Poirot - Chapter 4 The Mystery of Hunter’s Lodge

Poirot - Chapter 4 The Mystery of Hunter’s Lodge

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The mystery of Hunter's Lodge. Afterall, murmured Poirot, it is possible
that I shall not die this time, coming from a convalescent influenza pation.
I hailed the remark as showing abeneficial optimism. I myself had been the
first sufferer from the disease. Poiroin his turn, had gone down.
He was now sitting up in bed, propped up with pillows, his head

(00:20):
muffled in a woolen shawl, andwas slowly sipping a particularly noxious Tissan,
which I had prepared according to hisdirections. His eye rested with pleasure upon
a neatly graduated row of medicine bottleswhich adorned the mantelpiece. Yes, yes,
my little friend, continued, oncemore, shall I be myself again,
the great Hercule poiro the terror ofevil doers. Figure to yourself,

(00:43):
mon amie, that I have alittle paragraph to myself in society gossip.
But yes here it is go itcriminals all out Hercule Poirot. And believe
me, girls, he's some Hercules, our own pet society detective. Can't
get a grip on you, causewhy because he's got la greep himself.
I laughed, good for you,Poirot. You are becoming quite a public

(01:07):
character. And fortunately you haven't missedanything a particular interest during this time.
That is true. The few casesI have had to decline did not fill
me with any regret. Yees,our landlady stuck her head in at the
door. Oh there's a gentleman downstairs, says he must see Monsieur Poirot or
you Captain. Seeing as he wasin a grate to do, and with
all that quite the gentleman, Ibrought up his card. She handed me

(01:27):
the bit of pasteboard, mister RogerHavering, I read. Poirot motioned with
his head towards the bookcase, andI obediently pulled forth. Who's who?
Poirot took it from me and scannedthe pages rapidly. Second son of fifth
Baron Windsor, married nineteen thirteen Zoe, fourth daughter of William Crabb. Hmm,

(01:48):
I said, I rather fancy that'sthe girl who used to act at
the Frivolity. Only she called herselfZoe Carrisbrook. I remember she married some
young man about town just before thewar set. Would it interest Ste Hastings
to go down and hear what ourvisitor's particular little trouble is make him all
my excuses. Roger Havering was aman of about forty, well set up

(02:08):
and of smart appearance. His face, however, was haggard, and he
was evidently laboring under great agitation.Captain Hastings, you are Monsieur Poarrot's partner.
I understand it is imperative that heshould come with me to Derbyshire today.
I'm afraid that's impossible, I replied. Poirot is ill in bed influenza.
His face fell. Dear me,that is a great blow to me.

(02:32):
All the matter on which you wantto consult him is serious. My
god, yes, my uncle,the best friend I have in the world,
was foully murdered last night here inLondon, no, in Derbyshire.
I was in town and received atelegram from my wife this morning. Immediately
upon its receipt, I determined tocome round and beg Monsieur Poirot to undertake
the case. If you will excuseme a minute, I said, Struck

(02:54):
by a sudden idea, I rushedupstairs and in a few brief words acquainted
Poirot with the situation. He tookany further words out of my mouth.
I see, I see. Youwant to go yourself? Is it not
so? Well? Why not?You should know my methods by now.
All I ask is that you shouldreport to me fully every day and follow

(03:15):
implicitly any instructions I may wire youto this I willingly agreed. An hour
later, I was sitting opposite misterHavering in a first class carriage on the
Midland Railway, speeding rapidly away fromLondon. To begin with, Captain Hastings,
you must understand that Hunter's Lodge,where we are going and where the
tragedy took place, is only asmall shooting box in the heart of the

(03:38):
Derbyshire Moors. Our real home isnear Newmarket, and we usually rent a
flat in town for the season.Hunter's Lodge is looked after by a housekeeper
who is quite capable of doing allwe need when we run down for an
occasional weekend. Of course, duringthe shooting season we take down some of
our own servants from Newmarket. Myuncle, mister Harrington Pace, as you

(03:58):
may know my mother was a mispaidof New York, has for the last
three years made his home with us. He never got on well with my
father or my elder brother, andI suspect that my being somewhat of a
prodigal son myself, rather increased thandiminished his affection towards me. Of course,
I am a poor man and myuncle was a rich one. In
other words, he paid the piper. But though exacting in many ways,

(04:21):
he was not really hard to geton with, and we all three lived
very harmoniously together. Two days agomy uncle, rather wearied with some recent
gaieties of ours in town, suggestedthat we should run down to Derbyshire for
a day or two. My wifetelegraphed to missus Middleton, the housekeeper,
and we went down that same afternoon. Yesterday evening, I was forced to

(04:43):
return to town, but my wifeand my uncle remained on. This morning
I received this telegram. He handedit over to me. Come at once,
Uncle Harrington murdered last night. Bringgood, detective, if you can,
but do come Zoe. Then asyet you know no no details.
No, I suppose it will bein the evening papers. Without doubt the

(05:03):
police are in charge. It wasabout three o'clock when we arrived at the
little station of Elmersdale. From therea five mile drive brought us to a
small graystone building in the midst ofthe rugged moors, a lonely place,
I observed with a shiver. Haveringnodded, I shall try and get rid
of it. I could never livehere again. We unlatched the gate and

(05:25):
were walking up the narrow path tothe oak door when a familiar figure emerged
and came to meet us. Jap, I ejaculated. The Scotland yard inspector
grinned at me in a friendly fashionbefore addressing my companion, mister Havering.
I think I've been sent down fromLondon to take charge of this case,
and i'd like a word with you, if I may, Sir, my

(05:46):
wife, I've seen your good lady, sir, and the housekeeper. I
won't keep you a moment, butI'm anxious to get back to the village
now that I've seen all there isto see here. I know nothing as
yet as to what exactly said Japsoothingly, but there are just one or
two little points i'd like your opinionabout all the same. Captain Hastings here.

(06:06):
He knows me, and he'll goon up to the house and tell
them you're coming. What have youdone with the little man by the way,
Captain Hastings. He's ill in bedwith influenza, is he? Now?
I'm sorry to hear that. Ratherthe case of the cart without the
horse, your being here without him, isn't it? And on his rather
ill timed jest, I went onto the house. I rang the bell

(06:28):
as Jap had closed the door behindhim. After some moments it was opened
to me by a middle aged womanin black. Mister Havering will be here
in a moment, I explained,he has been detained by the inspector.
I have come down with him fromLondon to look into the case. Perhaps
you can tell me briefly what occurredlast night. Come inside, sir.
She closed the door behind me andwe stood in the dimly lighted hall.

(06:53):
It was after dinner last night,sir that the man came. He asked
to see mister Pace, sir,and seeing that he spoke the same way,
I thought it was an American gentlemanfriend of mister Pace's. And I
showed him into the gun room andthen went to tell mister Pace. He
wouldn't give any name, which ofcourse was a bit odd now I come
to think of it. I toldmister Pace and he seemed puzzled like,

(07:14):
but he said to the mistress,excuse me, Zoe, while I just
see what this fellow wants. Hewent off to the gun room and I
went back to the kitchen. Butafter a while I heard loud voices as
if they were quarreling, and Icame out into the hall at the same
time the mistress. She comes outtoo, and just then there was a
shot and then a dreadful silence.We both ran to the gunroom door,
but it was locked, and wehad to go round to the window.

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It was open, and there insidewas mister Pace, all shot and bleeding.
What became of the man? Hemust have got away through the window,
sir, before we got to it. And then missus Havering sent me
to fetch the police five miles towalk it was. They came back with
me and the constable. He stayedall night and this morning the police gentleman

(07:59):
from London arrived. What was thisman like who called to see mister Pace?
The housekeeper reflected. He had ablack beard, Sir, and was
about middle aged and had on alight overcoat. Beyond the fact that he
spoke like an American, I didn'tnotice much about him. I see now,
I wonder if I can see missusHavering. She's upstairs, Sir,

(08:20):
Shall I tell her? If youplease tell her that mister Havering is outside
with Inspector Jap, and that thegentleman he has brought back with him from
London is anxious to speak to heras soon as possible. Very good,
sir. I was in a feverof impatience to get at all the facts.
Jap had two or three hours startof me, and his anxiety to
be gone made me keen to beclose at his heels. Missus Havering did

(08:43):
not keep me waiting long. Ina few minutes I heard a light step
descending the stairs and looked up tosee a very handsome young woman coming towards
me. She wore a flame coloredjumper that set off the slender boyishness of
her figure. On her dark headwas a little hat of flame colored leather.
Even the present tra could not dimthe vitality of her personality. I
introduced myself, and she nodded inquick comprehension, said, of course,

(09:07):
I have often heard of you andyour colleague, Monsieur Poirot. You have
done some wonderful things together, haven'tyou. It was very clever of my
husband to get you so promptly.Now will you ask me questions? That
is the easiest way, isn't it, of getting to know all you want
to about this dreadful affair? Thankyou, Missus Havering. Now what time

(09:28):
was it that this man arrived?It must have been just before nine o'clock.
We had finished dinner and were sittingover our coffee and cigarettes. Your
husband had already left for London.Yes, he went up by the six
point one five. Did he goby car to the station or did he
walk? Our own car? Isn'tdown here? One came out from the

(09:50):
garage in Elmersdale to fetch him intime for the train. Was mister Pace
quite his usual self? Absolutely mostnormal in every way? Now? Can
you describe this visitor at all?I'm afraid not. I didn't see him.
Missus Middleton showed him straight into thegun room and then came to tell
my uncle. What did your unclesay? He seemed rather annoyed, but

(10:11):
went off at once. It wasabout five minutes later that I heard the
sound of raised voices. I ranout into the hall and almost collided with
Missus Middleton. Then we heard theshot. The gun room door was locked
on the inside, and we hadto go right round the house to the
window. Of course, that tooksome time, and the murderer had been
able to get well away. Mypoor uncle, her voice faltered, had

(10:33):
been shot through the head. Isaw at once that he was dead.
I sent Missus Middleton for the police. I was careful to touch nothing in
the room, but to leave itexactly as I found it. I nodded
approval. Now as to the weapon, well, I can make a guess
at it, Captain Hastings. Apair of revolvers of my husbands were mounted
upon the wall. One of themis missing. I pointed this out to

(10:56):
the police, and they took theother one away with them. When they
have extracted the bullok, I supposethey will know for certain. May I
go to the gun room. Certainlythe police have finished with it, but
the body has been removed. Sheaccompanied me to the scene of the crime.
At that moment, Havering entered thehall, and with a quick apology,

(11:16):
his wife ran to him. Iwas left to undertake my investigations alone.
At it. I may as wellconfess at once that they were rather
disappointing. In detective novels, cluesabound, but here I could find nothing
that struck me as out of theordinary, except a large blood stain on
the carpet, where I judged thedead man had fallen. I examined everything
with painstaking care, and took acouple of pictures of the room with my

(11:39):
little camera, which I had broughtwith me. I also examined the ground
outside the window, but it appearedto have been so heavily trampled underfoot that
I judged it was useless to wastetime over it. No I had seen
all that Hunter's Lodge had to showme. I must go back to Elmersdale
and get into touch with JAP.Accordingly, I took leave of the havering

(12:00):
and was driven off in the carthat had brought us up from the station.
I found JAP at the matlock arms, and he took me forthwith to
see the body. Harrington Pace wasa small, spare, clean shaven man,
typically American in appearance. He hadbeen shot through the back of the
head, and the revolver had beendischarged at close quarters. Turned away for

(12:20):
a moment, remarked JAP, andthe other fellow snatched up a revolver and
shot him. The one Missus Haveringhanded over to us was fully loaded,
and I suppose the other one wasalso curious. What darn fool things people
do? Fancy keeping two loaded revolvershanging up on your wall. What do
you think of the case, Iasked, as we left the gruesome chamber
behind us. Well, I'd gotmy eye on Havering to begin with,

(12:43):
Oh, yes, noting my exclamationof astonishment, Havering has one or two
shady incidents in his past. Whenhe was a boy at Oxford, there
was some funny business about the signatureon one of his father's checks, all
hushed up. Of course. Thenhe's pretty heavily in debt now, and
they're the kind of debts he wouldn'tlike to go to his uncle about,
whereas you may be sure the uncle'swill would be in his favor. Yes,

(13:07):
I got my eye on him,and that's why I wanted to speak
to him before he saw his wife. But their statements do of tail,
all right, And I've been tothe station and there's no doubt whatever that
he left by the six point onefive that gets up to London about ten
point three zero. He went straightto his club, he says. And
if that's confirmed, all right,why he couldn't have been shooting his uncle
here at nine o'clock in a blackbeard. Ah. Yes, I was

(13:31):
going to ask you what you thoughtabout that beard, jap winked. I
think it grew pretty fast, grewin the five miles from Elmersdale to Hunter's
Lodge. Americans that I've met aremostly clean shaven. Yes, it's amongst
mister Pace's American associates that we'll haveto look for the murderer. I questioned
the housekeeper first and then her mistress, and their stories agree all right.
But I'm sorry missus Havering didn't geta look at the fellow. She's a

(13:54):
smart woman and she might have noticedsomething that would set us on the track.
I sat down and wrote a minuteand lengthy account to Poirot. I
was able to add various further itemsof information before I posted the letter.
The bullet had been extracted and wasproved to have been fired from a revolver
identical with the one held by thepolice. Furthermore, mister Havering's movements on

(14:16):
the night in question had been checkedand verified, and it was proved beyond
doubt that he had actually arrived inLondon by the train in question. And
thirdly, a sensational development had occurred. A city gentleman living at Ealing on
crossing Haven Green to get to thedistrict railway station that morning, had observed
a brown paper parcel stuck between therailings. Opening it, he found that

(14:41):
it contained a revolver. He handedthe parcel over to the local police station,
and before night it was proved tobe the one we were in search
of. The fellow to that givenus by missus Havering, one bullet had
been fired from it. All thisI added to my report. A wire
from Poirot arrived while I was atbreakfast the following morning. Of course,

(15:03):
black Bearded Man was not having Onlyyou or Jap would have such an IDEA
wire me description of housekeeper and whatclothes she wore this morning, same of
missus Havering. Do not waste timetaking photographs of interiors. They are under
exposed and not in the least artistic. It seemed to me that Poirot's style
was unnecessarily facetious. I also fanciedhe was a shade jealous of my position

(15:26):
on the spot with full facilities forhandling the case. His request for a
description of the clothes worn by thetwo women appeared to me to be simply
ridiculous, but I complied as wellas I a mere man, was able
to. At eleven a reply wirecame from Poirot. Advised JAP arrest housekeeper
before it is too late. Dumbfounded, I took the wire to Jap.

(15:48):
He swore softly under his breath.He's the goods, Monsieur Poirot. If
he says so, there's something init. And I hardly noticed the woman.
I don't know that I can goso far as resting her, but
I'll have her watched. We'll goup right away and take another look at
her. But it was too late. Missus Middleton, that quiet, middle
aged woman who had appeared so normaland respectable, had vanished into thin air.

(16:11):
Her box had been left behind.It contained only ordinary wearing apparel.
There was no clue in it toher identity or as to her whereabouts.
From Missus Havering, we elicited allthe facts we could. I engaged her
about three weeks ago when Missus Emery, our former housekeeper left. She came
to me from Missus Selborne's agency inMount Street, a very well known place

(16:33):
I get all my servants from there. They sent several women to see me,
but this Missus Middleton seemed much thenicest and had splendid references. I
engaged her on the spot and notifiedthe agency of the fact. I can't
believe that there was anything wrong withher. She was such a nice,
quiet woman. The thing was certainlya mystery. Whilst it was clear that

(16:55):
the woman herself could not have committedthe crime, since at the moment the
shot was fired, Missus has waswith her in the hall. Nevertheless,
she must have some connection with themurder, or why should she suddenly take
to her heels and bolt. Iwired the latest development to Poirot and suggested
returning to London and making inquiries atSelborne's agency. Quarrot's reply was prompt useless.

(17:17):
To inquire at agency, they willnever have heard of her. Find
out what vehicle took her up toHunter's Lodge when she first arrived there.
Though mystified, I was obedient.The means of transport in Elmersdale were limited.
The local garage had two battered Fordcars, and there were two station
flies. None of these had beenrequisitioned. On the dating question questioned,

(17:38):
Missus Havering explained that she had giventhe woman the money for her fare down
to Derbyshire and sufficient to hire acar or fly to take her up to
Hunter's Lodge. There was usually oneof the Fords at the station on the
chance of its being required. Takinginto consideration the further fact that nobody at
the station had noticed the arrival ofa stranger, Blackbeard or otherwise on the

(18:00):
fatal evening, everything seemed to pointto the conclusion that the murderer had come
to the spot in a car whichhad been waiting near at hand to aid
his escape, and that the samecar had brought the mysterious housekeeper to her
new post. I may mention thatinquiries at the agency in London bore out
Poirot's prognostication. No such woman asMissus Middleton had ever been on their books.

(18:25):
They had received the Honorable Missus Haring'sapplication for a housekeeper and had sent
her various applicants for the post.When she sent them the engagement fee,
she omitted to mention which woman shehad selected somewhat crestfallen. I returned to
London. I found Poirot established inan armchair by the fire, in a
garish silk dressing gown. He greetedme with much affection, mon Amie Hastings.

(18:48):
But how glad I am to seeyou? Veritably I have for you
a great affection, and you haveenjoyed yourself. You have run to and
fro with the good jap, youhave interrogated and investigated your heart's content.
Poirot, I cried, The thing'sa dark mystery. It will never be
solved. It is true that weare not likely to cover ourselves with glory

(19:10):
over it. No, indeed,it's a hard nut to crack. Oh,
as far as that goes, Iam very good at cracking the nuts,
a veritable squirrel. It is notthat which embarrasses me. I know
well enough who killed mister Harrington Pace. You know how did you find out?
Your illuminating answers to my wires suppliedme with the truth. See here,
Hastings. Let us examine the factsmethodically and in order. Mister Harrington

(19:34):
Pace is a man with a considerablefortune, which at his death will doubtless
pass to his nephew. Point nuhone. His nephew is known to be
desperately hard up point number two.His nephew is also known to be,
shall we say, a man ofrather loose moral fiber point number three.
But Roger Havering has proved to havejourneyed straight up to London precisement. And

(19:57):
therefore, as mister Havering left Elmer'sDale at six point one point five,
and since mister Pace cannot have beenkilled before he left, or the doctor
would have spotted the time of thecrime as being given wrongly when he examined
the body, we conclude quite rightlythat mister Havering did not shoot his uncle.
But there is a Missus Havering,Hastings impossible. The housekeeper was with

(20:19):
her when the shot was fired.Ah, yes, the housekeeper. But
she has disappeared. She will befound, I think not. There is
something peculiarly elusive about that housekeeper,don't you think so, Hastings. It
struck me at once she played herpart, I suppose, and then got
out in the nick of time.And what was her part well, presumably

(20:42):
to admit her confederate, the blackbearded man. Oh no, that was
not her part. Her part waswhat you have just mentioned to provide an
alibi for Missus Havering at the momentthe shot was fired. And no one
will ever find herm on a mebecause she does not exist. There's no
such person as you're so great,Shakespeare says, it was dickens, I

(21:06):
murmured, unable to suppress a smile. But what do you mean, Poirot.
I mean that Zoe Havering was anactress before her marriage, That you
and Jap only saw the housekeeper ina dark hall, a dim, middle
aged figure in black with a faint, subdued voice. And finally that neither
you, nor Jap nor the localpolice whom the housekeeper fetched ever saw Missus

(21:27):
Middleton and her mistress at one andthe same time. It was child's play
for that clever and daring woman.On the pretext of summoning her mistress.
She runs upstairs, slips on abright jumper and a hat with black curls
attached, which she jams down overthe gray transformation. A few deaf touches
and the makeup is removed, aslight dusting of rouge, and the brilliant

(21:51):
Zoe Havering comes down with her clear, ringing voice. Nobody looks particularly at
the housekeeper. Why should they,There's nothing to connect her with the c
She too has an alibi. Butthe revolver that was found at Ealing,
Missus Havering could not have placed itthere. No, that was Roger Havering's
job. But it was a mistakeon their part. It put me on

(22:12):
the right track. A man whohas committed a murder with a revolver which
he found on the spot would flingit away at once. He would not
carry it up to London with him. No, the motive was clear.
The criminals wished to focus the interestof the police on a spot far removed
from Derbyshire. They were anxious toget the police away as soon as possible
from the vicinity of Hunter's Lodge.Of course, the revolver found at Ealing

(22:36):
was not the one with which misterPace was shot. Roger Havering discharged one
shot from it, brought it upto London, went straight to his club
to establish his alibi, then wentquickly out to Ealing by the district a
matter of about twenty minutes, onlyplaced the parcel where it was found,
and so back to town. Thatcharming creature. His wife quietly shoots mister

(22:56):
Pace after dinner. You remember,he was shot from behind another significant point
that reloads the revolver and puts itback in its place, and then starts
off with her desperate little comedy.It's incredible, I murmured, fascinated.
And yet and yet it is true, been sir, my friend, it
is true. But to bring thatprecious pair to justice, that is another

(23:18):
matter. Well, Jap must dowhat he can. I have written him
fully, but I very much fearHastings that we shall be obliged to leave
them to fate or lebondeux, whicheveryou prefer. The wicked flourish like a
green bay tree, I reminded him, But at a price. Hastings always
at a price. Croies Mois Poirot'sforebodings were confirmed. Jap, though convinced

(23:41):
of the truth of his theory,was unable to get together the necessary evidence
to ensure a conviction. Mister Pace'shuge fortune passed into the hands of his
murderers. Nevertheless, Nemesis did overtakethem. And when I read in the
paper that the honorable Roger and MissusHavering were amongst those killed, in the
crash wishing of the airmail to Paris. I knew that justice was satisfied.