Читать книгу Agatha Christie: The Collection. The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Poirot Investigates, The Murder on the Links, The Secret Adversary, The Man in the Brown Suit онлайн

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“Oh, come now, Poirot! I won’t cite Lawrence, or Mrs. Cavendish. But there’s John — and Miss Howard, surely they were speaking the truth?”

“Both of them, my friend? One, I grant you, but both ——!”

His words gave me an unpleasant shock. Miss Howard’s evidence, unimportant as it was, had been given in such a downright straightforward manner that it had never occurred to me to doubt her sincerity. Still, I had a great respect for Poirot’s sagacity — except on the occasions when he was what I described to myself as “foolishly pig-headed.”

“Do you really think so?” I asked. “Miss Howard had always seemed to me so essentially honest — almost uncomfortably so.”

Poirot gave me a curious look, which I could not quite fathom. He seemed to speak, and then checked himself.

“Miss Murdoch too,” I continued, “there’s nothing untruthful about her.”

“No. But it was strange that she never heard a sound, sleeping next door; whereas Mrs. Cavendish, in the other wing of the building, distinctly heard the table fall.”