After the Funeral

part at Enderby. She talked a lot about her childhood days so it was easy for you
to "remember" incidents and objects. You were wearing Cora's clothes, with
padding to make you look larger, and a false fringe. And Cora had certain
mannerisms, all of which you had practised carefully before a mirror.
'But you forgot that a mirror image is reversed. When you saw in the glass
the perfect reproduction of Cora's sideways movement of the head, you didn't
realize that it was actually the wrong way round. You saw Cora tilting her head
to the right - but your own head was tilted to the left to produce that effect in the
mirror.
'That was what puzzled Helen Abernethie at the moment when you asked
your famous question. Something seemed to her "wrong". I realized myself the
other night when Rosamund Shane made an unexpected comment about what
happens on such an occasion. Everybody looks at the speaker. After the talk
about mirror images, I think Helen Abernethie experimented before her mirror.

---

She probably thought of Cora, remembered how Cora used to tilt her head to the
right, did so, and looked in the mirror - when, of course, she realized just what
had been wrong on the day of the funeral. She was determined to tell Mr
Entwhistle of her discovery as soon as she woke next morning. But someone
who was used to getting up early followed her downstairs and hit her on the
head.
'I may as well tell you now that Mrs Abernethie is not seriously ill. She
will soon be able to tell us her own story. That aside, at any moment you were
prepared to admit that you had listened to a conversation between Richard and
his sister. What he actually told her, no doubt, was the fact that he had not long
to live, and that explains a phrase in the letter he wrote to her after getting home.
The "nun" was another of your suggestions. The nuns who called at the cottage
on the day of the inquest suggested to you a mention of a nun who was
"following you round", and you used that when you were anxious to hear what
Maude Abernethie was saying to her sister-in-law at Enderby. And also because
you wished to go with her there and find out for yourself just what suspicions
there were. To poison yourself, badly but not fatally, with arsenic, is a very old
trick- and made Inspector Morton suspicious of you.'
'But the picture?' said Rosamund. 'What was it?'
Poirot slowly unfolded a telegram. 'This morning Mr Entwhistle went to
Mr Timothy Abernethie's house to look among the pictures in Miss Gilchrist's
room. He was to take the one of Polflexan Harbour to London and go to Mr
Guthrie whom I had contacted by telegram. The hastily painted sketch of
Polflexan was removed from the surface and the original picture was exposed.'
He held up the telegram and read:
'Definitely a Vermeer. Guthrie.'
Suddenly, Miss Gilchrist spoke. 'I knew it was a Vermeer. She didn't know!
She was always talking about Enderby, and what they did there as children. You
don't know how boring it is, listening to somebody saying the same things, hour
after hour and day after day. Boring - boring - boring. And nothing to look
forward to. And then - a Vermeer! Another Vermeer sold recently for over five
thousand pounds!'
'You killed her for five thousand pounds?' Susan's voice was shocked.

---

'Five thousand pounds,' said Poirot, 'would have paid for a tearoom...'
'At least,' Miss Gilchrist said, 'you understand. I was going to call it the
Palm Tree. And have wooden tables - and little chairs with striped red and white
cushions...'
For a few moments, the tearoom that would never be, seemed more real
than the sitting room at Enderby.
It was Inspector Morton who broke the silence by asking Miss Gilchrist to
go with him.
'Oh, certainly,' she said. 'I don't want to give any trouble. After all, if I can't
have the Palm Tree, nothing really seems to matter very much...'
She went out of the room with him and Susan said, her voice still shaken,
'I've never imagined a ladylike murderer. It's horrible...'

---

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
'But I don't understand the connection between the wax flowers and the
marble table,' said Rosamund.
They were at Helen's flat and Rosamund and Poirot were having tea with
her.
'The table, no. But Miss Gilchrist said how nice the wax flowers looked on
the green marble table. And she could not have seen them there. Because they
had been broken and put away before she arrived. So she could only have seen
them when she was there as Cora Lansquenet.'
'That was stupid of her, wasn't it?' said Rosamund.
Poirot shook a finger at her. 'It shows you, Madame, the dangers of
conversations. It is a strong belief of mine that if you can get a person to talk to
you for long enough, on any subject whatever - sooner or later they will give
themselves away. Miss Gilchrist did.'
'I shall have to be careful,' said Rosamund thoughtfully. 'Did you know?
I'm going to have a baby. And I've decided to leave the stage and just be a
mother. Michael is delighted. I didn't really think he would be. So Susan's got the
marble table. I thought, as I was having a baby...'
She left the sentence unfinished.
'I think Susan is going to have a big success with her beauty business,' said
Helen.
'Yes, she was born to succeed,' said Poirot.
'Greg's gone away somewhere,' said Rosamund. 'He's having a rest cure,
Susan says.'
Poirot turned to Helen. 'And you, Madame, are off to Cyprus?'

---

'Yes, in two weeks.'
'Then let me wish you a happy journey.'
She went with him to the door, and said, 'Monsieur Poirot, the income
Richard left me meant more to me than theirs did to any of the others. You see -
there is a child in Cyprus... After my husband died, my loneliness was
unbelievable and when I was nursing in London at the end of the war, I met
someone... We lived together for a little while, then he went back to Canada - to
his wife and his children. He never knew about - our child. It seemed like a
miracle to me - a middle-aged woman with everything seemingly behind her.
Now, with Richard's money, I can send my "nephew" to an even better school,
and give him a start in life. I never told Richard. He was fond of me - but he
would not have understood. I wanted you to know this about me.'
Poirot bowed over her hand.
***
He got home to find someone sitting in the armchair on the left of the
fireplace.
'Hello, Poirot,' said Mr Entwhistle. 'I've just come back from the trial. They
brought in a verdict of guilty, of course. But Miss Gilchrist is happy, you know.
She spends most of her time making plans to run a chain of tearooms.'
'Some people might think that she was always a little mad,' said Poirot.
'But me, I think not.'
'Goodness me, no, Poirot! She was as sane as you and I when she planned
Cora's murder and carried it out in cold blood.'
Poirot gave a little shiver. 'I am thinking,' he said, 'of some words that
Susan Banks said - that she had never imagined a ladylike murderer.'
'Why not?' said Mr Entwhistle. 'It takes all sorts.'
They were silent - and Poirot thought of murderers he had known.

---

- THE END -
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