Part 16 (1/2)

was in danger of prosecution. It is only my impression but

I have some experience in these matters. Defaulting solici tors, I regret to say, are not entirely uncommon. I can only

tell you that I would not have cared to entrust my own funds

to George, and I suspect that Richard Abernethie, a very

shrewd judge of men, was dissatisfied with his nephew and

placed no reliance on him.

”His mother,” the lawyer continued, ”was a good-looking,

rather foolish girl and she married a man of what I should call

dubious character.” He sighed. ”The Abernethie girls were

not good choosers.”

I-Ie paused and then went on:

”As for Rosamund, she is a lovely nitwit. I really cannot

see her smas.h.i.+ng Cora's head in with a hatchet I Her husband,

Michael Shane, is something of a dark horse--he's a man with

ambition and also a man of overweening vanity I should say.

But really I know very little about him. I have no reason to

suspect him of a brutal crime or of a carefully planned poison ing, but until I know that he really,was doing what he says

he was doing I cannot rule him out.'

”But you have no doubts about the wife ? '

”No--no--there is a certain rather startling callousness...

but no, I really cannot envisage the hatchet. She is a fragile

looking creature.”

”And beautiful I” said Poirot with a faint cynical smile.

”And the other niece ?”

”Susan ? She is a very different type from Rosamund--a

girl of remarkable ability, I should say. She and her husband

were at home together that day. I said (falsely) that I had

tried to get them on the telephone on the afternoon in question.