Poirot asked:
"There was here when I arrived a tall military gentleman. Who would he be?"
"One of Mr. Reilly's patients, I expect. I'll just get his list for you, shall I?"
"Thank you, Miss Nevill."
She was absent only a few minutes. She returned with a book similar to that of Mr. Morley's.
She read out:
"Ten o'clock Betty Heath (That's a little girl of nine); eleven o'clock, Colonel Abercrombie."
"Abercrombie!" murmured Poirot. "C'йtait зa."
"Eleven-thirty, Mr. Howard Raikes. Twelve o'clock, Mr. Barnes, and that was all the patients this morning. Mr. Reilly isn't so booked up as Mr. Morley, of course."
"Can you tell us anything about any of these patients of Mr. Reilly's?"
"Colonel Abercrombie has been a patient for long time, and all of Mrs. Heath's children come to Mr. Reilly. I can't tell you anything about Mr. Raikes or Mr. Barnes, though I fancy I have heard their names. I take all the telephone calls, you see -"
Japp said:
"We can ask Mr. Reilly ourselves. I should like to see him as soon as possible."
Miss Nevill went out. Japp said to Poirot:
"All old patients of Mr. Morley's except Amberiotis. I'm going to have an interesting talk with Mr. Amberiotis presently. He's the last person, as it stands, to see Morley alive, and we've got to make quite sure that when he last saw him, Morley was alive."
Poirot said slowly, shaking his head:
"You have still to prove motive."
"I know. That's what is going to be the teaser. But we may have something about Amberiotis at the Yard." He added sharply: "You're very thoughtful, Poirot!"
"I was wondering about something."
"What was it?"
Poirot said with faint smile:
"Why Chief Inspector Japp?"
"Eh?"
"I said, 'Why Chief Inspector Japp?' An officer of your eminence - is he usually called in to a case of suicide?"
"As a matter of fact, I happened to be near by at the time. At Lavenhamstin Wigmore Street. Rather an ingenious system of frauds they've had there. They telephoned me there to come on here."
"But why did they telephone you?"
"Oh, that - that's simple enough. Alistair Blunt. As soon as the Divisional Inspector heard he'd been here this morning, he got on to the Yard. Mr. Blunt is the kind of person we take care of in this country."
"You mean that there are people who would like him - out of the way?"
"You bet there are. The Reds, to begin with - and our Blackshirted friends, too. It's Blunt and his group who are standing solid behind the present Government. Good sound conservative finance. That's why, if there were the least chance that there was any funny stuff intended against him this morning, they wanted a thorough investigation."
Poirot nodded.
"That is what I more or less guessed. And that is the feeling I have -" he waved his hands expressively - "that there was, perhaps - a hitch of some kind. The proper victim was - should have been - Alistair Blunt. Or is this only a beginning - the beginning of a campaign of some kind? I smell - I smell -" he sniffed the air - "big money in this business!"
Japp said:
"You're assuming a lot, you know."
"I am suggesting that ce pauvre Morley was only a pawn in the game. Perhaps he knew something - perhaps he told Blunt something - or they feared he would tell Blunt something -"
He stopped as Gladys Nevill reentered the room.
"Mr. Reilly is busy on an extraction case," she said. "He will be free in about ten minutes if that will be all right?"
Japp said that it would. In the meantime, he said, he would have another talk with the boy Alfred.
V
Alfred was divided between nervousness, enjoyment, and a morbid fear of being blamed for everything that had occurred! He had only been a fortnight in Mr. Morley's employ, and during that fortnight he had consistently and unvaryingly done everything wrong. Persistent blame had sapped his self-confidence.
"He was a bit rattier than usual, perhaps," said Alfred in answer to a question, "but nothing else as I remember. I'd never have thought he was going to do himself in."
Poirot interposed.
"You must tell us," he said, "everything that you can remember about this morning. You are a very important witness, and your recollections may be of immense service to us."
Alfred's face was suffused by vivid crimson and his chest swelled. He had already given Japp a brief account of the morning's happenings. He proposed now to spread himself. A comforting sense of importance oozed into him.
"I can tell you orl right," he said. "Just you ask me."
"To begin with, did anything out of the way happen this morning?"
Alfred reflected a minute and then said rather sadly:
"Can't say as it did. It was orl just as usual."
"Did any strangers come to the house?"
"No, sir."
"Not even among the patients?"
"I didn't know as you meant the patients. Nobody come what hadn't got an appointment, if that's what you mean. They were all down in the book."
Japp nodded. Poirot asked:
"Could anybody have walked in from outside?"
"No, they couldn't. They'd have to have a key, see?"
"But it was quite easy to leave the house?"
"Oh, yes, just turn the handle and go out and pull the door to after you. As I was saying, most of 'em do. They often come down the stairs while I'm taking up the next party in the elevator, see?"
"I see. Now just tell us who came first this morning and so on. Describe them if you can't remember the names."
Alfred reflected a minute. Then he said:
"Lady with a little girl, that was for Mr. Reilly, and a Mrs. Soap or some such name for Mr. Morley."
Poirot said:
"Quite right. Go on."
"Then another elderly lady - bit of a swell she was - come in a Daimler. As she went out a tall military gent come in, and just after him, you came."
He nodded to Poirot.
"Right."
"Then the American gent came -"
Japp said sharply: "American?"
"Yes, sir. Young fellow. He was American right - you could tell by his voice. Come early, he did. His appointment wasn't till 11:30 - and what more he didn't keep it - neither."
Japp said sharply:
"What's that?"
"Not him. Come in for him when Mr. Reilly's buzzer went at 11:30 - a bit later it was, as a matter of fact, might have been twenty to twelve - and he wasn't there. Must have funked it and gone away."
He added with a knowing air, "They do sometimes."
Poirot said:
"Then he must have gone out soon after me?"
"That's right, sir. You went out after I'd taken up a swell what come in a Rolls. Oh - it was a lovely car - Mr. Blunt's. Then I come down and let you out and a lady in. Miss Some Berry Seal, or something like that - and then I - well, as a matter of fact I just nipped down to the kitchen to get a bite to eat, and when I was down there the buzzer went - Mr. Reilly's buzzer - so I come up and as I say, the American gentleman had gone out. I went and told Mr. Reilly and he swore a bit, as is his way."
Poirot said:
"Continue."
"Lemme see, what happened next? Oh, yes, Mr. Morley's buzzer went for that Miss Seal, and the swell came down and went out as I took Miss Whatsername up in the elevator. Then I come down again and two gentlemen came - one a little man with a funny squeaky voice - I can't remember his name. For Mr. Reilly, he was. And a fat foreign gentleman for Mr. Morley.
"Miss Seal wasn't very long - not above a quarter of an hour. I let her out and then I took up the foreign gentleman. I'd already taken the other gent in to Mr. Reilly right away as soon as he came."
Japp said:
"And you didn't see Mr. Amberiotis, the foreign gentleman, leave?"
"No, sir, I can't say as I did. He must have let himself out. I didn't see either of those two gentlemen go."
"Where were you from twelve o'clock onwards?"
"I always sits in the elevator, sir, waiting until the front door bell or one of the buzzers goes."
Poirot said:
"And you were perhaps reading?"
Alfred blushed again.
"There ain't no harm in that, sir. It's not as though I could be doing anything else."
"Quite so. What were you reading?"
"Death at 11:45, sir. It's an American detective story. It's a corker, sir, it really is! All about gunmen."
Poirot smiled faintly. He said: "Would you hear the front door close from where you were?"
"You mean anyone going out? I don't think I should, sir. What I mean is I shouldn't notice it! You see, the elevator is right at the back of the hall and a little round the corner. The bell rings just behind it, and the buzzers, too. You can't miss them."
Poirot nodded and Japp asked:
"What happened next?"
Alfred frowned in a supreme effort of memory.
"Only the last lady, Miss Shirty. I waited for Mr. Morley's buzzer to go, but nothing happened and at one o'clock, the lady who was waiting, she got rather ratty."
"It did not occur to you to go up before and see if Mr. Morley was ready?"
Alfred shook his head very positively.
"Not me, sir. I wouldn't have dreamed of it. For all I knew the last gentleman was still up there, I'd got to wait for the buzzer. Of course, if I'd knowed as Mr. Morley had done himself into -"
Alfred shook his head with morbid relish.
Poirot asked:
"Did the buzzer usually go before the patient came down, or the other way about?"
"Depends. Usually the patient would come down the stairs and then the buzzer would go. If they rang for the elevator, that buzzer would go perhaps as I was bringing them down. But it wasn't fixed in any way. Sometimes Mr. Morley would be a few minutes before he rang for the next patient. If he was in a hurry, he'd ring as soon as they were out of the room."
"I see -" Poirot paused and then went on:
"Were you surprised at Mr. Morley's suicide, Alfred?"
"Knocked all of a heap, I was. He hadn't no call to go doing himself in as far as I can see - oh!"
Alfred's eyes grew large and round.
"Oo - er - he wasn't murdered, was he?"
Poirot cut in before Japp could speak.
"Supposing he were, would it surprise you less?"
"Well, I don't know, sir, I'm sure. I can't see who'd want to murder Mr. Morley. He was - well, he was a very ordinary gentleman, sir. Was he really murdered, sir?"
Poirot said gravely:
"We have to take every possibility into account. That is why I told you you would be a very important witness and that you must try and recollect everything that happened this morning."
He stressed the words and Alfred frowned with a prodigious effort of memory.
"I can't think of anything else, sir. I can't indeed."
Alfred's tone was rueful.
"Very good, Alfred. And you are quite sure no one except patients came to the house this morning?"
"No stranger did, sir. That Miss Nevill's young man came round - and in a bad state not to find her here."
Japp said sharply:
"When was that?"
"Some time after twelve it was. When I told him Miss Nevill was away for the day, he seemed very put out and he said he'd wait and see Mr. Morley. I told him Mr. Morley was busy right up to lunch time, but he said never mind, he'd wait."
Poirot asked:
"And did he wait?"
A startled look came into Alfred's eyes. He said:
"Oh - I never thought of that! He went into the waiting room, but he wasn't there later. He must have got tired of waiting and thought he'd come back another time."
VI
When Alfred had gone out of the room, Japp said sharply:
"D'you think it was wise to suggest murder to that lad?"
Poirot shrugged his shoulders.
"I think so - yes. Anything suggestive that he may have seen or heard will come back to him under the stimulus, and he will be keenly alert to everything that goes on here."
"All the same, we don't want it to get about too soon."
"Mon cher, it will not. Alfred reads detective stories - Alfred is enamored of crime. Whatever Alfred lets slip will be put down to Alfred's morbid criminal imagination."
"Well, perhaps you are right, Poirot. Now we've got to hear what Reilly has to say."
Mr. Reilly's surgery and office were on the first floor. They were as spacious as the ones above but had less light in them, and were not quite so richly appointed.
Mr. Morley's partner was a tall dark young man, with a plume of hair that fell untidily over his forehead.
He had an attractive voice and a very shrewd eye.
"We're hoping, Mr. Reilly," said Japp, after introducing himself, "that you can throw some light on this matter."
"You're wrong then, because I can't," replied the other. "I'd say this - that Henry Morley was the last person to go taking his own life. I might have done it - but he wouldn't."
"Why might you have done it?" asked Poirot.
"Because I've oceans of worries," replied the other. "Money troubles, for one! I've never yet been able to suit my expenditure to my income. But Morley was a careful man. You'll find no debts, nor money troubles, I'm sure of that."
"Love affairs?" suggests Japp.
"Is it Morley you mean? He had no joy of living at all! Right under his sister's thumb he was, poor man."
Japp went on to ask Reilly details about the patients he had seen that morning.
"Oh, I fancy they're all square and above-board. Little Betty Heath, she's a nice child - I've had the whole family one after another. Colonel Abercrombie's an old patient, too."
