That is your only moment of danger.
"It should all have passed off so well!
Two people who threatened your safety – both dead.
A third person also dead – but that, from your point of view, was unavoidable.
And all so easily explained. Morley's suicide explained by the mistake he had made over Amberiotis. The two deaths cancel out. One of these regrettable accidents.
"But alas for you, I am on the scene.
I have doubts.
I make objections.
All is not going as easily as you hoped.
So there must be a second line of defenses. There must be, if necessary, a scapegoat.
You have already informed yourself minutely of Morley's household.
There is this mar, Frank Carter, he will do.
So your accomplice arranges that he shall be engaged in a mysterious fashion as gardener. If, later, he tells such a ridiculous story no one will believe it.
In due course, the body in the fur chest will come to light.
At first it will be thought to be that of Miss Sainsbury Seale, then the dental evidence will be taken.
Big sensation!
It may seem a needless complication, but it was necessary.
You do not want the police force of England to be looking for a missing Mrs. Albert Chapman.
No, let Mrs. Chapman be dead – and let it be Mabelle Sainsbury Seale for whom the police look – since they can never find her.
Besides, through your influence, you can arrange to have the case dropped.
"You did do that, but since it was necessary that you should know just what I was doing, you sent for me and urged me to find the missing woman for you.
And you continued, steadily, to 'force a card' upon me.
Your accomplice rang me up with a melodramatic warning – the same idea – espionage – the pub.
She is a clever actress, this wife of yours, but to disguise one's voice the natural tendency is to imitate another voice.
Your wife imitated the intonation of Mrs. Olivera.
That puzzled me, I may say, a good deal.
"Then I was taken down to Exsham – the final performance was staged.
How easy to arrange a loaded pistol amongst laurels so that a man, clipping them, shall unwittingly cause it to go off.
The pistol falls at his feet. Startled, he picks it up.
What more do you want?
He is caught red-handed – with a ridiculous story and with a pistol which is a twin to the one with which Morley was shot.
"And all a snare for the feet of Hercule Poirot."
Alistair Blunt stirred a little in his chair.
His face was grave and a little sad. He said: "Don't misunderstand me, M. Poirot. How much do you guess? And how much do you actually know?"
Poirot said: "I have a certificate of the marriage – at a registry office near Oxford – of Martin Alistair Blunt and Gerda Grant.
Frank Carter saw two men leave Morley's surgery just after twenty-five past twelve.
The first was a fat man – Amberiotis. The second was, of course, you.
Frank Carter did not recognize you. He only saw you from above."
"How fair of you to mention that!"
"He went into the surgery and found Morley's body. The hands were cold and there was dried blood round the wound.
That meant that Morley had been dead some time.
Therefore the dentist who attended to Amberiotis could not have been Morley and must have been Morley' s murderer."
"Anything else?"
"Yes.
Helen Montressor was arrested this afternoon."
Alistair Blunt gave one sharp movement. Then he sat very still. He said: "That – rather tears it."
Hercule Poirot said: "Yes. The real Helen Montressor, your distant cousin, died in Canada seven years ago.
You suppressed that fact, and took advantage of it."
A smile came to Alistair Blunt's lips.
He spoke naturally and with a kind of boyish enjoyment.