Agatha Christie The Hollow Chapter I At 6:13 a.m. ... - bzelbublive.info

John--but he can't prove it."She spoke slowly and deliberately. So long as Gerda did not give herself away--Gerda said vaguely, "I'm so sorry. Will you have some tea, M. Poirot?" "No, thankyou, Madame." Gerda sat down behind the tray. She began to talk in her apologeticconversational way. "I'm so sorry that everybody is out. My sister and thechildren have all gone for a picnic. I didn't feel very well, so they left me behind.""I am sorry, Madame." Gerda lifted a teacup and drank. "It is all so veryworrying. Everything is so worrying. . . . You see, John always arranged everything andnow John is gone ..." Her voice tailed off. "Now John is gone ..."Her gaze, piteous, bewildered, went from one to the other. "I don't know what todo without John. John looked after me ... He took care of me. Now he is gone,everything is gone . . . And the children--they ask me questions and I can't answerthem properly. I don't know what to say to Terry. He keeps saying, 'Why wasFather killed?5 Some day, of course, he will find out why . . . Terry always has toknow. What puzzles me is that he always asks why, not who!" Gerda leaned backin her chair. Her lips were very blue. She said stiffly: "I feel--not very well--ifJohn--John--" Poirot came round the table to her and eased her sideways down inthe chair. Herhead dropped forward. He bent and lifted her eyelid. Then he straightened up."An easy and comparatively painless death." Henrietta stared at him."Heart? No." Her mind leaped forward. "Something in the tea ... Something sheput there herself. She chose that way out?" Poirot shook his head gently. "Oh, no,it was meant for you. It was in your teacup." "For me?" Henrietta's voice wasincredulous. "But I was trying to help her." "That did not matter. Have you notseen a dog caught in a trap--it sets its teeth into anyone who touches it. She sawonly that \ you knew her secret and so you too must die." Henrietta said slowly:"And you made me put the cup back on the tray--you meant--you meant her--"Poirot interrupted her quietly: "No, no. Mademoiselle. I did not know that there wasanything in your teacup. I only knew that there might be. And when the cup wason the tray it was an even chance if she drank from that or the other--if you call itchance. I say myself that an end such as this is merciful. For her--and for twoinnocent children ..." He said gently to Henrietta, "You are very tired, are younot?" She nodded. She asked him, "When did you guess?" "I do not knowexactly. The scene was set; I felt that from the first. But I did not realize for a longtime that it was set by GerdaChristow--that her attitude was stagy because she was, actually, acting a part. I waspuzzled by the simplicity and at the same time the complexity. I recognized fairly soonthat it was your ingenuity that I was fighting against, and that you were being aided andabetted by your relations as soon as they 396 understood what you wanted done!"He paused and added, "Why did you want it done?" "Because John asked meto! That's what he meant when he said 'Henrietta.9 It was all there in that one