Причуда мертвеца / Dead Man's Folly. Книга для чтения на английском языке

’

Poirot looked at Mrs Oliver and Mrs Oliver looked back at Poirot.

�How have you accounted for my presence here? For your summons to me?’ Poirot asked.

�That was easy,’ said Mrs Oliver. �You’re to give away the prizes for the Murder Hunt. Everybody’s awfully thrilled. I said I knew you, and could probably persuade you to come and that I was sure your name would be a terrific draw—as, of course, it will be,’ Mrs Oliver added tactfully.

�And the suggestion was accepted—without demur?’

�I tell you, everybody was thrilled.

Mrs Oliver thought it unnecessary to mention that amongst the younger generation one or two had asked �Who is Hercule Poirot?’

�Everybody? Nobody spoke against the idea?’

Mrs Oliver shook her head.

�That is a pity,’ said Hercule Poirot.

�You mean it might have given us a line?’

�A would-be criminal could hardly be expected to welcome my presence.’

�I suppose you think I’ve imagined the whole thing,’ said Mrs Oliver ruefully.

�Calm yourself,’ said Poirot kindly. �I am intrigued and interested. Where do we begin?’

Mrs Oliver glanced at her watch.

�It’s just tea-time. We’ll go back to the house and then you can meet everybody.’

She took a different path from the one by which Poirot had come. This one seemed to lead in the opposite direction.

�We pass by the boathouse this way,’ Mrs Oliver explained.

As she spoke the boathouse came into view. It jutted out on to the river and was a picturesque thatched affair.[22 - It jutted out on to the river and was a picturesque thatched affair. – Он стоял у самой воды и представлял собой живописное сооружение с тростниковой крышей.]

�That’s where the Body’s going to be,’ said Mrs Oliver.

�And who is going to be killed?’

�Oh, a girl hiker, who is really the Yugoslavian first wife of a young Atom Scientist,’ said Mrs Oliver glibly.

Poirot blinked.

�Of course it looks as though the Atom Scientist had killed her—but naturally it’s not as simple as that.’

�Naturally not—since you are concerned…’

Mrs Oliver accepted the compliment with a wave of the hand.