"Come,"said Hercule Poirot."We have still a little way to go!Dr Gerard has
invoked the psychology.So let us now examine the psychological side of this
case.We have taken the facts,we have established a chronological sequence of
events,we have heard the evidence.There remains -the psychology.And the most
important psychological evidence concerns the dead woman -it is the psychology
of Mrs Boynton herself that is the most important thing in this case.
"Take from my list of specified facts points three and four.Mrs Boynton took
definite pleasure in keeping her family from enjoying themselves with other
people.Mrs Boynton,on the afternoon in question,encouraged her family to go away
and leave her.
"These two facts,they contradict each other flatly!Why,on this particular
afternoon,should Mrs Boynton suddenly display a complete reversal of her usual
policy?Was it that she felt a sudden warmth of the heart -an instinct of
benevolence?That,it seems to me from all I have heard,was extremely unlikely!Yet
there must have been a reason.What was that reason?
"Let us examine closely the character of Mrs Boynton.There have been many
different accounts of her.She was a tyrannical old martinet -she was a mental
sadist -she was an incarnation of evil -she was crazy.Which of these views is
the true one?
"I think myself that Sarah King came nearest to the truth when in a flash of
inspiration in Jerusalem she saw the old lady as intensely pathetic.But not only
pathetic -futile!
"Let us,if we can,think ourselves into the mental condition of Mrs Boynton.A
human creature born with immense ambition,with a yearning to dominate and to
impress her personality on other people.She neither sublimated that intense
craving for power -nor did she seek to master it -no,mesdames and messieurs -she
fed it!But in the end -listen well to this -in the end what did it amount to?She
was not a great power!She was not feared and hated over a wide area!She was the
petty tyrant of one isolated family!And as Dr Gerard said to me -she became
bored like any other old lady with her hobby and she sought to extend her
activities and to amuse herself by making her dominance more precarious!But that
led to an entirely different aspect of the case!By coming abroad,she realized
for the first time how extremely insignificant she was!
"And now we come directly to point number ten -the words spoken to Sarah
King in Jerusalem.Sarah King,you see,had put her finger on the truth.She had
revealed fully and uncompromisingly the pitiful futility of Mrs Boynton's scheme
of existence!And now listen very carefully -all of you -to what her exact words
to Miss King were.Miss King has said that Mrs Boynton spoke 'so malevolently -
not even looking at me".And this is what she actually said,"I've never forgotten
anything -not an action,not a name,not a face."
"Those words made a great impression on Miss King.Their extraordinary
intensity and the loud hoarse tone in which they were uttered!So strong was the
impression that they left on her mind that I think she quite failed to realize
their extraordinary significance!
"Do you see that significance,any of you?"He waited a minute."It seems
not......but,mes amis,does it escape you that those words were not a reasonable
answer at all to what Miss King had just been saying?"I've never forgotten
anything -not an action,not a name,not a face."It does not make sense!If she had
said,"I never forget impertinence"-something of that kind -but no -a face is
what she said......
"Ah!"cried Poirot,beating his hands together."But it leaps to the eye!Those
words,ostensible spoken to Miss King,were not meant for Miss King at all!They
were addressed to someone else standing behind Miss King."
He paused,nothing their expressions.
"Yes,it leaps to the eye!That was,I tell you,a psychological moment in Mrs
Boynton's life!She had been exposed to herself by an intelligent young woman!She
was full of baffled fury -and at that moment she recognized someone -a face from
the past -a victim delivered into her hands!
"We are back,you see,at the outsider!And now the meaning of Mrs Boynton's
unexpected amiability on the afternoon of her death is clear.She wanted to get
rid of her family because -to use a vulgarity -she had other fish to fry!She
wanted the field left clear for an interview with a new victim......
"Now,from that new standpoint,let us consider the events of the
afternoon!The Boynton family go off.Mrs Boynton sits up by her cave.Now let us
consider very carefully the evidence of Lady Westholme and Miss Pierce.The
latter is an unreliable witness,she is unobservant and very suggestible.Lady
Westholme,on the other hand,is perfectly clear as to her facts and meticulously
observant.Both ladies agree on one fact!An Arab,one of the servants,approaches
Mrs Boynton,angers her in some way and retires hastily.Lady Westholme stated
definitely that the servant had first been into the tent occupied by Ginevra
Boynton,but you may remember that Dr Gerard's tent was next door to Ginevra's.It
is possible that it was Dr Gerard's tent the Arab entered......"
Colonel Carbury said: "d"you mean to tell me that one of those Bedouin
fellows of mine murdered an old lady by sticking her with a
hypodermic?Fantastic!"
"Wait,Colonel Carbury,I have not yet finished.Let us agree that the Arab
might have come from Dr Gerard's tent and not Ginevra Boynton's.What is the next
thing?Both ladies agree that they could not se his face clearly enough to
identify him and that they did not hear what was said.That is understandable.The
distance between the marquee and the ledge was about two hundred yards.Lady
Westholme gave a clear description of the man otherwise,describing in detail his
ragged breeches and the untidiness with which his puttees were rolled."
Poirot leaned forward.
"And that,my friends,was very odd indeed!Because if she could not see his
face or hear what was said,she could not possibly have noticed the state of his
breeches and puttees!Not at two hundred yards!
"It was an error,that,you see!It suggested a curious idea to me.Why insist
so on the ragged breeches and untidy puttees?Could it be because the breeches
were not torn and the puttees wee non-existent?Lady Westholme and Miss Pierce
both saw the man -but from where they were sitting they could not see each
other.That is shown by the fact that Lady Westholme came to see if Miss Pierce
was awake and found her sitting in the entrance of her tent."
"Good lord,"said Colonel Carbury,suddenly sitting up very straight."Are you
suggesting-?"
"I am suggesting that,having ascertained just what Miss Piece (the only
witness likely to be awake)was doing,Lady Westholme returned to her tent,put on
her riding breeches,boots and khaki-coloured coat,made herself an Arab head-
dress with her checked duster and a skein of knitting-wool and that,thus
attired,she went boldly up to Dr Gerard's tent,looked in his medicine
chest,selected a suitable drug,took the hypodermic,filled it and went boldly up
to her victim.
"Mrs Boynton may have been dozing.Lady Westholme was quick.She caught her by
the wrist and injected the stuff.Mrs Boynton half cried out -tried to rise -then
sank back.The "Arab"hurried away with every evidence of being ashamed and
abashed.Mrs Boynton shook her stick,tried to rise,then fell back into her chair.
"Five minutes later Lady Westholme rejoins Miss Pierce and comments on the
scene she has just witnessed,impressing her own version of it on the other.Then
they go for a walk,pausing below the ledge where Lady Westholme shouts up to the
old lady.She receives no answer.Mrs Boynton is dead -but she remarks to Miss
Pierce,'very rude just to snort at us like that!"Miss Pierce accepts the
suggestion -she has often heard Mrs Boynton receive a remark with a snort -she
will swear quite sincerely if necessary that she actually heard it.Lady
Westholme has sat on committees often enough with women of Miss Pierce's type to
know exactly how her own eminence and masterful personality can influence
them.The only point where her plan went astray was the replacing of the
syringe.Dr Gerard returning so soon upset her scheme.She hoped he might not have
noticed its absence,or might think he had overlooked it,and she put it back
during the night."
He stopped.
Sarah said: "But why?Why should Lady Westholme want to kill old Mrs
Boynton?"
"Did you not tell me that Lady Westholme had been quite near you in
Jerusalem when you spoke to Mrs Boynton?It was to Lady Westholme that Mrs
Boynton's words were addressed."I've never forgotten anything -not an action,not
a name,not a face."Put that with the fact that Mrs Boynton had been a wardress
in prison and you can get a very shrewd idea of the truth.Lord Westholme met his
wife on a voyage back from America.Lady Westholme before her marriage had been a
criminal and had served a prison sentence.
"You see the terrible dilemma she was in?Her career,her ambitions,her social
position -all at stake!What the crime was for which she served a sentence in
prison we do not yet know (though we soon shall),but it must have been one that
would effectually blast her political career if it was made public.And remember
this,Mrs Boynton was not an ordinary blackmailer.She did not want money.She
wanted the pleasure of torturing her victim for a while and then she would have
enjoyed revealing the truth in the most spectacular fashion!No,while Mrs Boynton
lived,Lady Westholme was not safe.She obeyed Mrs Boynton's instructions to meet
her at Petra (I thought it strange all along that a woman with such a sense of
her own importance as Lady Westholme should have preferred to travel as a mere
tourist),but in her own mind she was doubtless revolving ways and means of
murder.She saw her chance and carried it out boldly.She only made two slips.One
was to say a little too much -the description of the torn breeches -which first
drew my attention to her,and the other was when she mistook Dr Gerard's tent and
looked first into the one where Ginevra was lying half asleep.Hence the girl's
story -half make-believe,half true -of a Shiekh in disguise.She put it the wrong
way round,obeying her instinct to distort the truth by making it more
dramatic,but the indication was quite significant enough for me."
He paused.
"But we shall soon know.I obtained Lady Westholme's fingerprints today
without her being aware of the fact.If these are sent to the prison where Mrs
Boynton was once a wardress,we shall soon know the truth when they are compared
with the files."
He stopped.
In the momentary stillness a sharp sound was heard.
"What's that?"asked Dr Gerard.
"Sounded like a hot to me,"said Colonel Carbury,rising to his feet
quickly."In the next room.Who's got that room,by the way?"
Poirot murmured: "I have a little idea -it is the room of Lady
Westholme......"
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