Read Online Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie - Free Book Online Page A

considerably. Puts it within very narrow limits - less than an hour all told.” He turned to Miss Brewster. “Now then, I think it's all clear so far. You're Miss Emily Brewster and this is Mr Patrick Redfern, both staying at the Jolly Roger Hotel. You identify this lady as a fellow guest of yours at the hotel - the wife of Captain Marshall?”
    Emily Brewster nodded.
    “Then, I think,” said Inspector Colgate, “that we'll adjourn to the hotel.” He beckoned to a constable. “Hawkes, you stay here and don't allow any one onto this cove. I'll be sending Phillips along later.”
    “Upon my soul!” said Colonel Weston. “This is a surprise finding you here!”
    Hercule Poirot replied to the Chief Constable's greeting in a suitable manner. He murmured: “Ah, yes, many years have passed since that affair at St Loo.”
    “I haven't forgotten it, though,” said Weston. “Biggest surprise of my life. The thing I've never got over, though, is the way you got round me about that funeral business. Absolutely unorthodox, the whole thing. Fantastic!”
    “Tout de mкme, mon Colonel,” said Poirot. “It produced the goods, did it not?”
    “Er - well, possibly. I daresay we should have got there by more orthodox methods.”
    “It is possible,” agreed Poirot diplomatically.
    “And here you are in the thick of another murder,” said the Chief Constable. “Any ideas about this one?”
    Poirot said slowly: “Nothing definite - but it is interesting.”
    “Going to give us a hand?”
    “You would permit it, yes?”
    “My dear fellow, delighted to have you. Don't know enough yet to decide whether it's a case for Scotland Yard or not. Offhand it looks as though our murderer must be pretty well within a limited radius. On the other hand, all these people are strangers down here. To find out about them and their motives you've got to go to London.”
    Poirot said: “Yes, that is true.”
    “First of all,” said Weston, “we've got to find out who last saw the dead woman alive. Chambermaid took her breakfast at nine. Girl in the bureau downstairs saw her pass through the lounge and go out about ten.”
    “My friend,” said Poirot, “I suspect that I am the man you want.”
    “You saw her this morning? What time?”
    “At five minutes past ten. I assisted her to launch her float from the bathing beach.”
    “And she went off on it?”
    “Yes.”
    “Alone?”
    “Yes.”
    “Did you see which direction she took?”
    “She paddled round that point there to the right.”
    “In the direction of Pixy's Cove, that is?”
    “Yes.”
    “And the time then was -”
    “I should say she actually left the beach at a quarter past ten.”
    Weston considered. “That fits in well enough. How long should you say that it would take her to paddle round to the Cove?”
    “Ah, me, I am not an expert. I do not go in boats or expose myself on floats. Perhaps half an hour?”
    “That's about what I think,” said the Colonel. “She wouldn't be hurrying, I presume. Well, if she arrived there at a quarter to eleven, that fits in well enough.”
    “At what time does your doctor suggest she died?”
    “Oh, Neasdon doesn't commit himself. He's a cautious chap. A quarter to eleven is his earliest outside limit.”
    Poirot nodded. He said: “There is one other point that I must mention. As she left Mrs Marshall asked me not to say I had seen her.”
    Weston stared. He said: “H'm, that's rather suggestive, isn't it?”
    Poirot murmured: “Yes, I thought so myself.”
    Weston tugged at his moustache. He said: “Look here, Poirot. You're a man of the world. What sort of a woman was Mrs Marshall?”
    A faint smile came to Poirot's lips. He asked: “Have you not already heard?”
    The Chief Constable said drily: “I know what the women say of her. They would. How much truth is there in it? Was she having an affair with this fellow Redfern?”
    “I should say undoubtedly yes.”
    “He followed her down here, eh?”
    “There is