Elsa Greer had been left alive...

She was greeting him in a level rather monotonous voice.

'I am so interested, M. Poirot. Sit down and tell me what you want me to do?'

He thought: 'But she isn't interested. Nothing interests her.'

Big grey eyes-like dead lakes.

Poirot became, as was his way, a little obviously foreign.

He exclaimed: 'I am confused, madame, veritably I am confused.'

'Oh no, why?'

'Because I realize that this-this reconstruction of a past drama must be excessively painful to you!'

She looked amused. Yes, it was amus.e.m.e.nt. Quite genuine amus.e.m.e.nt.

She said: 'I suppose my husband put that idea into your head? He saw you when you arrived. Of course he doesn't understand in the least. He never has. I'm not at all the sensitive sort of person he imagines I am.'

The amus.e.m.e.nt was still in her voice. She said: 'My father, you know, was a mill hand. He worked his way up and made a fortune. You don't do that if you're thin-skinned. I'm the same.'

Poirot thought to himself: Yes, that is true. A thin-skinned person would not have come to stay in Caroline Crale's house.

Lady Dittisham said: 'What is it you want me to do?'

'You are sure, madame, that to go over the past would not be painful to you?'

She considered a minute, and it struck Poirot suddenly that Lady Dittisham was a very frank woman. She might lie from necessity but never from choice.

Elsa Dittisham said slowly: 'No, not painful painful. In a way, I wish it were.'

'Why?'

She said impatiently: 'It's so stupid never to feel anything...'

And Hercule Poirot thought: 'Yes, Elsa Greer is dead...'

Aloud he said: 'At all events, Lady Dittisham, it makes my task very much easier.'

She said cheerfully: 'What do you want to know?'

'Have you a good memory, madame?'

'Reasonably good, I think.'

'And you are sure it will not pain you to go over those days in detail?'

'It won't pain me at all. Things can only pain you when they are happening.'

'It is so with some people, I know.'

Lady Dittisham said: 'That's what Edward-my husband-can't understand. He thinks the trial and all that was a terrible ordeal for me.'

'Was it not?'

Elsa Dittisham said: 'No, I enjoyed it.' There was a reflective satisfied quality in her voice. She went on: 'G.o.d, how that old brute Depleach went for me. He's a devil, if you like. I enjoyed fighting him. He didn't get me down.'

She looked at Poirot with a smile.

'I hope I'm not upsetting your illusions. A girl of twenty, I ought to have been prostrated, I suppose-agonized with shame or something. I wasn't. I didn't care what they said to me. I only wanted one thing.'

'What?'

'To get her hanged, of course,' said Elsa Dittisham.

He noticed her hands-beautiful hands but with long curving nails. Predatory hands.

She said: 'You're thinking me vindictive? So I am vindictive-to any one who has injured me. That woman was to my mind the lowest kind of woman there is. She knew that Amyas cared for me-that he was going to leave her and she killed him so that I I shouldn't have him.' shouldn't have him.'

She looked across at Poirot.

'Don't you think that's pretty mean?'

'You do not understand or sympathize with jealousy?'

'No, I don't think I do. If you've lost, you've lost. If you can't keep your husband, let him go with a good grace. It's possessiveness I don't understand.'

'You might have understood it if you had ever married him.'

'I don't think so. We weren't-' She smiled suddenly at Poirot. Her smile was, he felt, a little frightening. It was so far removed from any real feeling. 'I'd like you to get this right,' she said. 'Don't think that Amyas Crale seduced an innocent young girl. It wasn't like that at all! Of the two of us, I I was responsible. I met him at a party and I fell for him-I knew I'd got to have him-' was responsible. I met him at a party and I fell for him-I knew I'd got to have him-'

A travesty-a grotesque travesty but- And all my fortunes at thy foot I'll lay And follow thee, my lord, throughout the world... And follow thee, my lord, throughout the world...

'Although he was married?'

'Trespa.s.sers will be prosecuted? It takes more than a printed notice to keep you from reality. If he was unhappy with his wife and could be happy with me, then why not? We've only one life to live.'

'But it has been said he was happy with his wife.'

Elsa shook her head.

'No. They quarrelled like cat and dog. She nagged at him. She was-oh, she was a horrible woman!'

She got up and lit a cigarette. She said with a little smile: 'Probably I'm unfair to her. But I really do do think she was rather hateful.' think she was rather hateful.'

Poirot said slowly: 'It was a great tragedy.'

'Yes, it was a great tragedy.' She turned on him suddenly, into the dead monotonous weariness of her face something came quiveringly alive.

'It killed me me, do you understand? It killed me. Ever since there's been nothing-nothing at all.' Her voice dropped. 'Emptiness!' She waved her hands impatiently. 'Like a stuffed fish in a gla.s.s case!'

'Did Amyas Crale mean so much to you?'

She nodded. It was a queer confiding little nod-oddly pathetic. She said: 'I think I've always had a single-track mind.' She mused sombrely. 'I suppose-really-one ought to put a knife into oneself-like Juliet. But-but to do that is to acknowledge that you're done for-that life's beaten you.'

'And instead?'

'There ought to be everything-just the same-once one has got over it. I did did get over it. It didn't mean anything to me any more. I thought I'd go on to the next thing.' get over it. It didn't mean anything to me any more. I thought I'd go on to the next thing.'

Yes, the next thing. Poirot saw her plainly trying so hard to fulfil that crude determination. Saw her beautiful and rich, seductive to men, seeking with greedy predatory hands to fill up a life that was empty. Hero worship-a marriage to a famous aviator-then an explorer, that big giant of a man, Arnold Stevenson-possibly not unlike Amyas Crale physically-a reversion to the creative arts: Dittisham!

Elsa Dittisham said: 'I've never been a hypocrite! There's a Spanish proverb I've always liked. Take what you want and pay for it, says G.o.d Take what you want and pay for it, says G.o.d. Well, I've done that. I've taken what I wanted-but I've always been willing to pay the price.'

Hercule Poirot said: 'What you do not understand is that there are things that cannot be bought.'

She stared at him. She said: 'I don't mean just money.'

Poirot said: 'No, no, I understand what you mean. But it is not everything in life that has its ticket, so much. There are things that are not for sale not for sale.'

'Nonsense!'

He smiled very faintly. In her voice was the arrogance of the successful mill hand who had risen to riches.

Hercule Poirot felt a sudden wave of pity. He looked at the ageless, smooth face, the weary eyes, and he remembered the girl whom Amyas Crale had painted...

Elsa Dittisham said: 'Tell me all about this book. What is the purpose of it? Whose idea is it?'

'Oh! my dear lady, what other purpose is there but to serve up yesterday's sensation with today's sauce.'

'But you're you're not a writer?' not a writer?'

'No, I am an expert on crime.'

'You mean they consult you on crime books?'

'Not always. In this case, I have a commission.'

'From whom?'

'I am-what do you say-vetting this publication on behalf of an interested party.'

'What party?'

'Miss Carla Lemarchant.'

'Who is she?'

'She is the daughter of Amyas and Caroline Crale.'

Elsa stared for a minute. Then she said: 'Oh, of course, there was was a child. I remember. I suppose she's grown up now?' a child. I remember. I suppose she's grown up now?'

'Yes, she is twenty-one.'

'What is she like?'

'She is tall and dark and, I think, beautiful. And she has courage and personality.'

Elsa said thoughtfully: 'I should like to see her.'

'She might not care to see you.'

Elsa looked surprised.

'Why? Oh, I see. But what nonsense! She can't possibly remember anything about it. She can't have been more than six.'

'She knows that her mother was tried for her father's murder.'

'And she thinks it's my fault?'

'It is a possible interpretation.'

Elsa shrugged her shoulders. She said: 'How stupid! If Caroline had behaved like a reasonable human being-'

'So you take no responsibility?'

'Why should I? I've I've nothing to be ashamed of. I loved him. I would have made him happy.' She looked across at Poirot. Her face broke up-suddenly, incredibly, he saw the girl of the picture. She said: 'If I could make you see. If you could see it from my side. If you knew-' nothing to be ashamed of. I loved him. I would have made him happy.' She looked across at Poirot. Her face broke up-suddenly, incredibly, he saw the girl of the picture. She said: 'If I could make you see. If you could see it from my side. If you knew-'

Poirot leaned forward.

'But that is what I want. See, Mr Philip Blake who was there at the time, he is writing me a meticulous account of everything that happened. Mr Meredith Blake the same. Now if you-'

Elsa Dittisham took a deep breath. She said contemptuously: 'Those two! Philip was always stupid. Meredith used to trot round after Caroline-but he was quite a dear. But you won't have any any real idea from real idea from their their accounts.' accounts.'

He watched her, saw the animation rising in her eyes, saw a living woman take shape from a dead one. She said quickly and almost fiercely: 'Would you like the truth truth? Oh, not for publication. But just for yourself-'

'I will undertake not to publish without your consent.'

'I'd like to write down the truth...' She was silent a minute or two, thinking. He saw the smooth hardness of her cheeks falter and take on a younger curve, he saw life ebbing into her as the past claimed her again.

'To go back-to write it all down...To show you what she was-'

Her eyes flashed. Her breast heaved pa.s.sionately.

'She killed him. She killed Amyas. Amyas who wanted to live-who enjoyed living. Hate oughtn't to be stronger than love-but her hate was. And my hate for her is-I hate her-I hate her-I hate her...'

She came across to him. She stooped, her hand clutched at his sleeve. She said urgently: 'You must understand-you must must-how we felt about each other. Amyas and I, I mean. There's something-I'll show you.'