Murder in Mesopotamia

‘There remains one other candidate for the title of murderer – Father Lavigny. My attention was attracted to the good Father straightaway by a certain discrepancy between his description of the strange man who had been seen peering in at the window and the one given by Nurse Leatheran. In all accounts given by different witnesses there is usually some discrepancy, but this was absolutely glaring. Moreover, Father Lavigny insisted on a certain characteristic – a squint – which ought to make identification much easier.

‘But very soon it became apparent that while Nurse Leatheran’s description was substantially accurate, Father Lavigny’s was nothing of the kind. It looked almost as though Father Lavigny was deliberately misleading us – as though he did not want the man caught.

‘But in that case he must know something about this curious person. He had been seen talking to the man but we had only his word for what they had been talking about.

‘What had the Iraqi been doing when Nurse Leatheran and Mrs Leidner saw him? Trying to peer through the window – Mrs Leidner’s window, so they thought, but I realized when I went and stood where they had been, that it might equally have been the antika-room window.

‘The night after that an alarm was given. Someone was in the antika-room. Nothing proved to have been taken, however. The interesting point to me is that when Dr Leidner got there he foundFather Lavigny there before him. Father Lavigny tells his story of seeing a light. But again we have only his word for it.

‘I begin to get curious about Father Lavigny. The other day when I make the suggestion that Father Lavigny may be Frederick Bosner, Dr Leidner pooh-poohs the suggestion. He says Father Lavigny is a well-known man. I advance the supposition that Frederick Bosner, who has had nearly twenty years to make a career for himself, under a new name, may very possiblybe a well-known man by this time! All the same, I do not think that he has spent the intervening time in a religious community. A very much simpler solution presents itself.

‘Did anyone at the expedition know Father Lavigny by sight before he came? Apparently not. Why then should not it be someone impersonating the good Father? I found out that a telegram had been sent to Carthage on the sudden illness of Dr Byrd, who was to have accompanied the expedition. To intercept a telegram, what could be easier? As to the work, there was no other epigraphist attached to the expedition. With a smattering of knowledge a clever manmight bluff his way through. There had been very few tablets and inscriptions so far, and already I gathered that Father Lavigny’s pronouncements had been felt to be somewhat unusual.

‘It looked very much as though Father Lavigny were an imposter.

‘But was he Frederick Bosner?

‘Somehow, affairs did not seem to be shaping themselves that way. The truth seemed likely to lie in quite a different direction.

‘I had a lengthy conversation with Father Lavigny. I am a practising Catholic and I know many priests and members of religious communities. Father Lavigny struck me as not ringing quite true to his role. But he struck me, on the other hand, as familiar in quite a different capacity. I had met men of his type quite frequently – but they were not members of a religious community. Far from it!

‘I began to send off telegrams.

‘And then, unwittingly, Nurse Leatheran gave me a valuable clue. We were examining the gold ornaments in the antika-room and she mentioned a trace of wax having been found adhering to a gold cup. Me, I say, “Wax?” and Father Lavigny, he said “Wax?” and his tone was enough! I knew in a flash exactly what he was doing here.’

Poirot paused and addressed himself directly to Dr Leidner.

‘I regret to tell you, monsieur, that the gold cup in the antika-room, the gold dagger, the hair ornaments and several other thingsare not the genuine articles found by you. They are very clever electrotypes. Father Lavigny, I have just learned by this last answer to my telegrams, is none other than Raoul Menier, one of the cleverest thieves known to the French police. He specializes in thefts from museums of objets d’art and such like. Associated with him is Ali Yusuf, a semi-Turk, who is a first-class working jeweller. Our first knowledge of Menier was when certain objects in the Louvre were found not to be genuine – in every case it was discovered that a distinguished archaeologist not known previously by sight to the director had recently had the handling of the spurious articles when paying a visit to the Louvre. On inquiry all these distinguished gentlemen denied having paid a visit to the Louvre at the times stated!