Chapter 4

Mrs Ascher

We were received at Andover by Inspector Glen, a tall fair-haired man with a pleasant smile.

For the sake of conciseness I think I had better give a brief résumé of the bare facts of the case.

The crime was discovered by Police Constable Dover at 1 a.m. on the morning of the 22nd. When on his round he tried the door of the shop and found it unfastened, he entered and at first thought the place was empty. Directing his torch over the counter, however, he caught sight of the huddled-up body of the old woman. When the police surgeon arrived on the spot it was elicited that the woman had been struck down by a heavy blow on the back of the head, probably while she was reaching down a packet of cigarettes from the shelf behind the counter. Death must have occurred about nine to seven hours previously.

‘But we’ve been able to get it down a bit nearer than that,’ explained the inspector. ‘We’ve found a man who went in and bought some tobacco at 5.30. And a second man went in and found the shop empty, as he thought, at five minutes past six. That puts the time at between 5.30 and 6.50. So far I haven’t been able to find anyone who saw this man Ascher in the neighbourhood, but, of course, it’s early as yet. He was in the Three Crowns at nine o’clock pretty far gone in drink. When we get hold of him he’ll be detained on suspicion.’

‘Not a very desirable character, inspector?’ asked Poirot.

‘Unpleasant bit of goods.’

‘He didn’t live with his wife?’

‘No, they separated some years ago. Ascher’s a German. He was a waiter at one time, but he took to drink and gradually became unemployable. His wife went into service for a bit. Her last place was as cook-housekeeper to an old lady, Miss Rose. She allowed her husband so much out of her wages to keep himself, but he was always getting drunk and coming round and making scenes at the places where she was employed. That’s why she took the post with Miss Rose at The Grange. It’s three miles out of Andover, dead in the country. He couldn’t get at her there so well. When Miss Rose died, she left Mrs Ascher a small legacy, and the woman started this tobacco and newsagent business—quite a tiny place—just cheap cigarettes and a few newspapers—that sort of thing. She just about managed to keep going. Ascher used to come round and abuse her now and again and she used to give him a bit to get rid of him. She allowed him fifteen shillings a week regular.’

‘Had they any children?’ asked Poirot.

‘No. There’s a niece. She’s in service near Overton. Very superior, steady young woman.’

‘And you say this man Ascher used to threaten his wife?’

‘That’s right. He was a terror when he was in drink—cursing and swearing that he’d bash her head in. She had a hard time, did Mrs Ascher.’

‘What age of woman was she?’

‘Close on sixty—respectable and hard-working.’

Poirot said gravely:

‘It is your opinion, inspector, that this man Ascher committed the crime?’

The inspector coughed cautiously.

‘It’s a bit early to say that, Mr Poirot, but I’d like to hear Franz Ascher’s own account of how he spent yesterday evening. If he can give a satisfactory account of himself, well and good—if not —’

His pause was a pregnant one.

‘Nothing was missing from the shop?’

‘Nothing. Money in the till quite undisturbed. No signs of robbery.’

‘You think that this man Ascher came into the shop drunk, started abusing his wife and finally struck her down?’

‘It seems the most likely solution. But I must confess, sir, I’d like to have another look at that very odd letter you received. I was wondering if it was just possible that it came from this man Ascher.’

Poirot handed over the letter and the inspector read it with a frown.

‘It doesn’t read like Ascher,’ he said at last. ‘I doubt if Ascher would use the term “our” British police—not unless he was trying to be extra cunning—and I doubt if he’s got the wits for that. Then the man’s a wreck—all to pieces. His hand’s too shaky to print letters clearly like this. It’s good quality notepaper and ink, too. It’s odd that the letter should mention the 21st of the month. Of course it might be coincidence.’

‘That is possible—yes.’

‘But I don’t like this kind of coincidence, Mr Poirot. It’s a bit too pat.’

He was silent for a minute or two—a frown creasing his forehead.

‘А В C. Who the devil could А В C be? We’ll see if Mary Drower (that’s the niece) can give us any help. It’s an odd business. But for this letter I’d have put my money on Franz Ascher for a certainty.’

‘Do you know anything of Mrs Ascher’s past?’

‘She’s a Hampshire woman. Went into service as a girl up in London—that’s where she met Ascher and married him. Things must have been difficult for them during the war. She actually left him for good in 1922. They were in London then. She came back here to get away from him, but he got wind of where she was and followed her down here, pestering her for money —’ A constable came in. ‘Yes, Briggs, what is it?’

‘It’s the man Ascher, sir. We’ve brought him in.’

‘Right. Bring him in here. Where was he?’

‘Hiding in a truck on the railway siding.’

‘He was, was he? Bring him along.’

Franz Ascher was indeed a miserable and unprepossessing specimen. He was blubbering and cringing and blustering alternately. His bleary eyes moved shiftily from one face to another.

‘What do you want with me? I have not done nothing. It is a shame and a scandal to bring me here! You are swine, how dare you?’ His manner changed suddenly. ‘No, no, I do not mean that—you would not hurt a poor old man—not be hard on him. Everyone is hard on poor old Franz. Poor old Franz.’

Mr Ascher started to weep.

‘That’ll do, Ascher,’ said the inspector. ‘Pull yourself together. I’m not charging you with anything—yet. And you’re not bound to make a statement unless you like. On the other hand, if you’re not concerned in the murder of your wife —’

Ascher interrupted him—his voice rising to a scream.

‘I did not kill her! I did not kill her! It is all lies! You are goddamned English pigs—all against me. I never kill her—never.’

‘You threatened to often enough, Ascher.’

‘No, no. You do not understand. That was just a joke—a good joke between me and Alice. She understood.’

‘Funny kind of joke! Do you care to say where you were yesterday evening, Ascher?’

‘Yes, yes—I tell you everything. I did not go near Alice. I am with friends—good friends. We are at the Seven Stars—and then we are at the Red Dog —’

He hurried on, his words stumbling over each other.

‘Dick Willows—he was with me—and old Curdie—and George—and Platt and lots of the boys. I tell you I do not never go near Alice. Ach Gott, it is the truth I am telling you.’

His voice rose to a scream. The inspector nodded to his underling.

‘Take him away. Detained on suspicion.’

‘I don’t know what to think,’ he said as the unpleasant, shaking old man with the malevolent, mouthing jaw was removed. ‘If it wasn’t for the letter, I’d say he did it.’ ‘What about the men he mentions?’

‘A bad crowd—not one of them would stick at perjury. I’ve no doubt he was with them the greater part of the evening. A lot depends on whether any one saw him near the shop between half-past five and six.’

Poirot shook his head thoughtfully.

‘You are sure nothing was taken from the shop?’

The inspector shrugged his shoulders.

‘That depends. A packet or two of cigarettes might have been taken—but you’d hardly commit murder for that.’

‘And there was nothing—how shall I put it—introduced into the shop? Nothing that was odd there—incongruous?’

‘There was a railway guide,’ said the inspector.

‘A railway guide?’

‘Yes. It was open and turned face downward on the counter. Looked as though someone had been looking up the trains from Andover. Either the old woman or a customer.’

‘Did she sell that type of thing?’

The inspector shook his head.

‘She sold penny time-tables. This was a big one—kind of thing only Smith’s or a big stationer would keep.’

A light came into Poirot’s eyes. He leant forward.

A light came into the inspector’s eye also.

‘A railway guide, you say. A Bradshaw—or an ABC?

‘By the Lord,’ he said. ‘It was an A B C.’

Chapter 5

Mary Drower

I think that I can date my interest in the case from that first mention of the ABC railway guide. Up till then I had not been able to raise much enthusiasm. This sordid murder of an old woman in a back-street shop was so like the usual type of crime reported in the newspapers that it failed to strike a significant note. In my own mind I had put down the anonymous letter with its mention of the 21st as a mere coincidence. Mrs Ascher, I felt reasonably sure, had been the victim of her drunken brute of a husband. But now the mention of the railway guide (so familiarly known by its abbreviation of А В C, listing as it did all railway stations in their alphabetical order) sent a quiver of excitement through me. Surely—surely this could not be a second coincidence?

The sordid crime took on a new aspect.

Who was the mysterious individual who had killed Mrs Ascher and left an А В C railway guide behind him?

When we left the police station our first visit was to the mortuary to see the body of the dead woman. A strange feeling came over me as I gazed down on that wrinkled old face with the scanty grey hair drawn back tightly from the temples. It looked so peaceful, so incredibly remote from violence.

‘Never knew who or what struck her,’ observed the sergeant. ‘That’s what Dr Kerr says. I’m glad it was that way, poor old soul. A decent woman she was.’

‘She must have been beautiful once,’ said Poirot.

‘Really?’ I murmured incredulously.

‘But yes, look at the line of the jaw, the bones, the moulding of the head.’

He sighed as he replaced the sheet and we left the mortuary.

Our next move was a brief interview with the police surgeon.

Dr Kerr was a competent-looking middle-aged man. He spoke briskly and with decision.

‘The weapon wasn’t found,’ he said. ‘Impossible to say what it may have been. A weighted stick, a club, a form of sandbag—any of those would fit the case.’

‘Would much force be needed to strike such a blow?’

The doctor shot a keen glance at Poirot.

‘Meaning, I suppose, could a shaky old man of seventy do it? Oh, yes, it’s perfectly possible—given sufficient weight in the head of the weapon, quite a feeble person could achieve the desired result.’

‘Then the murderer could just as well be a woman as a man?’

The suggestion took the doctor somewhat aback.

‘A woman, eh? Well, I confess it never occurred to me to connect a woman with this type of crime. But of course it’s possible—perfectly possible. Only, psychologically speaking, I shouldn’t say this was a woman’s crime.’

Poirot nodded his head in eager agreement.

‘Perfectly, perfectly. On the face of it, highly improbable. But one must take all possibilities into account. The body was lying—how?’

The doctor gave us a careful description of the position of the victim. It was his opinion that she had been standing with her back to the counter (and therefore to her assailant) when the blow had been struck. She had slipped down in a heap behind the counter quite out of sight of anyone entering the shop casually.

When we had thanked Dr Kerr and taken our leave, Poirot said:

‘You perceive, Hastings, that we have already one further point in favour of Ascher’s innocence. If he had been abusing his wife and threatening her, she would have been facing him over the counter. Instead she had her back to her assailant—obviously she is reaching down tobacco or cigarettes for a customer.’

I gave a little shiver.

‘Pretty gruesome.’

Poirot shook his head gravely.

‘Pauvre femme,’ he murmured.

Then he glanced at his watch.

‘Overton is not, I think, many miles from here. Shall we run over there and have an interview with the niece of the dead woman?’

‘Surely you will go first to the shop where the crime took place?’

‘I prefer to do that later. I have a reason.’

He did not explain further, and a few minutes later we were driving on the London road in the direction of Overton.

The address which the inspector had given us was that of a good-sized house about a mile on the London side of the village.

Our ring at the bell was answered by a pretty dark-haired girl whose eyes were red with recent weeping.

Poirot said gently:

‘Ah! I think it is you who are Miss Mary Drower, the parlourmaid here?’

‘Yes, sir, that’s right. I’m Mary, sir.’

‘Then perhaps I can talk to you for a few minutes if your mistress will not object. It is about your aunt, Mrs Ascher.’

‘The mistress is out, sir. She wouldn’t mind, I’m sure, if you came in here.’

She opened the door of a small morning-room. We entered and Poirot, seating himself on a chair by the window, looked up keenly into the girl’s face.

‘You have heard of your aunt’s death, of course?’

The girl nodded, tears coming once more into her eyes.

‘This morning, sir. The police came over. Oh! It’s terrible! Poor auntie! Such a hard life as she’d had, too. And now this—it’s too awful.’

‘The police did not suggest your returning to Andover?’

‘They said I must come to the inquest—that’s on Monday, sir. But I’ve nowhere to go there—I couldn’t fancy being over the shop—now—and what with the housemaid being away, I didn’t want to put the mistress out more than may be.’

‘You were fond of your aunt, Mary?’ said Poirot gently.

‘Indeed I was, sir. Very good she’s been to me always, auntie has. I went to her in London when I was eleven years old, after mother died. I started in service when I was sixteen, but I usually went along to auntie’s on my day out. A lot of trouble she went through with that German fellow. “My old devil,” she used to call him. He’d never let her be in peace anywhere. Sponging, cadging old beast.’

The girl spoke with vehemence.

‘Your aunt never thought of freeing herself by legal means from this persecution?’

‘Well, you see, he was her husband, sir, you couldn’t get away from that.’

The girl spoke simply but with finality.

‘Tell me, Mary, he threatened her, did he not?’

‘Oh, yes, sir, it was awful the things he used to say. That he’d cut her throat, and such like. Cursing and swearing too—both in German and in English. And yet auntie says he was a fine handsome figure of a man when she married him. It’s dreadful to think, sir, what people come to.’

‘Yes, indeed. And so, I suppose, Mary, having actually heard these threats, you were not so very surprised when you learnt what had happened?’

‘Oh, but I was, sir. You see, sir, I never thought for one moment that he meant it. I thought it was just nasty talk and nothing more to it. And it isn’t as though auntie was afraid of him. Why, I’ve seen him slink away like a dog with its tail between its legs when she turned on him. He was afraid of her if you like.’

‘And yet she gave him money?’

‘Well, he was her husband, you see, sir.’

‘Yes, so you said before.’ He paused for a minute or two. Then he said: ‘Suppose that, after all, he did not kill her.’

‘Didn’t kill her?’

She stared.

‘That is what I said. Supposing someone else killed her… Have you any idea who that someone else could be?’

She stared at him with even more amazement.

‘I’ve no idea, sir. It doesn’t seem likely, though, does it?’

‘There was no one your aunt was afraid of?’

Mary shook her head.

‘Auntie wasn’t afraid of people. She’d a sharp tongue and she’d stand up to anybody.’

‘You never heard her mention anyone who had a grudge against her?’

‘No, indeed, sir.’

‘Did she ever get anonymous letters?’

‘What kind of letters did you say, sir?’

‘Letters that weren’t signed—or only signed by something like ABC.’ He watched her narrowly, but plainly she was at a loss. She shook her head wonderingly.

‘Has your aunt any relations except you?’

‘Not now, sir. One of ten she was, but only three lived to grow up. My Uncle Tom was killed in the war, and my Uncle Harry went to South America and no one’s heard of him since, and mother’s dead, of course, so there’s only me.’

‘Had your aunt any savings? Any money put by?’

‘She’d a little in the Savings Bank, sir—enough to bury her proper, that’s what she always said. Otherwise she didn’t more than just make ends meet—what with her old devil and all.’

Poirot nodded thoughtfully. He said—perhaps more to himself than to her:

‘At present one is in the dark—there is no direction—if things get clearer —’ He got up. ‘If I want you at any time, Mary, I will write to you here.’

‘As a matter of fact, sir, I’m giving in my notice. I don’t like the country. I stayed here because I fancied it was a comfort to auntie to have me near by. But now’—again the tears rose in her eyes—‘there’s no reason I should stay, and so I’ll go back to London. It’s gayer for a girl there.’

‘I wish that, when you do go, you would give me your address. Here is my card.’

He handed it to her. She looked at it with a puzzled frown.

‘Then you’re not—anything to do with the police, sir?’

‘I am a private detective.’

She stood there looking at him for some moments in silence.

She said at last:

‘Is there anything—queer going on, sir?’

‘Yes, my child. There is—something queer going on. Later you may be able to help me.’

‘I—I’ll do anything, sir. It—it wasn’t right, sir, auntie being killed.’

A strange way of putting it—but deeply moving.

A few seconds later we were driving back to Andover.