The Monogram Murders(82)
“I . . . well, if you must know, I got hold of those keys thanks to my own wits. I had a word in the ear of a member of the hotel staff and asked if they’d be good enough to let me have a master key. And they did. I then returned it to them, once I’d used it. All discreet, like.”
I was standing close enough to Poirot to hear the noise of disapproval that he made. “Which member of staff, monsieur? They are all here in this room. Point to the person who gave you this master key.”
“I can’t remember who it was. A man—that’s all I can tell you. I’ve a pitiful memory for faces.” As he said this, Kidd rubbed the red scratches on his own face with his thumb and forefinger.
“So, with this master key you let yourself into all three rooms?”
“No, only Room 238. That’s where all the keys ought to have ended up, waiting for Jennie to take them, but I could only find two. As you’ve said, one was hidden behind a tile in the fireplace. I didn’t like to stay and search the room for the third key, what with Mr. Negus’s body being there and all.”
“You are lying,” Poirot told him. “It does not matter. You will discover, in due course, that you cannot lie your way out of this predicament. But let us move on. No, do not sit down. I have another question—for you and Jennie Hobbs. It was part of the plan, was it not, that Jennie should bring her tale of mortal fear to me at Pleasant’s Coffee House at just after half past seven on the night of the murders?”
“Yes,” said Jennie, looking not at Poirot but at Samuel Kidd.
“Forgive me, then, but I do not understand something important. You were too afraid to go through with the plan, you say, and so you did not arrive at the hotel at six o’clock. Yet the plan went ahead without you, it seems. The only deviation was that Richard Negus killed himself, yes? He put the poison into his own drink, rather than having it put in his drink by you. Is everything that I have said so far correct, mademoiselle?”
“Yes, it is.”
“In that case, if the only altered detail was Richard Negus killing himself instead of being killed, we can assume that the deaths took place as planned: after the ordering of the sandwiches and scones, between a quarter past seven and eight o’clock. Yes, Miss Hobbs?”
“That is right,” said Jennie. She did not sound quite as certain as she had a moment ago.
“Then how, might I ask, can it ever have been part of the plan for you to kill Richard Negus? You have told us that you intended to find me at Pleasant’s Coffee House shortly after half past seven on that same night, knowing I would be there for my regular Thursday evening dinner. It is impossible to get from the Bloxham Hotel to Pleasant’s Coffee House in less than half an hour. It cannot be done, no matter how one travels. So, even if Ida Gransbury had killed Harriet Sippel and Richard Negus had killed Ida Gransbury as soon as was possible after a quarter past seven, there would not have been time for you to kill Richard Negus in Room 238 after that time, and still arrive at Pleasant’s when you did. Are we supposed to believe that, in all the meticulous planning that you undertook, none of you thought of this practical impossibility?”
Jennie’s face had turned white. I expect mine had too, though I could not see it myself.
It was such an obvious flaw in her account that Poirot had pointed out, and yet I had failed to spot it. It simply had not occurred to me.
The Real Ida Gransbury
SAMUEL KIDD CHUCKLED, TURNING round so that more people could see him. He said, “Mr. Poirot, for a man who takes pride in his powers of detection, you’re not the sharpest of instruments, are you? I’ve heard Jennie talk about this more often than you have, I think I can safely say. The plan was not for the killings to take place after a quarter past seven. I don’t know where you’ve caught hold of that idea. The plan was for them to happen just after six o’clock. The ordering of food at a quarter past seven wasn’t part of it either.”
“That’s right,” said Jennie. Offered a way out of the trap by her quick-thinking former fiancé, she appeared to have recovered her composure. “I can only conclude that my failure to arrive at six as agreed caused a delay. The others would have wanted to discuss my failure to present myself. I should have, in their place. The discussion about what to do might have taken some time.”
“Ah, bien s?r. You did not correct me a few moments ago, however, when I asserted that the deaths took place as planned: between a quarter past seven and eight o’clock. Neither did you say that the ordering of the very late afternoon tea was not part of the plan.”
“I’m sorry. I should have corrected you,” said Jennie. “I’m . . . I mean, this is all rather overwhelming.”
“You now say that the plan was for the three killings to take place at six o’clock?”
“Yes, and all be done by fifteen minutes before seven so that I could get to Pleasant’s by half past.”
“In that case, I have a different question for you, mademoiselle. Why did the plan require Mr. Kidd to wait a full hour once Harriet, Ida and Richard were all dead, and once you had left the hotel, before placing the note on the front desk? Why was it not agreed that Mr. Kidd should do this at, for example, a quarter past seven, or even half past seven? Why eight o’clock?”
Jennie recoiled as if from a blow. “Why not eight o’clock?” she said defiantly. “What was the harm in waiting a while?