we were married."

  She waited a long time, a little frown had gathered on her forehead. She seemed to be looking back earnestly into those past days.

  "I think-I am sure-he cared for me at first. But I suppose we were not well matched. Almost at once, we drifted apart. He-it is not a pleasing thing for my pride, but it is the truth-tired of me very soon." I must have made some murmur of dissent, for she went on quickly: "Oh, yes, he did! Not that it matters now-now that we've come to the parting of the ways."

  "What do you mean?"

  She answered quietly:

  "I mean that I am not going to remain at Styles."

  "You and John are not going to live here?"

  "John may live here, but I shall not."

  "You are going to leave him?"

  "Yes."

  "But why?"

  She paused a long time, and said at last:

  "Perhaps-because I want to be-free!"

  And, as she spoke, I had a sudden vision of broad spaces, virgin tracts of forests, untrodden lands-and a realization of what freedom would mean to such a nature as Mary Cavendish. I seemed to see her for a moment as she was, a proud wild creature, as untamed by civilization as some shy bird of the hills. A little cry broke from her lips:

  "You don't know, you don't know, how this hateful place has been prison to me!"

  "I understand," I said, "but-but don't do anything rash."

  "Oh, rash!" Her voice mocked at my prudence.

  Then suddenly I said a thing I could have bitten out my tongue for:

  "You know that Dr. Bauerstein has been arrested?"

  An instant coldness passed like a mask over her face, blotting out all expression.

  "John was so kind as to break that to me this morning."

  "Well, what do you think?" I asked feebly.

  "Of what?"

  "Of the arrest?"

  "What should I think? Apparently he is a German spy; so the gardener had told John."

  Her face and voice were absolutely cold and expressionless. Did she care, or did she not?

  She moved away a step or two, and fingered one of the flower vases.

  "These are quite dead. I must do them again. Would you mind moving-thank you, Mr. Hastings." And she walked quietly past me out of the window, with a cool little nod of dismissal.

  No, surely she could not care for Bauerstein. No woman could act her part with that icy unconcern.

  Poirot did not make his appearance the following morning, and there was no sign of the Scotland Yard men.

  But, at lunch-time, there arrived a new piece of evidence- or rather lack of evidence. We had vainly tried to trace the fourth letter, which Mrs. Inglethorp had written on the evening preceding her death. Our efforts having been in vain, we had abandoned the matter, hoping that it might turn up of itself one day. And this is just what did happen, in the shape of a communication, which arrived by the second post from a firm of French music publishers, acknowledging Mrs. Inglethorp's cheque, and regretting they had been unable to trace a certain series of Russian folksongs. So the last hope of solving the mystery, by means of Mrs. Inglethorp's correspondence on the fatal evening, had to be abandoned.

  Just before tea, I strolled down to tell Poirot of the new disappointment, but found, to my annoyance, that he was once more out.

  "Gone to London again?"

  "Oh, no, monsieur, he has but taken the train to Tadminster. 'To see a young lady's dispensary,' he said."

  "Silly ass!" I ejaculated. "I told him Wednesday was the one day she wasn't there! Well, tell him to look us up to-morrow morning, will you?"

  "Certainly, monsieur."

  But, on the following day, no sign of Poirot. I was getting angry. He was really treating us in the most cavalier fashion.

  After lunch, Lawrence drew me aside, and asked if I was going down to see him.

  "No, I don't think I shall. He can come up here if he wants to see us."

  "Oh!" Lawrence looked indeterminate. Something unusually nervous and excited in his manner roused my curiosity.

  "What is it?" I asked. "I could go if there's anything special."

  "It's nothing much, but-well, if you are going, will you tell him-" he dropped his voice to a whisper-"I think I've found the extra coffee-cup!"

  I had almost forgotten that enigmatical message of Poirot's, but now my curiosity was aroused afresh.

  Lawrence would say no more, so I decided that I would descend from my high horse, and once more seek out Poirot at Leastways Cottage.

  This time I was received with a smile. Monsieur Poirot was within. Would I mount? I mounted accordingly.

  Poirot was sitting by the table, his head buried in his hands. He sprang up at my entrance.

  "What is it?" I asked solicitously. "You are not ill, I trust?"

  "No, no, not ill. But I decide an affair of great moment."

  "Whether to catch the criminal or not?" I asked facetiously.

  But, to my great surprise, Poirot nodded gravely.

  " 'To speak or not to speak,' as your so great Shakespeare says, 'that is the question.' "

  I did not trouble to correct the quotation.

  "You are not serious, Poirot?"

  "I am of the most serious. For the most serious of all things hangs in the balance."

  "And that is?"

  "A woman's happiness, mon ami," he said gravely.

  I did not quite know what to say.

  "The moment has come," said Poirot thoughtfully, "and I do not know what to do. For, see you, it is a big stake for which I play. No one but I, Hercule Poirot, would attempt it!" And he tapped himself proudly on the breast.

  After pausing a few minutes respectfully, so as not to spoil his effect, I gave him Lawrence's message.

  "Aha!" he cried. "So he has found the extra coffee-cup. That is good. He has more intelligence than would appear, this long-faced Monsieur Lawrence of yours!"

  I did not myself think very highly of Lawrence's intelligence; but I forebore to contradict Poirot, and gently took him to task for forgetting my instructions as to which were Cynthia's days off.

  "It is true. I have the head of a sieve. However, the other young lady was most kind. She was sorry for my disappointment, and showed me everything in the kindest way."

&nb
sp; "Oh, well, that's all right, then, and you must go to tea with Cynthia another day."

  I told him about the letter.

  "I am sorry for that," he said. "I always had hopes of that letter. But no, it was not to be. This affair must all be unravelled from within." He tapped his forehead. "These little grey cells. It is 'up to them'-as you say over here." Then, suddenly, he asked: "Are you a judge of finger-marks, my friend?"

  "No," I said, rather surprised, "I know that there are no two finger-marks alike, but that's as far as my science goes."

  "Exactly."

  He unlocked a little drawer, and took out some photographs which he laid on the table.

  "I have numbered them, 1, 2, 3. Will you describe them to me?"

  I studied the proofs attentively.

  "All greatly magnified, I see. No. 1, I should say, are a man's finger-prints; thumb and first finger. No. 2 are a lady's; they are much smaller, and quite different in every way. No. 3"-I paused for some time-"there seem to be a lot of confused finger-marks, but here, very distinctly, are No. 1's."

  "Overlapping the others?"

  "Yes."

  "You recognize them beyond fail?"

  "Oh, yes; they are identical."

  Poirot nodded, and gently taking the photographs from me locked them up again.

  "I suppose," I said, "that as usual, you are not going to explain?"

  "On the contrary. No. 1 were the finger-prints of Monsieur Lawrence. No. 2 were those of Mademoiselle Cynthia. They are not important. I merely obtained them for comparison. No. 3 is a little more complicated."

  "Yes?"

  "It is, as you see, highly magnified. You may have noticed a sort of blur extending all across the picture. I will not describe to you the special apparatus, dusting powder, etc., which I used. It is a well-known process to the police, and by means of it you can obtain a photograph of the finger-prints of any object in a very short space of time. Well, my friend, you have seen the finger-marks-it remains to tell you the particular object on which they had been left."

  "Go on-I am really excited."

  "Eh bien! Photo No. 3 represents the highly magnified surface of a tiny bottle in the top poison cupboard of the dispensary in the Red Cross Hospital at Tadminster-which sounds like the house that Jack built!"

  "Good heavens!" I exclaimed. "But what were Lawrence Cavendish's finger-marks doing on it? He never went near the poison cupboard the day we were there!"

  "Oh, yes, he did!"

  "Impossible! We were all together the whole time."

  Poirot shook his head.

  "No, my friend, there was a moment when you were not all together. There was a moment when you could not have been all together, or it would not have been necessary to call to Monsieur Lawrence to come and join you on the balcony."

  "I'd forgotten that," I admitted. "But it was only for a moment."

  "Long enough."

  "Long enough for what?"

  Poirot's smile became rather enigmatical.

  "Long enough for a gentleman who had once studied medicine to gratify a very natural interest and curiosity."

  Our eyes met. Poirot's were pleasantly vague. He got up and hummed a little tune. I watched him suspiciously.

  "Poirot," I said, "what was in this particular little bottle?"

  Poirot looked out of the window.

  "Hydro-chloride of strychnine," he said, over his shoulder, continuing to hum.

  "Good heavens!" I said it quite quietly. I was not surprised. I had expected that answer.

  "They use the pure hydro-chloride of strychnine very little- only occasionally for pills. It is the official solution, Liq. Strychnine Hydro-clor. that is used in most medicines. That is why the finger-marks have remained undisturbed since then."

  "How did you manage to take this photograph?"

  "I dropped my hat from the balcony," explained Poirot simply. "Visitors were not permitted below at that hour, so, in spite of my many apologies, Mademoiselle Cynthia's colleague had to go down and fetch it for me."

  "Then you knew what you were going to find?"

  "No, not at all. I merely realized that it was possible, from your story, for Monsieur Lawrence to go to the poison cupboard. The possibility had to be confirmed, or eliminated."

  "Poirot," I said, "your gaiety does not deceive me. This is a very important discovery."

  "I do not know," said Poirot. "But one thing does strike me. No doubt it has struck you too."

  "What is that?"

  "Why, that there is altogether too much strychnine about this case. This is the third time we run up against it. There was strychnine in Mrs. Inglethorp's tonic. There is the strychnine sold across the counter at Styles St. Mary by Mace. Now we have more strychnine, handled by one of the household. It is confusing; and, as you know, I do not like confusion."

  Before I could reply, one of the other Belgians opened the door and stuck his head in.

  "There is a lady below, asking for Mr Hastings."

  "A lady?"

  I jumped up. Poirot followed me down the narrow stairs. Mary Cavendish was standing in the doorway.

  "I have been visiting an old woman in the village," she explained, "and as Lawrence told me you were with Monsieur Poirot I thought I would call for you."

  "Alas, madame," said Poirot, "I thought you had come to honour me with a visit!"

  "I will some day, if you ask me," she promised him, smiling.

  "That is well. If you should need a father confessor, madame" -she started ever so slightly-"remember, Papa Poirot is always at your service."

  She stared at him for a few minutes, as though seeking to read some deeper meaning into his words. Then she turned abruptly away.

  "Come, will you not walk back with us too, Monsieur Poirot?"

  "Enchanted, madame."

  All the way to Styles, Mary talked fast and feverishly. It struck me that in some way she was nervous of Poirot's eyes.

  The weather had broken, and the sharp wind was almost autumnal in its shrewishness. Mary shivered a little, and buttoned her black sports coat closer. The wind through the trees made a mournful noise, like some great giant sighing.

  We walked up to the great door of Styles, and at once the knowledge came to us that something was wrong.

  Dorcas came running out to meet us. She was crying and wringing her hands. I was aware of other servants huddled together in the background, all eyes and ears.

  "Oh, m'am! Oh, m'am! I don't know how to tell you-"

  "What is it, Dorcas?" I asked impatiently. "Tell us at once."

  "It's those wicked detectives. They've arrested him-they've arrested Mr. Cavendish!"

  "Arrested Lawrence?" I gasped.

  I saw a strange look come into Dorcas's eyes.

  "No, sir. Not Mr. Lawrence-Mr. John."

  Behind me, with a wild cry, Mary Cavendish fell heavily against me, and as I turned to catch her I met the quiet triumph in Poirot's eyes.

  Chapter XI. The Case For the Prosecution

  Chapter XI. The Case For the Prosecution

  The trial of John Cavendish for the murder of his stepmother took place two months later.

  Of the intervening weeks I will say little, but my admiration and sympathy went out unfeignedly to Mary Cavendish. She ranged herself passionately on her husband's side, scorning the mere idea of his guilt, and fought for him tooth and nail.

  I expressed my admiration to Poirot, and he nodded thoughtfully.

  "Yes, she is of those women who show at their best in adversity. It brings out all that is sweetest and truest in them. Her pride and her jealousy have-"

  "Jealousy?" I queried.

  "Yes. Have you not realized that she is an unusually jealous woman? As I was saying, her pride and jealousy have been laid aside. She thinks of nothing but her husband, and the terrible fate that is hanging over him."

  He spoke very feelingly, and I looked at him earnestly, remembering that last afternoon, when he had been deliberating whether or no
t to speak. With his tenderness for "a woman's happiness," I felt glad that the decision had been taken out of his hands.

  "Even now," I said, "I can hardly believe it. You see, up to the very last minute, I thought it was Lawrence!"

  Poirot grinned.

  "I know you did."

  "But John! My old friend John!"

  "Every murderer is probably somebody's old friend," observed Poirot philosophically. "You cannot mix up sentiment and reason."

  "I must say I think you might have given me a hint."

  "Perhaps, mon ami, I did not do so, just because he *WAS your old friend."

  I was rather disconcerted by this, remembering how I had busily passed on to John what I believed to be Poirot's views concerning Bauerstein. He, by the way, had been acquitted of the charge brought against him. Nevertheless, although he had been too clever for them this time, and the charge of espionage could not be brought home to him, his wings were pretty well clipped for the future.

  I asked Poirot whether he thought John would be condemned. To my intense surprise, he replied that, on the contrary, he was extremely likely to be acquitted.

  "But, Poirot-" I protested.

  "Oh, my friend, have I not said to you all along that I have no proofs. It is one thing to know that a man is guilty, it is quite another matter to prove him so. And, in this case, there is terribly little evidence. That is the whole trouble. I, Hercule Poirot, know, but I lack the last link in my chain. And unless I can find that missing link-" He shook his head gravely.

  "When did you first suspect John Cavendish?" I asked, after a minute or two.

  "Did you not suspect him at all?"

  "No, indeed."

  "Not after that fragment of conversation you overheard between Mrs. Cavendish and her mother-in-law, and her subsequent lack of frankness at the inquest?"

  "No."

  "Did you not put two and two together, and reflect that if it was not Alfred Inglethorp who was quarrelling with his wife-and you remember, he strenuously denied it at the inquest-it must be either Lawrence or John. Now, if it was Lawrence, Mary Cavendish's conduct was just as inexplicable. But if, on the other hand, it was John, the whole thing was explained quite naturally."