Five Little Pigs Part 8

'You have talked with him also?'

'Certainly.'

Meredith Blake said sharply: 'You should have come to me first.'

Smiling a little, Poirot made a courteous gesture.

'According to the laws of primogenitude, that is so,' he said. 'I am aware that you are the elder. But you comprehend that as your brother lives near London, it was easier to visit him first.'

Meredith Blake was still frowning. He pulled uneasily at his lip. He repeated: 'You should have come to me first.'

This time, Poirot did not answer. He waited. And presently Meredith Blake went on: 'Philip,' he said, 'is prejudiced.'

'Yes?'

'As a matter of fact he's a ma.s.s of prejudices-always has been.' He shot a quick uneasy glance at Poirot. 'He'll have tried to put you against Caroline.'

'Does that matter, so long-after?'

Meredith Blake gave a sharp sigh.

'I know. I forget that it's so long ago-that it's all over. Caroline is beyond being harmed. But all the same I shouldn't like you to get a false impression.'

'And you think your brother might give me a false impression?'

'Frankly, I do. You see, there was always a certain-how shall I put it?-antagonism between him and Caroline.'

'Why?'

The question seemed to irritate Blake. He said: 'Why? How should I know why why? These things are so. Philip always crabbed her whenever he could. He was annoyed, I think, when Amyas married her. He never went near them for over a year. And yet Amyas was almost his best friend. That was the reason really, I suppose. He didn't feel that any woman was good enough. And he probably felt that Caroline's influence would spoil their friendship.'

'And did it?'

'No, of course it didn't. Amyas was always just as fond of Philip-right up to the end. Used to twit him with being a money grabber and with growing a corporation and being a Philistine generally. Philip didn't care. He just used to grin and say it was a good thing Amyas had one respectable friend.'

'How did your brother react to the Elsa Greer affair?'

'Do you know, I find it rather difficult to say. His att.i.tude wasn't really easy to define. He was annoyed, I think, with Amyas for making a fool of himself over the girl. He said more than once that it wouldn't work and that Amyas would live to regret it. At the same time I have a feeling-yes, very definitely I have a feeling that he was just faintly pleased at seeing Caroline let down.'

Poirot's eyebrows rose. He said: 'He really felt like that?'

'Oh, don't misunderstand me. I wouldn't go further than to say that I believe that feeling was at the back of his mind. I don't know that he ever quite realized himself that that is what he felt. Philip and I have nothing much in common, but there is a link, you know, between people of the same blood. One brother often knows what the other brother is thinking.'

'And after the tragedy?'

Meredith Blake shook his head. A spasm of pain crossed his face. He said: 'Poor Phil. He was terribly cut up. Just broken up by it. He'd always been devoted to Amyas, you see. There was an element of hero worship about it, I think. Amyas Crale and I are the same age. Philip was two years younger. And he looked up to Amyas always. Yes-it was a great blow to him. He was-he was terribly bitter against Caroline.'

'He, at least, had no doubts, then?'

Meredith Blake said: 'None of us had any doubts...'

There was a silence. Then Blake said with the irritable plaintiveness of a weak man: 'It was all over-forgotten-and now you you come-raking it all up...' come-raking it all up...'

'Not I. Caroline Crale.'

Meredith stared at him: 'Caroline? What do you mean?' What do you mean?'

Poirot said, watching him: 'Caroline Crale the second.'

Meredith's face relaxed.

'Ah yes, the child. Little Carla. I-I misunderstood you for a moment.'

'You thought I meant the original Caroline Crale? You thought that it was she who would not-how shall I say it-rest easy in her grave?'

Meredith Blake shivered.

'Don't, man.'

'You know that she wrote to her daughter-the last words she ever wrote-that she was innocent?'

Meredith stared at him. He said-and his voice sounded utterly incredulous: 'Caroline wrote that that?'

'Yes.'

Poirot paused and said: 'It surprises you?'

'It would surprise you if you'd seen her in court. Poor, hunted, defenceless creature. Not even struggling.'

'A defeatist?'

'No, no. She wasn't that. It was, I think, the knowledge that she'd killed the man she loved-or I thought it was that.'

'You are not so sure now?'

'To write a thing like that-solemnly-when she was dying.'

Poirot suggested: 'A pious lie, perhaps.'

'Perhaps.' But Meredith was dubious. 'That's not-that's not like Caroline...'

Hercule Poirot nodded. Carla Lemarchant had said that. Carla had only a child's obstinate memory. But Meredith Blake had known Caroline well. It was the first confirmation Poirot had got that Carla's belief was to be depended upon.

Meredith Blake looked up at him. He said slowly: 'If-if Caroline was innocent-why, the whole thing's madness! I don't see-any other possible solution...' Caroline was innocent-why, the whole thing's madness! I don't see-any other possible solution...'

He turned sharply on Poirot.

'And you? What do you think?'

There was a silence.

'As yet,' said Poirot at last, 'I think nothing. I collect only the impressions. What Caroline Crale was like. What Amyas Crale was like. What the other people who were there at the time were like. What happened exactly on those two days. That That is what I need. To go over the facts laboriously one by one. Your brother is going to help me there. He is sending me an account of the events as he remembers them.' is what I need. To go over the facts laboriously one by one. Your brother is going to help me there. He is sending me an account of the events as he remembers them.'

Meredith Blake said sharply: 'You won't get much from that. Philip's a busy man. Things slip his memory once they're past and done with. Probably he'll remember things all wrong.'

'There will be gaps, of course. I realize that.'

'I tell you what-' Meredith paused abruptly, then went on, reddening a little as he spoke. 'If you like, I-I could do the same. I mean, it would be a kind of check, wouldn't it?'

Hercule Poirot said warmly: 'It would be most valuable. An idea of the first excellence!'

'Right. I will. I've got some old diaries somewhere. Mind you,' he laughed awkwardly. 'I'm not much of a hand at literary language. Even my spelling's not too good. You-you won't expect too much?'

'Ah, it is not the style I demand. Just a plain recital of everything you can remember. What every one said, how they looked-just what happened. Never mind if it doesn't seem relevant. It all helps with the atmosphere, so to speak.'

'Yes, I can see that. It must be difficult visualizing people and places you have never seen.'

Poirot nodded.

'There is another thing I wanted to ask you. Alderbury is the adjoining property to this, is it not? Would it be possible to go there-to see with my own eyes where the tragedy occurred?'

Meredith Blake said slowly: 'I can take you over there right away. But, of course, it is a good deal changed.'

'It has not been built over?'

'No, thank goodness-not quite so bad as that. But it's a kind of hostel now-it was bought by some society. Hordes of young people come down to it in the summer, and of course all the rooms have been cut up and part.i.tioned into cubicles, and the grounds have been altered a good deal.'

'You must reconstruct it for me by your explanations.'

'I'll do my best. I wish you could have seen it in the old days. It was one of the loveliest properties I know.'

He led the way out through the window and began walking down a slope of lawn.

'Who was responsible for selling it?'

'The executors on behalf of the child. Everything Crale had came to her. He hadn't made a will, so I imagine that it would be divided automatically between his wife and the child. Caroline's will left what she had to the child also.'

'Nothing to her half-sister?'

'Angela had a certain amount of money of her own left her by her father.'

Poirot nodded. 'I see.'

Then he uttered an exclamation: 'But where is it that you take me? This is the seash.o.r.e ahead of us!'

'Ah, I must explain our geography to you. You'll see for yourself in a minute. There's a creek, you see, Camel Creek, they call it, runs inland-looks almost like a river mouth, but it isn't-it's just sea. To get to Alderbury by land you have to go right inland and round the creek, but the shortest way from one house to the other is to row across this narrow bit of the creek. Alderbury is just opposite-there, you can see the house through the trees.'

They had come out on a little beach. Opposite them was a wooded headland and a white house could just be distinguished high up amongst the trees.

Two boats were drawn up on the beach. Meredith Blake, with Poirot's somewhat awkward a.s.sistance, dragged one of them down to the water and presently they were rowing across to the other side.

'We always went this way in the old days,' Meredith explained. 'Unless, of course, there was a storm or it was raining, and then we'd take the car. But it's nearly three miles if you go round that way.'

He ran the boat neatly alongside a stone quay on the other side. He cast a disparaging eye on a collection of wooden huts and some concrete terraces.

'All new, this. Used to be a boathouse-tumbledown old place-and nothing else. And one walked along the sh.o.r.e and bathed off those rocks over there.'

He a.s.sisted his guest to alight, made fast the boat, and led the way up a steep path.

'Don't suppose we'll meet any one,' he said over his shoulder. 'n.o.body here in April-except for Easter. Doesn't matter if we do. I'm on good terms with my neighbours. Sun's glorious today. Might be summer. It was a wonderful day then. More like July than September. Brilliant sun-but a chilly little wind.'

The path came out of the trees and skirted an outcrop of rock. Meredith pointed up with his hand.

'That's what they called the Battery. We're more or less underneath it now-skirting round it.'

They plunged into trees again and then the path took another sharp turn and they emerged by a door set in a high wall. The path itself continued to zigzag upwards, but Meredith opened the door and the two men pa.s.sed through it.

For a moment Poirot was dazzled coming in from the shade outside. The Battery was an artificially cleared plateau with battlements set with cannon. It gave one the impression of overhanging the sea. There were trees above it and behind it, but on the sea side there was nothing but the dazzling blue water below.

'Attractive spot,' said Meredith. He nodded contemptuously towards a kind of pavilion set back against the back wall. 'That wasn't there, of course-only an old tumbledown shed where Amyas kept his painting muck and some bottled beer and a few deck chairs. It wasn't concreted then, either. There used to be a bench and a table-painted iron ones. That was all. Still-it hasn't changed much.'

His voice held an unsteady note.

Poirot said: 'And it was here that it happened?'

Meredith nodded.

'The bench was there-up against the shed. He was sprawled on that. He used to sprawl there sometimes when he was painting-just fling himself down and stare and stare-and then suddenly up he'd jump and start laying the paint on the canvas like mad.'

He paused.

'That's why, you know, he looked-almost natural. As though he might be asleep-just have dropped off. But his eyes were open-and he'd-just stiffened up. Stuff sort of paralyses you, you know. There isn't any pain...I've-I've always been glad of that...'

Poirot asked a thing that he already knew.

'Who found him?'

'She did. Caroline. After lunch. I and Elsa, I suppose, were the last ones to see him alive. It must have been coming on then. He-looked queer. I'd rather not talk about it. I'll write it to you. Easier that way.'

He turned abruptly and went out of the Battery. Poirot followed him without speaking.

The two men went on up the zigzag path. At a higher level than the Battery there was another small plateau. It was over-shadowed with trees and there was a bench there and a table.

Meredith said: 'They haven't changed this much. But the bench used not to be Ye Olde Rustic. It was just a painted iron business. A bit hard for sitting, but a lovely view.'

Poirot agreed. Through a framework of trees one looked down over the Battery to the creek mouth.

'I sat up here part of the morning,' Meredith explained. 'Trees weren't quite so overgrown then. One could see the battlements of the Battery quite plainly. That's where Elsa was posing, you know. Sitting on one with her head twisted round.'