Heres another complication.
The monk fellow is missing.
Father Lavigny?
Yes.
Nobody noticed it till just now.
Then it dawned on somebody that he was the only one of the party not around, and we went to his room.
His beds not been slept in and theres no sign of him.
The whole thing was like a bad dream.
First Miss Johnsons death and then the disappearance of Father Lavigny.
The servants were called and questioned, but they couldnt throw any light on the mystery.
He had last been seen at about eight oclock the night before.
Then he had said he was going out for a stroll before going to bed.
Nobody had seen him come back from that stroll.
The big doors had been closed and barred at nine oclock as usual.
Nobody, however, remembered unbarring them in the morning.
The two house-boys each thought the other one must have done the unfastening.
Had Father Lavigny ever returned the night before?
Had he, in the course of his earlier walk, discovered anything of a suspicious nature, gone out to investigate it later, and perhaps fallen a third victim?
Captain Maitland swung round as Dr Reilly came up with Mr Mercado behind him.
Hallo, Reilly.
Got anything?
Yes.
The stuff came from the laboratory here.
Ive just been checking up the quantities with Mercado.
Its H.C.L. from the lab.
The laboratory eh?
Was it locked up?
Mr Mercado shook his head.
His hands were shaking and his face was twitching.
He looked a wreck of a man.
Its never been the custom, he stammered.
You see just now were using it all the time.
I nobody ever dreamt
Is the place locked up at night?
Yes all the rooms are locked.
The keys are hung up just inside the living-room.
So if anyone had a key to that they could get the lot.
Yes.
And its a perfectly ordinary key, I suppose?
Oh, yes.
Nothing to show whether she took it herself from the laboratory? asked Captain Maitland.
She didnt, I said loudly and positively.
I felt a warning touch on my arm. Poirot was standing close behind me.
And then something rather ghastly happened.
Not ghastly in itself in fact it was just the incongruousness that made it seem worse than anything else.
A car drove into the courtyard and a little man jumped out.
He was wearing a sun helmet and a short thick trench coat.
He came straight to Dr Leidner, who was standing by Dr Reilly, and shook him warmly by the hand.
Vous voila, mon cher, he cried.
Delighted to see you.