4. The Evidence of the American Lady

Mrs Hubbard arrived in the dining-car in such a state of breathless excitement that she was hardly able to articulate her words.

‘Now just tell me this. Who’s in authority here? I’ve got some vurry important information, very important, indeed, and I just want to tell it to someone in authority as soon as may be. If you gentlemen—’

Her wavering glance fluctuated between the three men. Poirot leaned forward.

‘Tell it to me, Madame,’ he said. ‘But, first, pray be seated.’

Mrs Hubbard plumped heavily down on to the seat opposite to him.

‘What I’ve got to tell you is just this. There was a murder on the train last night, and the murderer was right there in my compartment!’

She paused to give dramatic emphasis to her words.

‘You are sure of this, Madame?’

‘Of course I’m sure! The idea! I know what I’m talking about. I’ll tell you just everything there is to tell. I’d gotten into bed and gone to sleep, and suddenly I woke up—all in the dark, it was—and I knew there was a man in my compartment. I was just so scared I couldn’t scream, if you know what I mean. I just lay there and thought, “Mercy, I’m going to be killed.” I just can’t describe to you how I felt. These nasty trains, I thought, and all the outrages I’d read of. And I thought, “Well, anyway, he won’t get my jewellery.” Because, you see, I’d put that in a stocking and hidden it under my pillow—which isn’t so mighty comfortable, by the way, kinder bumpy, if you know what I mean. But that’s neither here nor there. Where was I?’

‘You realized, Madame, that there was a man in your compartment.’

‘Yes, well, I just lay there with my eyes closed, and I thought whatever should I do, and I thought, “Well, I’m just thankful that my daughter doesn’t know the plight I’m in.” And then, somehow, I got my wits about me and I felt about with my hand and I pressed the bell for the conductor. I pressed it and I pressed it, but nothing happened, and I can tell you I thought my heart was going to stop beating. “Mercy,” I said to myself, “maybe they’ve murdered every single soul on the train.” It was at a standstill, anyhow, and a nasty quiet feel in the air. But I just went on pressing that bell, and oh! the relief when I heard footsteps coming running down the corridor and a knock on the door. “Come in,” I screamed, and I switched on the lights at the same time. And, would you believe it, there wasn’t a soul there.’

This seemed to Mrs Hubbard to be a dramatic climax rather than an anti-climax.

‘And what happened next, Madame?’

‘Why, I told the man what had happened, and he didn’t seem to believe me. Seemed to imagine I’d dreamt the whole thing. I made him look under the seat, though he said there wasn’t room for a man to squeeze himself in there. It was plain enough the man had got away, but there had been a man there and it just made me mad the way the conductor tried to soothe me down! I’m not one to imagine things, Mr—I don’t think I know your name?’

‘Poirot, Madame, and this is M. Bouc, a director of the company, and Dr Constantine.’

Mrs Hubbard murmured:

‘Pleased to meet you, I’m sure,’ to all three of them in an abstracted manner, and then plunged once more into her recital.

‘Now I’m just not going to pretend I was as bright as I might have been. I got it into my head that it was the man from next door—the poor fellow who’s been killed. I told the conductor to look at the door between the compartments, and sure enough it wasn’t bolted. Well, I soon saw to that, I told him to bolt it then and there, and after he’d gone out I got up and put a suitcase against it to make sure.’

‘What time was this, Mrs Hubbard?’

‘Well, I’m sure I can’t tell you. I never looked to see. I was so upset.’

‘And what is your theory now?’

‘Why, I should say it was just as plain as plain could be. The man in my compartment was the murderer. Who else could he be?’

‘And you think he went back into the adjoining compartment?’

‘How do I know where he went? I had my eyes tight shut.’

‘He must have slipped out through the door into the corridor.’

‘Well, I couldn’t say. You see, I had my eyes tight shut.’

Mrs Hubbard sighed convulsively.

‘Mercy, I was scared! If my daughter only knew—’

‘You do not think, Madame, that what you heard was the noise of someone moving about next door—in the murdered man’s compartment?’

‘No, I do not, Mr—what is it?—Poirot. The man was right there in the same compartment with me. And, what’s more, I’ve got proof of it.’

Triumphantly she hauled a large handbag into view and proceeded to burrow in its interior.

She took out in turn two large clean handkerchiefs, a pair of horn-rimmed glasses, a bottle of aspirin, a packet of Glauber’s salts, a celluloid tube of bright green peppermints, a bunch of keys, a pair of scissors, a book of American Express cheques, a snapshot of an extraordinarily plainlooking child, some letters, five strings of pseudo Oriental beads and a small metal object—a button.

‘You see this button? Well, it’s not one of my buttons. It’s not off anything I’ve got. I found it this morning when I got up.’

As she placed it on the table, M. Bouc leaned forward and gave an exclamation.

‘But this is a button from the tunic of a Wagon Lit attendant!’

‘There may be a natural explanation for that,’ said Poirot.

He turned gently to the lady.

‘This button, Madame, may have dropped from the conductor’s uniform, either when he searched your cabin, or when he was making the bed up last night.’

‘I just don’t know what’s the matter with all you people. Seems as though you don’t do anything but make objections. Now listen here. I was reading a magazine last night before I went to sleep. Before I turned the light out I placed that magazine on a little case that was standing on the floor near the window. Have you got that?’

They assured her that they had.

‘Very well, then. The conductor looked under the seat from near the door and then he came in and bolted the door between me and the next compartment, but he never went up near the window. Well, this morning that button was lying right on top of the magazine. What do you call that, I should like to know?’

‘That, Madame, I call evidence,’ said Poirot.

The answer seemed to appease the lady.

‘It makes me madder than a hornet to be disbelieved,’ she explained.

‘You have given us most interesting and valuable evidence,’ said Poirot soothingly. ‘Now, may I ask you a few questions?’

‘Why, willingly.’

‘How was it, since you were nervous of this man Ratchett, that you hadn’t already bolted the door between the compartments?’

‘I had,’ returned Mrs Hubbard promptly.

‘Oh, you had?’

‘Well, as a matter of fact, I asked that Swedish creature—a pleasant soul—if it was bolted, and she said it was.’

‘How was it you couldn’t see for yourself?’

‘Because I was in bed and my sponge-bag was hanging on the door handle.’

‘What time was it when you asked her to do this for you?’

‘Now let me think. It must have been round about halfpast ten or a quarter to eleven. She’d come along to see if I’d got an aspirin. I told her where to find it, and she got it out of my grip.’

‘You yourself were in bed?’

‘Yes.’

Suddenly she laughed.

‘Poor soul—she was in quite a taking. You see, she’d opened the door of the next compartment by mistake.’

‘M. Ratchett’s?’

‘Yes. You know how difficult it is as you come along the train and all the doors are shut. She opened his by mistake. She was very distressed about it. He’d laughed, it seemed, and I fancy he may have said something not quite nice. Poor thing, she was all in a flutter. “Oh! I make mistake,” she said. “I ashamed make mistake. Not nice man,” she said. “He say, ‘You too old.’”

Dr Constantine sniggered and Mrs Hubbard immediately froze him with a glance.

‘He wasn’t a nice kind of man,’ she said, ‘to say a thing like that to a lady. It’s not right to laugh at such things.’

Dr Constantine hastily apologized.

‘Did you hear any noise from M. Ratchett’s compartment after that?’ asked Poirot.

‘Well—not exactly.’

‘What do you mean by that, Madame?’

‘Well—’ she paused. ‘He snored.’

‘Ah! he snored, did he?’

‘Terribly. The night before it quite kept me awake.’

‘You didn’t hear him snore after you had had the scare about a man being in your compartment?’

‘Why, Mr Poirot, how could I? He was dead.’

‘Ah, yes, truly,’ said Poirot. He appeared confused.

‘Do you remember the affair of the Armstrong kidnapping, Mrs Hubbard?’ he asked.

‘Yes, indeed I do. And how the wretch that did it escaped scot free! My, I’d have liked to get my hands on him.’

‘He has not escaped. He is dead. He died last night.’

‘You don’t mean—?’ Mrs Hubbard half rose from her chair in excitement.

‘But yes, I do. Ratchett was the man.’

‘Well! Well, to think of that! I must write and tell my daughter. Now, didn’t I tell you last night that that man had an evil face? I was right, you see. My daughter always says: “When Momma’s got a hunch, you can bet your bottom dollar’ it’s O.K.”’

‘Were you acquainted with any of the Armstrong family, Mrs Hubbard?’

‘No. They moved in a very exclusive circle. But I’ve always heard that Mrs Armstrong was a perfectly lovely woman and that her husband worshipped her.’

‘Well, Mrs Hubbard, you have helped us very much—very much indeed. Perhaps you will give me your full name?’

‘Why, certainly. Caroline Martha Hubbard.’

‘Will you write your address down here?’

Mrs Hubbard did so, without ceasing to speak.

‘I just can’t get over it. Cassetti—on this train. I had a hunch about that man, didn’t I, Mr Poirot?’

‘Yes, indeed, Madame. By the way, have you a scarlet silk dressing-gown?’

‘Mercy, what an odd question! Why, no. I’ve got two dressing-gowns with me—a pink flannel one that’s kind of cosy for on board ship, and one my daughter gave me as a present—a kind of local affair in purple silk. But what in creation do you want to know about my dressing-gowns for?’

‘Well, you see, Madame, someone in a scarlet kimono entered either your or Mr Ratchett’s compartment last night. It is, as you said just now, very difficult when all the doors are shut to know which compartment is which.’

‘Well, no one in a scarlet dressing-gown came into my compartment.’

‘Then she must have gone into M. Ratchett’s.’

Mrs Hubbard pursed her lips together and said grimly:

‘That wouldn’t surprise me any.’

Poirot leaned forward.

‘So you heard a woman’s voice next door?’

‘I don’t know how you guessed that, Mr Poirot. I don’t really. But—well—as a matter of fact, I did.’

‘But when I asked you just now if you heard anything next door, you only said you heard Mr Ratchett snoring.’

‘Well that was true enough. He did snore part of the time. As for the other—’ Mrs Hubbard got rather pink. ‘It isn’t a very nice thing to speak about.’

‘What time was it when you heard a woman’s voice?’

‘I can’t tell you. I just woke up for a minute and heard a woman talking, and it was plain enough where she was. So I just thought, “Well that’s the kind of man he is. Well, I’m not surprised,” and then I went to sleep again, and I’m sure I should never have mentioned anything of the kind to three strange gentlemen if you hadn’t dragged it out of me.’

‘Was it before the scare about the man in your compartment, or after?’

‘Why, that’s like what you said just now! He wouldn’t have had a woman talking to him if he were dead, would he?’

‘Pardon. You must think me very stupid, Madame.’

‘I guess even you get kinder muddled now and then. I just can’t get over it being that monster Cassetti. What my daughter will say—’

Poirot managed adroitly to help the good lady to restore the contents of her handbag and he then shepherded her towards the door.

At the last moment he said:

‘You have dropped your handkerchief, Madame.’

Mrs Hubbard looked at the little scrap of cambric he held out to her.

‘That’s not mine, Mr Poirot. I’ve got mine right here.’

‘Pardon. I thought as it had the initial H on it—’

‘Well, now, that’s curious, but it’s certainly not mine. Mine are marked C.M.H., and they’re sensible things—not expensive Paris fallals. What good is a handkerchief like that to anybody’s nose?’

Neither of the three men seemed to have an answer to this question, and Mrs Hubbard sailed out triumphantly.