Japp said sharply, "That surprises you?"
"Frankly, it does."
Japp said, "I'm not too happy about it myself, I'd like to have a talk with you.
I suppose you wouldn't like to come round?"
"Where are you?"
" Queen Charlotte Street."
Poirot said, "I will join you immediately."
II It was a police constable who opened the door of Number 58.
He said respectfully: "M. Poirot?" "It's I, myself."
"The Chief Inspector is upstairs.
Second floor – you know it?"
Hercule Poirot said: "I was there this morning."
There were three men in the room.
Japp looked up as Poirot entered. He said: "Glad to see you, Poirot.
We're just going to move him.
Like to see him first?"
A man with a camera who had been kneeling near the body got up. Poirot came forward. The body was lying near the fireplace.
In death Mr. Morley looked very much as he had looked in life.
There was a little blackened hole just below his right temple.
A small pistol lay on the floor near his outflung right hand.
Poirot shook his head gently.
Japp said: "All right, you can move him now." They took Mr. Morley away. Japp and Poirot were left alone.
Japp said: "We're through all the routine. Finger-prints, etc." Poirot sat down.
He said: "Tell me."
Japp pursed up his lips. He said: "He could have shot himself.
He probably did shoot himself. There are only his finger-prints on the gun – but I'm not quite satisfied."
"What are your objections?"
"Well, to begin with, there doesn't seem to be any reason why he should shoot himself… He was in good health, he was making money, he hadn't any worries that anyone knew of.
He wasn't mixed up with a woman – at least," Japp corrected himself cautiously, "as far as we know he wasn't.
He hasn't been moody or depressed or unlike himself.
That's partly why I was anxious to hear what you said.
You saw him this morning, and I wondered if you'd noticed anything."
Poirot shook his head.
"Nothing at all.
He was – what shall I say? – normality itself."
"Then that makes it odd, doesn't it?
Anyway, you wouldn't think a man would shoot himself in the middle of business hours, so to speak.
Why not wait till this evening?
That would be the natural thing to do."
Poirot agreed.
"When did the tragedy occur?"
"Can't say exactly.
Nobody seems to have heard the shot.
But I don't think they would. There are two doors between here and the passage and they have baize fitted round the edges – to deaden the noise from the victims of the dental chair, I imagine."
"Very probably.
Patients under gas sometimes make a lot of noise."
"Quite. And outside, in the street, there's plenty of traffic, so you wouldn't be likely to hear it out there."
"When was it discovered?"
"Round about 1:30 – by the page boy, Alfred Biggs.
Not a very bright specimen, by all accounts.