Chapter 10
The Parlourmaid

We found Mrs Ackroyd in the hall. With her was a small dried-up little man, with an aggressive chin and sharp grey eyes, and ‘lawyer’ written all over him.

‘Mr Hammond is staying to lunch with us,’ said Mrs Ackroyd. ‘you know Major Blunt, Mr hammond? And dear doctor Sheppard – also a close friend of poor Roger’s. And, let me see-’

She paused, surveying Hercule Poirot in some perplexity.

‘This is M. Poirot, Mother,’ said Flora. ‘I told you about him this morning.’

‘Oh! yes,’ said Mrs Ackroyd vaguely. ‘Of course, my dear, of course. He is to find Ralph, is he not?’

‘He is to find out who killed uncle,’ said Flora.

‘Oh! My dear,’ cried her mother. ‘Please! My poor nerves. I am a wreck this morning, a positive wreck. Such a dreadful thing to happen. I can’t help feeling that it must have been an accident of some kind. Roger was so fond of handling queer curios. His hand must have slipped, or something.’

This theory was received in polite silence. I saw Poirot edge up to the lawyer, and speak to him in a confidential undertone. They moved aside into the embrasure of the window. I joined them – then hesitated.

‘Perhaps I’m intruding,’ I said.

‘Not at all,’ cried Poirot heartily. ‘You and I, M. le docteur, we investigate this affair side by side. Without you I should be lost. I desire a little information from the good Mr Hammond.’

‘You are acting on behalf of captain Ralph Paton, I understand,’ said the lawyer cautiously.

Poirot shook his head.

‘Not so. I am acting in the interests of justice. Miss Ackroyd has asked me to investigate the death of her uncle.’

Mr Hammond seemed slightly taken aback.

‘I cannot seriously believe that captain Paton can be concerned in this crime,’ he said, ‘however strong the circumstantial evidence against him may be. The mere fact that he was hard pressed for money-’

‘Was he hard pressed for money?’ interpolated Poirot quickly.

The lawyer shrugged his shoulders.

‘It was a chronic condition with Ralph Paton,’ he said drily. ‘Money went through his hands like water. He was always applying to his stepfather.’

‘Had he done so of late? During the last year, for instance?’

‘I cannot say. Mr Ackroyd did not mention the fact to me.’

‘I comprehend. Mr Hammond, I take it that you are acquainted with the provisions of Mr Ackroyd’s will?’

‘Certainly. That is my principal business here today.’

‘Then, seeing that I am acting for Miss Ackroyd, you will not object to telling me the terms of that will?’

‘They are quite simple. Shorn of legal phraseology, and after paying certain legacies and bequests-’

‘Such as-?’ interrupted Poirot.

Mr Hammond seemed a little surprised.

‘A thousand pounds to his housekeeper, Miss Russell; fifty pounds to the cook, Emma Cooper; five hundred pounds to his secretary, Mr Geoffrey Raymond. Then to various hospitals-’

Poirot held up his hand.

‘Ah! the charitable bequests, they interest me not.’

‘Quite so. The income on ten thousand pounds’ worth of shares to be paid to Mrs Cecil Ackroyd during her lifetime. Miss flora Ackroyd inherits twenty thousand pounds outright. The residue – including this property, and the shares in Ackroyd and Son – to his adopted son, ralph Paton.’

‘Mr Ackroyd possessed a large fortune?’

‘A very large fortune. Captain Paton will be an exceedingly wealthy young man.’

There was a silence. Poirot and the lawyer looked at each other.

‘Mr Hammond,’ came Mrs Ackroyd’s voice plaintively from the fireplace.

The lawyer answered the summons. Poirot took my arm and drew me right into the window.

‘Regard the irises,’ he remarked in a rather loud voice. ‘Magnificent, are they not? A straight and pleasing effect.’ At the same time I felt the pressure of his hand on my arm, and he added in a low tone: ‘Do you really wish to aid me? To take part in this investigation?’

‘Yes, indeed,’ I said eagerly. ‘There’s nothing I should like better. You don’t know what a dull old fogey’s life I lead. Never anything out of the ordinary.’

‘Good, we will be colleagues then. In a minute or two I fancy Major Blunt will join us. he is not happy with the good mamma. Now there are some things I want to know- but I do not wish to seem to want to know them. you comprehend? So it will be your part to ask the questions.’

‘What questions do you want me to ask?’ I asked apprehensively.

‘I want you to introduce the name of Mrs Ferrars.’

‘Yes?’

‘Speak of her in a natural fashion. Ask him if he was down here when her husband died. you understand the kind of thing I mean. And while he replies, watch his face without seeming to watch it. C’est compris?’

There was no time for more, for at that minute, as Poirot had prophesied, Blunt left the others in his abrupt fashion and came over to us. I suggested strolling on the terrace, and he acquiesced. Poirot stayed behind.

I stopped to examine a late rose.

‘How things change in the course of a day or two,’ I observed. ‘I was up here last Wednesday, I remember, walking up and down this same terrace. Ackroyd was with me – full of spirits. And now – three days later – Ackroyd’s dead, poor fellow. Mrs Ferrars dead – you knew her, didn’t you? But of course you did.’

Blunt nodded his head.

‘Had you seen her since you’d been down this time?’

‘Went with Ackroyd to call. Last Tuesday, think it was. fascinating woman – but something queer about her. Deep – one would never know what she was up to.’

I looked into his steady grey eyes. Nothing there surely. I went on:

‘I suppose you’d met her before?’

‘Last time I was here – she and her husband had just come here to live.’ He paused a minute and then added: ‘Rum thing, she had changed a lot between then and now.’

‘How – changed?’ I asked.

‘Looked ten years older.’

‘Were you down here when her husband died?’ I asked, trying to make the question sound as casual as possible.

‘No. from all I heard it would be good riddance. Uncharitable, perhaps, but the truth.’

I agreed.

‘Ashley Ferrars was by no means a pattern husband,’ I said cautiously.

‘Blackguard, I thought,’ said Blunt.

‘No,’ I said, ‘only a man with more money than was good for him.’

‘Oh! Money! All the troubles in the world can be put down to money – or the lack of it.’

‘Which has been your particular trouble?’ I asked.

‘Enough for what I want. I’m one of the lucky ones.’

‘Indeed.’

‘I’m not too flush just now, as a matter of fact. Came into a legacy a year ago, and like a fool let myself be persuaded into putting it into some wild-cat scheme.’

I sympathized, and narrated my own similar trouble.

Then the gong pealed out, and we all went in to lunch.

Poirot drew me back a little.‘Eh bien?’

‘he’s all right,’ I said. ‘I’m sure of it.’

‘Nothing – disturbing?’

‘He had a legacy just a year ago,’ I said. ‘But why not? Why shouldn’t he? I’ll swear the man is perfectly square and above board.’

‘Without doubt, without doubt,’ said Poirot soothingly. ‘Do not upset yourself.’

He spoke as though to a fractious child.

We all trooped into the dining-room. It seemed incredible that less than twenty-four hours had passed since I last sat at that table.

Afterwards, Mrs Ackroyd took me aside and sat down with me on a sofa.

‘I can’t help feeling a little hurt,’ she murmured, producing a handkerchief of the kind obviously not meant to be cried into. ‘hurt, I mean, by Roger’s lack of confidence in me. That twenty thousand pounds ought to have been left to me – not to Flora. A mother could be trusted to safeguard the interests of her child. A lack of trust, I call it.’

‘You forget, Mrs Ackroyd,’ I said, ‘Flora was Ackroyd’s own niece, a blood relation. It would have been different had you been his sister instead of his sister-in-law.’

‘As poor Cecil’s widow, I think my feelings ought to have been considered,’ said the lady, touching her eyelashes gingerly with the handkerchief. ‘But Roger was always most peculiar- not to say mean – about money matters. It has been a most difficult position for both flora and myself. he did not even give the poor child an allowance. He would pay her bills, you know, and even that with a good deal of reluctance and asking what she wanted all those fallals for – so like a man- but – now I’ve forgotten what it was I was going to say! oh, yes, not a penny we could call our own, you know. flora resented it – yes, I must say she resented it – very strongly. Though devoted to her uncle, of course. But any girl would have resented it. yes, I must say Roger had very strange ideas about money. He wouldn’t even buy new face towels, though I told him the old ones were in holes. And then,’ proceeded Mrs Ackroyd, with a sudden leap highly characteristic of her conversation, ‘to leave all that money – a thousand pounds, fancy, a thousand pounds! – to that woman.’

‘What woman?’

‘That Russell woman. Something very queer about her, and so I’ve always said. But Roger wouldn’t hear a word against her. Said she was a woman of great force of character, and that he admired and respected her. he was always going on about her rectitude and independence and moral worth. I think there’s something fishy about her. She was certainly doing her best to marry roger. But I soon put a stop to that. She always hated me. Naturally. I saw through her.’

I began to wonder if there was any chance of stemming Mrs Ackroyd’s eloquence, and getting away. Mr Hammond provided the necessary diversion by coming up to say goodbye. I seized my chance and rose also.

‘About the inquest,’ I said. ‘Where would you prefer it to be held? here, or at the Three Boars?’

Mrs Ackroyd stared at me with a dropped jaw.

‘The inquest?’ she asked, the picture of consternation. ‘But surely there won’t have to be an inquest?’

Mr Hammond gave a dry little cough and murmured, ‘Inevitable. under the circumstances,’ in two short little barks.

‘But surely dr Sheppard can arrange-’

‘There are limits to my powers of arrangement,’ I said drily.

‘If his death was an accident-’

‘He was murdered, Mrs Ackroyd,’ I said brutally.

She gave a little cry.

‘No theory of accident will hold water for a minute.’

Mrs Ackroyd looked at me in distress. I had no patience with what I thought was her silly fear of unpleasantness.

‘If there’s an inquest, I–I shan’t have to answer questions and all that, shall I?’ she asked.

‘I don’t know what will be necessary,’ I answered. ‘I imagine Mr Raymond will take the brunt of it off you. he knows all the circumstances, and can give formal evidence of identification.’

The lawyer assented with a little bow.

‘I really don’t think there is anything to dread, Mrs Ackroyd,’ he said. ‘you will be spared all the unpleasantness. Now, as to the question of money, have you all you need for the present? I mean,’ he added, as she looked at him inquiringly, ‘ready money. Cash, you know. If not, I can arrange to let you have whatever you require.’

‘That ought to be all right,’ said Raymond, who was standing by. ‘Mr Ackroyd cashed a cheque for a hundred pounds yesterday.’

‘A hundred pounds?’

‘Yes. For wages and other expenses due today. At the moment it is still intact.’

‘Where is this money? In his desk?’