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

make sense . . . But all the same. Inspector, it has got to make sense, eh?" TheInspector said heavily, "That's just I it, M. Poirot. We've got to find some way that itdoes make sense--but at the moment I can't see it. The truth is that we shan't getmuch further until we've found the gun that was used. It came from Sir Henry's collectionall right--at least there's one missing-- and that means that the whole thing is stilltied up with The Hollow." "Yes," murmured Poirot. "It is still tied up with TheHollow.""It seemed a simple, straightforward business," went on the Inspector. "Well, it isn'tso simple or so straightforward." "No," said Poirot, "it is not simple." "We've gotto admit the possibility that the thing was a frame-up--that's to say that it was allset to implicate Gerda Christow. But if that was so, why not leave the rightrevolver lying by the body for her to pick up?" "She might not have picked it up.""That's true, but even if she didn't, so long as nobody else's finger-prints were onthe gun--that's to say if it was wiped after use--she would probably have been suspectedall right. And that's what the murderer wanted, wasn't it?" "Was it?"Grange stared. "Well, if you'd done a murder, you'd want to plant it good andquick on someone else, wouldn't you? That would be a murderer's normal reaction.""Ye-es," said Poirot. "But then perhaps we have here a rather unusual type ofmurderer. It is possible that that is the solution of our problem." "What isthe solution?" Poirot said thoughtfully: "An unusual type of murderer."Inspector Grange stared at him curiously. He said: "But then--what was themurderer's idea? What was he or she getting at?" Poirot spread out his handswith a sigh. "I have no idea--I have no idea at all. Butit seems to me--dimly--" "Yes?" "That the murderer is someone whowanted to kill John Christow but who did not want to implicate Gerda Christow.""Hm! Actually we suspected her right away." "Ah, yes, but it was only a matter oftime before the facts about the gun came to light, and that was bound to give a newangle. In the interval the murderer has had time--" Poirot came to a full stop."Time to do what?" "Ah, mon ami, there you have me. Again I have to say I donot know." Inspector Grange took a turn or two up and down the room. Then hestopped and came to a stand in front of Poirot."I've come to you this afternoon, M. Poirot, for two reasons. One is because Iknow--it's pretty well known in the Force --that you're a man of wide experiencewho's done some very tricky work on this type of problem. That's reason NumberOne. But there's another reason. You were there. You were an eye-witness. You sawwhat happened." Poirot nodded. "Yes, I saw what happened--but the eyes,Inspector Grange, are very unreliable witnesses." "What do you mean, M. Poirot?""The eyes see, sometimes, what they are meant to see." "You think that it wasplanned out beforehand?""I suspect it. It was exactly, you understand, like astage scene. What I saw wasclear enough. A man who had just been shotand the woman who had shot him holding