The Rhoda girl was friendly - oh, and rather impressed by thinking I was a celebrity.
The little Meredith hated my coming and showed it quite plainly.
She was suspicious.
Why should she be if she hasn't got anything to hide?
I asked either of them to come and see me in London.
The Rhoda girl did, and she blurted the whole thing out - how Anne had been rude to me the other day because something I'd said had reminded her of a painful incident, and then she went on to describe the incident."
"Did she say when and where it happened?"
"Four or five years ago in Devonshire."
The superintendent muttered something under his breath and scribbled on his pad.
His wooden calm was shaken.
Mrs. Oliver sat enjoying her triumph.
It was a moment of great sweetness to her.
Battle recovered his temper.
"I take off my hat to you, Mrs. Oliver," he said. "You've put one over on us this time.
That is very valuable information.
And it just shows how easily you can miss a thing." He frowned a little. "She can't have been there - wherever it was - long.
A couple of months at most.
It must have been between the Isle of Wight and going to Mrs. Deering.
Yes, that could be it right enough.
Naturally Mrs. Eldon's sister only remembers she went off to a place in Devonshire - she doesn't remember exactly who or where."
"Tell me," said Poirot. "was this Mrs. Eldon an untidy woman?"
Battle bent a curious gaze upon him.
"It's odd your saying that, Monsieur Poirot. I don't see how you could have known.
The sister was rather a precise party. In talking I remember her saying,
'My sister is so dreadfully untidy and slapdash.'
But how did you know?"
"Because she needed a mother's-help," said Mrs. Oliver.
Poirot shook his head.
"No, no, it was not that.
It is of no moment.
I was only curious.
Continue, Superintendent Battle."
"In the same way," went on Battle, "I took it for granted that she went to Mrs. Deering straight from the Isle of Wight.
She's sly, that girl.
She deceived me all right.
Lying the whole time."
"Lying is not always a sign of guilt," said Poirot.
"I know that, Monsieur Poirot.
There's the natural liar.
I should say she was one, as a matter of fact.
Always says the thing that sounds best.
But all the same it's a pretty grave risk to take, suppressing facts like that."
"She wouldn't know you had any idea of past crimes" said Mrs. Oliver.
"That's all the more reason for not suppressing that little piece of information.
It must have been accepted as a bona fide case of accidental death, so she'd nothing to fear - unless she were guilty."
"Unless she were guilty of the Devonshire death, yes," said Poirot.
Battle turned to him.
"Oh, I know.
Even if that accidental death turns out to be not so accidental it doesn't follow that she killed Shaitana.
But these other murders are murders too.