September 11, 2025 • 41 mins
Agatha Christie - Death in The Clouds
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
But now it's time on Radio four for our afternoon play.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
We present John Moffatt as Hercule Poirot and Philip Jackson
as Chief Inspector jap in Agatha Christie's death in the Clouds.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
If Le bon Dieu had intended man to fly, he
would have provided him with a stronger stomach. There are
two things in life that never fail to fill me
with horror. The first is sitting down in a dentist chair,
and the second is waiting for the moment when the
aeroplane takes off.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Please make sure that your seatbelts are fastened, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 5 (00:50):
They should be taking off the Croydon very shortly.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I had not even had the time to compose myself
for the coming ordeal. Shortly after taking my I had
been obliged to parpoly tesse to give it up.
Speaker 6 (01:04):
Then, my dear, I had no idea you would be
on this plane now, perfectly delightful to see you. Why
don't we sit together, oh monsieur, I didn't mean that
you should move, How very.
Speaker 7 (01:17):
Kind of you.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I moved to a seat further back in the plane,
and no sooner had I sat down than the engines
began to roar, and we moved on the runway. I
tried to distract myself by studying the faces of my
fellow passengers. What were they thinking? The pretty girl in
(01:41):
the corner seat on the other side of the Gannaway,
for instance.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
So it's all over one week living on the riviera
with all the really smart people. Well because of the
Irish sweepstake. Now it's practice giving disgusting old women permanent waves.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
But why is she crying so hard not to look
at the handsome young man's city opposite her. She is
very much aware of him, and he of her.
Speaker 8 (02:09):
She's pretending not to let on, but she remembers me
all right, that evening in the casino when she lost
her last stake on number six, and I pretended that
my winnings on number five were hers.
Speaker 7 (02:20):
I did that rather well.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
And the woman to whom I was obliged to give
up my seat, she has scarcely said a word to
her friend. Oh, mon dieu, she is going to light
a cigarette.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Excuse me, madam, no smoking on board?
Speaker 8 (02:35):
Oh sorry, madam.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
Send my maid to me, will you.
Speaker 9 (02:39):
She's in the forward compartment.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yes, madam, she is decidedly nervous that one, and I
do not think it is the flying that frightens her.
Speaker 10 (02:50):
Your dressing case, my lady, thank you, Madeline.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
Can you find my nail file?
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Certainly?
Speaker 11 (02:56):
Oh, here it is, my lady.
Speaker 6 (03:00):
You may go back now.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
The channel below gleamed in the sunlight. I had taken
a mile sedative to steady my stomach, and it was
beginning to take effect. I was growing very drowsy. The
two frenchmen sitting behind me seemed to be arguing about
prehistoric pottery. And was the man beside me really taking
(03:29):
out a flute from its case or was I dreaming?
Speaker 11 (03:34):
Excuse me, sir, it is doctor Bryant, isn't it.
Speaker 12 (03:37):
Yes, I am doctor Bryant.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
There's a lady sitting at the back there on the
other side of the aisle.
Speaker 11 (03:42):
I don't like the look of her.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
I was awake in an instant. The doctor was bending
over a stout, middle aged woman dressed in black, who
has slumped down in her seat.
Speaker 7 (03:54):
She's dead.
Speaker 11 (03:55):
I was rather afraid of that.
Speaker 7 (03:56):
When did you last see her alive?
Speaker 11 (03:58):
I mean, she was as right as ray brought a
coffee down.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
When was that about three quarters an a She's been
dead for at least half an hour. There's some kind
of puncture mark on her neck.
Speaker 11 (04:07):
I'll not miss you.
Speaker 12 (04:08):
But there was a wasp flying about the cabin earlier
I killed it. Is it possible that the poor lady
died of a wasp sting?
Speaker 4 (04:14):
When it is possible, I suppose we should be landing
a crowd in any minute.
Speaker 11 (04:17):
Is there anything I should do?
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Doctor, No?
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Nothing.
Speaker 12 (04:20):
The body must not be moved, of course.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Just a little moment. There is something, my dear, say,
you'd better return to your seat. There is something that
has been overlooked. Do you see here.
Speaker 7 (04:30):
On the floor another wasp?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
By the look of it, Yes, she's very like a wasp,
But it is not a wasp.
Speaker 12 (04:40):
It's a kind of miniature dart with orange and black feathers.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Lord, I never expect you to see anything like.
Speaker 9 (04:47):
This with my own eyes.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
You recognize it, monsieur.
Speaker 9 (04:50):
This is a thorn that is shot from a bluepipe
by certain native tribes. I can't remember now whether from
South America or born here, and I strongly suspect that
the tip. Now, don't touch it.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
You mean this is the famous arrow poison of the
South American Indians. Can it be possible. How did you
recognize it?
Speaker 11 (05:09):
I write detective stories.
Speaker 9 (05:11):
My name is Daniel Clancy, and I beat myself quite
an expert in the unusual ways of killing people. But
I never thought i'd see anything like this in real life.
Speaker 11 (05:19):
Gentlemen, you must return to your seats. The plane is
about it a lot.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
At Croydon, we were informed that we would have to
remain in the aeroplane until the arrival of the proper authorities.
Speaker 6 (05:34):
Now this is absolutely outrageous shutting it in here with
a dead body.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
It was nearly half an hour before we were taken
off and ushered into the presence of the proper authorities,
in the shape of my old friend, Chief Inspector Chap.
Speaker 12 (05:52):
I hope not to keep you any longer than is necessary,
ladies and gentlemen, but as I'm sure you will appreciate,
you will have to remain here until the facts of
the matter have been established.
Speaker 6 (06:00):
I am Lady Aubrey. You cannot detain me in this manner.
Speaker 7 (06:02):
I am sincerely sorry, Lady Aubrey.
Speaker 12 (06:04):
But you see, this is a very serious matter. It
looks like a case of murder. Murder now, doctor Bryant, Bryant,
if you would care to come this way, doctor Bryant.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
May I assist that your interview, Monsieur Paro.
Speaker 12 (06:20):
Sorry I didn't recognize you are muffled up like that.
They'll come a lot while way too.
Speaker 6 (06:30):
And why should that funny little man be allowed out
while the rest of us have to stay cooped up
in here?
Speaker 9 (06:36):
It's probably something to do with the French police.
Speaker 7 (06:39):
Whoever he is. He is certainly most observant.
Speaker 6 (06:42):
Well, at least they can't stop me having a cigarette
in here.
Speaker 8 (06:47):
Excuse me, but didn't we meet at the casino?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (06:51):
I think we did. Didn't you point out that I'd
forgotten to pick up my winnings? I was very grateful
that you did.
Speaker 8 (06:57):
Do you think that woman really was murdered?
Speaker 12 (07:00):
Seem to think so.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
It's the thrilling in a way, rather nasty. At the
same time, you've got.
Speaker 12 (07:08):
A knack of turning up in the most unexpected places,
Monsieur Burra.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
And is such Croyd an errordrome a little out of
your beat, my friend?
Speaker 12 (07:16):
I'm after rather a big bug in the smuggling line.
Better luck my being on the spot like this. It's
the most amazing business I've come across in years. Can
you give me any idea of the cause of death, doctor.
Speaker 7 (07:27):
I should not really like to say anything definite.
Speaker 12 (07:30):
At this stage our surgeon will be examining the body.
Of course, I don't think we need to keep you.
I'm afraid you'll have to go through the same formalities
as the other passenger.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
I should be only too happy.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
I prefer you to make sure that I haven't got
a blowpipe concealed on my person.
Speaker 12 (07:42):
My sergeant will take care of that this start affair.
Speaker 7 (07:46):
Have you any idea what would be likely to be
on the tip of it?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
As far as I know, kirai is the usual poison
employed by native tribes and not doing the trick in
a remarkably short time, but.
Speaker 7 (07:55):
Not very easy to obtain.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I imagine not at all easy for a layman.
Speaker 12 (07:59):
Then you better make if you're to search him extra carefully. Sergeant,
thank you doctor. Poor business. This but too sensational to
be true. I mean, blowpipes and poisoned darts in an airplane. Well,
it was an insult to one's intelligence.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
That my friend is a very profound remark.
Speaker 12 (08:20):
I've got a couple of men searching the plane. But
before we get down to questioning everybody. I'd like to
get some idea of who was sitting where the plane
was divided into two passenger compartments. I understand, with the
steward's pantry and the toilets in between them.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
That is so we need not concern ourselves with the
people in the forward compartment.
Speaker 12 (08:38):
And the dead woman was sitting at the rear of
the plane, across the aisle from you.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
And in front of her worse mister Ryder, and in
front of him Wor's mister Clancy.
Speaker 12 (08:48):
A chap who at the brain wave about the black part.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Yes, And in front of him was mister Gale, sitting
opposite Miss Gray.
Speaker 12 (08:56):
Who was facing the rear of the plane. So who
was on your out of the gangway.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
The two dupoles were sitting behind me at the Royal.
Speaker 7 (09:03):
And Doctor Bryant was beside her, who was in front.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
The Countess of Hobbury, with the Honorable Venetia Car sitting
opposite her.
Speaker 12 (09:12):
That seems clear enough. Passengers will probably be hopping mad
by now, But even so, I think we'll say the
two stewarts first.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
But the stewarts revealed remarkably little other than that the
dead woman Marri Marriy Sue was a regular passenger.
Speaker 12 (09:28):
Business of some kind. I suppose he don't happen to
know what her business was. I had no idea, I'm afraid.
Did she speak to anyone on the plane or show
any sign of recognition?
Speaker 7 (09:36):
And not that I saw, sir? Did she leave a
suit at any time?
Speaker 9 (09:39):
No?
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Permit me one little question. Did you notice a wasp
flying about the plane?
Speaker 11 (09:47):
There was no wasp that I know of.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
No. Had Lady Hobbury, who had noticeably calmed down by
the time she was called, seen the wasp?
Speaker 12 (09:57):
And did you have any previous acquaintance with the dead
woman Mary Marrisso?
Speaker 6 (10:01):
No, she was quite unknown to me.
Speaker 7 (10:03):
And you didn't notice anything unusual during the.
Speaker 6 (10:05):
Flight, nothing but I was facing towards the front of
the aeroplane.
Speaker 7 (10:09):
And did you leave your seat during the journey? Did
anyone else?
Speaker 6 (10:12):
I think two of the men passengers went to the cloakroom,
but I can't be certain.
Speaker 12 (10:16):
And you didn't see anyone handling anything that looked like
a blowpipe?
Speaker 9 (10:20):
A blowpipe? Was that how she was killed?
Speaker 10 (10:24):
Literally?
Speaker 9 (10:24):
I certainly didn't.
Speaker 12 (10:27):
We've got to find that blowpipe, if there really is
such a thing. I suppose that rioter Chap hasn't gone
off his onion and decided to do one of his
crimes in the flesh instead of on paper.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Why do you not ask him? My friend?
Speaker 12 (10:41):
Have you ever owned a blowpipe yourself? Mister clemcy, Yes,
I have.
Speaker 9 (10:45):
As a matter of fact, I was writing a book
Q see. It was all a question of the position
of fingerprints on the blowpipe. I had to know exactly
you sy, So I bought one from somewhere in the
jutting cross road.
Speaker 7 (10:57):
Do you still have it?
Speaker 11 (10:58):
Well?
Speaker 9 (10:59):
Yes, I think where is it now? I suppose it
must be somewhere around.
Speaker 12 (11:04):
What exactly do you mean by somewhere around?
Speaker 9 (11:06):
I don't quite know where it is it with you now?
Speaker 7 (11:10):
For instance?
Speaker 9 (11:11):
No, No, I've made eyes on it for months.
Speaker 12 (11:15):
Did you leave your seat at all on the plane?
Speaker 3 (11:17):
No?
Speaker 7 (11:17):
Certainly at least, yes I did? And where did you go?
Speaker 9 (11:21):
I went to get a Continental Bradshaw out of my
raincoat pocket.
Speaker 7 (11:23):
And where was that?
Speaker 9 (11:24):
At the back of the plane.
Speaker 7 (11:25):
So you passed us by the dead woman's seat? I
suppose I must have done.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Tear me, my friend? Did you notice a wasp a was? I?
Speaker 9 (11:36):
Certainly did. He tried to sting me, and then it
went over to where those frenchmen were sitting. One of
them killed it. I think.
Speaker 7 (11:44):
Looks pretty fishy to me.
Speaker 12 (11:46):
He actually owns a blowpipe, and he went all to
pieces when I asked where it was.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Perhaps it was your threatening manner, my friend.
Speaker 7 (11:53):
I never threatened Warro.
Speaker 12 (11:54):
You should know that there's nothing for anyone to be
afraid of if they're telling the truth. Anyway, if it
isn't name, it'll be those two frenchmen, a very sinister
looking pair. And they've got a battered old suit case
plastered with foreign labels of all sorts. I bet they've
been to Borneo in South America. You mark my words.
They're up to something.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Oh, my friend, they are hardly the cutthroats. They are
two very distinguished archaeologists.
Speaker 7 (12:21):
You're pulling my leg, not at all.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
They are ar Mond DuPont and his Saint Jean, and
they have come to England to lecture to the Royal
Archeological Society.
Speaker 12 (12:33):
Well, if you say so, Puio, we must admit they
don't look much.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
The world's famous men. Seldom do I myself have before
now been taken for a hair dresser.
Speaker 12 (12:44):
You don't say, well, that's where the rest of them.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
But none of them seem to have noticed anything of
any importance. Lady Horbury's acquaintance, the Honorable Venetiak, had spent
all her time staring out of the wind. Mister Ryder,
who was only concerned about making his business meeting, was
engrossed in his papers. Norman Gale, who turned out to
be omaf while a dentist, had eyes only for the
(13:14):
beautiful miss Gray.
Speaker 12 (13:16):
You were facing the rear of the plane. Did you
happen to notice Madame morriso at all?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Oh? Yes, I noticed, ter all right?
Speaker 7 (13:22):
Why was that miss Gray?
Speaker 9 (13:23):
Well?
Speaker 1 (13:24):
She was most frightfully ugly and her hair was a
terrible mess.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
After they had all been questioned, Jacque's sergeant came in
carrying something carefully wrapped up in a handkerchief. It was
a blow pipe, and he had discovered it pushed out
of sight behind seat number nine, the seat which had
been occupied by.
Speaker 12 (13:48):
Me.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
So this is your work, Albert h mona me. When
I commit a murder, it will not be with the arrow.
Poison of the South American Indians.
Speaker 12 (13:59):
Is a love I admit a crude detective story dodge,
but it seems to have worked. So what we're looking
for a man who has traveled to South America or Borneo,
or wherever they carry on like that.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Now, if you look closely, my friend, she will notice
a microscopic piece of paper adhering to the pipe. It
looks very like the remains of a ton of price ticket.
I fancy that our murderer found the blowpipe not in
the upper reaches of the Amazon, but in some Paris
curio shop. That will probably make the search easier. And
(14:36):
there is one little paper I beg of Humana me.
I would like all the passenger's luggage and the contents
of their bags and pockets to be checked and listed.
Speaker 7 (14:46):
I'll kick up a terrible face.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Oh, I am sure you are more than capable of
handling that. Mona meu very.
Speaker 12 (14:52):
Well for her anything for the great detective.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
The inquest on Madame Marissou took place for later it
told me very little that I did not know, except
for the evidence of one witness, Monsieur Fournier of the Surte.
Speaker 13 (15:12):
Although the name on the passport of the deceased was
Marry Angelicke Morrisou, she was better known by the name
of Madame Giselle one of the most notable money lenders
in Paris, with a number of clients in England, particularly
among the upper and professional classes. She was a woman
of very original character and reputed to be extremely welfare.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
The implications of this seemed to make very little impression
on the reporters present in court, who were far more
excited by the blowpipe and the poisoned dart.
Speaker 12 (15:52):
According to the chief Government analysts, it had been dipped
in the venom of desfoalidus typus South African snake, better
known as the boom slang.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
There was a small stir of interest when Lady Howbury
was called, but as it turned out, the reporters were
more interested in her hat than her evidence. The jury were, however,
greatly impressed by the fact that the blowpipe had been
found behind my seat, and at the end of the
(16:26):
inquest the from and returned a verdict which I am
thankful to say, the Coronel refused to accept.
Speaker 8 (16:37):
I wonder what was in that paper that the coroner
wouldn't have at any price.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
I can't tell you.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
If you really wish to know, I didn't see standing there.
Would you tell us.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
It was a verdict of wilful murder mademoiselle against myself. Definitely,
I must set to work to clear my character.
Speaker 12 (16:57):
Or what an extraordinarily odd little beggar. I don't see
how he could do much detecting.
Speaker 8 (17:05):
Any criminal could spot him a mile off.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
You've got very old fashioned ideas about detectives. They don't
crawl about with magnifying glasses wearing false beards. Nowadays they
just sit down and think the case out.
Speaker 11 (17:17):
Psychologically rather less strenuous.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Physically perhaps, But of course you need a clear, cool brain.
Speaker 8 (17:24):
You mean a hot, muddled one wouldn't do Look, would
you mind? I mean it would be frightfully nice. But
having a cup of tea with.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Me, Oh, thank you very much. I think that would
be an excellent idea.
Speaker 8 (17:41):
It's an odd show, this murder business.
Speaker 7 (17:44):
I don't quite know what to make of it all.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
I'm certainly worried about it. From the work point of view.
I'm an assistant in a hairdressers and they mayn't like
to employ a girl who's been mixed up in a
murder case.
Speaker 8 (17:56):
Anyone's only got to look at you to know you
couldn't murder anybody, so sure about that.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
There's one of my regular ladies. She's got a voice
like a corncrake, and she grumbles about everything. I really
think sometimes that killing her off would be a good
deed all round, so long as I could be sure
I get away with it.
Speaker 7 (18:14):
Well, you didn't do.
Speaker 8 (18:15):
This particular murder anyway, I can swear to that.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
And I can swear that you didn't.
Speaker 8 (18:20):
Of course, I don't know what my patients would make
of it all, No patients. I'm a dentist, and a
dentist who might be a homicidal maniac is not a
very alluring prospect.
Speaker 7 (18:32):
I hope you don't mind me being a dentist.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Why should I mind?
Speaker 8 (18:36):
Well, there's always something rather comic about a dentist, not
a very romantic profession.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Well, it's decidedly a cut above being a hairdresser's assistant.
Speaker 7 (18:47):
I feel we're going to be friends, don't you.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Oh yes, great friends, I'm sure of it.
Speaker 10 (18:52):
Now.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Who do you really think murdered that Gizelle woman?
Speaker 12 (19:00):
Well, oh boy, that was a pretty narrow escape. You
might have been locked up in a police cell.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
H I fear that such an occurrence might have damaged
me professionally.
Speaker 12 (19:08):
Well, it won't be the first time a detective turned
out to be a murderer. Ah Massifhornier. May I present
my old friends.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
I witness your performance in court this morning.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
But I think I had the pleasure of meeting you
some years ago.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Now, May I suggest that you both come and dine
with me in my rooms, that is, if you and
my old friend Jap do not object to make collaboration.
Speaker 12 (19:32):
I saw right, ol Cock. After all, you were in
on the ground floor, so to speak, even if it
was up in the clouds.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
A delicious meal, monsieur, you have disproved the common assumption
that it is impossible to eat well in England.
Speaker 7 (19:50):
A frenchy five for my taste, but quite respectable.
Speaker 11 (19:53):
In this way.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
A meal should always lie lightly on the stomach. It
should not be so heavy as to per life's thought.
Speaker 12 (20:01):
And was certainly going to need our thinking cats this evening.
Tell us what you can about this disell woman Micophony.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
To tell the truth, I know very little, particularly as
far as her private life is concerned. She was a
woman of business, a woman who enjoyed power, and she
would never allow sentiment to affect her commercial instinct.
Speaker 7 (20:20):
What you say, she was an honest woman.
Speaker 11 (20:22):
According to our own lights.
Speaker 7 (20:24):
What is that?
Speaker 5 (20:24):
Do you mean the law could have called her to
account if only evidence had been forthcoming.
Speaker 7 (20:29):
Oh, come on and beat about the bush? What was
he up to?
Speaker 5 (20:32):
Chantage mail of a very special kind. It was Madame
Jselle's custom to lend money on what you call in
this country note of hand alone.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
She must have had a very special kind of cleontee.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
Customers lay exclusively among the upper professional classes, classes particularly
vulnerable to the force of public opinion.
Speaker 7 (20:53):
And theasy victims of black man.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
She had her own very efficient intelligence service. It was
her custom, before lending any large sum of money, to
collect as many facts as possible about the client in question.
At the same time, she was scrupulously honest. She never
made use of secret information to obtain money that was
not already ought to her.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
But there must have been cases when she had to
write off her debt. What happened then.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
The information in her possession would be made public.
Speaker 12 (21:23):
Well, al this opens up a very pretty line in
motives for murder. And then there's a question of who's
going to come into her money? Can you ever there
at all? Misophonia, there was a daughter.
Speaker 11 (21:32):
She did not live with her mother.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Indeed, I believe that Madame Morrisseau had not seen her
since she was a tiny child. But she made a
will many years ago, leaving everything apart from a small
legacy to her maid to her daughter, and as far
as I know, she's not made another.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Her fortune is large.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
I guess eight or nine million francs.
Speaker 12 (21:52):
Just as well a young lady wasn't on that plane,
who she'd have been on top suspect?
Speaker 7 (21:56):
How old would she be? This Anne marrisso.
Speaker 11 (21:59):
About twenty four or five, I should imagine.
Speaker 12 (22:02):
I don't very well say how she could be connected
with the crime, But we'll have to get down to
this blackmail business. Everyone on the plane categorically denies knowing
Madame Giselle, but one of them is obviously lying, and
we've got to find out which an examination of her.
Speaker 7 (22:15):
Papers might give us an idea.
Speaker 11 (22:16):
I fear not.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Immediately after the news of her death came through from
Scotland Yard, I went straight to her house. All the
papers in our safe had been burned.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Who burned them?
Speaker 11 (22:27):
Do you know?
Speaker 5 (22:28):
She had a confidential maid, a Lees, who had instructions
to burn the contents of the safe in the event
of anything happening to her mistress.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
She evidently had her own strict code of morality exactly.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
She was ruthless, but she kept faith with those who
kept faith with her.
Speaker 7 (22:46):
Right, Well, let's get down to it, shall we.
Speaker 12 (22:48):
There are eleven passengers in that part of the plane,
including the dead woman, and there were two stuarts. It
doesn't seem very likely that either of them would have
been borrowing money on a grand.
Speaker 7 (22:56):
Scale, but we can't exactly roll them out.
Speaker 12 (22:59):
They were up and down the gas and one of
them could easily have taken up a position from which
they could have used that blowpipe. Mind you, of all
the damn fool ways to commit a murder, and.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Yet it succeeded, did he not? We three sit here
talking about it, but we have no knowledge of who
committed the crime that he's success.
Speaker 12 (23:19):
Right, Let's take a look at the passengers starting up
the end of the steward's pantry and the toilets. Seat
number sixteen. That's the hairdressing girl, Jane Gray. Frankly, I
don't see her taking out alone from the old girl,
and I don't think a hairdresser's assistant has the slightest
chance of laying her hands on snake venom.
Speaker 7 (23:34):
It's not as though they use it in hair dye.
Speaker 5 (23:36):
And now on the murderer's part, perhaps only about two
people in one hundred would be lucky to have any.
Speaker 11 (23:42):
Knowledge of it.
Speaker 12 (23:43):
Now their number twelve sitting opposite a Norman Gale, very
much the same applies to him, small fry. Now, I
suppose he might have a better chance of getting hold
of the.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Snake venom, which is not an injection usually favored by dentists.
Speaker 12 (23:55):
And he didly be seated to go to the toilet,
but that's in the opposite direction from Madam Giselle. To
kill her with the blowpipe, he had needed the kind
of thing that would make a right angle turn.
Speaker 7 (24:05):
So he's pretty well out of it.
Speaker 11 (24:07):
I agree, So we'll cross.
Speaker 12 (24:08):
The gangway to seat seventeen, the Honorable Venetia car. I
suppose she could have borrowed a bit from Madame Giselle,
and she could just about have taken a sporting shot
diagonally across the cabin.
Speaker 5 (24:20):
Surely Lady Aubrey is a farmer, likely suspecting. I happen
to know she had been losing very eavily at the
baker table.
Speaker 12 (24:27):
In the Peenie is certainly the type of person to
be mixed up with Madame Gizelle. How could she have
done it? She didn't move during the flight. She'd have
had to kneel up on her seat and lean over
the top of it with all the other passengers looking on.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
Have you considered doctor Bryant.
Speaker 12 (24:41):
Big boy in Harley Street, not very likely to go
to a French money lender. I bet he could pick
up a test tube of snake venom as easy as winking.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
I assure you, my friend, I have not forgotten that point.
Speaker 7 (24:52):
Mind you.
Speaker 12 (24:52):
Rider in seat number four was directly in front of
the woman he went to the toilet. He could have
taken a potshot at her on his way back. Thing
is the archaeologist would have been bound to notice, which
leaves us with them. Their position in the cabin is
pretty good from my point of view, and they've knocked
about the world. They could easily have got hold of
snake poison.
Speaker 11 (25:11):
It is possible.
Speaker 7 (25:12):
You don't believe it's likely to.
Speaker 12 (25:14):
Be honest, I do not, So let's take a look
at where we stand. Jane Gray, Norman Gale, Venetia Carr
no obvious motive and possibility practically nil. Lady Hawbery motive
strong possibility nil. Dr Bryant could have a motive and
(25:34):
possibility good clancy motive doubtful possibility, good rider motive uncertain
possibility fair. The du Ponts poor as regards motive good as.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
The means of obtaining poison a very pussise summary, Chief Inspector.
Speaker 7 (25:52):
Of course there's a fair bit of checking up to do.
Speaker 12 (25:55):
Will you investigate the du Ponts when you get back
to Paris, Missivonia?
Speaker 5 (25:58):
Of course I shall return tomorrow. There may be something
to be got out of Madame Juzelle's may now that
we know a little more about the case.
Speaker 7 (26:05):
And what about your paro? Are you going to take
a hand?
Speaker 11 (26:07):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Yes, I should like to accompany monsieur film if chante.
Speaker 7 (26:13):
You've been very quiet over all this. Any ideas?
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Have you the list of the belongings of the passengers,
my friend?
Speaker 12 (26:22):
It will be on my desk first thing in the morning.
Perhaps you would like to take a look at it
before your company mess you have forney ate back to Paris.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
I would be delighted, my dear Jacques.
Speaker 12 (26:34):
Most of it's pretty routine stuff, as you can see.
James Ryder business cards pigskin, no case and a letter.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
In filming him let alone had been successful and negotiated,
otherwise we'd be in quiz.
Speaker 12 (26:47):
To reach silver cigarette case, match folder, letter signed Maudi
make an appointment at the Trocadero.
Speaker 7 (26:55):
Dr.
Speaker 12 (26:56):
Bryant cigarette case lighter and he was carrying a flat
in the case.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Huh strange, I thought that was a dream.
Speaker 12 (27:04):
Norman Gale had a briar pipe and an empty matchbox,
white linen coat, dental mirrors, dental rolls of cotton wall,
and the DuPonts were carrying several hollow tubes, which they
said were Kurdish pipe stems.
Speaker 7 (27:18):
I could have done the job just as well as
blow pot.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Daniel Clancy, newspaper cutting about arsenic poisoning, a golf ball
Continental Bradshaw and the manuscript of murder on Vesubius. Miss
Carr two cigarette holders receeated hotel Bill Paris. Photograph of
two Spaniels.
Speaker 12 (27:38):
Miss Gray to with aspirin, French phrase book, casino counter
for five francs.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Lady Horbury diamond ring and like her friend, Miss Carr,
two cigarette holders, complete makeup outfits in her dressing case
and a small bottle labored boracic powder.
Speaker 12 (27:55):
Boracic powder, my eye. The white stuff in that bottle
was cocaine. Nothing to do with our case. Perhaps I
have an idea that her Ladyship wouldn't stick at much
to get what she wanted.
Speaker 7 (28:04):
Have you seen this morning.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Sketch sun worshipers the Countess of Fobbury and Raymond barrattlaugh
at Lapinae? He plays small passive films?
Speaker 12 (28:17):
Does he know there's much material in that bathing dress
of her?
Speaker 3 (28:21):
I will take the newspaper with me if I may
have a close look.
Speaker 7 (28:24):
Eh.
Speaker 12 (28:26):
Well, any of this stuff about the passengers been of
many years to hear.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
On the face of it, your list seems to point
plainly to one person as the murderer.
Speaker 7 (28:36):
Are you pulling my leg?
Speaker 12 (28:37):
No?
Speaker 11 (28:37):
No, can you do?
Speaker 3 (28:40):
But at the moment I cannot see why or even how.
Speaker 12 (28:47):
No.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
I must be on my way to Crichton.
Speaker 12 (28:49):
Well, have a good flight and keep your eyes open
for poisoned darts.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
And so once again I subjected stomach to the hazards
of the air. But the flight was smooth, and I
had the antics of Monsieurphonnier.
Speaker 11 (29:08):
To distract me.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
He had with him a small tube of bamboo, which
at intervals during the flight he would put to his lips,
always aiming in a different direction, and wherever he did so,
every eye in the cabin was fixed on him. On
our arrival in France, we drove directly to the house
(29:30):
of Madame Giselle in the Rougeliette, where her maid, alias Grandier,
was waiting for us.
Speaker 10 (29:37):
Please come in, mensieur.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
I decided that my best cause was to sit quietly
in a corner and say nothing.
Speaker 10 (29:47):
Poisoned.
Speaker 14 (29:49):
Oh, there is no question of that, No, mademoiselle, no
question whoever would have dreamed of such a scene?
Speaker 11 (29:56):
That is perhaps where you can help me.
Speaker 5 (29:59):
You must know wh enemies?
Speaker 10 (30:01):
Why should madame have enemies, mamselle.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
The profession of money lender must always involve a little unpleasantness.
Speaker 14 (30:10):
It is true that sometimes her clients were not reasonable.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
They made sans I threatened.
Speaker 10 (30:16):
Oh no, monsieur, it was not they who threatened.
Speaker 14 (30:20):
They were sorry for themselves, protesting they could not pay,
but they usually paid.
Speaker 10 (30:24):
In the end.
Speaker 11 (30:25):
You had no pity for them.
Speaker 14 (30:26):
Why should I? They lived beyond their means and had
to borrow. Why should they expect to keep the money
as a gift? Madame was always fair and just. She
leant and she expected repayment.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
Were you a well he means Madame used to make
them pay.
Speaker 10 (30:42):
I knew nothing, monsieur, nothing at all.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
You knew enough to burn her papers.
Speaker 14 (30:47):
She had left me instructions that if she met with
an accident or died away from home, I was to
destroy them immediately.
Speaker 5 (30:55):
Very well, now listened carefully. It is possible that Madame
was murdered by a person about whom she held damaging information.
Information that was in those papers. Now, it would be
quite understandable if you glanced through those papers before committing
them to the flat.
Speaker 14 (31:15):
No, monsieur, I looked at nothing. The papers were in
a sealed envelope. I burned it without undoing the scene.
Speaker 11 (31:22):
It is a pity.
Speaker 5 (31:24):
He acted honorably, But it is a pity. Before she
left for England, did Madame say anything to you that
might be of any help to us?
Speaker 10 (31:33):
No, monsieur.
Speaker 14 (31:34):
She had been away at Lupinae. She was in good
spirits and business was going well. She directed me to
telephone Universal Airlines to book a flight for England the
following day. The early morning one was booked up, but
I obtained a seat on the twelve o'clock service.
Speaker 5 (31:50):
Did any clients come to see Madame on that last evening?
Speaker 14 (31:53):
I believe there was one client, Georges, the concierge would know.
Speaker 5 (31:59):
Mademoise here, we will take her leave. What is it,
mister Power? Are you looking for something?
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Yes? For something? I do not see photographs of Madame
Guzelle's family.
Speaker 10 (32:13):
She had no family, monsieur, but she had a daughter.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Is there no photograph of her?
Speaker 14 (32:18):
Oh, Sue, It's true she had a daughter, but that
was long ago. It is my belief that Madame had
not seen her since she was a tiny baby.
Speaker 10 (32:27):
She may not even have been married to the child's father.
Speaker 5 (32:29):
Madame Giselle left her money to this daughter.
Speaker 14 (32:32):
Whels was there to leave it too. She had no friends,
She was always alone. Money was our only passion.
Speaker 11 (32:37):
She left you a legacy. You know that I have.
Speaker 14 (32:39):
Been informed so Madame was always very generous.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
Well, Mademoiselle, that would be all for the present. Are
you quite sure that there is nothing, nothing at all
that you have omitted to mention?
Speaker 10 (32:54):
What could there be?
Speaker 5 (32:57):
Ill come to mister Powell. We must say, gardy, if.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
You permit, I will follow you in a little moment.
Speaker 5 (33:04):
Of course, I work with the concierge of Joe.
Speaker 10 (33:08):
Ma'moiselle, is there something you wish to ask me? Monsieur?
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Have you any idea only an idea who might have
murdered your mistress?
Speaker 10 (33:23):
No idea at all. I have already said so to
the police.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Ah, you might say one thing to them and another
to me.
Speaker 10 (33:31):
Why should I do that?
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Because it is one thing to give information to the
police and another to a private individual.
Speaker 10 (33:40):
That is true.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
Shall I tell you something, mademoiselle. It is part of
my business to believe nothing. I am told nothing that
is not proved. I do not suspect this personal that person.
I suspect everybody.
Speaker 10 (33:54):
Are you saying that you suspect me?
Speaker 11 (33:56):
No? Lease?
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Whoever murdered Madame Giselle. I was a passenger on that aeroplane,
but you might have been an accomplice. You might have
passed on to someone the details of your mistress's journey.
Speaker 10 (34:09):
I did not, I swear I did not.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
I believe you. But nevertheless, there is something you conceal.
In every case of a criminal nature, everyone keeps something
back that he saw with you. When my friend Monsieur
Fournier asked you if there was nothing you had omitted
to mention, you were troubled and invasive. What is it
(34:36):
that you are holding back?
Speaker 10 (34:38):
It is nothing of importance.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Let me be the judge of that.
Speaker 10 (34:44):
Monsieur.
Speaker 14 (34:46):
I am in a difficulty. I do not know what
Madame would have wanted me to do.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
There is a saying that two heads are better than one.
Will you not confide in me very well, monsieur?
Speaker 9 (35:05):
It is it is this.
Speaker 14 (35:08):
This little book was Madame's. It went with her everywhere.
When she was about to depart for England, she could
not find it. After she was gone, I came across
it behind the end of her bed.
Speaker 10 (35:19):
I did not know what to do with it, so
I kept it in my room. You see my difficulty, monsieur.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
I believe that you acted with the best intentions. But
let me see if there is anything in this book
that relate us.
Speaker 14 (35:32):
I do not think that you will find anything of use.
It is our private memorandum. But there are numbers, only
no names.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
C X two five six, Colonel's wife, Stations, Seria, Regimental
funds GF three for two French deputies, Stawhisky Connection, Lepinae,
Monday Casino ten thirty Savoy Hotel, five o'clock.
Speaker 10 (35:58):
It means nothing, monsieur, So it seems to me it.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
May be very valuable. I will see that you will
not be blaying for not handing it over to the police.
Speaker 10 (36:08):
Sir is very kind.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
One last question, mademoiselle, when you reserved a seat on
the plane for Madame, did you ring up l Bourche
or the office of the company.
Speaker 14 (36:19):
I rang the office of Universal Airlines in the Boulevard
de Capucine.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
Thank you, mademoiselle.
Speaker 11 (36:28):
That is where you score. My friend.
Speaker 5 (36:31):
The private individual gets far more out of witnesses than
we ever do through official questions.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
But did the concierge tell you nothing?
Speaker 5 (36:38):
It was a lady who visited Madame Giselle on the
night before she came to England. He did not identify
her from many of the photographs, or at least he
said he did not. But when I showed him the
daily sketch, he gave a little start of.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
Recordless And in the notebook there is a significant entrary c.
L Fifty two English peers.
Speaker 5 (36:59):
Has she is, I understand, an addicted gambler.
Speaker 11 (37:03):
Nothing could be more likely than she should.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Borrow from Madame and the husband.
Speaker 11 (37:08):
Either the husband was expected to pay up for his.
Speaker 5 (37:10):
Wife's debts, or she had some old over Lady Aubrey
a secret which she threatened to divulge to the husband.
Something to do with the newspaper photograph.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
Perhaps, perhaps there are more entries in the book which
may refer to other passengers r T Three sixty seven,
Doctor Harley Street, doctor Bryan.
Speaker 11 (37:31):
Perhaps there's not much to go on.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
Anyone else GF forty five attempted murder, Well, that could
be anyone the murderer with the blowpipe.
Speaker 11 (37:41):
Perhaps the blowpipe.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
I have had a report from the Sieurte, a Greek
antique dealer, has reported the sale of a blowpipe. The
price tickets he users are very similar to the one
on the murder weapon. But there is one vital difference
is that the silk on the darts was red, not
black and yellow.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
And who was the purchaser of this pop bypeer?
Speaker 11 (38:04):
An American?
Speaker 5 (38:05):
Not so, he says, chewing gum, wearing tortoiseshell rim glasses,
did not speak French.
Speaker 11 (38:11):
Probably a wild.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
Goose chase, probably, But now I am going to lead
you on another white goose chairs too, to the Boulevard
des capucine the offices of Universal Airlines, and if you
please let me do the talking.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
Yes, monsieurs, that is correct. Madame's maid asked for the
eight forty five service, but it was fully booked, so
we gave a seat on the twelve o'clock light.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
How very curious. A friend of mine who traveled on
the eight forty five service on that day said that
the plane was half empty.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
Possibly, your friend, there's mistaken the day.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
There was no mistake. It was the day of the murder.
Speaker 11 (38:52):
He said.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
If he had missed that plane, he would have traveled
on the flight on which that woman was killed.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
Of course, sometimes when people are at the last minute.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
No, no, that was not the case. Do you not
think it would be better if you were to tell
me the truth? I don't understand you, miss You understand
me very well. You should also understand that, in a
case of murder is a very serious offense to withhold
important information. How much were you paid and who paid you?
Speaker 4 (39:22):
I met no harm, I had no idea how much
five thousand francs.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Continue.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
A man I'd never seen him before came in and
said he was going to England the following day. He
wanted to negotiate alone from Madame, she said, but he
wanted to appear to meet her by chance. He knew
that she would be traveling the following day, but he
could not manage the earlier flight. All I had to
do was to tell her that the early service was
full and to give her seat number two on the
(39:51):
twelve o'clock flight.
Speaker 11 (39:53):
I saw nothing wrong in that.
Speaker 5 (39:55):
And they do business in unconventional ways Americans. Yes, Monsieur
described as.
Speaker 4 (40:00):
He had a gray hair, horneromed glasses, and a little beard.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
And did he book a seat for himself.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
Yes, seat number one next to Madame.
Speaker 11 (40:11):
And what was his name? Silas Harper?
Speaker 5 (40:14):
Seat was never occupied. There was no one of that
name on the flight. You have with held important information
from the police. This is a very serious offense.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Why was it so important that Madame Giselle should travel
on that flight? There is some factor here that I
do not understand.
Speaker 5 (40:35):
But who is this mysterious America?
Speaker 3 (40:38):
Oh no, there is no American. It is the same
as the man who bought the blowpipe, the chewing gum,
the nasal accent, the spectacles, and now the full beard.
Tis easy enough.
Speaker 5 (40:50):
Would certainly seem to rule out lady obody.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
Perhaps, but the man who booked the ticket does not
necessarily have to be the murderer my friend.
Speaker 5 (41:01):
Yes, it would be easy enough for her to persuade
someone to help her.
Speaker 11 (41:06):
She is a beautiful woman.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
Murder has a strange way of bringing people together. To
have been close to a mysterious death, to share the
ordeal of a coroner's court establishes a bond of friendship
between perfect strangers.
But now it's time on Radio four for our afternoon play.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
We present John Moffatt as Hercule Poirot and Philip Jackson
as Chief Inspector jap in Agatha Christie's death in the Clouds.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
If Le bon Dieu had intended man to fly, he
would have provided him with a stronger stomach. There are
two things in life that never fail to fill me
with horror. The first is sitting down in a dentist chair,
and the second is waiting for the moment when the
aeroplane takes off.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Please make sure that your seatbelts are fastened, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 5 (00:50):
They should be taking off the Croydon very shortly.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I had not even had the time to compose myself
for the coming ordeal. Shortly after taking my I had
been obliged to parpoly tesse to give it up.
Speaker 6 (01:04):
Then, my dear, I had no idea you would be
on this plane now, perfectly delightful to see you. Why
don't we sit together, oh monsieur, I didn't mean that
you should move, How very.
Speaker 7 (01:17):
Kind of you.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I moved to a seat further back in the plane,
and no sooner had I sat down than the engines
began to roar, and we moved on the runway. I
tried to distract myself by studying the faces of my
fellow passengers. What were they thinking? The pretty girl in
(01:41):
the corner seat on the other side of the Gannaway,
for instance.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
So it's all over one week living on the riviera
with all the really smart people. Well because of the
Irish sweepstake. Now it's practice giving disgusting old women permanent waves.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
But why is she crying so hard not to look
at the handsome young man's city opposite her. She is
very much aware of him, and he of her.
Speaker 8 (02:09):
She's pretending not to let on, but she remembers me
all right, that evening in the casino when she lost
her last stake on number six, and I pretended that
my winnings on number five were hers.
Speaker 7 (02:20):
I did that rather well.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
And the woman to whom I was obliged to give
up my seat, she has scarcely said a word to
her friend. Oh, mon dieu, she is going to light
a cigarette.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Excuse me, madam, no smoking on board?
Speaker 8 (02:35):
Oh sorry, madam.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
Send my maid to me, will you.
Speaker 9 (02:39):
She's in the forward compartment.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yes, madam, she is decidedly nervous that one, and I
do not think it is the flying that frightens her.
Speaker 10 (02:50):
Your dressing case, my lady, thank you, Madeline.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
Can you find my nail file?
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Certainly?
Speaker 11 (02:56):
Oh, here it is, my lady.
Speaker 6 (03:00):
You may go back now.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
The channel below gleamed in the sunlight. I had taken
a mile sedative to steady my stomach, and it was
beginning to take effect. I was growing very drowsy. The
two frenchmen sitting behind me seemed to be arguing about
prehistoric pottery. And was the man beside me really taking
(03:29):
out a flute from its case or was I dreaming?
Speaker 11 (03:34):
Excuse me, sir, it is doctor Bryant, isn't it.
Speaker 12 (03:37):
Yes, I am doctor Bryant.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
There's a lady sitting at the back there on the
other side of the aisle.
Speaker 11 (03:42):
I don't like the look of her.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
I was awake in an instant. The doctor was bending
over a stout, middle aged woman dressed in black, who
has slumped down in her seat.
Speaker 7 (03:54):
She's dead.
Speaker 11 (03:55):
I was rather afraid of that.
Speaker 7 (03:56):
When did you last see her alive?
Speaker 11 (03:58):
I mean, she was as right as ray brought a
coffee down.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
When was that about three quarters an a She's been
dead for at least half an hour. There's some kind
of puncture mark on her neck.
Speaker 11 (04:07):
I'll not miss you.
Speaker 12 (04:08):
But there was a wasp flying about the cabin earlier
I killed it. Is it possible that the poor lady
died of a wasp sting?
Speaker 4 (04:14):
When it is possible, I suppose we should be landing
a crowd in any minute.
Speaker 11 (04:17):
Is there anything I should do?
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Doctor, No?
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Nothing.
Speaker 12 (04:20):
The body must not be moved, of course.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Just a little moment. There is something, my dear, say,
you'd better return to your seat. There is something that
has been overlooked. Do you see here.
Speaker 7 (04:30):
On the floor another wasp?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
By the look of it, Yes, she's very like a wasp,
But it is not a wasp.
Speaker 12 (04:40):
It's a kind of miniature dart with orange and black feathers.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Lord, I never expect you to see anything like.
Speaker 9 (04:47):
This with my own eyes.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
You recognize it, monsieur.
Speaker 9 (04:50):
This is a thorn that is shot from a bluepipe
by certain native tribes. I can't remember now whether from
South America or born here, and I strongly suspect that
the tip. Now, don't touch it.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
You mean this is the famous arrow poison of the
South American Indians. Can it be possible. How did you
recognize it?
Speaker 11 (05:09):
I write detective stories.
Speaker 9 (05:11):
My name is Daniel Clancy, and I beat myself quite
an expert in the unusual ways of killing people. But
I never thought i'd see anything like this in real life.
Speaker 11 (05:19):
Gentlemen, you must return to your seats. The plane is
about it a lot.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
At Croydon, we were informed that we would have to
remain in the aeroplane until the arrival of the proper authorities.
Speaker 6 (05:34):
Now this is absolutely outrageous shutting it in here with
a dead body.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
It was nearly half an hour before we were taken
off and ushered into the presence of the proper authorities,
in the shape of my old friend, Chief Inspector Chap.
Speaker 12 (05:52):
I hope not to keep you any longer than is necessary,
ladies and gentlemen, but as I'm sure you will appreciate,
you will have to remain here until the facts of
the matter have been established.
Speaker 6 (06:00):
I am Lady Aubrey. You cannot detain me in this manner.
Speaker 7 (06:02):
I am sincerely sorry, Lady Aubrey.
Speaker 12 (06:04):
But you see, this is a very serious matter. It
looks like a case of murder. Murder now, doctor Bryant, Bryant,
if you would care to come this way, doctor Bryant.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
May I assist that your interview, Monsieur Paro.
Speaker 12 (06:20):
Sorry I didn't recognize you are muffled up like that.
They'll come a lot while way too.
Speaker 6 (06:30):
And why should that funny little man be allowed out
while the rest of us have to stay cooped up
in here?
Speaker 9 (06:36):
It's probably something to do with the French police.
Speaker 7 (06:39):
Whoever he is. He is certainly most observant.
Speaker 6 (06:42):
Well, at least they can't stop me having a cigarette
in here.
Speaker 8 (06:47):
Excuse me, but didn't we meet at the casino?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (06:51):
I think we did. Didn't you point out that I'd
forgotten to pick up my winnings? I was very grateful
that you did.
Speaker 8 (06:57):
Do you think that woman really was murdered?
Speaker 12 (07:00):
Seem to think so.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
It's the thrilling in a way, rather nasty. At the
same time, you've got.
Speaker 12 (07:08):
A knack of turning up in the most unexpected places,
Monsieur Burra.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
And is such Croyd an errordrome a little out of
your beat, my friend?
Speaker 12 (07:16):
I'm after rather a big bug in the smuggling line.
Better luck my being on the spot like this. It's
the most amazing business I've come across in years. Can
you give me any idea of the cause of death, doctor.
Speaker 7 (07:27):
I should not really like to say anything definite.
Speaker 12 (07:30):
At this stage our surgeon will be examining the body.
Of course, I don't think we need to keep you.
I'm afraid you'll have to go through the same formalities
as the other passenger.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
I should be only too happy.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
I prefer you to make sure that I haven't got
a blowpipe concealed on my person.
Speaker 12 (07:42):
My sergeant will take care of that this start affair.
Speaker 7 (07:46):
Have you any idea what would be likely to be
on the tip of it?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
As far as I know, kirai is the usual poison
employed by native tribes and not doing the trick in
a remarkably short time, but.
Speaker 7 (07:55):
Not very easy to obtain.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I imagine not at all easy for a layman.
Speaker 12 (07:59):
Then you better make if you're to search him extra carefully. Sergeant,
thank you doctor. Poor business. This but too sensational to
be true. I mean, blowpipes and poisoned darts in an airplane. Well,
it was an insult to one's intelligence.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
That my friend is a very profound remark.
Speaker 12 (08:20):
I've got a couple of men searching the plane. But
before we get down to questioning everybody. I'd like to
get some idea of who was sitting where the plane
was divided into two passenger compartments. I understand, with the
steward's pantry and the toilets in between them.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
That is so we need not concern ourselves with the
people in the forward compartment.
Speaker 12 (08:38):
And the dead woman was sitting at the rear of
the plane, across the aisle from you.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
And in front of her worse mister Ryder, and in
front of him Wor's mister Clancy.
Speaker 12 (08:48):
A chap who at the brain wave about the black part.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Yes, And in front of him was mister Gale, sitting
opposite Miss Gray.
Speaker 12 (08:56):
Who was facing the rear of the plane. So who
was on your out of the gangway.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
The two dupoles were sitting behind me at the Royal.
Speaker 7 (09:03):
And Doctor Bryant was beside her, who was in front.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
The Countess of Hobbury, with the Honorable Venetia Car sitting
opposite her.
Speaker 12 (09:12):
That seems clear enough. Passengers will probably be hopping mad
by now, But even so, I think we'll say the
two stewarts first.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
But the stewarts revealed remarkably little other than that the
dead woman Marri Marriy Sue was a regular passenger.
Speaker 12 (09:28):
Business of some kind. I suppose he don't happen to
know what her business was. I had no idea, I'm afraid.
Did she speak to anyone on the plane or show
any sign of recognition?
Speaker 7 (09:36):
And not that I saw, sir? Did she leave a
suit at any time?
Speaker 9 (09:39):
No?
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Permit me one little question. Did you notice a wasp
flying about the plane?
Speaker 11 (09:47):
There was no wasp that I know of.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
No. Had Lady Hobbury, who had noticeably calmed down by
the time she was called, seen the wasp?
Speaker 12 (09:57):
And did you have any previous acquaintance with the dead
woman Mary Marrisso?
Speaker 6 (10:01):
No, she was quite unknown to me.
Speaker 7 (10:03):
And you didn't notice anything unusual during the.
Speaker 6 (10:05):
Flight, nothing but I was facing towards the front of
the aeroplane.
Speaker 7 (10:09):
And did you leave your seat during the journey? Did
anyone else?
Speaker 6 (10:12):
I think two of the men passengers went to the cloakroom,
but I can't be certain.
Speaker 12 (10:16):
And you didn't see anyone handling anything that looked like
a blowpipe?
Speaker 9 (10:20):
A blowpipe? Was that how she was killed?
Speaker 10 (10:24):
Literally?
Speaker 9 (10:24):
I certainly didn't.
Speaker 12 (10:27):
We've got to find that blowpipe, if there really is
such a thing. I suppose that rioter Chap hasn't gone
off his onion and decided to do one of his
crimes in the flesh instead of on paper.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Why do you not ask him? My friend?
Speaker 12 (10:41):
Have you ever owned a blowpipe yourself? Mister clemcy, Yes,
I have.
Speaker 9 (10:45):
As a matter of fact, I was writing a book
Q see. It was all a question of the position
of fingerprints on the blowpipe. I had to know exactly
you sy, So I bought one from somewhere in the
jutting cross road.
Speaker 7 (10:57):
Do you still have it?
Speaker 11 (10:58):
Well?
Speaker 9 (10:59):
Yes, I think where is it now? I suppose it
must be somewhere around.
Speaker 12 (11:04):
What exactly do you mean by somewhere around?
Speaker 9 (11:06):
I don't quite know where it is it with you now?
Speaker 7 (11:10):
For instance?
Speaker 9 (11:11):
No, No, I've made eyes on it for months.
Speaker 12 (11:15):
Did you leave your seat at all on the plane?
Speaker 3 (11:17):
No?
Speaker 7 (11:17):
Certainly at least, yes I did? And where did you go?
Speaker 9 (11:21):
I went to get a Continental Bradshaw out of my
raincoat pocket.
Speaker 7 (11:23):
And where was that?
Speaker 9 (11:24):
At the back of the plane.
Speaker 7 (11:25):
So you passed us by the dead woman's seat? I
suppose I must have done.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Tear me, my friend? Did you notice a wasp a was? I?
Speaker 9 (11:36):
Certainly did. He tried to sting me, and then it
went over to where those frenchmen were sitting. One of
them killed it. I think.
Speaker 7 (11:44):
Looks pretty fishy to me.
Speaker 12 (11:46):
He actually owns a blowpipe, and he went all to
pieces when I asked where it was.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Perhaps it was your threatening manner, my friend.
Speaker 7 (11:53):
I never threatened Warro.
Speaker 12 (11:54):
You should know that there's nothing for anyone to be
afraid of if they're telling the truth. Anyway, if it
isn't name, it'll be those two frenchmen, a very sinister
looking pair. And they've got a battered old suit case
plastered with foreign labels of all sorts. I bet they've
been to Borneo in South America. You mark my words.
They're up to something.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Oh, my friend, they are hardly the cutthroats. They are
two very distinguished archaeologists.
Speaker 7 (12:21):
You're pulling my leg, not at all.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
They are ar Mond DuPont and his Saint Jean, and
they have come to England to lecture to the Royal
Archeological Society.
Speaker 12 (12:33):
Well, if you say so, Puio, we must admit they
don't look much.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
The world's famous men. Seldom do I myself have before
now been taken for a hair dresser.
Speaker 12 (12:44):
You don't say, well, that's where the rest of them.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
But none of them seem to have noticed anything of
any importance. Lady Horbury's acquaintance, the Honorable Venetiak, had spent
all her time staring out of the wind. Mister Ryder,
who was only concerned about making his business meeting, was
engrossed in his papers. Norman Gale, who turned out to
be omaf while a dentist, had eyes only for the
(13:14):
beautiful miss Gray.
Speaker 12 (13:16):
You were facing the rear of the plane. Did you
happen to notice Madame morriso at all?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Oh? Yes, I noticed, ter all right?
Speaker 7 (13:22):
Why was that miss Gray?
Speaker 9 (13:23):
Well?
Speaker 1 (13:24):
She was most frightfully ugly and her hair was a
terrible mess.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
After they had all been questioned, Jacque's sergeant came in
carrying something carefully wrapped up in a handkerchief. It was
a blow pipe, and he had discovered it pushed out
of sight behind seat number nine, the seat which had
been occupied by.
Speaker 12 (13:48):
Me.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
So this is your work, Albert h mona me. When
I commit a murder, it will not be with the arrow.
Poison of the South American Indians.
Speaker 12 (13:59):
Is a love I admit a crude detective story dodge,
but it seems to have worked. So what we're looking
for a man who has traveled to South America or Borneo,
or wherever they carry on like that.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Now, if you look closely, my friend, she will notice
a microscopic piece of paper adhering to the pipe. It
looks very like the remains of a ton of price ticket.
I fancy that our murderer found the blowpipe not in
the upper reaches of the Amazon, but in some Paris
curio shop. That will probably make the search easier. And
(14:36):
there is one little paper I beg of Humana me.
I would like all the passenger's luggage and the contents
of their bags and pockets to be checked and listed.
Speaker 7 (14:46):
I'll kick up a terrible face.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Oh, I am sure you are more than capable of
handling that. Mona meu very.
Speaker 12 (14:52):
Well for her anything for the great detective.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
The inquest on Madame Marissou took place for later it
told me very little that I did not know, except
for the evidence of one witness, Monsieur Fournier of the Surte.
Speaker 13 (15:12):
Although the name on the passport of the deceased was
Marry Angelicke Morrisou, she was better known by the name
of Madame Giselle one of the most notable money lenders
in Paris, with a number of clients in England, particularly
among the upper and professional classes. She was a woman
of very original character and reputed to be extremely welfare.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
The implications of this seemed to make very little impression
on the reporters present in court, who were far more
excited by the blowpipe and the poisoned dart.
Speaker 12 (15:52):
According to the chief Government analysts, it had been dipped
in the venom of desfoalidus typus South African snake, better
known as the boom slang.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
There was a small stir of interest when Lady Howbury
was called, but as it turned out, the reporters were
more interested in her hat than her evidence. The jury were, however,
greatly impressed by the fact that the blowpipe had been
found behind my seat, and at the end of the
(16:26):
inquest the from and returned a verdict which I am
thankful to say, the Coronel refused to accept.
Speaker 8 (16:37):
I wonder what was in that paper that the coroner
wouldn't have at any price.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
I can't tell you.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
If you really wish to know, I didn't see standing there.
Would you tell us.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
It was a verdict of wilful murder mademoiselle against myself. Definitely,
I must set to work to clear my character.
Speaker 12 (16:57):
Or what an extraordinarily odd little beggar. I don't see
how he could do much detecting.
Speaker 8 (17:05):
Any criminal could spot him a mile off.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
You've got very old fashioned ideas about detectives. They don't
crawl about with magnifying glasses wearing false beards. Nowadays they
just sit down and think the case out.
Speaker 11 (17:17):
Psychologically rather less strenuous.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Physically perhaps, But of course you need a clear, cool brain.
Speaker 8 (17:24):
You mean a hot, muddled one wouldn't do Look, would
you mind? I mean it would be frightfully nice. But
having a cup of tea with.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Me, Oh, thank you very much. I think that would
be an excellent idea.
Speaker 8 (17:41):
It's an odd show, this murder business.
Speaker 7 (17:44):
I don't quite know what to make of it all.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
I'm certainly worried about it. From the work point of view.
I'm an assistant in a hairdressers and they mayn't like
to employ a girl who's been mixed up in a
murder case.
Speaker 8 (17:56):
Anyone's only got to look at you to know you
couldn't murder anybody, so sure about that.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
There's one of my regular ladies. She's got a voice
like a corncrake, and she grumbles about everything. I really
think sometimes that killing her off would be a good
deed all round, so long as I could be sure
I get away with it.
Speaker 7 (18:14):
Well, you didn't do.
Speaker 8 (18:15):
This particular murder anyway, I can swear to that.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
And I can swear that you didn't.
Speaker 8 (18:20):
Of course, I don't know what my patients would make
of it all, No patients. I'm a dentist, and a
dentist who might be a homicidal maniac is not a
very alluring prospect.
Speaker 7 (18:32):
I hope you don't mind me being a dentist.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Why should I mind?
Speaker 8 (18:36):
Well, there's always something rather comic about a dentist, not
a very romantic profession.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Well, it's decidedly a cut above being a hairdresser's assistant.
Speaker 7 (18:47):
I feel we're going to be friends, don't you.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Oh yes, great friends, I'm sure of it.
Speaker 10 (18:52):
Now.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Who do you really think murdered that Gizelle woman?
Speaker 12 (19:00):
Well, oh boy, that was a pretty narrow escape. You
might have been locked up in a police cell.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
H I fear that such an occurrence might have damaged
me professionally.
Speaker 12 (19:08):
Well, it won't be the first time a detective turned
out to be a murderer. Ah Massifhornier. May I present
my old friends.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
I witness your performance in court this morning.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
But I think I had the pleasure of meeting you
some years ago.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Now, May I suggest that you both come and dine
with me in my rooms, that is, if you and
my old friend Jap do not object to make collaboration.
Speaker 12 (19:32):
I saw right, ol Cock. After all, you were in
on the ground floor, so to speak, even if it
was up in the clouds.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
A delicious meal, monsieur, you have disproved the common assumption
that it is impossible to eat well in England.
Speaker 7 (19:50):
A frenchy five for my taste, but quite respectable.
Speaker 11 (19:53):
In this way.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
A meal should always lie lightly on the stomach. It
should not be so heavy as to per life's thought.
Speaker 12 (20:01):
And was certainly going to need our thinking cats this evening.
Tell us what you can about this disell woman Micophony.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
To tell the truth, I know very little, particularly as
far as her private life is concerned. She was a
woman of business, a woman who enjoyed power, and she
would never allow sentiment to affect her commercial instinct.
Speaker 7 (20:20):
What you say, she was an honest woman.
Speaker 11 (20:22):
According to our own lights.
Speaker 7 (20:24):
What is that?
Speaker 5 (20:24):
Do you mean the law could have called her to
account if only evidence had been forthcoming.
Speaker 7 (20:29):
Oh, come on and beat about the bush? What was
he up to?
Speaker 5 (20:32):
Chantage mail of a very special kind. It was Madame
Jselle's custom to lend money on what you call in
this country note of hand alone.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
She must have had a very special kind of cleontee.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
Customers lay exclusively among the upper professional classes, classes particularly
vulnerable to the force of public opinion.
Speaker 7 (20:53):
And theasy victims of black man.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
She had her own very efficient intelligence service. It was
her custom, before lending any large sum of money, to
collect as many facts as possible about the client in question.
At the same time, she was scrupulously honest. She never
made use of secret information to obtain money that was
not already ought to her.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
But there must have been cases when she had to
write off her debt. What happened then.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
The information in her possession would be made public.
Speaker 12 (21:23):
Well, al this opens up a very pretty line in
motives for murder. And then there's a question of who's
going to come into her money? Can you ever there
at all? Misophonia, there was a daughter.
Speaker 11 (21:32):
She did not live with her mother.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Indeed, I believe that Madame Morrisseau had not seen her
since she was a tiny child. But she made a
will many years ago, leaving everything apart from a small
legacy to her maid to her daughter, and as far
as I know, she's not made another.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Her fortune is large.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
I guess eight or nine million francs.
Speaker 12 (21:52):
Just as well a young lady wasn't on that plane,
who she'd have been on top suspect?
Speaker 7 (21:56):
How old would she be? This Anne marrisso.
Speaker 11 (21:59):
About twenty four or five, I should imagine.
Speaker 12 (22:02):
I don't very well say how she could be connected
with the crime, But we'll have to get down to
this blackmail business. Everyone on the plane categorically denies knowing
Madame Giselle, but one of them is obviously lying, and
we've got to find out which an examination of her.
Speaker 7 (22:15):
Papers might give us an idea.
Speaker 11 (22:16):
I fear not.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Immediately after the news of her death came through from
Scotland Yard, I went straight to her house. All the
papers in our safe had been burned.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Who burned them?
Speaker 11 (22:27):
Do you know?
Speaker 5 (22:28):
She had a confidential maid, a Lees, who had instructions
to burn the contents of the safe in the event
of anything happening to her mistress.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
She evidently had her own strict code of morality exactly.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
She was ruthless, but she kept faith with those who
kept faith with her.
Speaker 7 (22:46):
Right, Well, let's get down to it, shall we.
Speaker 12 (22:48):
There are eleven passengers in that part of the plane,
including the dead woman, and there were two stuarts. It
doesn't seem very likely that either of them would have
been borrowing money on a grand.
Speaker 7 (22:56):
Scale, but we can't exactly roll them out.
Speaker 12 (22:59):
They were up and down the gas and one of
them could easily have taken up a position from which
they could have used that blowpipe. Mind you, of all
the damn fool ways to commit a murder, and.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Yet it succeeded, did he not? We three sit here
talking about it, but we have no knowledge of who
committed the crime that he's success.
Speaker 12 (23:19):
Right, Let's take a look at the passengers starting up
the end of the steward's pantry and the toilets. Seat
number sixteen. That's the hairdressing girl, Jane Gray. Frankly, I
don't see her taking out alone from the old girl,
and I don't think a hairdresser's assistant has the slightest
chance of laying her hands on snake venom.
Speaker 7 (23:34):
It's not as though they use it in hair dye.
Speaker 5 (23:36):
And now on the murderer's part, perhaps only about two
people in one hundred would be lucky to have any.
Speaker 11 (23:42):
Knowledge of it.
Speaker 12 (23:43):
Now their number twelve sitting opposite a Norman Gale, very
much the same applies to him, small fry. Now, I
suppose he might have a better chance of getting hold
of the.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Snake venom, which is not an injection usually favored by dentists.
Speaker 12 (23:55):
And he didly be seated to go to the toilet,
but that's in the opposite direction from Madam Giselle. To
kill her with the blowpipe, he had needed the kind
of thing that would make a right angle turn.
Speaker 7 (24:05):
So he's pretty well out of it.
Speaker 11 (24:07):
I agree, So we'll cross.
Speaker 12 (24:08):
The gangway to seat seventeen, the Honorable Venetia car. I
suppose she could have borrowed a bit from Madame Giselle,
and she could just about have taken a sporting shot
diagonally across the cabin.
Speaker 5 (24:20):
Surely Lady Aubrey is a farmer, likely suspecting. I happen
to know she had been losing very eavily at the
baker table.
Speaker 12 (24:27):
In the Peenie is certainly the type of person to
be mixed up with Madame Gizelle. How could she have
done it? She didn't move during the flight. She'd have
had to kneel up on her seat and lean over
the top of it with all the other passengers looking on.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
Have you considered doctor Bryant.
Speaker 12 (24:41):
Big boy in Harley Street, not very likely to go
to a French money lender. I bet he could pick
up a test tube of snake venom as easy as winking.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
I assure you, my friend, I have not forgotten that point.
Speaker 7 (24:52):
Mind you.
Speaker 12 (24:52):
Rider in seat number four was directly in front of
the woman he went to the toilet. He could have
taken a potshot at her on his way back. Thing
is the archaeologist would have been bound to notice, which
leaves us with them. Their position in the cabin is
pretty good from my point of view, and they've knocked
about the world. They could easily have got hold of
snake poison.
Speaker 11 (25:11):
It is possible.
Speaker 7 (25:12):
You don't believe it's likely to.
Speaker 12 (25:14):
Be honest, I do not, So let's take a look
at where we stand. Jane Gray, Norman Gale, Venetia Carr
no obvious motive and possibility practically nil. Lady Hawbery motive
strong possibility nil. Dr Bryant could have a motive and
(25:34):
possibility good clancy motive doubtful possibility, good rider motive uncertain
possibility fair. The du Ponts poor as regards motive good as.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
The means of obtaining poison a very pussise summary, Chief Inspector.
Speaker 7 (25:52):
Of course there's a fair bit of checking up to do.
Speaker 12 (25:55):
Will you investigate the du Ponts when you get back
to Paris, Missivonia?
Speaker 5 (25:58):
Of course I shall return tomorrow. There may be something
to be got out of Madame Juzelle's may now that
we know a little more about the case.
Speaker 7 (26:05):
And what about your paro? Are you going to take
a hand?
Speaker 11 (26:07):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Yes, I should like to accompany monsieur film if chante.
Speaker 7 (26:13):
You've been very quiet over all this. Any ideas?
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Have you the list of the belongings of the passengers,
my friend?
Speaker 12 (26:22):
It will be on my desk first thing in the morning.
Perhaps you would like to take a look at it
before your company mess you have forney ate back to Paris.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
I would be delighted, my dear Jacques.
Speaker 12 (26:34):
Most of it's pretty routine stuff, as you can see.
James Ryder business cards pigskin, no case and a letter.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
In filming him let alone had been successful and negotiated,
otherwise we'd be in quiz.
Speaker 12 (26:47):
To reach silver cigarette case, match folder, letter signed Maudi
make an appointment at the Trocadero.
Speaker 7 (26:55):
Dr.
Speaker 12 (26:56):
Bryant cigarette case lighter and he was carrying a flat
in the case.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Huh strange, I thought that was a dream.
Speaker 12 (27:04):
Norman Gale had a briar pipe and an empty matchbox,
white linen coat, dental mirrors, dental rolls of cotton wall,
and the DuPonts were carrying several hollow tubes, which they
said were Kurdish pipe stems.
Speaker 7 (27:18):
I could have done the job just as well as
blow pot.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Daniel Clancy, newspaper cutting about arsenic poisoning, a golf ball
Continental Bradshaw and the manuscript of murder on Vesubius. Miss
Carr two cigarette holders receeated hotel Bill Paris. Photograph of
two Spaniels.
Speaker 12 (27:38):
Miss Gray to with aspirin, French phrase book, casino counter
for five francs.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Lady Horbury diamond ring and like her friend, Miss Carr,
two cigarette holders, complete makeup outfits in her dressing case
and a small bottle labored boracic powder.
Speaker 12 (27:55):
Boracic powder, my eye. The white stuff in that bottle
was cocaine. Nothing to do with our case. Perhaps I
have an idea that her Ladyship wouldn't stick at much
to get what she wanted.
Speaker 7 (28:04):
Have you seen this morning.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Sketch sun worshipers the Countess of Fobbury and Raymond barrattlaugh
at Lapinae? He plays small passive films?
Speaker 12 (28:17):
Does he know there's much material in that bathing dress
of her?
Speaker 3 (28:21):
I will take the newspaper with me if I may
have a close look.
Speaker 7 (28:24):
Eh.
Speaker 12 (28:26):
Well, any of this stuff about the passengers been of
many years to hear.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
On the face of it, your list seems to point
plainly to one person as the murderer.
Speaker 7 (28:36):
Are you pulling my leg?
Speaker 12 (28:37):
No?
Speaker 11 (28:37):
No, can you do?
Speaker 3 (28:40):
But at the moment I cannot see why or even how.
Speaker 12 (28:47):
No.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
I must be on my way to Crichton.
Speaker 12 (28:49):
Well, have a good flight and keep your eyes open
for poisoned darts.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
And so once again I subjected stomach to the hazards
of the air. But the flight was smooth, and I
had the antics of Monsieurphonnier.
Speaker 11 (29:08):
To distract me.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
He had with him a small tube of bamboo, which
at intervals during the flight he would put to his lips,
always aiming in a different direction, and wherever he did so,
every eye in the cabin was fixed on him. On
our arrival in France, we drove directly to the house
(29:30):
of Madame Giselle in the Rougeliette, where her maid, alias Grandier,
was waiting for us.
Speaker 10 (29:37):
Please come in, mensieur.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
I decided that my best cause was to sit quietly
in a corner and say nothing.
Speaker 10 (29:47):
Poisoned.
Speaker 14 (29:49):
Oh, there is no question of that, No, mademoiselle, no
question whoever would have dreamed of such a scene?
Speaker 11 (29:56):
That is perhaps where you can help me.
Speaker 5 (29:59):
You must know wh enemies?
Speaker 10 (30:01):
Why should madame have enemies, mamselle.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
The profession of money lender must always involve a little unpleasantness.
Speaker 14 (30:10):
It is true that sometimes her clients were not reasonable.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
They made sans I threatened.
Speaker 10 (30:16):
Oh no, monsieur, it was not they who threatened.
Speaker 14 (30:20):
They were sorry for themselves, protesting they could not pay,
but they usually paid.
Speaker 10 (30:24):
In the end.
Speaker 11 (30:25):
You had no pity for them.
Speaker 14 (30:26):
Why should I? They lived beyond their means and had
to borrow. Why should they expect to keep the money
as a gift? Madame was always fair and just. She
leant and she expected repayment.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
Were you a well he means Madame used to make
them pay.
Speaker 10 (30:42):
I knew nothing, monsieur, nothing at all.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
You knew enough to burn her papers.
Speaker 14 (30:47):
She had left me instructions that if she met with
an accident or died away from home, I was to
destroy them immediately.
Speaker 5 (30:55):
Very well, now listened carefully. It is possible that Madame
was murdered by a person about whom she held damaging information.
Information that was in those papers. Now, it would be
quite understandable if you glanced through those papers before committing
them to the flat.
Speaker 14 (31:15):
No, monsieur, I looked at nothing. The papers were in
a sealed envelope. I burned it without undoing the scene.
Speaker 11 (31:22):
It is a pity.
Speaker 5 (31:24):
He acted honorably, But it is a pity. Before she
left for England, did Madame say anything to you that
might be of any help to us?
Speaker 10 (31:33):
No, monsieur.
Speaker 14 (31:34):
She had been away at Lupinae. She was in good
spirits and business was going well. She directed me to
telephone Universal Airlines to book a flight for England the
following day. The early morning one was booked up, but
I obtained a seat on the twelve o'clock service.
Speaker 5 (31:50):
Did any clients come to see Madame on that last evening?
Speaker 14 (31:53):
I believe there was one client, Georges, the concierge would know.
Speaker 5 (31:59):
Mademoise here, we will take her leave. What is it,
mister Power? Are you looking for something?
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Yes? For something? I do not see photographs of Madame
Guzelle's family.
Speaker 10 (32:13):
She had no family, monsieur, but she had a daughter.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Is there no photograph of her?
Speaker 14 (32:18):
Oh, Sue, It's true she had a daughter, but that
was long ago. It is my belief that Madame had
not seen her since she was a tiny baby.
Speaker 10 (32:27):
She may not even have been married to the child's father.
Speaker 5 (32:29):
Madame Giselle left her money to this daughter.
Speaker 14 (32:32):
Whels was there to leave it too. She had no friends,
She was always alone. Money was our only passion.
Speaker 11 (32:37):
She left you a legacy. You know that I have.
Speaker 14 (32:39):
Been informed so Madame was always very generous.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
Well, Mademoiselle, that would be all for the present. Are
you quite sure that there is nothing, nothing at all
that you have omitted to mention?
Speaker 10 (32:54):
What could there be?
Speaker 5 (32:57):
Ill come to mister Powell. We must say, gardy, if.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
You permit, I will follow you in a little moment.
Speaker 5 (33:04):
Of course, I work with the concierge of Joe.
Speaker 10 (33:08):
Ma'moiselle, is there something you wish to ask me? Monsieur?
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Have you any idea only an idea who might have
murdered your mistress?
Speaker 10 (33:23):
No idea at all. I have already said so to
the police.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Ah, you might say one thing to them and another
to me.
Speaker 10 (33:31):
Why should I do that?
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Because it is one thing to give information to the
police and another to a private individual.
Speaker 10 (33:40):
That is true.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
Shall I tell you something, mademoiselle. It is part of
my business to believe nothing. I am told nothing that
is not proved. I do not suspect this personal that person.
I suspect everybody.
Speaker 10 (33:54):
Are you saying that you suspect me?
Speaker 11 (33:56):
No? Lease?
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Whoever murdered Madame Giselle. I was a passenger on that aeroplane,
but you might have been an accomplice. You might have
passed on to someone the details of your mistress's journey.
Speaker 10 (34:09):
I did not, I swear I did not.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
I believe you. But nevertheless, there is something you conceal.
In every case of a criminal nature, everyone keeps something
back that he saw with you. When my friend Monsieur
Fournier asked you if there was nothing you had omitted
to mention, you were troubled and invasive. What is it
(34:36):
that you are holding back?
Speaker 10 (34:38):
It is nothing of importance.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Let me be the judge of that.
Speaker 10 (34:44):
Monsieur.
Speaker 14 (34:46):
I am in a difficulty. I do not know what
Madame would have wanted me to do.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
There is a saying that two heads are better than one.
Will you not confide in me very well, monsieur?
Speaker 9 (35:05):
It is it is this.
Speaker 14 (35:08):
This little book was Madame's. It went with her everywhere.
When she was about to depart for England, she could
not find it. After she was gone, I came across
it behind the end of her bed.
Speaker 10 (35:19):
I did not know what to do with it, so
I kept it in my room. You see my difficulty, monsieur.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
I believe that you acted with the best intentions. But
let me see if there is anything in this book
that relate us.
Speaker 14 (35:32):
I do not think that you will find anything of use.
It is our private memorandum. But there are numbers, only
no names.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
C X two five six, Colonel's wife, Stations, Seria, Regimental
funds GF three for two French deputies, Stawhisky Connection, Lepinae,
Monday Casino ten thirty Savoy Hotel, five o'clock.
Speaker 10 (35:58):
It means nothing, monsieur, So it seems to me it.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
May be very valuable. I will see that you will
not be blaying for not handing it over to the police.
Speaker 10 (36:08):
Sir is very kind.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
One last question, mademoiselle, when you reserved a seat on
the plane for Madame, did you ring up l Bourche
or the office of the company.
Speaker 14 (36:19):
I rang the office of Universal Airlines in the Boulevard
de Capucine.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
Thank you, mademoiselle.
Speaker 11 (36:28):
That is where you score. My friend.
Speaker 5 (36:31):
The private individual gets far more out of witnesses than
we ever do through official questions.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
But did the concierge tell you nothing?
Speaker 5 (36:38):
It was a lady who visited Madame Giselle on the
night before she came to England. He did not identify
her from many of the photographs, or at least he
said he did not. But when I showed him the
daily sketch, he gave a little start of.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
Recordless And in the notebook there is a significant entrary c.
L Fifty two English peers.
Speaker 5 (36:59):
Has she is, I understand, an addicted gambler.
Speaker 11 (37:03):
Nothing could be more likely than she should.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Borrow from Madame and the husband.
Speaker 11 (37:08):
Either the husband was expected to pay up for his.
Speaker 5 (37:10):
Wife's debts, or she had some old over Lady Aubrey
a secret which she threatened to divulge to the husband.
Something to do with the newspaper photograph.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
Perhaps, perhaps there are more entries in the book which
may refer to other passengers r T Three sixty seven,
Doctor Harley Street, doctor Bryan.
Speaker 11 (37:31):
Perhaps there's not much to go on.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
Anyone else GF forty five attempted murder, Well, that could
be anyone the murderer with the blowpipe.
Speaker 11 (37:41):
Perhaps the blowpipe.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
I have had a report from the Sieurte, a Greek
antique dealer, has reported the sale of a blowpipe. The
price tickets he users are very similar to the one
on the murder weapon. But there is one vital difference
is that the silk on the darts was red, not
black and yellow.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
And who was the purchaser of this pop bypeer?
Speaker 11 (38:04):
An American?
Speaker 5 (38:05):
Not so, he says, chewing gum, wearing tortoiseshell rim glasses,
did not speak French.
Speaker 11 (38:11):
Probably a wild.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
Goose chase, probably, But now I am going to lead
you on another white goose chairs too, to the Boulevard
des capucine the offices of Universal Airlines, and if you
please let me do the talking.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
Yes, monsieurs, that is correct. Madame's maid asked for the
eight forty five service, but it was fully booked, so
we gave a seat on the twelve o'clock light.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
How very curious. A friend of mine who traveled on
the eight forty five service on that day said that
the plane was half empty.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
Possibly, your friend, there's mistaken the day.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
There was no mistake. It was the day of the murder.
Speaker 11 (38:52):
He said.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
If he had missed that plane, he would have traveled
on the flight on which that woman was killed.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
Of course, sometimes when people are at the last minute.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
No, no, that was not the case. Do you not
think it would be better if you were to tell
me the truth? I don't understand you, miss You understand
me very well. You should also understand that, in a
case of murder is a very serious offense to withhold
important information. How much were you paid and who paid you?
Speaker 4 (39:22):
I met no harm, I had no idea how much
five thousand francs.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Continue.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
A man I'd never seen him before came in and
said he was going to England the following day. He
wanted to negotiate alone from Madame, she said, but he
wanted to appear to meet her by chance. He knew
that she would be traveling the following day, but he
could not manage the earlier flight. All I had to
do was to tell her that the early service was
full and to give her seat number two on the
(39:51):
twelve o'clock flight.
Speaker 11 (39:53):
I saw nothing wrong in that.
Speaker 5 (39:55):
And they do business in unconventional ways Americans. Yes, Monsieur
described as.
Speaker 4 (40:00):
He had a gray hair, horneromed glasses, and a little beard.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
And did he book a seat for himself.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
Yes, seat number one next to Madame.
Speaker 11 (40:11):
And what was his name? Silas Harper?
Speaker 5 (40:14):
Seat was never occupied. There was no one of that
name on the flight. You have with held important information
from the police. This is a very serious offense.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Why was it so important that Madame Giselle should travel
on that flight? There is some factor here that I
do not understand.
Speaker 5 (40:35):
But who is this mysterious America?
Speaker 3 (40:38):
Oh no, there is no American. It is the same
as the man who bought the blowpipe, the chewing gum,
the nasal accent, the spectacles, and now the full beard.
Tis easy enough.
Speaker 5 (40:50):
Would certainly seem to rule out lady obody.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
Perhaps, but the man who booked the ticket does not
necessarily have to be the murderer my friend.
Speaker 5 (41:01):
Yes, it would be easy enough for her to persuade
someone to help her.
Speaker 11 (41:06):
She is a beautiful woman.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
Murder has a strange way of bringing people together. To
have been close to a mysterious death, to share the
ordeal of a coroner's court establishes a bond of friendship
between perfect strangers.
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