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

glasses and a decanter of sherry. "I'd offer you a drink," said Sir Henry, "but I supposeI'd better not touch anything until the police come--not, I should imagine, that there'sanything to interest them in here. Still, it is better to be on the safe side. Gudgeonhadn't brought out the cocktails yet, I see. He was waiting for you to arrive." The twomen sat down rather gingerly in two wicker chairs near the door so that they Icould watch the path from the house. A constraint settled over them. It was anoccasion on which it was difficult to make small talk. Poirot glanced round thepavilion, noting anything that struck him as unusual. An expensive cape ofplatinum fox had been flung carelessly across the back of one of the chairs. Hewondered whose it was. Its ratherostentatious magnificence did not harmonize with any of the people he had seen up tonow. He could not, for instance, imagine it round Lady AngkatelFs shoulders. Itworried him. It breathed a mixture of opulence and self-advertisement--and thosecharacteristics were lacking in anyone he had seen so far. "I suppose we can smoke,"said Sir Henry, offering his case to Poirot. Before taking the cigarette, Poirotsniffed the air. French perfume ... an expensive French perfume . . .Only a trace of it lingered, but it was there, [ and again the scent was not the scent thatassociated itself in his mind with any of the occupants of The Hollow . . . As heleaned forward to light his cigaretteat Sir Henry's lighter, Poirot's glance fell on a little pile of match-boxes--six ofthem-- stacked on a small table near one of the settees. It was a detail thatstruck him as definitely odd.Chapter XII