The Murder on the Links
by Agatha Christie
4
The Letter Signed “Bella”
Françoise had left the room. The magistrate was drumming thoughtfully
on the table.
“M. Bex,” he said at length, “here we have directly conflicting
testimony. Which are we to believe, Françoise or Denise?”
“Denise,” said the commissary decidedly. “It was she who let the
visitor in. Françoise is old and obstinate, and has evidently taken a
dislike to Madame Daubreuil. Besides, our own knowledge tends to show
that Renauld was entangled with another woman.”
“_Tiens!___” cried M. Hautet. “We have forgotten to inform M. Poirot of
that.” He searched amongst the papers on the table, and finally handed
the one he was in search of to my friend. “This letter, M. Poirot, we
found in the pocket of the dead man’s overcoat.”
Poirot took it and unfolded it. It was somewhat worn and crumbled, and
was written in English in a rather unformed hand:
“_My dearest one:___”
Why have you not written for so long? You do love me still, don’t you?
Your letters lately have been so different, cold and strange, and now
this long silence. It makes me afraid. If you were to stop loving me!
But that’s impossible—what a silly kid I am—always imagining things!
But if you _did___ stop loving me, I don’t know what I should do—kill
myself perhaps! I couldn’t live without you. Sometimes I fancy another
woman is coming between us. Let her look out, that’s all—and you too!
I’d as soon kill you as let her have you! I mean it.
“But there, I’m writing high-flown nonsense. You love me, and I
love you—yes, love you, love you, love you!
“Your own adoring
“BELLA.”
There was no address or date. Poirot handed it back with a grave face.
“And the assumption is, M. le juge—?”
The examining magistrate shrugged his shoulders.
“Obviously M. Renauld was entangled with this Englishwoman—Bella. He
comes over here, meets Madame Daubreuil, and starts an intrigue with
her. He cools off to the other, and she instantly suspects something.
This letter contains a distinct threat. M. Poirot, at first sight the
case seemed simplicity itself. Jealousy! The fact that M. Renauld was
stabbed in the back seemed to point distinctly to its being a woman’s
crime.”
Poirot nodded.
“The stab in the back, yes—but not the grave! That was laborious work,
hard work—no woman dug that grave, monsieur. That was a man’s doing.”
The commissary exclaimed excitedly: “Yes, yes, you are right. We did
not think of that.”
“As I said,” continued M. Hautet, “at first sight the case seemed
simple, but the masked men, and the letter you received from M. Renauld
complicate matters. Here we seem to have an entirely different set of
circumstances, with no relationship between the two. As regards the
letter written to yourself, do you think it is possible that it
referred in any way to this ‘Bella,’ and her threats?”
Poirot shook his head.
“Hardly. A man like M. Renauld, who has led an adventurous life in
out-of-the-way places, would not be likely to ask for protection
against a woman.”
The examining magistrate nodded his head emphatically.
“My view exactly. Then we must look for the explanation of the letter—”
“In Santiago,” finished the commissary. “I shall cable without delay to
the police in that city, requesting full details of the murdered man’s
life out there, his love affairs, his business transactions, his
friendships, and any enmities he may have incurred. It will be strange
if, after that, we do not hold a clue to his mysterious murder.”
The commissary looked round for approval.
“Excellent,” said Poirot appreciatively.
“His wife, too, may be able to give us a pointer,” added the
magistrate.
“You have found no other letters from this Bella amongst M. Renauld’s
effects?” asked Poirot.
“No. Of course one of our first proceedings was to search through his
private papers in the study. We found nothing of interest, however. All
seemed square and above-board. The only thing at all out of the
ordinary was his will. Here it is.”
Poirot ran through the document.
“So. A legacy of a thousand pounds to Mr. Stonor—who is he, by the
way?”
“M. Renauld’s secretary. He remained in England, but was over here once
or twice for a week-end.”
“And everything else left unconditionally to his beloved wife, Eloise.
Simply drawn up, but perfectly legal. Witnessed by the two servants,
Denise and Françoise. Nothing so very unusual about that.” He handed it
back.
“Perhaps,” began Bex, “you did not notice—”
“The date?” twinkled Poirot. “But yes, I noticed it. A fortnight ago.
Possibly it marks his first intimation of danger. Many rich men die
intestate through never considering the likelihood of their demise. But
it is dangerous to draw conclusions prematurely. It points, however, to
his having a real liking and fondness for his wife, in spite of his
amorous intrigues.”
“Yes,” said M. Hautet doubtfully. “But it is possibly a little unfair
on his son, since it leaves him entirely dependent on his mother. If
she were to marry again, and her second husband obtained an ascendancy
over her, this boy might never touch a penny of his father’s money.”
Poirot shrugged his shoulders.
“Man is a vain animal. M. Renauld figured to himself, without doubt,
that his widow would never marry again. As to the son, it may have been
a wise precaution to leave the money in his mother’s hands. The sons of
rich men are proverbially wild.”
“It may be as you say. Now, M. Poirot, you would without doubt like to
visit the scene of the crime. I am sorry that the body has been
removed, but of course photographs have been taken from every
conceivable angle, and will be at your disposal as soon as they are
available.”
“I thank you, monsieur, for all your courtesy.”
The commissary rose.
“Come with me, monsieurs.”
He opened the door, and bowed ceremoniously to Poirot to precede him.
Poirot, with equal politeness, drew back and bowed to the commissary.
“Monsieur.”
“Monsieur.”
At last they got out into the hall.
“That room there, it is the study, _hein?___” asked Poirot suddenly,
nodding towards the door opposite.
“Yes. You would like to see it?” He threw the door open as he spoke,
and we entered.
The room which M. Renauld had chosen for his own particular use was
small, but furnished with great taste and comfort. A businesslike
writing desk, with many pigeon holes, stood in the window. Two large
leather-covered armchairs faced the fireplace, and between them was a
round table covered with the latest books and magazines. Bookshelves
lined two of the walls, and at the end of the room opposite the window
there was a handsome oak sideboard with a tantalus on top. The curtains
and _portière___ were of a soft dull green, and the carpet matched them
in tone.
Poirot stood a moment talking in the room, then he stepped forward,
passed his hand lightly over the backs of the leather chairs, picked up
a magazine from the table, and drew a finger gingerly over the surface
of the oak sideboard. His face expressed complete approval.
“No dust?” I asked, with a smile.
He beamed on me, appreciative of my knowledge of his peculiarities.
“Not a particle, _mon ami!___ And for once, perhaps, it is a pity.”
His sharp, birdlike eyes darted here and there.
“Ah!” he remarked suddenly, with an intonation of relief. “The
hearth-rug is crooked,” and he bent down to straighten it.
Suddenly he uttered an exclamation and rose. In his hand he held a
small fragment of paper.
“In France, as in England,” he remarked, “the domestics omit to sweep
under the mats!”
Bex took the fragment from him, and I came closer to examine it.
“You recognize it—eh, Hastings?”
I shook my head, puzzled—and yet that particular shade of pink paper
was very familiar.
The commissary’s mental processes were quicker than mine.
“A fragment of a cheque,” he exclaimed.
The piece of paper was roughly about two inches square. On it was
written in ink the word “Duveen.”
“_Bien___,” said Bex. “This cheque was payable to, or drawn by, one
named Duveen.”
“The former, I fancy,” said Poirot, “for, if I am not mistaken, the
handwriting is that of M. Renauld.”
That was soon established, by comparing it with a memorandum from the
desk.
“Dear me,” murmured the commissary, with a crestfallen air, “I really
cannot imagine how I came to overlook this.”
Poirot laughed.
“The moral of that is, always look under the mats! My friend Hastings
here will tell you that anything in the least crooked is a torment to
me. As soon as I saw that the hearth-rug was out of the straight, I
said to myself: ‘_Tiens!___ The leg of the chair caught it in being
pushed back. Possibly there may be something beneath it which the good
Françoise overlooked.’ ”
“Françoise?”
“Or Denise, or Léonie. Whoever did this room. Since there is no dust,
the room _must___ have been done this morning. I reconstruct the
incident like this. Yesterday, possibly last night, M. Renauld drew a
cheque to the order of some one named Duveen. Afterwards it was torn
up, and scattered on the floor. This morning—” But M. Bex was already
pulling impatiently at the bell.
Françoise answered it. Yes, there had been a lot of pieces of paper on
the floor. What had she done with them? Put them in the kitchen stove
of course! What else?
With a gesture of despair, Bex dismissed her. Then, his face
lightening, he ran to the desk. In a minute he was hunting through the
dead man’s cheque book. Then he repeated his former gesture. The last
counterfoil was blank.
“Courage!” cried Poirot, clapping him on the back. “Without doubt,
Madame Renauld will be able to tell us all about this mysterious person
named Duveen.”
The commissary’s face cleared. “That is true. Let us proceed.”
As we turned to leave the room, Poirot remarked casually: “It was here
that M. Renauld received his guest last night, eh?”
“It was—but how did you know?”
“By _this___. I found it on the back of the leather chair.”
And he held up between his finger and thumb a long black hair—a woman’s
hair!
M. Bex took us out by the back of the house to where there was a small
shed leaning against the house. He produced a key from his pocket and
unlocked it.
“The body is here. We moved it from the scene of the crime just before
you arrived, as the photographers had done with it.”
He opened the door and we passed in. The murdered man lay on the
ground, with a sheet over him. M. Bex dexterously whipped off the
covering. Renauld was a man of medium height, slender and lithe in
figure. He looked about fifty years of age, and his dark hair was
plentifully streaked with grey. He was clean shaven with a long thin
nose, and eyes set rather close together, and his skin was deeply
bronzed, as that of a man who had spent most of his life beneath
tropical skies. His lips were drawn back from his teeth and an
expression of absolute amazement and terror was stamped on the livid
features.
“One can see by his face that he was stabbed in the back,” remarked
Poirot.
Very gently, he turned the dead man over. There, between the
shoulder-blades, staining the light fawn overcoat, was a round dark
patch. In the middle of it there was a slit in the cloth. Poirot
examined it narrowly.
“Have you any idea with what weapon the crime was committed?”
“It was left in the wound.” The commissary reached down a large glass
jar. In it was a small object that looked to me more like a paper-knife
than anything else. It had a black handle, and a narrow shining blade.
The whole thing was not more than ten inches long. Poirot tested the
discoloured point gingerly with his finger tip.
“_Ma foi!___ but it is sharp! A nice easy little tool for murder!”
“Unfortunately, we could find no trace of fingerprints on it,” remarked
Bex regretfully. “The murderer must have worn gloves.”
“Of course he did,” said Poirot contemptuously. “Even in Santiago they
know enough for that. The veriest amateur of an English Mees knows
it—thanks to the publicity the Bertillon system has been given in the
Press. All the same, it interests me very much that there were no
finger-prints. It is so amazingly simple to leave the finger-prints of
some one else! And then the police are happy.” He shook his head. “I
very much fear our criminal is not a man of method—either that or he
was pressed for time. But we shall see.”
He let the body fall back into its original position.
“He wore only underclothes under his overcoat, I see,” he remarked.
“Yes, the examining magistrate thinks that is rather a curious point.”
At this minute there was a tap on the door which Bex had closed after
him. He strode forward and opened it. Françoise was there. She
endeavoured to peep in with ghoulish curiosity.
“Well, what is it?” demanded Bex impatiently.
“Madame. She sends a message that she is much recovered, and is quite
ready to receive the examining magistrate.”
“Good,” said M. Bex briskly. “Tell M. Hautet and say that we will come
at once.”
Poirot lingered a moment, looking back towards the body. I thought for
a moment that he was going to apostrophize it, to declare aloud his
determination never to rest till he had discovered the murderer. But
when he spoke, it was tamely and awkwardly, and his comment was
ludicrously inappropriate to the solemnity of the moment.
“He wore his overcoat very long,” he said constrainedly.
****
