This is fantastic, murmured Dr Leidner.
My staff!
The members of my own expedition.
And consequently considered above suspicion, said Poirot dryly.
A very useful point of view.
Commencons! Who could emphatically not be Frederick or William?
The women.
Naturally.
Miss Johnson and Mrs Mercado are crossed off.
Who else?
Carey.
He and I have worked together for years before I even met Louise
And also he is the wrong age.
He is, I should judge, thirty-eight or nine, too young for Frederick, too old for William.
Now for the rest.
There is Father Lavigny and Mr Mercado.
Either of them might be Frederick Bosner.
But, my dear sir, cried Dr Leidner in a voice of mingled irritation and amusement, Father Lavigny is known all over the world as an epigraphist and Mercado has worked for years in a well-known museum in New York.
It is impossible that either of them should be the man you think!
Poirot waved an airy hand.
Impossible impossible I take no account of the word!
The impossible, always I examine it very closely!
But we will pass on for the moment.
Who else have you?
Carl Reiter, a young man with a German name, David Emmott
He has been with me two seasons, remember.
He is a young man with the gift of patience.
If he committed a crime, it would not be in a hurry.
All would be very well prepared.
Dr Leidner made a gesture of despair.
And lastly, William Coleman, continued Poirot.
He is an Englishman.
Pourquoi pas? Did not Mrs Leidner say that the boy left America and could not be traced?
He might easily have been brought up in England.
You have an answer to everything, said Dr Leidner.
I was thinking hard.
Right from the beginning I had thought Mr Colemans manner rather more like a P.G. Wodehouse book than like a real live young man.
Had he really been playing a part all the time?
Poirot was writing in a little book.
Let us proceed with order and method, he said.
On the first count we have two names. Father Lavigny and Mr Mercado. On the second we have Coleman, Emmott and Reiter.
Now let us pass to the opposite aspect of the matter means and opportunity.Who amongst the expedition had the means and the opportunity of committing the crime?
Carey was on the dig, Coleman was in Hassanieh, you yourself were on the roof.
That leaves us Father Lavigny, Mr Mercado, Mrs Mercado, David Emmott, Carl Reiter, Miss Johnson and Nurse Leatheran.
Oh! I exclaimed, and I bounded in my chair.
Mr Poirot looked at me with twinkling eyes.
Yes, Im afraid, ma soeur, that you have got to be included.
It would have been quite easy for you to have gone along and killed Mrs Leidner while the courtyard was empty.
You have plenty of muscle and strength, and she would have been quite unsuspicious until the moment the blow was struck.
I was so upset that I couldnt get a word out.