"Did any one at the expedition know Father Lavigny by sight before he came? Apparently not. Why then should not it be some one 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 man might 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 impostor.
"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 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 things are 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!
"I have learned that Menier was in Tunis preparing the way for a theft from the Holy Fathers when your telegram arrived. Father Lavigny, who was in ill-health, was forced to refuse, but Menier managed to get hold of the telegram and substitute one of acceptance. He was quite safe in doing so. Even if the monks should read in some paper (in itself an unlikely thing) that Father Lavigny was in Iraq they would only think that the newspapers had got hold of a half truth as so often happens.
"Menier and his accomplice arrived. The latter is seen when he is reconnoitering the antika-room from outside. The plan is for Father Lavigny to take wax impressions. Ali then makes clever duplicates. There are always certain collectors who are willing to pay a good price for genuine antiques and will ask no embarrassing questions. Father Lavigny will effect the substitution of the fake for the genuine article - preferably at night.
"And that is doubtless what he was doing when Mrs. Leidner heard him and gave the alarm. What can he do? He hurriedly makes up a story of having seen a light in the antika-room.
"That 'went down,' as you say, very well. But Mrs. Leidner was no fool. She may have remembered the trace of wax she had noticed and then put two and two together. And if she did, what will she do then? Would it not be dans son caractere to do nothing at once, but to enjoy herself by letting hints slip to the discomfiture of Father Lavigny. She will let him see that she suspects - but not that she knows. It is, perhaps, a dangerous game, but she enjoys a dangerous game.
"And perhaps she plays that game too long. Father Lavigny sees the truth, and strikes before she realizes what he means to do.
"Father Lavigny is Raoul Menier - a thief. Is he also a murderer?"
Poirot paced the room. He took out a handkerchief, wiped his forehead and went on:
"That was my position this morning. There were eight distinct possibilities and I did not know which of these possibilities was the right one. I still did not know who was the murderer.
"But murder is a habit. The man or woman who kills once will kill again.
"And by the second murder, the murderer was delivered into my hands.
"All along it was ever present in the back of my mind that some one of these people might have knowledge that they had kept back-knowledge incriminating the murderer.
"If so, that person would be in danger.
"My solicitude was mainly on account of Nurse Leatheran. She had an energetic personality and a brisk inquisitive mind. I was terrified of her finding out more than it was safe for her to know.
"As you all know, a second murder did take place. But the victim was not Nurse Leatheran - it was Miss Johnson.
"I like to think that I should have reached the correct solution anyway by pure reasoning, but it is certain that Miss Johnson's murder helped me to it much quicker.
"To begin with, one suspect was eliminated - Miss Johnson herself - for I did not for a moment entertain the theory of suicide.
"Let us examine now the facts of this second murder.
"Fact one: On Sunday evening Nurse Leatheran finds Miss Johnson in tears, and that same evening Miss Johnson burns a fragment of a letter which Nurse believes to be in the same handwriting as that of the anonymous letters.
"Fact two: The evening before her death Miss Johnson is found by Nurse Leatheran standing on the roof in a state that Nurse describes as one of incredulous horror. When Nurse questions her she says, 'I've seen how some one could come in from outside - and no one would ever guess.' She won't say any more. Father Lavigny is crossing the courtyard and Mr. Reiter is at the door of the photographic room.
"Fact three: Miss Johnson is found dying. The only words she can manage to articulate are 'the window- the window -'
"Those are the facts, and these are the problems with which we are faced:
"What is the truth of the letters?
"What did Miss Johnson see from the roof?
"What did she mean by 'the window - the window'?
"Eh bien, let us take the second problem first as the easiest of solution. I went up with Nurse Leatheran and I stood where Miss Johnson had stood. From there she could see the courtyard and the archway and the north side of the building and two members of the staff. Had her words anything to do with either Mr. Reiter or Father Lavigny?
"Almost at once a possible explanation leaped to my brain. If a stranger came in from outside he could only do so in disguise. And there was only one person whose general appearance lent itself to such an impersonation. Father Lavigny! With a sun helmet, sun glasses, black beard and a monk's long woollen robe, a stranger could pass in without the servants realizing that a stranger had entered.
"Was that Miss Johnson's meaning? Or had she gone further? Did she realize that Father Lavigny's whole personality was a disguise. That he was some one other than he pretended to be?
"Knowing what I did know about Father Lavigny I was inclined to call the mystery solved. Raoul Menier was the murderer. He had killed Mrs. Leidner to silence her before she could give him away. Now another person lets him see that she has penetrated his secret. She, too, must be removed.
"And so everything is explained! The second murder. Father Lavigny's flight - minus robe and beard. (He and his friend are doubtless careering through Syria with excellent passports as two commercial travellers.) His action in placing the blood-stained quern under Miss Johnson's bed.
"As I say, I was almost satisfied - but not quite. For the perfect solution must explain everything - and this does not do so.
"It does not explain, for instance, why Miss Johnson should say 'the window - the window,' as she was dying. It does not explain her fit of weeping over the letter. It does not explain her mental attitude on the roof - her incredulous horror and her refusal to tell Nurse Leatheran what it was that she now suspected or knew.
"It was a solution that fitted the outer facts, but it did not satisfy the psychological requirements.
"And then, as I stood on the roof, going over in my mind those three points: the letters, the roof, the window, I saw - just as Miss Johnson had seen!
"And this time what I saw explained everything!"
Chapter 28
JOURNEY'S END
Poirot looked round. Every eye was now fixed upon him. There had been a certain relaxation - a slackening of tension. Now the tension suddenly returned.
There was something coming... something...
Poirot's voice, quiet and unimpassioned, went on:
"The letters, the roof, 'the window'... Yes, everything was explained - everything fell into place.
"I said just now that three men had alibis for the time of the crime. Two of those alibis I have shown to be worthless. I saw now my great - my amazing mistake. The third alibi was worthless too. Not only could Dr. Leidner have committed the murder - but I was convinced that he had committed it."
There was a silence, a bewildered uncomprehending silence. Dr. Leidner said nothing. He seemed lost in his faraway world still. David Emmott, however, stirred uneasily and spoke.
"I don't know what you mean to imply, M. Poirot. I told you that Dr. Leidner never left the roof until at least a quarter to three. That is the absolute truth. I swear it solemnly. I am not lying. And it would have been quite impossible for him to have done so without my seeing him."
Poirot nodded.
"Oh, I believe you. Dr. Leidner did not leave the roof That is an undisputed fact. But what I saw - and what Miss Johnson had seen - was that Dr. Leidner could murder his wife from the roof without leaving it. "
We all stared.
"The window," cried Poirot. "Her window! That is what I realized - just as Miss Johnson realized it. Her window was directly underneath, on the side away from the courtyard. And Dr. Leidner was alone up there with no one to witness his actions. And those heavy stone querns and grinders were up there all ready to his hand. So simple, so very simple, granted one thing - that the murderer had the opportunity to move the body before anyone else saw it... Oh, it is beautiful - of an unbelievable simplicity!
"Listen - it went like this:
"Dr. Leidner is on the roof working with the pottery. He calls you up, Mr. Emmott, and while he holds you in talk he notices that, as usually happens, the small boy takes advantage of your absence to leave his work and go outside the courtyard. He keeps you with him ten minutes, then he lets you go and as soon as you are down below shouting to the boy he sets his plan in operation.
"He takes from his pocket the plasticine-smeared mask with which he has already scared his wife on a former occasion and dangles it over the edge of the parapet till it taps on his wife's window.
"That, remember, is the window giving on the countryside facing the opposite direction to the courtyard.
"Mrs. Leidner is lying on her bed half asleep. She is peaceful and happy. Suddenly the mask begins tapping on the window and attracts her attention. But it is not dusk now - it is broad daylight - there is nothing terrifying about it. She recognizes it for what it is - a crude form of trickery! She is not frightened but indignant. She does what any other woman would do in her place. Jumps off the bed, opens the window, passes her head through the bars and turns her face upwards to see who is playing the trick on her.
"Dr. Leidner is waiting. He has in his hands, poised and ready, a heavy quern. At the psychological moment he drops it...
"With a faint cry (heard by Miss Johnson) Mrs. Leidner collapses on the rug underneath the window.
"Now there is a hole in this quern, and through that Dr. Leidner had previously passed a cord. He has now only to haul in the cord and bring up the quern. He replaces the latter neatly, blood-stained side down, amongst the other objects of that kind on the roof.
"Then he continues his work for an hour or more till he judges the moment has come for the second act. He descends the stairs, speaks to Mr. Emmott and Nurse Leatheran, crosses the courtyard and enters his wife's room. This is the explanation he himself gives of his movements there.
"'I saw my wife's body in a heap by the bed. For a moment or two I felt paralyzed as though I couldn't move. Then at first I went and knelt down by her and lifted up her head. I saw she was dead... At last I got up. I felt dazed and as though I were drunk. I managed to get to the door and call out. '
"A perfectly possible account of the actions of a grief-dazed man. Now listen to what I believe to be the truth. Dr. Leidner enters the room, hurries to the window, and having pulled on a pair of gloves, closes and fastens it, then picks up his wife's body and transports it to a position between the bed and the door. Then he notices a slight stain on the window-side rug. He cannot change it with the other rug, they are a different size, but he does the next best thing. He puts the stained rug in front of the wash-stand and the rug from the wash-stand under the window. If the stain is noticed, it will be connected with the wash-stand - not with the window - a very important point. There must be no suggestion that the window played any part in the business. Then he comes to the door and acts the part of the overcome husband, and that, I imagine, is not difficult. For he did love his wife."
"My good man," cried Dr. Reilly impatiently, "if he loved her, why did he kill her? Where's the motive? Can't you speak, Leidner? Tell him he's mad."
Dr. Leidner neither spoke nor moved.
Poirot said:
"Did I not tell you all along that this was a crime passionnel? Why did her first husband, Frederick Bosner, threaten to kill her? Because he loved her... And in the end, you see, he made his boast good...
"Mais oui - mais oui - once I realized that it is Dr. Leidner who did the killing everything falls into place...
