After The Funeral Part 54

You're wrong about everything. Richard Abernethie was

killed. I killed him."

Hercule Poirot let his eyes move up and down over the

excited young man. He showed no surprise.

"So you killed him, did you ? How ?"

Gregory Banks smiled.

"It wasn't difficult for ms. You can surely realise that.

There were fifteen or twenty different drugs I could lay my

hands on that would do it. The method of administration

took rather more thinking out, but I hit on a very,ingenious idea in the end. The beauty of it was that I didn t need to

be anywhere near at the time."

"Clever," said Poirot.

"Yes." Grego,r.y Banks cast his eyes down mod,tly. He

seemed pleased. ' Yes--I do think it was ingenious.

Poirot asked with interest:

"Why did you kill him ? For the money that would come to your wife ?"

"No. No, of course not." Greg was suddenly xcitediy indignant. "I'm not a money grubber.

I didn t marry Susan for her money I"

"Didn't you, Mr. Banks ?"

"That's what h thought," Greg said with sudden venom. "Richard Abernethie I He liked Susan, he admired her, he was proud of her as an example of Abernethie blood But he thought she'd married beneath her--he thought I was no good--he despised me I I dare say I hadn't the right accentN I didn't wear my clothes the right way. He was a sn.o.b---a filthy sn.o.b I"

"I don't think so," said Poirot mildly. "From all I have heard, Richard Abernethie. was no sn.o.b."

"He was. He was." The young man spoke with something approaching hysteria. "He thought nothing of me. He sneered at m,e,?lways very polite but underneath I could s that he didn t like me I"

"Possibly."

"People can't treat me like that and get away with it!

They've tried it before l A woman who used to come and x68

have her medicines moAe up. She was rude to me. Do you know what I did ?"

"Yes," said Poirot.

Gregory looked startled. "So you know that ?" "Yes."

"She near! died." He spoke in a satisfied mnner.. "That. shows you I m not the sort of person to be trifled wlthl Richard Abernethie despised me--and what happened to him ? He died."

"A most successful murder," said Poirot with grave congratulation.

He added: "But why come and give yourself away--to me?"

"Bec,a, use you said you were through with it all I Yo, u said he hadn t been murdered. I had to show you that you re, not as clever as you think You are--and besides--beside "Yes," said Poirot. "And besides ?"

Greg collapsed suddenly on to the bench. His face changed.

It took on a sudden ecstatic quality.

"It was wrong--wicked... I must be punished...

must go back there--to the place if punishment .. to atone Yes, to atone 1 Repentance Retribution i"

''/tis face was alight now with a kind of glowing ecstasy.

Poirot studied him for a moment or two curiously.

Then he asked: "How badly do you want to get away from your wife ?

Gregory's face changed.

"Susan ? Susan is wonderful--wonderful I"

"Yes. Susan is wonderful. That is a grave burden. Susan loves you devotedly. That is a burden, too ?"

Gregory sat looking in front of him. Then he said, rather in the manner of a sulky child: "Why couldn't she let me alone ?"

He sprang up.

"She's coming now--across the lawn. I'll go now. But you'll tell her what I told you ? Tell her I've gone to the police station. To confess.'

Susan came in breathlessly.

"Where's Greg ? He was here I I saw him." "Yes." Poirot paused a moment--before saying: "He

came to tell me that it was he who poisoned Richard Abernethie ....

"What absolute nosns You didn't believe him, I hope ?"

"Why should I not believe him ?"

"He wasn't even near this place when Uncle Richard died I"

"Perhaps not. Where was he when Cora Lansquenet died ?"

"In London. We both were."

Hercule Poirot shook his head.

"No, no, that will not do. You, for instance, took out your car that day and were away all the afternoon. I think I know where you went. You went to Lytchett St. Mary." "I did no such thing I"

Poirot smiled.

"When I met you here, Madame, it was not, as I told you, the first time I had seen you. After the inquest on Mrs. i.ansquenet you were in the garage of the King's Arms. You talk there to a mechanic and close by you is a car containing an elderly foreign gentleman. You did not notice him, but he noticed you."

"I don't see what you mean. That was the day of the inquest."

"Ah, but remember what that mechanic said to you I He asked you if you were a relative of the victim, and you said you were her niece."

"He was just being a ghoul. They're all ghouls."

"And his next words were, ' Ah, wondered where I'd seen you before.' Where did he see you before, Madame ? It must have been in Lytchett St. Mary, since in his mind his seeing you before was accounted for by your being Mrs.

Lansquenet's niece. Had he seen you near her cottage ?

And when ? It was a matter, was it not, that demands inquiry. And the result of the inquiry is, that you were there---in Lytchett St. Mary---on the afternoon Cora Lansquenet died. You parked your car in the same quarry where you left it the morning of the inquest. The car was seen and the number was noted. By this time Inspector Morton knows whose car it was."

Susan stared at him. Her breath came rather fast, but she showed no signs of discomposure.

u re talking nonsense, M. Porot. And you're making me forget what I came here to say--I wanted to try and find you alone--"

"To confess to me that it was you and not your husband who committed the murder ?"

XTO

"No, of course not. What kind of a fool do you think I am ?

And I've already told you that Gregory never left London that day."

"A fact which you cannot possibly know since Irou were away yourself. Why did you go down to Lytchett St. Mary, Mrs. Banks ?"

Susan drew a deep breath.

"All right, if you must have it 1 What Cora said at the funeral worried me. I kept on thinking about it. Finally I decided to run down in the car and see her, and ask her what had put the idea into her head. Greg thought it a silly idea, so I didn't even tell him where I was going. I got there about three o'clock, knocked and rang, but there was no answer, so I thought she must be out or gone away. That's all there is to it. I didn't go round to the back of the cottage. If I had, I might have seen the broken window. I just went back to