Смерть на Ниле / Death on the Nile

Money, good looks, marvellous figure and-’

She paused and Poirot said:

‘And love? Eh? And love? But you do not know – she may have been married for her money!’

‘Didn’t you see the way he looked at her?’

‘Oh, yes, Mademoiselle. I saw all there was to see – indeed I saw something that you did not.’

‘What was that?’

Poirot said slowly:

‘I saw, Mademoiselle, dark lines below a woman’s eyes. I saw a hand that clutched a sunshade so tight that the knuckles were white…’

Rosalie was staring at him.

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean that all is not the gold that glitters – I mean that though this lady is rich and beautiful and beloved, there is all the same something that is not right. And I know something else.’

‘Yes?’

‘I know,’ said Poirot, frowning, ‘that somewhere, at some time, I have heard that voice before – the voice of Monsieur Doyle – and I wish I could remember where.’

But Rosalie was not listening. She had stopped dead. With the point of her sunshade she was tracing patterns in the loose sand.

‘I’m odious. I’m quite odious. I’m just a beast through and through. I’d like to tear the clothes off her back and stamp on her lovely, arrogant, self-confident face. I’m just a jealous cat – but that’s what I feel like. She’s so horribly successful and poised and assured.’

Hercule Poirot looked a little astonished by the outburst. He took her by the arm and gave her a friendly little shake.

‘Tenez – you will feel better for having said that!’

‘I just hate her! I’ve never hated anyone so much at first sight.

‘Magnificent!’

Rosalie looked at him doubtfully. Then her mouth twitched and she laughed.

‘Bien,’ said Poirot, and laughed too.

They proceeded amicably back to the hotel.

‘I must find Mother,’ said Rosalie, as they came into the cool dim hall.

Poirot passed out on the other side on to the terrace overlooking the Nile. Here were little tables set for tea, but it was early still.

Some people were playing tennis in the hot sun. He paused to watch them for a while, then went on down the steep path. It was there, sitting on a bench overlooking the Nile, that he came upon the girl of Chez Ma Tante. He recognized her at once. Her face, as he had seen it that night, was securely etched upon his memory. The expression on it now was very different.