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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“Candle grease? Oh, no, sir. Mrs. Inglethorp didn’t have a candle, only a reading-lamp.”

“Then, if there had been a large patch of candle grease on the floor, you think you would have been sure to have seen it?”

“Yes, sir, and I would have taken it out with a piece of blotting-paper and a hot iron.”

Then Poirot repeated the question he had put to Dorcas:

“Did your mistress ever have a green dress?”

“No, sir.”

“Nor a mantle, nor a cape, nor a — how do you call it? — a sports coat?”

“Not green, sir.”

“Nor anyone else in the house?”

Annie reflected.

“No, sir.”

“You are sure of that?”

“Quite sure.”

“Bien! That is all I want to know. Thank you very much.”

With a nervous giggle, Annie took herself creakingly out of the room. My pent-up excitement burst forth.

“Poirot,” I cried, “I congratulate you! This is a great discovery.”

“What is a great discovery?”

“Why, that it was the cocoa and not the coffee that was poisoned. That explains everything! Of course it did not take effect until the early morning, since the cocoa was only drunk in the middle of the night.”