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I think the appearance of the two Scotland Yard men was rather a shock--
especially to John, though of course after the verdict, he had realized that it
was only a matter of time. Still, the presence of the detectives brought the
truth home to him more than anything else could have done.
Poirot had conferred with Japp in a low tone on the way up, and it was the
latter functionary who requested that the household, with the exception of
the servants, should be assembled together in the drawing-room. I realized
the significance of this. It was up to Poirot to make his boast good.
Personally, I was not sanguine. Poirot might have excellent reasons for his
belief in Inglethorp's innocence, but a man of the type of Summerhaye
would require tangible proofs, and these I doubted if Poirot could supply.
Before very long we had all trooped into the drawing-room, the door of which
Japp closed. Poirot politely set chairs for every one. The Scotland Yard men
were the cynosure of all eyes. I think that for the first time we realized that
the thing was not a bad dream, but a tangible reality. We had read of such
things--now we ourselves were actors in the drama. To-morrow the daily
papers, all over England, would blazon out the news in staring headlines:
"
MYSTERIOUS TRAGEDY IN ESSEX"
WEALTHY LADY POISONED"
"
There would be pictures of Styles, snap-shots of "The family leaving the
Inquest"--the village photographer had not been idle! All the things that one
had read a hundred times--things that happen to other people, not to
oneself. And now, in this house, a murder had been committed. In front of
us were "the detectives in charge of the case." The well-known glib
phraseology passed rapidly through my mind in the interval before Poirot
opened the proceedings.
I think every one was a little surprised that it should be he and not one of
the official detectives who took the initiative.
"
Mesdames and messieurs," said Poirot, bowing as though he were a
celebrity about to deliver a lecture, "I have asked you to come here all
together, for a certain object. That object, it concerns Mr. Alfred Inglethorp."
Inglethorp was sitting a little by himself--I think, unconsciously, every one
had drawn his chair slightly away from him--and he gave a faint start as
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