The Murder of Roger Ackroyd / Убийство Роджера Экройда - стр. 45

Poirot carefully straightened a china ornament on one of the bookcases.

‘Be sure there was a reason,’ he said over his shoulder.

‘But what reason could it be?’

‘When we know that, we shall know everything. This case is very curious and very interesting.’

There was something almost indescribable in the way he said those last words. I felt that he was looking at the case from some peculiar angle of his own, and what he saw I could not tell. he went to the window and stood there, looking out.

‘You say it was nine o’clock, dr Sheppard, when you met this stranger outside the gate?’

He asked the question without turning round.

‘Yes,’ I replied. ‘I heard the church clock chime the hour.’

‘How long would it take him to reach the house – to reach this window, for instance?’

‘Five minutes at the outside. Two or three minutes only if he took the path at the right of the drive and came straight here.’

‘But to do that he would have to know the way. how can I explain myself? – it would mean that he had been here before – that he knew his surroundings.’

‘That is true,’ replied colonel Melrose.

‘We could find out, doubtless, if Mr Ackroyd had received any strangers during the past week?’

‘Young Raymond could tell us that,’ I said.

‘Or Parker,’ suggested colonel Melrose.

‘Ou tous les deux,’ suggested Poirot, smiling.

Colonel Melrose went in search of Raymond, and I rang the bell once more for Parker. Colonel Melrose returned almost immediately, accompanied by the young secretary, whom he introduced to Poirot. Geoffrey Raymond was fresh and debonair as ever. He seemed surprised and delighted to make Poirot’s acquaintance.

‘No idea you’d been living among us incognito, M. Poirot,’ he said. ‘It will be a great privilege to watch you at work – hallo, what’s this?’

Poirot had been standing just to the left of the door. Now he moved aside suddenly, and I saw that while my back was turned he must have swiftly drawn out the armchair till it stood in the position Parker had indicated.

‘Want me to sit in the chair whilst you take a blood test?’ asked Raymond good-humouredly. ‘What’s the idea?’

‘M. raymond, this chair was pulled out – so – last night when Mr Ackroyd was found killed. Someone moved it back again into place. Did you do so?’

The secretary’s reply came without a second’s hesitation. ‘No, indeed I didn’t. I don’t even remember that it was in that position, but it must have been if you say so. Anyway, somebody else must have moved it back to its proper place. Have they destroyed a clue in doing so? Too bad!’