Agatha Christie's Poirot Episode Guide - inaf iasf bologna

Agatha Christie’s Poirot Episode Guide
detective is puzzled as to why there is a bloodstain on the writing desk but Sir Reuben’s body
was found on the floor. Poirot tries an experiment with his valet, George, and realises that Sir
Reuben was clubbed as he sat in his chair and remained in position afterwards as the chair is
low-down in comparison to the desk.
Poirot is more suspicious than ever of Lily Margrave’s jumpy demeanour and investigates the
two local hotels to see if anyone was staying that night who left the hotel near midnight. He finds
such a man — Captain Humphrey Naylor — and convinced there is a link with Lily sets a trap by
putting his own blood on a scrap of the dress that she was wearing that night and telling her he
found it in the Tower Room. She confesses that she is Naylor’s sister and that he was swindled
out of an African gold mine by Sir Reuben. Determined to find proof she agreed with her brother
to take employment as Lady Astwell’s companion and on the night in question, as her brother
waited outside, she went to the Tower Room and saw Leverson leaving it. She then went into the
room herself and found the body on the floor (she also rifled the safe and found the proof of the
swindle her brother was after) but she is innocent of the crime of murder. Poirot believes her and
also realises that Leverson was drunk on the night in question and his strange manner is as a
result of starting to shout at his uncle, pushing his shoulder and then realising he was dead as
the body slid to the floor — hence the thud that Parsons heard. He is innocent as well as his
uncle was killed earlier than when he was in the room.
Poirot persuades Lady Astwell to partake in hypnosis to recall events of the night of the
murder. She confirms what she has already told the police — that she argued with her husband
in the Tower Room some ten minutes prior to Leverson coming back home. She also manages to
recall a subliminal memory of the normally-controlled Trefusis breaking a paper knife in anger
earlier in the evening when again being shouted at by Sir Reuben (thus triggering her suspicions
of the man) and a strange bulge in the curtain which covered the spiral staircase to the upper
portion of the tower room. Poirot realises someone was already there when she and her husband
were arguing.
Poirot begins a game of nerves with everyone in the house, extending his stay and searching
everyone’s bedrooms, much to their annoyance. He also claims to find something on the spiral
staircase which will seal the murderer’s fate and leaves it in a box in his room while he makes
a quick trip to London. He returns and tells the gathered household that Trefusis is indeed the
murderer but the crime was not premeditated. The secretary had left something in the upper
portion of the Tower Room and was fetching it when he found himself to be an unwilling witness
to the row between Sir Reuben and Lady Astwell. After she left the room, he tried to sneak out
but was spotted and received another barrage of abuse from his employer. After nine years of
such treatment, he was unable to take any more and struck Sir Reuben down. The item Poirot
found on the stairs was false but George, hidden in the wardrobe of Poirot’s room, saw Trefusis
steal the box in which the item was hidden when Poirot was in London. Lady Astwell is delighted
— her intuition has proven correct.
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