Agatha Christie's Poirot Episode Guide - inaf iasf bologna

Agatha Christie’s Poirot Episode Guide
Ascanio is quickly arrested but Poirot speaks of three points of interest: the coffee was very black,
the side dish and dessert were relatively untouched, and the curtains were not drawn. The Italian
ambassador provides an alibi for Ascanio which leads people to suspect a diplomatic cover-up
and Ascanio himself denies knowing Foscatini. Poirot invites Ascanio for a talk and forces him
to admit that he did know Foscatini who was a blackmailer and Ascanio’s morning appointment
was to pay him the money he demanded off a personage in Italy, the transaction being arranged
through the embassy at which Ascanio worked. After Ascanio leaves, Poirot tells Hastings the
solution: Graves was the killer. He overheard the monetary transaction and realised that Ascanio
couldn’t admit to the full relationship with Foscatini. The dead man had no dinner guests. Graves
killed him when he was alone, then ordered dinner for three and ate as much of the food as he
could; after consuming the three main courses, though, he could only eat a little of the side and
no dessert. Coffee was served for three (and supposedly drunk), but Foscatine’s brilliant white
teeth shows that he never drank such staining substances. Finally, the open curtains show that
Graves left the flat before night fell and not after, which would not have happened if Graves’
account were true. Poirot is proven right when Japp is told of the theory and investigates.
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