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"
They are a very astute and unscrupulous pair. While suspicion was to be
directed against him, she would be making quiet preparations for a very
different denouement. She arrives from Middlingham with all the
compromising items in her possession. No suspicion attaches to her. No
notice is paid to her coming and going in the house. She hides the
strychnine and glasses in John's room. She puts the beard in the attic. She
will see to it that sooner or later they are duly discovered."
"I don't quite see why they tried to fix the blame on John," I remarked. "It
would have been much easier for them to bring the crime home to
Lawrence."
"Yes, but that was mere chance. All the evidence against him arose out of
pure accident. It must, in fact, have been distinctly annoying to the pair of
schemers."
"
"
"
"
His manner was unfortunate," I observed thoughtfully.
Yes. You realize, of course, what was at the back of that?"
No."
You did not understand that he believed Mademoiselle Cynthia guilty of the
crime?"
"No," I exclaimed, astonished. "Impossible!"
"Not at all. I myself nearly had the same idea. It was in my mind when I
asked Mr. Wells that first question about the will. Then there were the
bromide powders which she had made up, and her clever male
impersonations, as Dorcas recounted them to us. There was really more
evidence against her than anyone else."
"You are joking, Poirot!"
"No. Shall I tell you what made Monsieur Lawrence turn so pale when he
first entered his mother's room on the fatal night? It was because, whilst his
mother lay there, obviously poisoned, he saw, over your shoulder, that the
door into Mademoiselle Cynthia's room was unbolted."
"
But he declared that he saw it bolted!" I cried.
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