The A B C Murders / Убийство по алфавиту. Книга для чтения на английском языке. Агата КристиЧитать онлайн книгу.

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everyone knew that. And by rights Franz Ascher ought to have been locked up years ago. Not that Mrs Ascher had been afraid of him—real tartar she could be when roused! Give as good as she got any day. But there it was—the pitcher could go to the well once too often[97]. Again and again, she, Mrs Fowler, had said to her: ‘One of these days that man will do for you[98]. Mark my words.’ And he had done, hadn’t he? And there had she, Mrs Fowler, been right next door and never heard a sound.

      In a pause Poirot managed to insert a question.

      Had Mrs Ascher ever received any peculiar letters—letters without a proper signature—just something like ABC?

      Regretfully, Mrs Fowler returned a negative answer.

      ‘I know the kind of thing you mean—anonymous letters they call them—mostly full of words you’d blush to say out loud. Well, I don’t know, I’m sure, if Franz Ascher ever took to writing those. Mrs Ascher never let on to me if he did. What’s that? A railway guide, an А В C? No, I never saw such a thing about—and I’m sure if Mrs Ascher had been sent one I’d have heard about it. I declare you could have knocked me down with a feather[99] when I heard about this whole business. It was my girl Edie what came to me. “Mum,” she says, “there’s ever so many policemen next door.” Gave me quite a turn[100], it did. “Well,” I said, when I heard about it, “it does show that she ought never to have been alone in the house—that niece of hers ought to have been with her. A man in drink can be like a ravening wolf,” I said, “and in my opinion a wild beast is neither more nor less than what that old devil of a husband of hers is. I’ve warned her,” I said, “many times and now my words have come true. He’ll do for you,” I said. And he has done for her! You can’t rightly estimate what a man will do when he’s in drink and this murder’s a proof of it.’

      She wound up with a deep gasp.

      ‘Nobody saw this man Ascher go into the shop, I believe?’ said Poirot.

      Mrs Fowler sniffed scornfully.

      ‘Naturally he wasn’t going to show himself,’ she said.

      How Mr Ascher had got there without showing himself she did not deign to explain.

      She agreed that there was no back way into the house and that Ascher was quite well known by sight in the district.

      ‘But he didn’t want to swing for it and he kept himself well hid.’

      Poirot kept the conversational ball rolling some little time longer, but when it seemed certain that Mrs Fowler had told all that she knew not once but many times over, he terminated the interview, first paying out the promised sum.

      ‘Rather a dear five pounds’ worth, Poirot,’ I ventured to remark when we were once more in the street.

      ‘So far, yes.’

      ‘You think she knows more than she has told?’

      ‘My friend, we are in the peculiar position of not knowing what questions to ask. We are like little children playing cache-cache[101] in the dark. We stretch out our hands and grope about. Mrs Fowler has told us all that she thinks she knows—and has thrown in several conjectures for good measure! In the future, however, her evidence may be useful. It is for the future that I have invested that sum of five pounds.’

      I did not quite understand the point, but at this moment we ran into[102] Inspector Glen.

      Chapter 7

      Mr Partridge and Mr Riddell

      Inspector Glen was looking rather gloomy. He had, I gathered, spent the afternoon trying to get a complete list of persons who had been noticed entering the tobacco shop.

      ‘And nobody has seen anyone?’ Poirot inquired.

      ‘Oh, yes, they have. Three tall men with furtive expressions—four short men with black moustaches—two beards—three fat men—all strangers—and all, if I’m to believe witnesses, with sinister expressions! I wonder somebody didn’t see a gang of masked men with revolvers while they were about it!’

      Poirot smiled sympathetically.

      ‘Does anybody claim to have seen the man Ascher?’

      ‘No, they don’t. And that’s another point in his favour. I’ve just told the Chief Constable that I think this is a job for Scotland Yard. I don’t believe it’s a local crime.’

      Poirot said gravely:

      ‘I agree with you.’

      The inspector said:

      ‘You know, Monsieur Poirot, it’s a nasty business—a nasty business… I don’t like it…’

      We had two more interviews before returning to London.

      The first was with Mr James Partridge. Mr Partridge was the last person known to have seen Mrs Ascher alive. He had made a purchase from her at 5.30.

      Mr Partridge was a small man, a bank clerk by profession. He wore pince-nez, was very dry and spare-looking and extremely precise in all his utterances. He lived in a small house as neat and trim as himself.

      ‘Mr—er—Poirot,’ he said, glancing at the card my friend had handed to him. ‘From Inspector Glen? What can I do for you, Mr Poirot?’

      ‘I understand, Mr Partridge, that you were the last person to see Mrs Ascher alive.’

      Mr Partridge placed his finger-tips together and looked at Poirot as though he were a doubtful cheque.

      ‘That is a very debatable point, Mr Poirot,’ he said. ‘Many people may have made purchases from Mrs Ascher after I did so.’

      ‘If so, they have not come forward to say so.’

      Mr Partridge coughed.

      ‘Some people, Mr Poirot, have no sense of public duty.’

      He looked at us owlishly through his spectacles.

      ‘Exceedingly true,’ murmured Poirot. ‘You, I understand, went to the police of your own accord[103]?’

      ‘Certainly I did. As soon as I heard of the shocking occurrence I perceived that my statement might be helpful and came forward accordingly.’

      ‘A very proper spirit,’ said Poirot solemnly. ‘Perhaps you will be so kind as to repeat your story to me.’

      ‘By all means[104]. I was returning to this house and at 5.30 precisely —’

      ‘Pardon, how was it that you knew the time so accurately?’

      Mr Partridge looked a little annoyed at being interrupted.

      ‘The church clock chimed. I looked at my watch and found I was a minute slow. That was just before I entered Mrs Ascher’s shop.’

      ‘Were you in the habit of making purchases there?’

      ‘Fairly frequently. It was on my way home. About once or twice a week I was in the habit of purchasing two ounces of John Cotton[105] mild.’

      ‘Did you know Mrs Ascher at all? Anything of her circumstances or her history?’

      ‘Nothing whatever. Beyond my purchase and an occasional remark as to the state of the weather, I had never spoken to her.’

      ‘Did you know she had a drunken husband who was in the habit of threatening her life?’

      ‘No, I knew nothing whatever about her.’

      ‘You knew her by sight, however. Did anything about her appearance strike you as unusual yesterday evening? Did she appear flurried or put outСкачать книгу