I thought she was.
She was a person of strong will and iron self-control.
Such people are constantly repressing themselves and one day the dam bursts!
But if Miss Johnson had committed the crime it could only be for some reason connected with Dr Leidner.
If in any way she felt convinced that Mrs Leidner was spoiling her husbands life, then the deep unacknowledged jealousy far down in her would leap at the chance of a plausible motive and give itself full rein.
Yes, Miss Johnson was distinctly a possibility.
Then there were the three young men.
First Carl Reiter.
If, by any chance, one of the expedition staff was William Bosner, then Reiter was by far the most likely person.
But if he was William Bosner, then he was certainly a most accomplished actor!
If he were merely himself, had he any reason for murder?
Regarded from Mrs Leidners point of view, Carl Reiter was far too easy a victim for good sport.
He was prepared to fall on his face and worship immediately.
Mrs Leidner despised undiscriminating adoration and the door-mat attitude nearly always brings out the worst side of a woman. In her treatment of Carl Reiter Mrs Leidner displayed really deliberate cruelty.
She inserted a gibe here a prick there.
She made the poor young mans life a hell to him.
Poirot broke off suddenly and addressed the young man in a personal, highly confidential manner.
Mon ami, let this be a lesson to you.
You are a man.
Behave, then, like a man!
It is against Nature for a man to grovel.
Women and Nature have almost exactly the same reactions!
Remember it is better to take the largest plate within reach and fling it at a womans head than it is to wriggle like a worm whenever she looks at you!
He dropped his private manner and reverted to his lecture style.
Could Carl Reiter have been goaded to such a pitch of torment that he turned on his tormentor and killed her?
Suffering does queer things to a man.
I could not besure that it was not so!
Next William Coleman.
His behaviour, as reported by Miss Reilly, is certainly suspicious.
If he was the criminal it could only be because his cheerful personality concealed the hidden one of William Bosner.
I do not think William Coleman, as William Coleman, has the temperament of a murderer.
His faults might lie in another direction.
Ah! perhaps Nurse Leatheran can guess what they would be?
How did the man do it?
Im sure I didnt look as though I was thinking anything at all.
Its nothing really, I said, hesitating.
Only if its to be all truth, Mr Coleman did say once himself that he would have made a good forger.
A good point, said Poirot.
Therefore if he had come across some of the old threatening letters, he could have copied them without difficulty.
Oy, oy, oy! called out Mr Coleman.
This is what they call a frame-up.
Poirot swept on.
As to his being or not being William Bosner, such a matter is difficult of verification.
But Mr Coleman has spoken of a guardian not of a father and there is nothing definitely to veto the idea.
Tommyrot, said Mr Coleman.
Why all of you listen to this chap beats me.
Of the three young men there remains Mr Emmott, went on Poirot.
He again might be a possible shield for the identity of William Bosner.
Whatever personal reasons he might have for the removal of Mrs Leidner I soon realized that I should have no means of learning them from him.
He could keep his own counsel remarkably well, and there was not the least chance of provoking him nor of tricking him into betraying himself on any point.