i well remember the arrival of a b c’s third letter.
i may say that all precautions had been taken so that when a b c resumed his campaign there should be no unnecessary delays. a young sergeant from scotland yard was attached to the house and if poirot and i were out it was his duty to open anything that came so as to be able to communicate with headquarters without loss of time.
as the days succeeded each other we had all grown more and more on edge. inspector crome’s aloof and superior manner grew more and more aloof and superior as one by one his more hopeful clues petered out. the vague descriptions of men said to have been seen with betty barnard proved useless. various cars noticed in the vicinity of bexhill and cooden were either accounted for or could not be traced. the investigation of purchases of a b c railway guidescaused inconvenience and trouble to heaps of innocent people.
as for ourselves, each time the postman’s familiar rat-tat sounded on the door, our hearts beat faster with apprehension. at least that was true for me, and i cannot but believe that poirot experienced the same sensation.
he was, i knew, deeply unhappy over the case. he refused to leave london, preferring to be on the spot in case of emergency. in those hot dog days even his moustaches drooped—neglected for once by their owner.
it was on a friday that a b c’s third letter came. the evening post arrived about ten o’clock.
when we heard the familiar step and the brisk rat-tat, i rose and went along to the box. there were four or five letters, i remember. the last one i looked at was addressed in printed characters.
‘poirot,’ i cried…my voice died away.
‘it has come? open it, hastings. quickly. every moment may be needed. we must make our plans.’
i tore open the letter (poirot for once did not reproach me with untidiness) and extracted the printed sheet.
‘read it,’ said poirot.
i read aloud:
poor mr poirot,—not so good at these little criminal matters as you thought yourself, are you? rather past your prime, perhaps? let us see if you can do any better this time. this time it’s an easy one. churston on the 30th. do try and do something about it! it’s a bit dull having it all my own way, you know!
good hunting. ever yours,
a b c.
‘churston,’ i said, jumping to our own copy of an a b c. ‘let’s see where it is.’
‘hastings,’ poirot’s voice came sharply and interrupted me. ‘when was that letter written? is there a date on it?’
i glanced at the letter in my hand.
‘written on the 27th,’ i announced.
‘did i hear you aright, hastings? did he give the date of the murder as the 30th?’
‘that’s right. let me see, that’s—’
‘bon dieu, hastings—do you not realise? today is the 30th.’
his eloquent hand pointed to the calendar on the wall. i caught up the daily paper to confirm it.
‘but why—how—’ i stammered.
poirot caught up the torn envelope from the floor. something unusual about the address had registered itself vaguely in my brain, but i had been too anxiousto get at the contents of the letter to pay more than fleeting attention to it.
poirot was at the time living in whitehaven mansions. the address ran: m. hercule poirot, whitehorse mansions, across the corner was scrawled: ‘not known at whitehorse mansions, ec1, nor at whitehorse court—try whitehaven mansions.’
‘mon dieu!’ murmured poirot. ‘does even chance aid this madman? vite—vite—we must get on to scotland yard.’
a minute or two later we were speaking to crome over the wire. for once the self-controlled inspector did not reply ‘oh, yes?’ instead a quickly stifled curse came to his lips. he heard what we had to say, then rang off in order to get a trunk connection to churston as rapidly as possible.
‘c’est trop tard,’ murmured poirot.
‘you can’t be sure of that,’ i argued, though without any great hope.
he glanced at the clock.
‘twenty minutes past ten? an hour and forty minutes to go. is it likely that a b c will have held his hand so long?’
i opened the railway guide i had previously taken from its shelf.
‘churston, devon,’ i read, ‘from paddington 204 3/4 miles. population 656. it sounds a fairly small place.surely our man will be bound to be noticed there.’
‘even so, another life will have been taken,’ murmured poirot. ‘what are the trains? i imagine train will be quicker than car.’
‘there’s a midnight train—sleeping car to newton abbot—gets there 6.8 am, and then churston at 7.15.’
‘that is from paddington?’
‘paddington, yes.’
‘we will take that, hastings.’
‘you’ll hardly have time to get news before we start.’
‘if we receive bad news tonight or tomorrow morning does it matter which?’
‘there’s something in that.’
i put a few things together in a suitcase while poirot once more rang up scotland yard.
a few minutes later he came into the bedroom and demanded:
‘mais qu’est ce que vous faites là?’
‘i was packing for you. i thought it would save time.’
‘vous éprouvez trop d’émotion, hastings. it affects your hands and your wits. is that a way to fold a coat? and regard what you have done to my pyjamas. if the hairwash breaks what will befall them?’
‘good heavens, poirot,’ i cried, ‘this is a matter of life and death. what does it matter what happens to our clothes?’
‘you have no sense of proportion, hastings. we cannot catch a train earlier than the time that it leaves, and to ruin one’s clothes will not be the least helpful in preventing a murder.’
taking his suitcase from me firmly, he took the packing into his own hands.
he explained that we were to take the letter and envelope to paddington with us. someone from scotland yard would meet us there.
when we arrived on the platform the first person we saw was inspector crome.
he answered poirot’s look of inquiry.
‘no news as yet. all men available are on the lookout. all persons whose name begins with c are being warned by phone when possible. there’s just a chance. where’s the letter?’
poirot gave it to him.
he examined it, swearing softly under his breath.
‘of all the damned luck. the stars in their courses fight for the fellow.’
‘you don’t think,’ i suggested, ‘that it was done on purpose?’
crome shook his head.
‘no. he’s got his rules—crazy rules—and abides by them. fair warning. he makes a point of that. that’s where his boastfulness comes in. i wonder now—i’d almost bet the chap drinks white horse whisky.’
‘ah, c’est ingénieux, c?a!’ said poirot, driven to admiration in spite of himself. ‘he prints the letter and the bottle is in front of him.’
‘that’s the way of it,’ said crome. ‘we’ve all of us done much the same thing one time or another, unconsciously copied something that’s just under the eye. he started off white and went on horse instead of haven…’
the inspector, we found, was also travelling by the train.
‘even if by some unbelievable luck nothing happened, churston is the place to be. our murderer is there, or has been there today. one of my men is on the phone here up to the last minute in case anything comes through.’
just as the train was leaving the station we saw a man running down the platform. he reached the inspector’s window and called up something.
as the train drew out of the station poirot and i hurried along the corridor and tapped on the door of the inspector’s sleeper.
‘you have news—yes?’ demanded poirot.
crome said quietly:
‘it’s about as bad as it can be. sir carmichael clarke has been found with his head bashed in.’
sir carmichael clarke, although his name was not very well known to the general public, was a man ofsome eminence. he had been in his time a very well-known throat specialist. retiring from his profession very comfortably off, he had been able to indulge what had been one of the chief passions of his life—a collection of chinese pottery and porcelain. a few years later, inheriting a considerable fortune from an elderly uncle, he had been able to indulge his passion to the full, and he was now the possessor of one of the best-known collections of chinese art. he was married but had no children and lived in a house he had built for himself near the devon coast, only coming to london on rare occasions such as when some important sale was on.
it did not require much reflection to realize that his death, following that of the young and pretty betty barnard, would provide the best newspaper sensation for years. the fact that it was august and that the papers were hard up for subject matter would make matters worse.
‘eh bien,’ said poirot. ‘it is possible that publicity may do what private efforts have failed to do. the whole country now will be looking for a b c.’
‘unfortunately,’ i said, ‘that’s what he wants.’
‘true. but it may, all the same, be his undoing. gratified by success, he may become careless…that is what i hope—that he may be drunk with his own cleverness.’
‘how odd all this is, poirot,’ i exclaimed, struck suddenly by an idea. ‘do you know, this is the first crime of this kind that you and i have worked on together? all our murders have been—well, private murders, so to speak.’
‘you are quite right, my friend. always, up to now, it has fallen to our lot to work from the inside. it has been the history of the victimthat was important. the important points have been: “who benefited by the death? what opportunities had those round him to commit the crime?” it has always been the “crime intime”. here, for the first time in our association, it is cold-blooded, impersonal murder. murder from the outside.’
i shivered.
‘it’s rather horrible…’
‘yes. i felt from the first, when i read the original letter, that there was something wrong—misshapen…’
he made an impatient gesture.
‘one must not give way to the nerves…this is no worse than any ordinary crime…’
‘it is…it is…’
‘is it worse to take the life or lives of strangers than to take the life of someone near and dear to you—someone who trusts and believes in you, perhaps?’
‘it’s worse because it’s mad…’
‘no, hastings. it is not worse. it is only more difficult.’
‘no, no, i do not agree with you. it’s infinitely more frightening.’
hercule poirot said thoughtfully:
‘it should be easier to discover because it is mad. a crime committed by someone shrewd and sane would be far more complicated. here, if one could but hit on the idea…this alphabetical business, it has discrepancies. if i could once see the idea—then everything would be clear and simple…’
he sighed and shook his head.
‘these crimes must not go on. soon, soon, i must see the truth…go, hastings. get some sleep. there will be much to do tomorrow.’
