Murder in Mesopotamia

‘Look here,’ Mr Coleman was not to be hushed any longer. ‘I’ve got a perfectly good explanation for what – I admit – looks a bit fishy. As a matter of fact, the day before I had slipped a jolly fine cylinder seal into my coat pocket instead of putting it in the antika-room – forgot all about it. And then I discovered I’d been and lost it out of my pocket – dropped it somewhere. I didn’t want to get into a row about it so I decided I’d have a jolly good search on the quiet. I was pretty sure I’d dropped it on the way to or from the dig. I rushed over my business in Hassanieh. Sent a walad to do some of the shopping and got back early. I stuck the bus where it wouldn’t show and had a jolly good hunt for over an hour. And didn’t find the damned thing at that! Then I got into the bus and drove on to the house. Naturally, everyone thought I’d just got back.’

‘And you did not undeceive them?’ asked Poirot sweetly.

‘Well, that was pretty natural under the circumstances, don’t you think?’

‘I hardly agree,’ said Poirot.

‘Oh, come now – don’t go looking for trouble – that’s my motto! But you can’t fasten anything on me. I never went into the courtyard, and you can’t find anyone who’ll say I did.’

‘That, of course, has been the difficulty,’ said Poirot. ‘The evidence of the servants that no one entered the courtyard from outside. But it occurred to me, upon reflection, that that was really not what they had said. They had sworn that no stranger had entered the premises. They had not been asked if a member of the expedition had done so.’

‘Well, you ask them,’ said Coleman. ‘I’ll eat my hat if they saw me or Carey either.’

‘Ah! but that raises rather an interesting question. They would notice a stranger undoubtedly – but would they have even noticed a member of the expedition? The members of the staff are passing in and out all day. The servants would hardly notice their going and coming. It is possible, I think, that either Mr Carey or Mr Colemanmight have entered and the servants’ minds would have no remembrance of such an event.’

‘Bunkum!’ said Mr Coleman.

Poirot went on calmly: ‘Of the two, I think Mr Carey was the least likely to be noticed going or coming. Mr Coleman had started to Hassanieh in the car that morning and he would be expected to return in it. His arrival on foot would therefore be noticeable.’

‘Of course it would!’ said Coleman.

Richard Carey raised his head. His deep-blue eyes looked straight at Poirot.

‘Are you accusing me of murder, M. Poirot?’ he asked.

His manner was quite quiet but his voice had a dangerous undertone.

Poirot bowed to him.

‘As yet I am only taking you all on a journey – my journey towards the truth. I had now established one fact – that all the members of the expedition staff, and also Nurse Leatheran, could in actual fact have committed the murder. That there was very little likelihood of some of them having committed it was a secondary matter.

‘I had examined means and opportunity. I next passed to motive. I discovered that one and all of you could be credited with a motive!’

‘Oh! M. Poirot,’ I cried. ‘Not me! Why, I was a stranger. I’d only just come.’

‘Eh bien, ma soeur, and was not that just what Mrs Leidner had been fearing? A stranger from outside?’

‘But – but – Why, Dr Reilly knew all about me! He suggested my coming!’

‘How much did he really know about you? Mostly what you yourself had told him. Imposters have passed themselves off as hospital nurses before now.’

‘You can write to St. Christopher’s,’ I began.

‘For the moment will you silence yourself. Impossible to proceed while you conduct this argument. I do not say I suspect you now. All I say is that, keeping the open mind, you might quite easily be someone other than you pretended to be. There are many successful female impersonators, you know. Young William Bosner might be something of that kind.’

I was about to give him a further piece of my mind. Female impersonator indeed! But he raised his voice and hurried on with such an air of determination that I thought better of it.

‘I am going now to be frank – brutally so. It is necessary. I am going to lay bare the underlying structure of this place.

‘I examined and considered every single soul here. To begin with Dr Leidner, I soon convinced myself that his love for his wife was the mainspring of his existence. He was a man torn and ravaged with grief. Nurse Leatheran I have already mentioned. If she were a female impersonator she was a most amazingly successful one, and I inclined to the belief that she was exactly what she said she was – a thoroughly competent hospital nurse.’

‘Thank you for nothing,’ I interposed.

‘My attention was immediately attracted towards Mr and Mrs Mercado, who were both of them clearly in a state of great agitation and unrest. I considered first Mrs Mercado. Was she capable of murder, and if so for what reasons?