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

Suspects

Estelle Glynne – a beautiful and mysterious young woman, the guest of

Colonel Blunt – the local Squire, whose daughter Joan – is married to

Peter Gaye – a young Atom Scientist.

Miss Willing – a housekeeper.

Quiett – a butler.

Maya Stavisky – a girl hiker.

Esteban Loyola – an uninvited guest.

Poirot blinked and looked towards Mrs Oliver in mute incomprehension.

�A magnificent Cast of Characters,’ he said politely. �But permit me to ask, Madame, what does the Competitor do?’

�Turn the card over,’ said Captain Warburton.

Poirot did so.

On the other side was printed:

Name and address .........................

Solution:

Name of Murderer: ........................

Weapon: .............................................

Motive: ...............................................

Time and Place: ..............................

Reasons for arriving at your conclusions:

...................

�Everyone who enters gets one of these,’ explained Captain Warburton rapidly. �Also a notebook and pencil for copying clues. There will be six clues. You go on from one to the other like a Treasure Hunt, and the weapons are concealed in suspicious places. Here’s the first clue. A snapshot. Everyone starts with one of these.’

Poirot took the small print from him and studied it with a frown. Then he turned it upside down. He still looked puzzled.

�Ingenious bit of trick photography, isn’t it?’ he said complacently. �Quite simple once you know what it is.’

Poirot, who did not know what it was, felt a mounting annoyance.

�Some kind of barred window?’ he suggested.

�Looks a bit like it, I admit. No, it’s a section of a tennis net.’

�Ah.’ Poirot looked again at the snapshot. �Yes, it is as you say—quite obvious when you have been told what it is!’

�So much depends on how you look at a thing,’ laughed Warburton.

�That is a very profound truth.’

�The second clue will be found in a box under the centre of the tennis net. In the box are this empty poison bottle—here, and a loose cork.’

�Only, you see,’ said Mrs Oliver rapidly, �it’s a screw-topped bottle[52 - screw-topped bottle – бутылка с завинчивающейся крышкой], so the cork is really the clue.