“To hide?” said Terence Surtees.
“Yes.”
“From whom?” asked Robert Osgood.
“Ah! I was wondering when one of you would ask that question. From Nurse Bee Haskins,” Poirot told him.
Chapter 35
The Hiding
“This is insulting and intolerable.” Jonathan Laurier pushed back his chair and stood up. “You seem to be suggesting, Monsieur Poirot, that Stanley Niven was murdered by one of us: me or my brother, or one of our wives, or my mother.”
“It is more than a suggestion,” said Poirot. “It is the truth.”
“You are gravely mistaken,” Janet Laurier said. “We were all in that room together the whole time.”
Poirot nodded. “My guess is that some of you—three of you—truly believed that all six of you—five Lauriers and Zillah Hunt—were present throughout.” He looked around the table, searching the faces one by one. “Of the other three, one, it hardly needs to be said, was Stanley Niven’s murderer, and the remaining two, I suspect, knew perfectly well that the fifth family member took a little too long to join the rest of the party. Those two have lied ever since, because they are absolutely convinced that their lies are not protecting a killer. It is difficult to believe that someonewe love is capable of doing such evil, and much easier to think, ‘I do not know why they came into the room later than the rest of us, but I am sure there is a good, innocent reason.’
“Now, remember that the murderer had entered Monsieur Niven’s room in order to hide from Nurse Bee Haskins,” said Poirot. “Once Monsieur Niven was dead, what happened next? Probably the killer saw Nurse Bee Haskins on the other side of the courtyard, in the room of Professor Burnett. It cannot have occurred to the killer that there would be a new need to hide from Nurse Bee so soon after the first. Quickly, our murderer must have fled from Monsieur Niven’s room and slipped into the adjacent room, Arnold Laurier’s, of which the door had been left open. The killer closed it behind them once they had entered. This explains why Bee Haskins said she had seen it open while Zillah Hunt insists it was closed throughout. When Bee Haskins first entered Professor Burnett’s room on Ward 7 and noticed that an unpleasant scene was unfolding in a room on Ward 6, the door of Arnold Laurier’s room was open. Bee Haskins told me she saw clearly onlysomeof the Laurier party—those nearest to the window: Jonathan and Janet Laurier. She was aware of people behind them and Nurse Zillah, but could not see them clearly. When the sixth person, someone who should already have been in the room, finally joined the rest of the party and closed the door, it is hardly surprising that Bee Haskins did not notice. Her concern was for her niece, Zillah, who was being subjected to a series of unpleasant tirades.”
“Mr. Prarrow, there is something you have not explained,” said Inspector Mackle. “Why did this killer want to hide from Nurse Bee not merely once but twice?”
“To be seen and recognized by Bee Haskins would have put an end to a pretense—an escape from intolerable pain—that had lasted for decades,” said Poirot. “The consequences of such a collision with unpalatable reality... psychologically, this would have been a prospect worse than their own death for the killer. It would have been as if they and all they held dear were suddenly obliterated.”
“Well, fancy that,” said Mackle.
“Let us replay the scene in our minds,” Poirot said. “Bee Haskins was walking along the corridor with Dr. Wall. The murderer had spotted her, but Nurse Bee had not yet seen or noticed the murderer—yet that was bound to happen in a matter of seconds if swift action was not taken. In the killer’s mind, there were two possibilities only: come face to face with Nurse Bee, or hide in the nearest room—”
“Stanley Niven’s room,” said Olga Woodruff.
“Oui, précisément. Hide in Monsieur Niven’s room until Nurse Bee has walked past and, the killer must have hoped with all their heart, left the ward. Then it would be safe to come out into the corridor, briefly, in order to enter the correct room—the one reserved for Monsieur Laurier. In a state of blind panic, the killer would not have had time to consider that their hiding place might contain a patient, alive and awake, who would demand to know what they were doing there, where they had no business being andwho was about to call for help. And Nurse Bee might have been passing Stanley Niven’s door when that call for help came. It would have seemed highly likely to the murderer that Nurse Bee would be the one to come to the aid of Monsieur Niven, were he to raise his voice and call for assistance.
“I have described already how this problem was dealt with,” Poirot went on. “A hastily improvised murder. But still, there is a danger: there is Bee Haskins, standing in a room across the courtyard! The killer must immediately leave Monsieur Niven’s room and escape again, this time to the room that contains five other people. In that room, it will be much easier to conceal oneself in the crowd, to be a hardly visible figure at the back of a small group. Remember, Bee Haskins saw Zillah Hunt and Jonathan and Janet Laurier standing at the window. Behind them, she observed not specific faces but only a background of ‘other bodies.’”
“Poirot, you seem to be suggesting that the killer of both Pa and Mr. Niven is either me, my wife or my mother,” said Douglas Laurier.
“That is so, monsieur.”
“How ridiculous.” Maddie laughed, tried to stop herself, then started again.
“Wait a minute,” said Jonathan. Turning to Janet, he said, “I think Monsieur Poirot’s theory might be possible.”
“No,” she whispered. “No, Jonathan.”
He looked at Poirot. “As soon as I walked into that hospital room, I saw that it was quite unsuitable, becauseof the courtyard. Immediately, I walked over to the window to inspect the layout more closely. And Janet came to the window a second after I did. The nurse joined us no more than a moment later. Then, for some time and with great zeal, she tried to persuade us that the arrangement of rooms in relation to the courtyard was perfectly all right, that Father would enjoy his view, that such rooms were the best and most sought after—all nonsense of course.”
“It was true,” said Zillah Hunt. “St. Walstan’s patients with courtyard views consider themselves lucky.”
“Let us not have the argument again, since it is now immaterial,” Jonathan snapped. “I brought it up only because the three of us—the nurse, Janet and me—were standing by the window facing the courtyard for at least... well, seven to ten minutes, I should say, while this discussion was in progress. I assumed that Mother, Douglas and Madeline were in the room too and standing right behind us, but—”
“They were!” Janet burst into tears. “We were all in the room the whole time. Why are you saying these things, Jonathan?”
“For pity’s sake, woman, I am saying it because it must be true! One of them was in Stanley Niven’s room, killing him.”
“Unfortunately, your husband is right, madame,” Poirot told Janet.
“I am afraid your theory has a flaw, Monsieur Poirot,” said Mother. “If the killer wished to hide from Bee Haskins, why on earth would they not simply dash into the roomthey had come to see, Arnold’s room? They had no reason to think Bee Haskins might walk into that room, did they?”
