Murder Killing
37. Poirot Reveals III
”Quiet first, Mademoiselle. I'm looking for kebe-naran! I've been tired of the lies. For example, I said that ABC did not do a second murder. Remember, it happened in the early hours of the morning when it started on the 25th that was the day he came to kill. Could someone have come to prevent it? In such a situation, what would he do? Commit a second murder, or step back and regard the first as a terrible gift?”
”Mr. Poirot!” said Megan. ”What a great thought you! All those murders must have been committed by the same person!”
Poirot did not pay attention to the girl and continued on,
”The hypothesis is useful to explain a fact of incompatibility between the personality of Aleuander Bonaparte Cust (who would never succeed in seducing girls) and the personality of the killer Betty Barnard. And it was previously known that the killer had profited from the murders committed by others. Not all Jack the Ripper crimes are committed by Jack the Ripper himself, for example. So far everything's been sorted out.
”Then I really faced a hardship.
”Until the murder of Betty Barnard, no facts about the ABC murder were made public. Andover's murder didn't attract much attention. The incident of a railway guide book found in the open state was not even mentioned by the press.
Therefore, I concluded that whoever killed Betty Barnard must know facts that are known only to certain people of my own, the police, as well as certain relatives and neighbors Mrs. Aschers.
”That line of inquiry seems to lead me to a dead end.”
The faces staring at him also looked hollow.
Empty and confused.
Donald Fraser said seriously, ”After all, the police are ordinary people. And they are handsome men”
He fell silent, and looked at Poirot with a look of questioning.
Poirot nodded slowly.
”No it's simpler than that. I told you, there is a second speculation.
”Could Cust not be responsible for the murder of Betty Barnard? Could it be someone else killed him? Could it be that the other person was also responsible for his other murders?”
”But it doesn't make sense!” scream Clarke. ”Really? Then what have I done
what I should have done from the beginning. I studied the letters I received with a completely different point of view. And from the beginning I felt that there must be something wrong with the letters exactly like the painting expert who knew something was wrong in a painting...
”I initially suspected, without a second thought, that what went wrong was the fact that the letter was written by a madman.
”What?” myrag.
”But it is exactly so! Something's wrong, the same as if we knew something was wrong in a painting because the letter was fake! It seems as if it was written by a crazy killer madman, but the reality is not so.”
”Not unreasonable,” reset Franklin Clarke.
”Mais si! But it's so real. People should look for reasons to weigh. What is the purpose of the letters being written? In order to focus attention on the author, so that attention is focused on the murders! En verite's right, at first glance it doesn't seem reasonable. Then I saw a bright spot. It means to focus the attention of the people at the center of several murders on a series of murders...
Didn't the great poet Shakespeare say,
’We can't see trees in a forest’?”
I did not correct Poirot's memory of his literary quotations, but tried to capture what he meant. I'm just beginning to understand.
He continued, ”Where are we having trouble recognizing a certain needle? When the needle is placed on the pad! When do we have trouble recognizing a single murder?
If the murder is one of a series of murders related to each other.
”I faced a really astute killer and a resourceful bunch of reckless, brave, but meticulous gamblers. Not Mr. Cust! He definitely could not commit those murders! No, I had to deal with a completely different man - a boy with a childish temperament (notice the letters that the schoolboy had written as well as the train manual), and, a man who is good at attracting women, and a man who is cruel and does not care about the lives of others, a man who benefits from one of these murders!
”Please note if a man or woman is killed, what questions do the police ask? Opportunity. Where was everyone at the time the crime took place? Motive. Who took advantage of the death of the victim? If the motive and opportunity are clear, what would a would-be assassin do? To fake an alibi is to manipulate time, in any way. But this action is full of risks. Our killer thought of a greater security measure. Creating another killer!
”Then I just have to review some of the murders that occurred and look for the possibility of who the guilty person is. Murder in Andover? The closest possibility as the accused is Franz Ascher, but I can't imagine Ascher being able to invent and execute such a complex plan, or plotting a premeditated murder. Murder in Bexhill? Possibly Donald Fraser. He has reason and ability, and a systematic way of thinking. But the likely motive for killing her lover was jealousy and jealousy could not have been planned. I also know that he went on vacation in early August, so there's no way he's involved in a murder in Churston. Next we come to the murder in Churston and soon we come to a situation that promises endless possibilities.
”Sir Carmichael Clarke is a very rich man. Who inherits the money? His dying wife, who would live on, would be guaranteed bail, but then the inheritance would fall on her brother, Franklin.”
Poirot turned slowly until his eyes met those of Franklin Clarke.
”Then I became sure. The man I've known for a long time in my heart is the same person I know personally. ABC and Franklin Clarke are one person! A brave adventurer, with his attitude of glorifying England, who is vaguely seen in his attitude of belittling strangers. Her attractive, open and sympathetic personality has nothing easier for her than to ask a girl out of a cafeteria. Systematic and tidy brain one day he made a list, signaled the ABC title and finally, he wrote, the childish thought that Lady Clarke had mentioned and even proved to her taste in reading my fiction has proved that there is a book in the library entitled he Railway Children (Anak ⁇ Railway children), the work of E. Nesbits. I have no doubt about ABC, the person who wrote the letters and committed the murders was Franklin Clarke.”
Suddenly Clarke laughed out loud. ”Really clever! And what about our friend Cust who got caught off guard? What about the blood on his coat sleeve? And the knife hidden in his lodge? He could have denied committing those murders”
