CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Inspector Morton came straight to the point. ‘I had to come to London,’ he said. ‘And I found your address, Monsieur Poirot. I was interested to see you at the inquest on Thursday and I came to ask if you could help us at all. Something must have brought you down there, Monsieur Poirot, and there have been developments.’ And he told him about the poisoned wedding cake.

Poirot took a deep, slow breath. ‘I warned Mr Entwhistle to look after Miss Gilchrist. An attack on her was always a possibility. But I must admit that I did not expect poison.’

‘But why did you think she might be attacked?’

Poirot said, ‘It begins, all this, at a funeral. Or rather, to be exact, after the funeral.’ And he told the story as Mr Entwhistle had told it to him. Then Poirot continued, ‘This attempt to silence Miss Gilchrist, it is a mistake. For now there are two events which you need to investigate further.’

‘Yes. Well, if the postman did deliver the wedding cake, it seems odd that the parcel wasn’t noticed until after this Mr Guthrie came. We’re checking up on him, of course. He could have placed that parcel where Miss Gilchrist found it. Now, Mr George Crossfield was in the area next day. What do you know about him, Monsieur Poirot?’

‘Not as much as I would like to.’

‘It’s like that, is it? There are quite a lot of people who are interested in the late Mr Abernethie’s will, I understand. I hope it doesn’t mean investigating all of them!’

‘I have a little information which you may not have. Naturally I have no authority to ask these people questions. In fact, it would not be wise for me to do so.’

‘I will go slowly myself,’ said Morton. ‘I don’t want to warn anyone until it suits me to.’

Poirot smiled. ‘A very wise way of working. For myself I go to Enderby Hall. It is people that I am interested in. I will pretend to buy, I believe, a big country house for foreign refugees. I will represent U.N.A.R.C.O.’

And what’s U.N.A.R.C.O.?’ asked Morton, puzzled.

‘The United Nations Aid for Refugee Centre Organization. It sounds appropriate, do you not think? And Enderby Hall might be just right. I will, of course tell Mrs Helen Abernethie the truth and ask for her help.’

Inspector Morton smiled.