Dumb Witness. Agatha Christie

doctor, I suppose?’

      ‘Oh, yes. He’s pulled her through many a bad turn. He’s the kind that fair bullies you into living whether you want to or not.’

      Poirot nodded.

      ‘One should learn a little about a place before one comes to settle in it,’ he remarked. ‘A good doctor is one of the most important people.’

      ‘That’s very true, sir.’

      Poirot then asked for his bill to which he added a substantial tip.

      ‘Thank you, sir. Thank you very much, sir. I’m sure I hope you’ll settle here, sir.’

      ‘I hope so, too,’ said Poirot mendaciously.

      We set forth from the George.

      ‘Satisfied yet, Poirot?’ I asked as we emerged into the street.

      ‘Not in the least, my friend.’

      He turned in an unexpected direction.

      ‘Where are you off to now, Poirot?’

      ‘The church, my friend. It may be interesting. Some brasses—an old monument.’

      I shook my head doubtfully.

      Poirot’s scrutiny of the interior of the church was brief. Though an attractive specimen of what the guidebook calls Early Perp., it had been so conscientiously restored in Victorian vandal days that little of interest remained.

      Poirot next wandered seemingly aimlessly about the churchyard reading some of the epitaphs, commenting on the number of deaths in certain families, occasionally exclaiming over the quaintness of a name.

      I was not surprised, however, when he finally halted before what I was pretty sure had been his objective from the beginning.

      An imposing marble slab bore a partly-effaced inscription:

      SACRED

      TO THE MEMORY OF

      JOHN LAVERTON ARUNDELL

      GENERAL 24TH SIKHS

      WHO FELL ASLEEP IN CHRIST MAY 19TH 1888

      AGED 69

      ‘FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT WITH ALL THY MIGHT’

      ALSO OF

      MATILDA ANN ARUNDELL

      DIED MARCH 10TH 1912

      ‘I WILL ARISE AND GO TO MY FATHER’

      ALSO OF

      AGNES GEORGINA MARY ARUNDELL

      DIED NOVEMBER 20TH 1921

      ‘ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE’

      Then came a brand new piece of lettering, evidently just done:

      ALSO OF

      EMILY HARRIET LAVERTON ARUNDELL

      DIED MAY 1ST 1936

      ‘THY WILL BE DONE’

      Poirot stood looking for some time.

      He murmured softly:

      ‘May 1st… May 1st… And today, June 28th, I receive her letter. You see, do you not, Hastings, that that fact has got to be explained?’

      I saw that it had.

      That is to say, I saw that Poirot was determined that it should be explained.