Five Little Pigs

‘They? What is comprised in that word?’

Meredith Blake looked faintly surprised as though he had forgotten that his listener had no first-hand knowledge of the scene.

‘Oh, the whole party. Let me see, Philip was there and Amyas, and Caroline, of course. Angela. And Elsa Greer.’

‘That was all?’

‘Yes-I think so. Yes, I am sure of it,’ Blake looked at him curiously. ‘Who else should there be?’

‘I thought perhaps the governess-’

‘Oh, I see. No, she wasn’t there that afternoon. I believe I’ve forgotten her name now. Nice women. Took her duties very seriously. Angela worried her a good deal I think.’

‘Why was that?’

‘Well, she was a nice kid, but she was inclined to run wild. Always up to something or other. Put a slug or something down Amyas’s back one day when he was hard at work painting. He went up in smoke. Cursed her up and down dale. It was after that that he insisted on this school idea.’

‘Sending her to school?’

‘Yes. I don’t mean he wasn’t fond of her, but he found her a bit of a nuisance sometimes. And I think-I’ve always thought-’

‘Yes?’

‘That he was a bit jealous. Caroline, you see, was a slave to Angela. In a way, perhaps, Angela came first with her-and Amyas didn’t like that. There was a reason for it of course. I won’t go into that, but-’

Poirot interrupted.

‘The reason being that Caroline Crale reproached herself for an action that had disfigured the girl?’

Blake exclaimed: ‘Oh, you know that? I wasn’t going to mention it. All over and done with. But yes, that was the cause of her attitude I think. She always seemed to feel that there was nothing too much she could do-to make up, as it were.’

Poirot nodded thoughtfully. He asked:

‘And Angela? Did she bear a grudge against her half sister?’

‘Oh no, don’t run away with that idea. Angela was devoted to Caroline. She never gave that old business a thought, I’m sure. It was just Caroline who couldn’t forgive herself.’

‘Did Angela take kindly to the idea of boarding school?’

‘No, she didn’t. She was furious with Amyas. Caroline took her side, but Amyas had absolutely made his mind up about it. In spite of a hot temper, Amyas was an easy man in most respects, but when he really got his back up, everyone had to give in. Both Caroline and Angela knuckled under.’

‘She was to go to school-when?’

‘The autumn term-they were getting her kit together, I remember. I suppose, if it hadn’t been for the tragedy, she would have gone off a few days later. There was some talk of her packing on the morning of that day.’

Poirot said: ‘And the governess?’

‘What do you mean-the governess?’

‘How did she like the idea? It deprived her of a job, did it not?’

‘Yes-well, I suppose it did in a way. Little Carla used to do a few lessons, but of course she was only-what? Six or thereabouts. She had a nurse. They wouldn’t have kept Miss Williams on for her. Yes, that’s the name-Williams. Funny how things come back to you when you talk them over.’

‘Yes, indeed. You are back now, are you not, in the past? You relive the scenes-the words that people said, their gestures-the expressions on their faces?’

Meredith Blake said slowly:

‘In a way-yes…But there are gaps, you know…Great chunks missed out. I remember, for instance, the shock it was to me when I first learned that Amyas was going to leave Caroline-but I can’t remember whether it was he who told me or Elsa. I do remember arguing with Elsa on the subject-trying to show her, I mean, that it was a pretty rotten thing to do. And she only laughed at me in that cool way of hers and said I was old fashioned. Well, I dare say Iam old fashioned, but I still think I was right. Amyas had a wife and child-he ought to have stuck to them.’

‘But Miss Greer thought that point of view out of date?’

‘Yes. Mind you, sixteen years ago, divorce wasn’t looked on quite so much as a matter of course as it is now. But Elsa was the kind of girl who went in for being modern. Her point of view was that when two people weren’t happy together it was better to make a break. She said that Amyas and Caroline never stopped having rows and that it was far better for the child that she shouldn’t be brought up in an atmosphere of disharmony.’

‘And her argument did not impress you?’

Meredith Blake said slowly:

‘I felt, all the time, that she didn’t really know what she was talking about. She was rattling these things off-things she’d read in books or heard from her friends-it was like a parrot. She was-it’s a queer thing to say-pathetic somehow. So young and so self-confident.’ He paused. ‘There is something about youth, M. Poirot, that is-that can be-terribly moving.’

Hercule Poirot said, looking at him with some interest: ‘I know what you mean…’

Blake went on, speaking more to himself than to Poirot.

‘That’s partly, I think, why I tackled Crale. He was nearly twenty years older than the girl. It didn’t seem fair.’

Poirot murmured:

‘Alas-how seldom one makes any effect. When a person has determined on a certain course-it is not easy to turn them from it.’

Meredith Blake said: