The Murder of Roger Ackroyd / Убийство Роджера Экройда

‘Well, this isn’t going to be much of a case. I’m sorry, too. A nice enough young fellow gone wrong.’

Poirot’s face fell, and he spoke very mildly.

‘I’m afraid I shall not be able to be of much aid to you, then?’

‘Next time, perhaps,’ said the inspector soothingly. ‘Though we don’t have murders every day in this quiet little corner of the world.’

Poirot’s gaze took on an admiring quality.

‘You have been of a marvellous promptness,’ he observed. ‘How exactly did you go to work, if I may ask?’ ‘certainly,’ said the inspector.

‘To begin with – method. That’s what I always say – method!’

‘Ah!’ cried the other. ‘That, too, is my watchword. Method, order, and the little grey cells.’

‘The cells?’ said the inspector, staring.

‘The little grey cells of the brain,’ explained the Belgian.

‘Oh, of course; well, we all use them, I suppose.’

‘In a greater or lesser degree,’ murmured Poirot. ‘And there are, too, differences in quality. Then there is the psychology of a crime.

‘Ah!’ said the inspector, ‘you’ve been bitten with all this psycho-analysis stuff? Now, I’m a plain man-’

‘Mrs Raglan would not agree, I am sure, to that,’ said Poirot, making him a little bow.

Inspector Raglan, a little taken aback, bowed.

‘You don’t understand,’ he said, grinning broadly. ‘Lord, what a lot of difference language makes. I’m telling you how I set to work. first of all, method. Mr Ackroyd was last seen alive at a quarter to ten by his niece, Miss Flora Ackroyd.

‘If you say so.’

‘Well, it is. At half-past ten, the doctor here says that Mr Ackroyd had been dead at least half an hour. you stick to that, doctor?’

‘Certainly,’ I said. ‘Half an hour or longer.’

‘Very good. That gives us exactly a quarter of an hour in which the crime must have been committed. I make a list of everyone in the house, and work through it, setting down opposite their names where they were and what they were doing between the hour of 9.

He handed a sheet of paper to Poirot. I read it over his shoulder. It ran as follows, written in a neat script:

Major Blunt – In billiard room with Mr Raymond. (Latter confirms.)

Mr Raymond – Billiard room. (See above.)

Mrs Ackroyd-9.45 watching billiard match. Went up to bed 9.55. (Raymond and Blunt watched her up staircase.)

Miss Ackroyd – Went straight from her uncle’s room upstairs.